Merle Bombardieri is a clinical social worker, a psychotherapist and the author of "The Baby Decision: How to Make The Most Important Choice of Your Life."

------------

Book Dan to do an interview or a meeting

------------

Keep Talking Substack

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Social media and all episodes

------------

Support via Venmo

Support on Substack

Support on Patreon

------------

(00:00) Intro

(01:00) How Merle got involved in helping people decide about kids

(07:21) How Merle decided whether to have kids

(09:44) Maintaining neutrality when going through exercises

(13:34) Being childfree should be the default

(17:57) Role models for the childfree

(21:00) When is not having kids a growth decision?

(23:05) Is Merle disappointed that one of her kids is childfree?

(26:30) Exercises for straight couples to decide whether to have kids

(36:02) Long-term ambivalence should result in being childfree

(38:50) How to better understand what it's like to have kids

(40:48) What do the childfree not understand about parenthood?

(42:30) "As a child-free person, you have a right to be ordinary.”

(44:30) Suggestions for someone who wants to be childfree and has no support

(49:05) Who should become parents?

(56:49) Are we getting better at having this conversation?

(58:34) The importance of growth for the child-free

Vejas Liulevicius is a historian, an author, and a professor whose "Great Courses" lectures include "Turning Points in Modern History" and "War, Peace, and Power: Diplomatic History of Europe, 1500–2000."

------------

Book Dan to do an interview or a meeting

------------

Keep Talking Substack

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Social media and all episodes

------------

Support via Venmo

Support on Substack

Support on Patreon

------------

(00:00) Intro

(01:00) Rome, Greece, and the Enlightenment

(12:57) Contrasting the Enlightenment to other political philosophies of its time

(22:07) The American Revolution and the American Experiment

(30:47) Alexis de Tocqueville and "Democracy in America"

(34:24) The Weimar Republic and the Rise of Nazism

(46:41) How Hitler rose and what culturally preceded dictatorship in Germany

(54:16) The 2024 U.S. Presidential election and our point in history

(58:20) The Great Courses

Mark Galeotti is a historian, an essayist, a podcaster, and the author of many books including "A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin."

------------

Book Dan to do an interview or a meeting

------------

Keep Talking Substack

Spotify

Apple Podcasts

Social media and all episodes

------------

Support via Venmo

Support on Substack

Support on Patreon

------------

(00:00) Intro

(01:00) Czarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century

(03:50) The Russian Revolution

(08:00) World War I and The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

(11:52) Lenin and Stalin

(17:00) The Great Terror

(21:02) Russia during World War II

(28:15) How close were the Nazis to taking over the Soviet Union?

(29:50) Russia and The Cold War

(37:05) Why Soviets no longer believed in Marxism

(39:35) The life and rise of Vladimir Putin

(45:35) Putin, Yeltsin, and the turn of the century

(51:56) How do we misunderstand the modern Russian government?

(55:05) Alexei Navalny

(59:20) The war with Ukraine