Original Website Blurb from 2012:
a (B)Rave Review
Public radio is apparently all abuzz with conversation about Anne-Marie Slaughter’s Atlantic article about women having to make difficult choices in balancing work and family. I read that article, and I thought it pretty straightforwardly called for some simple but important structural changes, like allowing more family leave time. Nothing radical, like a 30-hour standard work week. Just recognition of the same kinds of trade-offs that evolutionary biologists talk about all the time. Niche specialists like pure career women or stay-home mothers are better at their one thing than a generalist trying to do two things.
What’s the controversy? That simply saying “I can do it all” doesn’t make it true? That there are only 24 hours in a day? This is not only true for women, by the way. I’m the primary parent most nights of the week, and hell, yes, my “career” suffers for it, and it’s stressful, but priorities are not just words. They are actions; they have teeth.
Coincidentally (really, seriously, total coincidence), today’s episode is a movie review, of a princess who wants to have her way, and who is willing to resort to dark magic and baked goods in order to get it. A good little movie, and considerably more nuanced in its portrayals of women than just shouting
"If it's not feminist, it's Crap!"
and shaking yuir dainty fist in the air. . .
Production Note: the greatly improved sound quality comes from discovering that Audacity’s noise filter works MUCH better when the noise sample is really long. I’m using almost a minute now.
Updates from 2021
An acquaintance of mine from grad school, Andy Want, moved to the Orkneys, the most northerly of the Scottish island chains, to work for a tidal power company. He recently got a chance to produce a series of underwater mini-documentaries in the area. They’re gorgeous, and the narrator’s Scottish accent is much better than mine.
VSI Episode 41