This American Life 183: The Missing Parents Bureau
In the first act of this program the reporter talks with single women who are planning to get pregnant with the help of a sperm bank and finds that they all wrestle with the question of how much they want to know about the fathers of their kids—and how much they want their kids to know. The second act is a collection of letters written by a woman who signs her name as "X" and are addressed to the father of her adolescent son. X has no idea where to send the letters, but she keeps writing. The third act is the story of a girl in an acting class that includes an exercises requiring her to develop a character with a troubled past, and then a real psychologist would come in for a session of character group therapy. The girl chose to take on the character of an orphan. In fact, she remembers that everyone else in her class did too. Twenty years later, she visits her old acting teacher and discovers that for some reason, kids today don't want to be orphans. The final act is the story of two men who adopt a child and the relationship they all have with the mother.

Questions to Consider:

1. How does the lack of biological parents affect the definitions of family in these stories?
2. How are the situations of the children in the stories influenced by the broader social institutions?
3. How do these stories relate to our mythology of family life?

This American Life 166: Nobody’s family is going to Change

The family is one of several social institutions in our society. Host Ira Glass describes a children's book from the 1970s called Nobody's Family Is Going to Change by Louise Fitzhugh, the author of Harriet the Spy. On the surface, it sounds like a rather menacing title for a kids' book. But in fact, the story is about how kids can finally find peace if they stop hoping that their parents will ever be any different. The question is, though: is it true? Does anyone's family ever change?

Questions to Consider:

1. Do religious, racial and ethnic, and social class endogamy play a role in these stories?
2. Are any recent trends in the American family at hand in the stories presented?
3. What can be found in this episode about family today that is defined as “normal” that once would have been considered deviance?

Parental Leave: The Swedes Are The Most Generous

Consideration of parental leave policies, with special focus on those in Sweden.

Questions to Consider:

1. How do legal policies shape individual family decisions?
2. How does the policy “level the playing field” for women and men in the workplace.
3. Do you believe that people in the United States would support a policy like Sweden’s? Explain your answer.