Wellness, Actually with Emily Oster & Perry Wilson, MD

When you look at the data, it is true that after people have kids, marital satisfaction declines. Having a baby drastically changes everything in your partnership that was familiar, that was predictable, that you got used to. And some of those are the reasons you got into the relationship in the first place.  That’s the reality of having kids. And as much as we love them, it can be an incredible s...

Shots are never a fun experience. Even if you are enthusiastic about vaccines, holding your kids as they get them is not usually a high point of parenting. And right now, the conversation about vaccines is increasingly fraught - and not just because our kids are sometimes afraid of needles. Because we're living in a moment where vaccines, long one of the most trusted and studied preventative medic...

In the last month, we've aired podcast conversations with Dr. Nathan Fox and Dr. Bapu Jena , and though the content is different, there’s an underlying thread that connects them both: what it means to deal with risk, and uncertainty. And not lose your mind. Economists deal with this constantly, and so do parents, but not in the same way. Economists learn not to panic in ways that parents, understa...

For many of us, our first exposure to our pelvic floors is through the Kegel exercises we learned about in Cosmo , promising us great sex. The reality of our pelvic floors comes roaring back in pregnancy, when they are are more taxed than they've ever been. The pelvic floor turns out to have a hand in many things, including peeing, pooping, sex, pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, and menopause....

Award-winning talk show host Tamron Hall dives into dressing your kids properly for the weather and overall preparedness as a parent (and why it's so elusive), and extolls the virtues of the preschool jacket flip (IYKYK). Subscribe to (the new and improved!) ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy inf...

Today on ParentData, we're welcoming back Dr. Nathan Fox, Emily's co-author for The Unexpected - a book about when things go wrong, or at least get complicated, in a pregnancy. Nate is an OB-GYN and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, and he is one of our favorite returning podcast guests, not just because he’s a great talker but also because it’s really nice to have a doctor who can both provid...

Today on ParentData, we're airing an episode from Raising Parents , Emily's limited series podcast in partnership with The Free Press. The episode is the last in the series, but the first question we all need to grapple with before engaging with all the others: should you have kids? For most of human history, having kids wasn’t much of a choice. Social expectations, lack of birth control, and limi...

Here at ParentData, we talk a lot about panic headlines. You know, the headlines that cycle through your feed about coffee and wine and sleep and lead and the causes of autism, many of which contradict the last panic headline, and almost all of them turning out to be not nearly as bad as they seem. But in the moment, they feel so scary and urgent. And if you're a parent just trying to follow the s...

If you spend any time in parenting circles, it’s hard to avoid being inundated with “types” of parenting. Parenting labels are not neutral. Some are positive, some negative, but they’re never just descriptive. And lately, the most ink has been spilled over "gentle" parenting (also called permissive or respectful parenting). Gentle parenting, at its core, is an approach to behavior characterized by...

The United States is one of the only countries in the world that doesn’t guarantee paid parental leave. We point out this fact a lot, but what does it really mean when a family doesn't have the ability to take time off when a baby is born? It means a lot of things. It means moms going back to work while still recovering from childbirth, it means parents struggling to figure out child care for thei...

Writer and excellent social media follow Bess Kalb ruminates on the best place to move your family to prepare for climate change, giving yourself intentional permission to worry, and the forbidden pleasures of a s'mores Pop Tart. Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nutrition, along with sleep and screens, is one of the most contentious parenting topics there is. And questions about nutrition are particularly hard to answer with data, because disentangling correlation from causation is nearly impossible. What we eat is so wrapped up in everything else we do that it’s very challenging to point to a particular food or even a particular eating pattern and say th...

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S., and after a fall – and a year – of divisiveness, could all use a holiday in which Americans are united in the task of consuming too much pie. More broadly, this holiday, more than really any other, is something Americans tend to do together . And so is parenting. Especially the beginning. The experience of having a newborn – the sleeplessness, the disconnection f...

We don’t all get to learn about vaginas in school or from our families or from creating a reputation as the "Vagina Economist." And quite frankly, this is to our detriment. But today on ParentData, we’re trying to make some progress on that. We're joined by Dr. Karen Tang, a minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon (think: disorders like endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome), who is tearing u...

Pop quiz: what’s the only organ that you grow from nothing and then casually discard, that magically bosses around your hormones, and actually your entire body, and that is actually made up of two different people’s cells ?  Obviously it’s the placenta. Less obvious is how completely awesome it is. We're all wrapped up in this new baby on our chest, and since the placenta is so easy to deliver, re...

When we talk about C-sections , it’s often prefaced with “unplanned” or “emergency.” About a third of all the deliveries in the U.S. are cesarean sections, and only about 16% of those are planned. And that leaves a lot of mothers in a position where they’re delivering differently than they planned or intended to. And in the U.S., a disproportionate number of those are being performed on black wome...

There is nothing in the world of nutrition more confusing than ultra-processed foods. Seemingly every week, there is a new headline about the dangers of ultra-processed foods and their links to things like heart disease, dementia, and death. Today on ParentData, Emily reads her recent article on ultra-processed foods and provides some tips for smart food - and headline - consumption. The article a...

In the run-up to November 5th, it's easy to feel hopeless about the state of our national discourse, and what any single one of us can do to make a difference. That's when we need to look local, where it feels like things can actually change, and where the people who are trying to make the changes feel approachable but, often, no less inspiring.  Today on ParentData, we're joined by Aly Richards,...

Freakonomics economist Professor Steve Levitt joins to weave a thrilling tale about worms in poop, and advocating for your child. Warning: this late-night panic Google is not for the faint of heart. Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Midwives are having a bit of a moment. Of course, that moment is not at all new. For a very, very long time, — hundreds, possibly thousands, of years — midwives, or people who were effectively midwives, were delivering all babies. Even when “doctor” became a more formal job, births were still nearly always attended by midwives.  At some point, though, especially in the U.S., that changed. Midwifer...

Gymnast and Olympic gold-medalist Shawn Johnson describes the panic of international emergencies, advocating for your children in French, and why she hopes her kids never become gymnasts themselves. Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's our one-year podaversary! We relaunched the new and improved ParentData podcast a year ago this week. We've heard from some incredible, thought-provoking guests, and many voices from our community and beyond.  But today on ParentData, we're handing Emily the mic. In the spirit of her weekly Wednesday Instagram Q&As, she'll be answering your burning questions about pregnancy, babies, and o...

Instagram's Caitlin Murray (@BigTimeAdulting) contemplates fear of the unknown, the probability of rare childhood diseases, getting hit by meteors, and the gentle parental art of "...what if you just didn't think about it?". Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you're a parent who reads the news - and who listens to this podcast - you probably heard a lot about screens this summer. And even now, as kids go back to school, we're hearing a lot about phones. No phones in schools. Put your phone in a Yondr pouch. Hide your phone in your backpack. People are doing TikToks in the bathroom. Take their phones away. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt is at the...

Champion triathaloner Chelsea Sodaro talks baby wipes and the kindest way to say goodbye to your poop. Subscribe to ParentData.org for free access to new articles every week on data-driven pregnancy and parenting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.