The 82%: Modern Stories of Love and Family

Modern Family Institute & This Is Actually Happening (Wondery)

In this ten-episode podcast series created by Modern Family Institute and This Is Actually Happening, we showcase six stories of families living and loving beyond the nuclear family template, and four episodes with subject matter experts including Alex Chen, who leads Harvard’s LGBTQ+ Law Clinic, psychologist Jessica Fern, and MoFi’s co-founders Dr. Lily Lamboy and Dr. Heath Schechinger.

Refamulating Podcast

Feelings & Co

Refamulating is a podcast that celebrates different ways to make a family. A generation ago, most Americans were guided by the idea of the nuclear family. But the numbers show it doesn't represent the majority of American households. In fact, there is no one-size-fits-all for what a family should look like. We’re collectively reformulating our understanding of what makes a family in today’s world. We call this refamulating, and this show invites us to understand it one story at a time. On each episode of Refamulating, host Julia Winston delivers emotionally honest stories of real people with nuanced experiences that census data could never tell us. Think queer parents, egg and sperm donors, surrogates, blended families, child-free folks, tales of communal living, and much more.

Where Does the Nuclear Family Come From?

PBS Origins

If your family is in the traditional nuclear family formation (2 parents + kids living in a single home) then you’re in a pretty common formation. But if you’ve got your family ISN’T a traditional nuclear family, then you’re in a pretty common formation. So why does America elevate the nuclear family above other family forms?

How the Nuclear Family Broke Down

The Atlantic

“We have an archaic idea of what family is,” says David Brooks in a new episode of The Idea File. The nuclear family unit, Brooks argues, is a privilege of the wealthy. Across the world, 38 percent of people still live with extended family. And over the past half-century, the share of people living alone in America has doubled. The nuclear family is no longer the norm—and it should no longer be the ideal.

Ezra Klein Show ft. Rhaina Cohen: What Relationships Would You Want If You Believed They Were Possible?

The New York Times

Around 40 percent of people who marry eventually get a divorce. Almost half of children are born to unmarried women. The number of close friends Americans report having has been on a steep decline since the 1990s, especially among men. Millions of us are growing old alone. We are living out a radical experiment in how we live, love, parent and age — and for many, it’s failing.

“If this is such a significant relationship in my life, why is there no term for it?” wonders NPR’s Rhaina Cohen about a relationship that transcends the language we have available for friendship. Her forthcoming book, “The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life With Friendship at the Center,” is a window into a world of relational possibilities most of us never even imagined existed. It’s a call to open up what we can conceive of as possible. Some of these models might appeal to you. Others might not. But they all pose a question worth asking: What kinds of relationships would you want in your life, if you felt you could ask for them?

Everyday Utopias: What 2,000 Years of Bold Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life

Dr. Kristen Ghodsee

In the 6th century BCE, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras—a man remembered today more for his theorem about right-angled triangles than for his progressive politics—founded a commune in a seaside village in what’s now southern Italy. The men and women there shared their property, lived as equals, and dedicated themselves to the study of mathematics and the mysteries of the universe.

Ever since, humans have been dreaming up better ways to organize how we live together, pool our resources, raise our children, and determine who’s part of our families. Some of these experiments burned brightly for only a brief while, but others carry on today: from the Danish cohousing communities that share chores and deepen neighborly bonds, to matriarchal Colombian ecovillages where residents grow their own food; and from Connecticut, where new laws make it easier for extra “alloparents” to help raise children not their own, to China where planned microdistricts ensure everything a busy household might need is nearby. This “must-read” (Thomas Piketty, New York Times bestselling author of A Brief History of Equality) offers a radically hopeful vision for how to build more contented and connected societies, alongside a practical guide to what we all can do in the meantime to live the good life each and every day.

Relationality: How Moving from Transactional to Transformational Relationships Can Reshape Our Lonely World

David Jay

Powerful institutions, from schools to tech and social media companies, create breeding grounds for isolation by failing to invest in relational work. This obstacle stands in the way of our fight for racial equity, economic justice, and climate resilience. In Relationality, leading asexuality and relationship activist David Jay brings clarity to the crisis with a fresh perspective that expands upon the fundamental idea that all entities in the universe are connected. Jay draws from a range of vivid personal experiences, including his time spent helping tech workers and policymakers reform social media.

The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center

Rhaina Cohen

Why do we assume romantic relationships are more important than friendships? What do we lose when we expect a spouse to meet all our needs? And what can we learn about commitment, love, and family from people who put deep friendship at the center of their lives?

In The Other Significant Others, NPR's Rhaina Cohen invites us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner—these are friends who are home co-owners, co-parents or each other’s caregivers. Their riveting stories unsettle widespread assumptions about relationships, including the idea that sex is a defining feature of partnership and that people who raise kids together should be in a romantic relationship. Platonic partners from different walks of life—spanning age and religion, gender and sexuality and more—reveal how freeing and challenging it can be to embrace a relationship model that society doesn't recognize. And they show that orienting your world around friends isn't limited to daydreams and episodes of The Golden Girls, but actually possible in real life.