
Kim Brooks is the author of Small Animals: Parenting in the Age of Fear , a smart social critique of American parenting and the anxities that come along with it. Today she shares with us the details of her story, how fear and the commodification of children has created more fear, and what we can do to stop this feedback loop.
There are no spoilers on this episode.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

- Small Animals by Kim Brooks
- “The day I left my son in the car” (Kim Brooks, Salon)
- Free-Range Kids
- Lenore Skenazy
- The Houseguest by Kim Brooks
- Let Grow
- Free-Range Kids Laws
- “The decline of play” (Peter Gray, TEDxNavesink)
- Barbara Sarnecka
- Huck’s Raft by Steven Mintz
- The End of American Childhood by Paula S. Fass
- Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
- The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
- Sarah Manguso
- Bringing Up Bébé by Pamela Druckerman
- Love and Trouble by Claire Dederer
- Poser by Claire Dederer
- Motherhood by Sheila Heti
- And Now We Have Everything by Meaghan O’Connell
- The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
Connect with Kim: Twitter | Website | Instagram
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