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Beyond Pronatalism
Finding fulfillment, with or without kids
To have or not have kids is one of the biggest decisions we make in our lives, and yet how many of us know that we even have a choice about how we define and create our families? Beyond Pronatalism host Nandita Bajaj interviews women and men from diverse backgrounds who are courageously and creatively navigating pronatalism - the powerful pressures to have children - whether from family, friends, or the culture at large. Through intimate conversations, they discuss how they are forging unconventional pathways to fulfillment, including redefining what family means to them - whether that means being childfree or childless, having biological children, adopting or fostering children or animals, or creating close-knit communities of friends and loved ones.
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Episodes
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Hans-Peter | Vasectomy as a Gift of Love
Raised in a small Catholic village in Germany, Hans Peter had always questioned traditional norms. Concerned about the ecological crisis and threats to women's reproductive rights, he gifted himself a vasectomy on his 25th birthday. Today he spends his time with his wife joyfully nurturing the planet.
Sara | The Relief of IVF Failure
Unable to have children naturally, Sara went through a harrowing IVF journey, only to realize following her unsuccessful treatments that she had never wanted children and had just escaped from a painfully pronatalist trap.
Tania and Brian | Healing Together with Animals
Deeply in love with each other and their 38 animals, Tania and Brian share their vastly different upbringing that set them on their childfree paths. Tania and her family moved to the U.S. on asylum from Ukraine post-Chernobyl. Brian grew up in a Latino/Native American family in Texas, U.S. with severely limited resources. Their love for animals brought them together.
Vincie | Disrupting Family Expectations
Born and raised in densely-populated Hong Kong and having lived in different parts of the world, Vincie was always deeply concerned about the plight of children. She wrestled with traditional family norms and gender roles within Asian culture and arrived at a more liberated decision to not have biological children.
Lili | Escaping the Dread of Motherhood
Born and raised in Haiti, and now living in the US, Lili shares her story about her pronatalist upbringing in which having large families was the norm. After many years of dreading motherhood, she learned about the choice to not have children. Today, Lili is happily childfree and is using her spare time and resources to support others in her family and community.
Juliana | Childfree for Earth and Animals
Raised within the religiously-conservative Colombian culture with a lonely and isolated childhood, Juliana describes her journey of finding liberation by rejecting harmful societal norms and choosing a radical pathway of becoming a childfree environmentalist and animal rights activist.
Brittany | Leaving Religion to Find Herself
Raised in an extremist religious community within the United States, Brittany, the youngest of 11 children, recounts her story of navigating her aspirations for freedom against the backdrop of an intensely oppressive and neglectful upbringing and how she mustered the courage to break free.
Episodes will be released every two weeks, beginning Tuesday, July 30 2024, and will be available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and all podcast platforms.
Producer and Host: Nandita Bajaj
Production Team: Josh Wild, Alan Ware
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