Podcast appearances and mentions of Isabel Sawhill

In this episode, recorded at Faith Angle Miami 2024, we are joined by Brad Wilcox and Isabel Sawhill for a fascinating, timely conversation about marriage patterns, family structure, shifting gender norms, and poverty rates. In a time of deep polarization, are certain approaches better than others when it comes to exploring the benefits of marriage for children? How does marriage compare with cohabitation, and how do we avoid getting caught in culture war cul du sacs when discussing gender roles, marriage norms, and solutions that can benefit low-income families? Two seminal scholars in this field, Brad and Belle highlight themes from their decades of scholarship on these topics and, in particular, from Brad's most recent book, Get Married.   Guests W. Bradford Wilcox Isabel Sawhill   Additional Resources  "Poverty, Religion, and the New Marriage Debate," Faith Angle Miami 2024 session video with Brad Wilcox and Isabel Sawhill "How to Think - and Talk - About Marriage Today," by Will Saletan  Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, by Brad Wilcox Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage, by Isabel Sawhill  The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind, by Melissa Kearney

How to Become a Member of the Two Comma Club, Ep #56This episode focuses on the behaviors needed to become a member of the two-comma club. What exactly is the two-comma club? Well, it's just a different way of saying how to become a millionaire, since one million dollars is represented by 7 numbers, the number 1 followed by 6 zeros, consequently there are two commas required to break those numbers up.In this episode...Who Wants to be a Millionaire [01:26]USA has a lot of millionaires [03:23]The Abundance Mentality [05:49]Prerequisites to becoming a Millionaire: The Success Sequence [07:28]What you should do [09:20]What happens to those that didn't model the behaviors [14:13]Years ago there was a hugely popular game show entitled Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. It captivated the American public. The television network ABC first launched the American version of the game show in 1999 and it became the highest-rated television show later that year, and has since had 21 seasons with several different celebrities serving as the game show host.In 2023 here in the US of A, we have never had more millionaires than we do right now. Based on the latest estimates from the Federal Reserve there are around 16 million American households with a net worth of $1 million or more. That's up from fewer than 10 million millionaire families in 2019.While saving and investing are important behaviors to cultivate on the path to becoming financially independent (or a millionaire) there are prerequisites behaviors that must be mentioned. In an opinion piece in the WSJ by the wonderful Jason Riley, he emphasized the success sequence. That sequence is often credited to research done by Brookings Institution scholars Isabel Sawhill and Ron Haskins, though others have made similar observations. The success sequence is simply this:If you finish high school, get a job, and get married before having children, you have a 98% chance of not being in poverty.Recently Dr. Melissa Kearny, MIT-trained economist wrote a book entitled The Two-Parent Privilege. In it she shared the story of how declining marriage rates are driving many of the country's biggest economic problems and how the greatest impacts of marriage are, in fact, economic: when two adults marry, their economic and household lives improve, offering a host of benefits not only for the married adults but for their children. A summary of the book notes that For many, the two-parent home may be an old-fashioned symbol of the idyllic American dream. But The Two-Parent Privilege makes it clear that marriage, for all its challenges and faults, maybe our best path to a more equitable future.Here are a few additional behaviors I would add:Not borrowing money when you don't have to. Just because you are approved for a loan doesn't mean you can afford the thing you are trying to purchase. Don't confuse approval with proof that you can afford the car or whatever it is you are trying to buy with borrowed money. If a person has a new luxury car they are wasting money and most who have them don't have the money to waste. You should only borrow money to buy an house and pay for some college. And even with college there are many reasons not to borrow money to pay for college. See episodes 15 and 16 of this podcast for more information.Another thing to note, just because a person has a high FICO score it doesn't necessarily mean they have made smart money choices but simply the fact that they have shown the ability to borrow money and pay it back consistently. One's personally accrued net worth and the savings rate is a far better determiners of smart money choices.In the end, it all comes down to discipline. Everything changes...

Many Americans whose beliefs are somewhere in the great political middle are tired of the false dichotomies of left and right. What would a radical centrist agenda — a purple-state alternative to the ideologies forced upon populations in deep-red and deep-blue states — look like?  Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, took on this assignment with her 2018 book The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation. Her agenda includes "policies that are better aligned with American values and responsive to people's actual day-to-day needs," with a focus on "the value of work and the importance of jobs and wages." She attempts to thread the divide between a Democratic Party that has "dozens of good policy ideas but a values framework that is sometimes out of step with the country's" and a Republican Party that emphasizes widely shared values (such as personal responsibility) but has abandoned its former commitment to pragmatism and limited but effective government.  In this podcast conversation, Isabel Sawhill discusses her experiences in "growing up in a time when there weren't a lot of opportunities for women," and how she came to work on policy with Brookings and other think tanks as well as in government; during the Clinton administration, she served as an associate director at the Office of Management and Budget, responsible for the oversight of nearly all of the federal government's social programs. She describes her relations with eminent policy-world figures such as Alice Rivlin and Richard Reeves, with whom she co-authored the 2020 study A New Contract with the Middle Class. She also talks about her work with Bush White House veteran Ron Haskins to identify the key correlates of upward mobility, which they famously popularized as "the success sequence," in which about three-quarters of Americans reach the middle class provided that they: 1. Graduate from high school; 2. Maintain a full-time job or have a partner who does; and 3. Have children (if they choose to become parents) after age 21 and while married or in a committed partnership.  She analyzes the factors that have made many Americans feel "left behind" and discouraged about the country's future. According to Sawhill, possible policy remedies include an expansion of vocational education, opportunities for workers adversely impacted by new developments in technology and trade to retrain or relocate, a social insurance system focused on lifelong education and family care in addition to retirement, and ways to repair the culture through national service. She also discusses her recent analysis of emerging threats to democracy and her reasons for remaining optimistic about the fate of the American experiment.

Having children isn't only expensive, but it also puts a serious dent in your social calendar. Data show many single, childless women in the US are traveling freely and earning more money, including more than their single, childless male counterparts. But when too many people forgo kids, it raises questions about the future workforce and whether it will be able to adequately fund benefits for the elderly. Increasingly, nations are grappling with how to encourage people to have children while enabling them to live their lives as they wish. In this episode, we explore the subject of birth rates from two very different angles, and from opposite ends of the globe. In the US, editor Molly Smith shares the story of Anna Dickson, a 42-year-old from New York who's traveled to Alaska, Switzerland and Anguilla in the past year. It's something she probably couldn't have done if she had kids, she says. Likewise, a growing number of American women are making the same choice to forgo children, and they're reaping economic benefits. As of 2019, single women with no children had an average of $65,000 in wealth, or $8,000 more than similarly situated men, Smith finds. Stephanie later chats about birth rates and government policy with Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. The total cost of raising a child in the US now exceeds $300,000, and that doesn't even include soaring college costs, Sawhill says. Despite those expenses, Congress has been lax in passing legislation to support families, she says. What's more, states with the most restrictive abortion laws also tend to be ones with the weakest social safety nets. In the Philippines, reporter Siegfrid Alegado says there's a different dilemma, given that it has one of the highest birth rates in Southeast Asia. Women there have 2.5 children on average, which is far higher than in many advanced nations. This threatens to exacerbate poverty among the urban poor and in the countryside, Alegado says. And any effort by new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to encourage women to use family planning faces a distinct challenge, namely that the largely Catholic country has historically frowned on contraception. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Should feminists be pro-life? Should conservatives support more welfare for families? Who is Mary Wollstonecraft? What did RBG get right and wrong? I dug into these questions with my guest today, the legal scholar Erika Bachiochi. Our discussion centers on Erika's new book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, which argues for a form of feminism that takes into account natural differences between men and women, especially in what she calls “reproductive asymmetry” i.e. that having sex and having children carry different implications for men and women. We talk about her journey from a Bernie Sanders supporting kind of feminist to a Roman Catholic kind of feminist, including a strong pro-life moral basis. Her intellectual heroine is the 18th century thinker Mary Wollstonecraft, who had a feminist vision that was about the equal pursuit of the good, which Erika John Stuart Mill's feminism based on a perfect equality.  We talk about what Ruth Bader Ginsburg got right and wrong, whether conservatives should be supporting President Biden's big pro-family welfare expansions, the Texas abortion law, family-friendly policy, and much more.  I should say that at the very beginning Erika candidly describes her troubled childhood and early adulthood, which in her darkest hours ever led her to thoughts of suicide. Erika Bachiochi  Erika Bachiochi is a legal scholar specializing in Equal Protection jurisprudence, feminist legal theory, Catholic social teaching, and sexual ethics. She studied at Middlebury College and got her law degree from Boston University. Erika is now a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a Senior Fellow at the Abigail Adams Institute, where she directs the Wollstonecraft Project. She lives in Boston with her husband and seven children.  More Bachiochi  Bachiochi's new book, The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, is a thoughtful and provocative read.  Her previous article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, titled Embodied Equality: Debunking Equal Protection Arguments for Abortion Rights, served as a basis for her book.  Bachiochi has also written a few op-eds for Newsweek Follow her work on twitter: @erikabachiochi Also mentioned  Bachiochi quited Mill in On Liberty: “misplaced notions of liberty prevent moral obligations on the part of parents from being recognized, and legal obligations from being imposed” She also quoted Wollstonecraft in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: “A truly benevolent legislator always endeavours to make it the interest of each individual to be virtuous; and thus private virtue becoming the cement of public happiness, an orderly whole is consolidated by the tendency of all the parts towards a common center”  We referenced my work on the economic and social status of American women.  We discussed the work of my colleague, Isabel Sawhill, and her book Generation Unbound  I referenced Scott Winship's work on the dynamics of marriage and childrearing  Bachiochi spoke about Mary Ann Glendon, a leading thinker in this space and a professor at Harvard Law.  She also referenced Joan Williams' op-ed in the New York Times, titled The Case for Accepting Defeat on Roe.  I quoted Margaret Mead who wrote, “We won't get equality between groups by ignoring the differences between them.”  Earlier this summer, Josh Hawley tweeted that he was against including women in the draft because he didn't want to “force [service] upon our daughters, sisters, and wives.” We mentioned Heather Boushey who currently serves on the White House Council of Economic Advisors, and her work on family policy, for example in her Finding Time: The Economics of Work-Life Conflict (2016). The Mary Wollstonecraft twitter account I referred to seems to have gone quiet lately. As an alternative. As a replacement may I suggest: https://twitter.com/womenpostingws.  The Dialogues Team Creator: Richard Reeves Research: Ashleigh Maciolek Artwork: George Vaughan Thomas Tech Support: Cameron Hauver-Reeves Music: "Remember" by Bencoolen (thanks for the permission, guys!)

This week, Yaz and Rebekah are talking about the claims that voter laws being enacted are voter suppression. But that’s just the jumping off point. Their discussion certainly isn’t one where they agree much of the time. But in the end, they agree on what success looks like and bounce some ideas off each other on how to get there.  The Success Sequence, originally from a study done by Brookings Scholars, Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill, is discussed in this episode. Yaz and Rebekah aren’t saying that it is a foolproof method for everyone but that it has a lot of merit and should be considered. Below you’ll find some articles that discuss this idea as well as the updated Success Sequence for Millennials: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sequence-is-the-secret-to-success-1522189894 (Success Sequence Opinion Piece, WSJ ) IFS (Institute for Family Studies): What Does the Success Sequence Mean? https://firstthings.org/the-millennial-success-sequence/ (Millennial Success Sequence) Rebekah quotes from an Eli Steele article. That is linked below as well as a Q&A with Eli, for your reading pleasure: Eli Steele-Re: Georgia Voter Laws Q & A | Black, Deaf, and Jewish Filmmaker Eli Steele is Challenging How We View Race

On this Facing the Future, Bob was joined by experts from two of Washington's most respected think tanks. Jim Capretta, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, discussed how the Biden administration may pay for it's agenda. Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and author of several books including the recently published A New Contract with the Middle Class, joined later for a conversation that ranged from family support programs, tax policy, and the minimum wage.

On this Facing the Future, Bob was joined by experts from two of Washington's most respected think tanks. Jim Capretta, a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, discussed how the Biden administration may pay for it's agenda. Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution and author of several books including the recently published A New Contract with the Middle Class, joined later for a conversation that ranged from family support programs, tax policy, and the minimum wage.

On November 17, the Future of the Middle Class Initiative discussed the early results of their research and the implications for middle-class well-being. Jennifer Silva of Indiana University, lead ethnographer for the project, discussed the work on a panel alongside Brookings scholars Isabel Sawhill, Camille Busette, Molly Kinder, and moderator Richard Reeves. https://www.brookings.edu/events/reframing-the-narrative-of-the-middle-class-real-voices-pre-and-post-pandemic/ Subscribe to Brookings Events on iTunes, send feedback email to events@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. To learn more about upcoming events, visit our website. Brookings Events is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Brookings's Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill discuss their new report, "A New Contract with the Middle Class," with AEI's Jim Pethokoukis and Michael Strain. The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/richard-reeves-isabel-sawhill-michael-strain-a-new-contract-with-the-middle-class/ (Richard Reeves, Isabel Sawhill, & Michael Strain: A new contract with the middle class) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).

Increasingly, Americans believe that the middle class has been left behind — that wage growth has been disappointing, services such as health care and higher education have become more expensive, and community ties are weakening. In the past five years, this discontent has fueled the rise of populism in the US, and the pandemic has […]Join the conversation and comment on this podcast episode: https://ricochet.com/podcast/political-economy-james-pethokoukis/richard-reeves-isabel-sawhill-michael-strain-a-new-contract-with-the-middle-class/.Now become a Ricochet member for only $5.00 a month! Join and see what you’ve been missing: https://ricochet.com/membership/.Subscribe to Political Economy with James Pethokoukis in Apple Podcasts (and leave a 5-star review, please!), or by RSS feed. For all our podcasts in one place, subscribe to the Ricochet Audio Network Superfeed in Apple Podcasts or by RSS feed.

Brookings scholars Isabel Sawhill and Richard Reeves discuss their new book--publishing this fall--that lays out their case for a new contract with the middle class in America. In this short book of policy solutions to improve the well-being of middle class Americans, they focus on five key areas that build a foundation for a good quality of life. Also, David Wessel, senior fellow and director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, explains the Federal Reserve’s recent statement in which it revised its long-term goals, including a revision to its approach to inflation. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Dr. Gabriel Kaplan, NACDD Board President, interviews Dr. Isabel Sawhill, Senior Fellow at the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution, about her work on the Social Genome Project and her research on how unplanned pregnancies have a generational impact public health outcomes. DOWNLOADABLE TRANSCRIPT: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.chronicdisease.org/resource/resmgr/website-2020/commstools/podcast/transcriptions/sociallydetermined_socialgen.pdf

From slow wage growth, to increasing numbers of men out of the labor market, to rising inequality and rising compensation for CEOs, today’s capitalism may not be working for workers. In May, the Guardian newspaper published a series of solutions to these and related problems, titled . On this episode, two of the authors in the series—Isabel Sawhill and Steven Pearlstein—join Richard Reeves to discuss their ideas for helping workers in today’s economy. During the conversation, Reeves calls four outside experts to ask them for their solution, and then the trio of experts in the studio discuss the idea.  Richard Reeves is the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead Chair, a senior fellow in Economic studies, director of the Future of the Middle Class Initiative, and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at Brookings. He is the author of “,” published by the Brookings Institution Press. Isabel Sawhill is a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings and author, most recently, of “.” Steven Pearlstein, business and economics columnist for the Washington Post and Robinson professor of public affairs at George Mason university. His recent book is titled, “” Subscribe to Brookings podcasts  or on , send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the .

Dr. Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution , joins the program to discuss her book The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation. Dr. Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society—economic, cultural, and political—and what might be done to bridge them. She reveals the core values of the segment of the U.S. population that she calls "The Forgotten Americans", and what they are looking for from work and from their employers. To learn more and to get a copy of the book, visit https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Americans-Economic-Agenda-Divided/dp/0300230362

This week on Banter, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Isabel Sawhill joins the show to discuss her new book “The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation.” The post https://www.aei.org/multimedia/banter-343-isabel-sawhill-on-forgotten-americans/ (Banter #343: Isabel Sawhill on ‘The Forgotten Americans’) appeared first on https://www.aei.org (American Enterprise Institute - AEI).

This week on Banter, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Isabel Sawhill joins the show to discuss her new book “The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation.” The post Banter #343: Isabel Sawhill on ‘The Forgotten Americans’ appeared first on American Enterprise Institute - AEI.

Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at Brookings, addresses the economic, cultural, and political divisions in America today, and describes what she learned by talking with Americans in three cities about what they want—and don’t want—from government. These discussions are the heart of her new book, “The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation,” in which she lays out a new agenda that “marries” red state values about work, family, and education with blue state policies.  Also in this episode, a new Metro Lens segment, featuring Metropolitan Policy Program Senior Fellow Mark Muro talking about a new factbook on the state of the American heartland. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts  or on , send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is a part of the .

In this episode, Isabel Sawhill, Brookings senior fellow and author of  "The Forgotten Americans: An Economic Agenda for a Divided Nation," and Andrew Yarrow, senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute and author of "Man Out: Men on The Sidelines of American Life" look at two different groups of Americans forgotten by policymakers or sidelined from the U.S. economy and society.  Sawhill and Yarrow examine the repercussions of growing disenfranchisement and skepticism among significant segments of the voting public, and offer policies to meet the needs of the working class and reengage men who find themselves on the margins of society. Full show notes here: https://brook.gs/2NJgbms  With thanks to audio producer Gaston Reboredo, Chris McKenna, Brennan Hoban, Fred Dews and Camilo Ramirez for additional support. Send feedback email to intersections@brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. Intersections is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

In this first episode of the Wonk Memos, I talk with Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, about the Census Bureau’s annual survey on income, poverty, and health insurance.

In our interview with Isabel Sawhill and Beth Akers, two Research Fellows from the Brookings Institution, we talk about college affordability, why college debt is usually worth it (though it’s not without risks), and what advice they would give to a room full of high school students.

To quote social policy expert Isabel Sawhill, “If we want to reduce poverty [in the U.S.], one of the simplest, fastest and cheapest things we could do would be to make sure that as few people as possible become parents before they actually want to.” An important state initiative to do that is Colorado’s Family Planning […] The post Colorado’s Family Planning Initiative: An interview with Larry Wolk, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment – Episode #103 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

How essential is marriage for aspiring middle-class families? On The Gist, economist and Brookings fellow Isabel Sawhill explains her often-cited “success sequence” and declining marriage rates in the developed world. She’s the author of Generation Unbound. For the Spiel, why Dr. Ben Carson currently has no plans for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.  Today’s sponsors: Stamps.com, where you can buy and print official U.S. postage right from your desk using your own computer and printer. Use the promo code THEGIST to get a no-risk trial and a $110 bonus offer. And Draft Kings. Start this football season by winning 2 million dollars! Use the code GIST to play free for a shot at 2 million dollars in the Week One 10 Million Dollar Millionaire Maker. Go to DraftKings.com.  Join Slate Plus! Members get bonus segments, exclusive member-only podcasts, and more. Sign up for a free trial today at slate.com/gistplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A staggering number of young women are having babies today who say they didn’t mean to get pregnant. New statistics from the Brookings Institution show that, among American women under age 30, more than 70% of pregnancies are unintended. In her new book, “Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage,” Brookings fellow Isabel Sawhill tackles the hot-button issues of poverty, contraception and having children out of wedlock. DecodeDC host Andrea Seabrook talked to her for our latest podcast. Here’s an edited excerpt from their conversation: Andrea Seabrook: You have a couple of different prescriptions for what the government should do. One seems to focus on the fertility of women, that women who want to make it into the middle class or to break this cycle, should be on long-term birth control. Tell me a little bit about that idea. Isabel Sawhill: Right now, the amount of unintended and unwanted pregnancies we have in the United States is enormous. Fifty percent of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended. For single women under 30, unmarried women under 30, it’s 73%. So this is not a minor problem. This is the norm that people are having babies before they’re ready, and before they say themselves they want them. Think about the following statistics: If you and your partner are using a condom after five years, your chances of getting pregnant are 63%. People haven’t been told that. If you’re on the pill, your chances of getting pregnant after five years are 38%. Now if you’re on long acting contraceptives like the IUD or implant, your chances are 2% after five years. So it makes a huge difference what kind of contraception you use. We’ve had all of this debate about birth control, but very little discussion about how much difference it makes what kind you use. Andrea Seabrook: Your work is controversial. Some people seem to think, ‘Oh, she just doesn’t want those poor kids or those brown kids to have babies.’ What’s your response? Isabel Sawhill: This is a hugely important issue. So of course there’s huge sensitivity in this country to any suspicion that someone might be trying to prevent births to low income or minority women. And I looked at that issue very carefully and what I think people don’t realize is that the data show that rates of unintended and unwanted pregnancies are three or four times among low income women as they are amongst higher income women. The same for minority versus whites. Minority women are having huge rates of unintended pregnancy. Why shouldn't we want to empower them to align their fertility outcomes or behavior with what they really want? It’s not doing anybody a favor to allow them to have a child that came too soon or that they didn’t want. Want to keep up with the latest DecodeDC stories and podcasts? Sign up for our weekly newsletter at decodedc.com/newsletter.

Talk to any demographer. Marriage is in irreversible decline. According to Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of "Generation Unbound," 40% of young people are unmarried. Now, that doesn't mean people will stop getting married. You've been to a bunch of weddings this year. What it means is that marriage as a precondition to parenthood is no longer the established norm from which everything else is a deviation. Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.