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Episode 385Mar 10, 2021

Is this finally the moment Americans get universal child care?

The COVID-19 relief bill increases the child tax credit to help working families. Is this the start of a new way of thinking about the benefits we provide to working parents?

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Five-year-old Scarlett Keeler leans back into her mother Mary Keeler's arms at the end of the kindergartener's online reading and science class amid the spread of the coronavirus on August 24, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Five-year-old Scarlett Keeler leans back into her mother Mary Keeler's arms at the end of the kindergartener's online reading and science class amid the spread of the coronavirus on August 24, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images

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We don’t need to tell you America has a child care problem. Many of you can feel it. We certainly can; one of our producers changed a diaper during today’s taping.

Women’s workforce participation is at a 30-year low, in part because so many are busy caring for children at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and taking on a disproportionate amount of other domestic work. With virtually no public child care, parents are left with a patchwork of options, and they’re not cheap.

COVID-19 has thrown this problem into sharp relief, but it’s not a new one. Sonya Michel wrote about it 22 years ago in “Children’s Interests/Mothers’ Rights: The Shaping of America’s Child Care Policy.”

“I thought, like many first time authors, that once my book was published, everybody would see the light, and the policy would change immediately,” she said. “For some strange reason that hasn’t happened.”

On today’s show, we’ll talk with Michel, a professor emerita at the University of Maryland, about the history of government-sponsored child care in this country, its economic benefits and whether the new, $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill could actually bring about long-term change.

Later, we’ll go deep on the relief bill and its global economic effects. Plus we hear from listeners about zombie apocalypse range anxiety and the woman who helped get us to Mars. Finally, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky answers the Make Me Smart question.

When you’re done listening, tell your Echo device to “make me smart” for our daily explainers. This week we’re introducing you to a bunch of incredible women: Sarah B. Cochran, Dolores Huerta, Kim Ng and more. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter! You can find the latest issue here.

Here are links to everything we talked about on the show today:

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