WFMU: Radio Row: Playlist from April 13, 2025

Listener comments!
	♥ 5:01pm yerfriendpaul: Hey Ben, everyone!
	🎸 ♥ 5:02pm Ben in Newark: Thanks for listening everyone! For those interested, I’d love to hear your stories and experiences about being child-free on the comments board during this show.
	♥ 5:03pm ∫ydniuß: Block the Gates! ❤️
	♥ 5:04pm xtrakrispy: 58yo SWM in NYC who never had kids and never even thought of having them. My partner of 13 years felt the same ways, as did most of my partners through the years.
	5:11pm crei6hton: Evening yall
	🎸 ♥ 5:12pm Ben in Newark: ↳ xtrakrispy @5:04 Thanks for sharing, really appreciate it! I'm hoping people's stories and experiences here can help others here
	5:13pm goes211: It’s a bit of a myth that childless people are currently a small group.It’s about 30%. Check the census numbers. That number is also increasing each year.
	🎸 ♥ 5:14pm Ben in Newark: ↳ yerfriendpaul @5:01 Thanks Paul, really appreciate you tuning in this afternoon! I've noticed some "us versus them" between those with and without kids on other corners of the internet, really appreciate that the WFMU community is very open and a positive place for everybody
	♥ 5:15pm joe mulligan: ↳ Song: "Domestica" by "Peter Jefferies" this was a great album, very influential
	5:18pm ?: I have a dog. that is enough responsibility. Kids are expensive to raise them as they deserve to be. I've never been able to afford kids. Having been raised by an irresponsible douche who failed his children from early I never wanted to risk perpetuating that.
	♥ 5:18pm Adi From Sheffield: Never wanted children personally. I've been a carer for the better part of the last decade so time/finances/etc were all factors that reinforced that. Most of my friends have kids now. Does make me feel a bit of an outsider at times. But it doesn't bother me that much. I like how I spend my free time.
	5:19pm hectic: more and more people are deciding to not have kids. i find it interesting how we were worried about the population getting too big in the 1900s and now it's decreasing. most of the people in my generation (Z) dont want kids. (maybe it says something about the amount of responsibility they can handle...)
	♥ 5:20pm lazy pierogi: Cats > children
	♥ 5:21pm Dan S: I knew better than to have kids with any woman crazy enough to want me as the father of her children.
	♥ 5:22pm Adi From Sheffield: ↳ lazy pierogi @5:20 I'd always have another cat someday.
	♥ 5:24pm Dan S: Most of the women I know don't have kids either. They give various reasons. Some will come out and say they know they would have been lousy mothers.
	♥ 5:25pm Mark T: good afternoon
	♥ 5:26pm Cheryl The Nerd: Childless former cat lady here. No regrets. Some people like to argue that if we don't reproduce the population will die out. But if EVERYONE reproduces the world will be overpopulated. Spoiler alert: the world already is overpopulated. So there needs to be a balance. We need some breeders to keep the world populated. And we need some non breeders to keep the population from growing too far. Not one or the other. BOTH. You choose which side you want to be on, and respect those who choose the other side.
	5:27pm hectic: i'll probably have kids. i doubt i'll have anything better to do when i'm older.
	♥ 5:27pm Dan S: I'm closer to a NINK. No income, no kids.
	🎸 ♥ 5:27pm Ben in Newark: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:26 Thanks so much Cheryl, agreed 100%. And great seeing you at the station this week!
	♥ 5:28pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ Ben in Newark @5:27 You too!
	5:29pm Dean: I knew I'd never have kids. I was pretty certain I'd never marry, either. Following graduation from college I worked as a teacher's assistant in a pre-school. The experience persuaded me that kids are wonderful human beings. But still, no kids for me. Oops. I married later in life and, accordingly, spawned two kids. Not one day goes by that I don't celebrate the fact. But I think the primary factor is, simply, genetics. I recognize that I am hard-wired to procreate and, a fortiori, to raise the little buggers. It's trite to say so, I know, but the joy has been boundless. From multiple standpoints -- financial, political economic, cultural (whatever that means) -- having kids is ill-advised. I say, fuck advice. It's usually wrong. Similarly, when new parents ask me for advice, I proffer, "Ignore other parents." I'm just at that section of Marx's Capital v.1 in which he remarks about the correlation of the increase of reproduction (of the species) with the decline of wages. Huh? Well, families need kids whose labour they need to sell to the owners of the factories. My two cents, which are worth so little these days.
	♥ 5:29pm Dan S: ↳ Dan S @5:27 My full title might be NINKNOPE. No Income, No Kids, NO PEts.
	♥ 5:30pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ hectic @5:19 I wonder if it's the amount of FINANCIAL responsibility they can handle. These are lousy economic times. Owning a home is a pipe dream. Jobs aren't paying enough. And kids are EXPENSIVE.
	♥ 5:31pm slugluv1313: greetings, Ben! Everyone! i will try to chime in a bit later -- right now, Los Gatos Locos want their DINNER!!! (YES, i am one of those EVIL Childless Cat Ladies, hahahahaha!) for those who may be interested, there is EngenderHealth -- i first heard/read about them in a New York Times (Magazine?) article, when i was still in high school, in the 1970s and they were still known as the Association for Voluntary Sterilization: www.engenderhealth.org... i was still a teenager, and living with the parents! but, by my last year at college, i was (finally!) able to follow up with AVS, do some research, and get laparoscopic surgery :) the thing that kills me now (as it did then!) is the accusations that "you feminists" are being "selfish" bc "you want a career" instead of kids -- which NEVER made sense, at least for me, bc i always thought hell, maybe if i DID have decent "career," maybe i WOULD have kids, DUH!
	♥ 5:31pm Dan S: ↳ hectic @5:27 That's one of the better reasons (excuses?) I've heard lately.
	5:33pm hectic: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:30 definitely. also, since my generation is growing up addicted to phones and social media, they're developing in different ways than previous generations. and i'm kind of worried about whether they'd be responsible parents or not.
	♥ 5:33pm joe mulligan: NITWC no income, though with cats
	♥ 5:35pm Shamar Morales: I got a Midland ER-310 and i sacrificed my father's bank account for this delivery.
	♥ 5:35pm Dan S: ↳ joe mulligan @5:33 Pretty good one, though I don't think it beats NINKNOPE.
	♥ 5:36pm MarciB: Proud child-free married older listener here. My husband and I often congratulate ourselves on not having kids. We love our nieces and nephews and some of our friends had kids (who are adults now, some having their own). Our reasons for not having them are varied but I knew early on I had zero interest in being a mother (yet I can be pretty motherly to friends and fam!) We've managed to save money to retire on (hopefully, all bets are off with this mad regime we're living in). And I honestly don't understand wanting to bring kids into this world, esp now.
	♥ 5:36pm joe mulligan: ↳ Shamar Morales @5:35 doomsday machines are the best hahah
	♥ 5:36pm red_door_what_for in ypsilanti: Great show topic! just chiming in that the common talk of "birth rate decline" is just unfounded scaremongering as many of you already know, and sharing this article: www.unfpa.org...
	5:37pm BVP: I am absolutely loving listening to this show while being childless and out for a chill ride on the south shore of Lake Michigan.
	♥ 5:37pm Shamar Morales: ↳ joe mulligan @5:36 Yeah and you can be sure that I am childfree. Birth rates are declining and I don't care if it's fearmongering or not.
	♥ 5:37pm slugluv1313: ↳ Song: "Cracker Jack" by "Dolly Parton" Dolly 💖💖💖 damn, she ALWAYS totally gets it!
	♥ 5:37pm joe mulligan: ↳ Dan S @5:35 yours wins for sure, but you sure you don't want a pet?
	5:39pm Matty cannabis: friends and neighbors!! epic bass line Charlie Haden🔥
	♥ 5:39pm Dan S: The few plants I've had all died on me. I don't want to inflict that on an animal.
	♥ 5:40pm MarciB: ↳ slugluv1313 @5:31 Isn't the misogyny against "feminists" amazing? I mean, you never hear that charge thrown against men. They get to be "old bachelors" while women are "angry feminists" and back in the 60s/70s, we were "old maids" - now "childless cat ladies" (like that's a bad thing!)
	♥ 5:40pm Hunterian: ↳ Dan S @5:39 I hear that
	♥ 5:40pm Dan S: ↳ joe mulligan @5:37 The few plants I've had all died on me. I don't want to inflict that on an animal.
	♥ 5:42pm Dan S: I could also mention that I'm single by choice. Not my choice, but somebody made it, I presume.
	♥ 5:42pm slugluv1313: re: so called decline in human population -- honestly, mean as it may sound, when asked about the environment, my response is that the best thing for this planet would be human extinction (ESPECIALLY when some human complains about some other species being "invasive and destructive" 🤬🤬🤬)
	5:43pm ledzeppelinsucks: Dolly Parton is a full on fraud. I saw her ‘show’ at Hardly Strictly in Golden Gate Park. It was obvious it was all faked to tape. Then the vocals tape failed, and Dolly Parton kept miming. Then the band tapes failed, the band kept strumming and banging to no sound. Then all of the sound was clumsily brought back blaring, then adjusted. Dolly Parton steals from paying fans by putting on a fraud and sends some of those embezzled funds to charity for her image. It’s a disgusting scam.
	5:44pm Dean: I should clarify that I make no judgment whatsoever about people who choose not to procreate. That's a political choice all should be free to make. In my case, the rational choice was outvoted by the genetic. As for feminism, well, Andrea Dworkin has long been one of my heroes. Among the cherished moments in my life are meeting her at the women's bookstore in Westwood where I volunteered and later meeting Catharine Mackinnon at Chicago and again at Berkeley. Anybody interested in feminism should read Christine Littleton's "Reconstructing Sexual Equality": https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1112886?v=pdf I studied with her at UCLA when I was in library school.
	♥ 5:45pm MarciB: ↳ slugluv1313 @5:42 My husband and I say this to each other regularly!
	5:45pm Cosmic: I don’t have kids. Half tempted to put a “yet” on the end of that sentence. However, as it won’t be a planned occurrence, I can really only speak as things are.
	♥ 5:46pm slugluv1313: ↳ MarciB @5:40 omg right? iirc, Gloria Steinem said something about how men are never questioned about how they can balance a career with children
	♥ 5:46pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ MarciB @5:40 Saw something on social media the other day. Dude was saying that men throw "childless cat lady" around as a threat. Like, if you don't improve yourself you'll never find a man, and then you'll be a cat lady. That kind of stuff. This dude pointed out that a lot of women are finding peace in being single, and when they reject a particular man it's because he destroys her peace in some way. Dude concluded that men aren't competing with some idealized version of masculinity. They're competing against literally nothing. And they're failing.
	♥ 5:48pm Dan S: While birth rates are declining in most parts of the world, the human population is still increasing. It is now well over 8 billion. That's about 3X the world's population at the time of my birth (admittedly, a long time ago). So I have little concern about human extinction due to declining birth rates.
	♥ 5:49pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ slugluv1313 @5:42 Look at what happened to nature in the early pandemic days when humans were staying home. You heard more birds chirping. The fresh air felt fresher.
	♥ 5:50pm MarciB: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:46 Excellent points - and hence the intense + toxic masculinity rampant now. I've been with my husband for nearly 40 years (we got married about 10 yrs ago) and I'm so grateful he's also a feminist. Wish more men were open hearted rather than threatened by women and girls empowering themselves.
	♥ 5:50pm Dan S: BTW, which does Elon Musk think is the greater threat, too much empathy or too few children? The guy has become a psycho.
	5:52pm Dean: If Marx is right--and he was in many, but not all respects--then declining birth rates at the local or regional, not necessarily global level correlate with improved conditions for the proletariat, i.e., us. But recall that correlation is not causation.
	5:52pm fractal84: I’m thankfully childless. I can barely take care of myself. It’s quite pathetic and sad. I wish I had a better upbringing that could have led me into family life better.
	♥ 5:52pm Dan S: ↳ Song: "On Horseback" by "Mike Oldfield" A beautiful song. Thanks for the song choices, Ben, even if the music got overshadowed by the discussion topic.
	5:52pm Saltonstall: The horse is like “Neigh, great Mike, I love you too, but your kids weigh a lot less. Can we cut this jaunt a short? Neigh.”
	♥ 5:54pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ MarciB @5:50 I have no hope of ever marrying. I can't even imagine a guy asking me out for a cup of coffee. So I can either sit at home and feel like a failure, or I can derive pleasure from my own company. Seems like the latter is the better choice.
	5:54pm laurapanic: this autistic lady had 3 kids in an toxic relationship. I had twins after having sex with my partner to stop him harassing me. I wish I had known I was autistic then and why I worked the way I do. Now have 3 teens. They are nice enough folks I guess, but I absolutely wish I was not a mum. Masking full time for other people you live with is very hard.
	♥ 5:55pm slugluv1313: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:49 YES! the trees were exceptionally green and lush! and the Hudson River was cleaner than i had ever seen it!
	♥ 5:56pm yerfriendpaul: ↳ Song: "Every Sperm is Sacred" by "Monty Python" So great!!
	♥ 5:56pm Dan S: Thanks, Ben. Remember everyone, with all the money we save from being childless, we can afford to donate some dough to WFMU.
	♥ 5:57pm MarciB: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:54 In the end, we all need to be comfortable with our own company. If I hadn't met my husband when we were young, I'd be a solo ager (and probably pretty content).
	♥ 5:58pm red_door_what_for in ypsilanti: Lovely words about capturing the youthful spirit! Whether or not you have kids i wish that for all of you (as Monty Python plays lol) Appreciate this show and peoples responses! Here's more about how replacement theory is a white supremacist myth: washingtonstatestandard.com...
	♥ 5:58pm Dan S: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:54 Well said. That all applies to me too.
	♥ 5:58pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ Dan S @5:56 If there's a better reason not to reproduce, I can't think of it! Fewer Rugrats, MORE SWAG!!
	5:58pm Edith: Not the Monty Python cum song 😭😭😭 Awesome show, listening from Atlanta
	5:58pm Dean: I'm sensing that we Americans have fully succumbed to a cost-benefit approach to life. Here I will be judgmental: I find that so utterly and sometimes instinctively wrong. You--we--all know better.
	♥ 5:59pm MarciB: Thanks Ben and all- great show and discussions here !
	5:59pm Listener: Gross song.
	♥ 5:59pm slugluv1313: ↳ Dan S @5:48 yes, exactly! when i was 11, one of those little "growing up and liking it" booklets wrote "one day, you will fall in love, get married, and want to have children" -- i was like, HOW DO YOU KNOW?!? this was 1970 -- i was learning about overpopulation, Zero Population Growth, and had already seen numerous photos of children in diamond mines, famine stricken areas, etc. -- NO WAY did I want to contribute to that!
	♥ 6:01pm slugluv1313: ↳ Song: "Every Sperm is Sacred" by "Monty Python" 😹😹😹 this song always has me in stitches! thanks so much, Ben, for a fantastic thoughtful show!
	♥ 6:01pm red_door_what_for in ypsilanti: ↳ laurapanic @5:54 🫶Im so sorry you went through that. I'm glad they are nice kids though. Learning about yourself is so healing!
	6:03pm Dean: "i was like, HOW DO YOU KNOW?!?" I doubt the booklet authors in fact knew this, but they were generally correct. They know, because our species wants to procreate. At the end of the day, it's pretty simple.
	6:03pm ?: I hadn't planned to have kids, but i was persuaded by a woman who was willing to have sex with me. I love my kids, but I regret thrusting existence upon them. Nonexistence, wherein there is no suffering, is always preferable to existence.
	🎸 ♥ 6:12pm Ben in Newark: Thanks everyone for listening, and for a great discussion!
	6:14pm Dean: Thank you, Ben.
	♥ 1:05am Handy Haversack: Had to listen in the Archive but did it as soon as possible. Nice job, Ben! Now I'm just going to nip out and get another vasectomy. My guy has a punchcard program -- every twelfth one is free!

Radio Row: Playlist from April 13, 2025

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Our very own visiting DJ Hour, which puts a different DJ in the driver's seat each week for one hour of Freeform programming any way they choose!

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Upcoming events:

Sun. Apr 27th, 5pm - 6pm: DJ Mishmash is back on Radio Row! (More info...)
DJ Mishmash is back with her best show yet, an eclectic journey through world music featuring 70s Indonesian pop, Algerian Folk, Armenian disco, Ethiopiques, Afrobeat, Habibi Funk, and obscure gems from the vault.

April 13, 2025: Child Free Radio with Ben Gross
A freeform meditation on childfree living.

Listen to this show: MP3 - 128K | Pop-up listen Pop-up player!

Illustration by Lindsay Guim

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Comments	Approx. start time
Music behind DJ: Hiroshi Yoshimura	Wet Land "Wet Land" by "Hiroshi Yoshimura"	Wet Land	Eastworld	1993		0:00:00 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Little Simz	I Love You, I Hate You	Sometimes I Might Be Introvert	AWAL	2021	Short film based on this song	0:02:41 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Nina Hagen Band	Unbeschreiblich Weiblich	Nina Hagen Band	CBS	1978	English translation here	0:06:59 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Angels of Light	Mother/Father "Mother/Father" by "Angels of Light"	Akron/Family & Angels of Light	Young God	2005		0:10:26 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Peter Jefferies	Domestica "Domestica" by "Peter Jefferies"	The Last Great Challenge in a Dull World	Xpressway	1990		0:13:07 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Ry Cooder	How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? (Live)	At the Record Plant 1974		1974	Bootleg of KSAN radio broadcast	0:15:26 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Ron Gallo	Why Do You Have Kids? "Why Do You Have Kids?" by "Ron Gallo"	Heavy Meta	New West	2017		0:20:57 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Music behind DJ: Dump	Honey "Honey" by "Dump"	Blown Dunks	edita la servidumbre	2019		0:24:09 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
The Tycho Brahe	Childless "Childless" by "The Tycho Brahe"	Orang-Utan	Goppa	2002		0:27:30 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
David J	Where the Bloodline Ends (Vasectomy Song)	An Eclipse of Ships	Cleopatra Records	2014		0:30:49 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Dolly Parton	Cracker Jack "Cracker Jack" by "Dolly Parton"	Jolene (reissue)	Legacy	2007	CD bonus track	0:33:29 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Ornette Coleman	Friends and Neighbors (Vocal Version) [Live]	Friends And Neighbors - Ornette Live At Prince Street	Flying Dutchman Records	1970	"Ornette at Prince Street" article	0:36:39 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Julia Holter	Try to Make Yourself a Work of Art (Live)	Live at Beaudry EP	RVNG Intl.	2012	Poem: "I Deal in Souls" by Sun Ra, as read by L'Rain	0:40:44 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Mike Oldfield	On Horseback "On Horseback" by "Mike Oldfield"	Ommadawn	Virgin	1975		0:47:24 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Music behind DJ: Dump	Always Free "Always Free" by "Dump"	Blown Dunks	edita la servidumbre	2019		0:50:44 (MP3 \| Pop-up)
Monty Python	Every Sperm is Sacred	Monty Python's the Meaning of Life		1983		0:54:15 (MP3 \| Pop-up)

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Listener comments!
	♥ 5:01pm yerfriendpaul: Hey Ben, everyone!
	🎸 ♥ 5:02pm Ben in Newark: Thanks for listening everyone! For those interested, I’d love to hear your stories and experiences about being child-free on the comments board during this show.
	♥ 5:03pm ∫ydniuß: Block the Gates! ❤️
	♥ 5:04pm xtrakrispy: 58yo SWM in NYC who never had kids and never even thought of having them. My partner of 13 years felt the same ways, as did most of my partners through the years.
	5:11pm crei6hton: Evening yall
	🎸 ♥ 5:12pm Ben in Newark: ↳ xtrakrispy @5:04 Thanks for sharing, really appreciate it! I'm hoping people's stories and experiences here can help others here
	5:13pm goes211: It’s a bit of a myth that childless people are currently a small group.It’s about 30%. Check the census numbers. That number is also increasing each year.
	🎸 ♥ 5:14pm Ben in Newark: ↳ yerfriendpaul @5:01 Thanks Paul, really appreciate you tuning in this afternoon! I've noticed some "us versus them" between those with and without kids on other corners of the internet, really appreciate that the WFMU community is very open and a positive place for everybody
	♥ 5:15pm joe mulligan: ↳ Song: "Domestica" by "Peter Jefferies" this was a great album, very influential
	5:18pm ?: I have a dog. that is enough responsibility. Kids are expensive to raise them as they deserve to be. I've never been able to afford kids. Having been raised by an irresponsible douche who failed his children from early I never wanted to risk perpetuating that.
	♥ 5:18pm Adi From Sheffield: Never wanted children personally. I've been a carer for the better part of the last decade so time/finances/etc were all factors that reinforced that. Most of my friends have kids now. Does make me feel a bit of an outsider at times. But it doesn't bother me that much. I like how I spend my free time.
	5:19pm hectic: more and more people are deciding to not have kids. i find it interesting how we were worried about the population getting too big in the 1900s and now it's decreasing. most of the people in my generation (Z) dont want kids. (maybe it says something about the amount of responsibility they can handle...)
	♥ 5:20pm lazy pierogi: Cats > children
	♥ 5:21pm Dan S: I knew better than to have kids with any woman crazy enough to want me as the father of her children.
	♥ 5:22pm Adi From Sheffield: ↳ lazy pierogi @5:20 I'd always have another cat someday.
	♥ 5:24pm Dan S: Most of the women I know don't have kids either. They give various reasons. Some will come out and say they know they would have been lousy mothers.
	♥ 5:25pm Mark T: good afternoon
	♥ 5:26pm Cheryl The Nerd: Childless former cat lady here. No regrets. Some people like to argue that if we don't reproduce the population will die out. But if EVERYONE reproduces the world will be overpopulated. Spoiler alert: the world already is overpopulated. So there needs to be a balance. We need some breeders to keep the world populated. And we need some non breeders to keep the population from growing too far. Not one or the other. BOTH. You choose which side you want to be on, and respect those who choose the other side.
	5:27pm hectic: i'll probably have kids. i doubt i'll have anything better to do when i'm older.
	♥ 5:27pm Dan S: I'm closer to a NINK. No income, no kids.
	🎸 ♥ 5:27pm Ben in Newark: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:26 Thanks so much Cheryl, agreed 100%. And great seeing you at the station this week!
	♥ 5:28pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ Ben in Newark @5:27 You too!
	5:29pm Dean: I knew I'd never have kids. I was pretty certain I'd never marry, either. Following graduation from college I worked as a teacher's assistant in a pre-school. The experience persuaded me that kids are wonderful human beings. But still, no kids for me. Oops. I married later in life and, accordingly, spawned two kids. Not one day goes by that I don't celebrate the fact. But I think the primary factor is, simply, genetics. I recognize that I am hard-wired to procreate and, a fortiori, to raise the little buggers. It's trite to say so, I know, but the joy has been boundless. From multiple standpoints -- financial, political economic, cultural (whatever that means) -- having kids is ill-advised. I say, fuck advice. It's usually wrong. Similarly, when new parents ask me for advice, I proffer, "Ignore other parents." I'm just at that section of Marx's Capital v.1 in which he remarks about the correlation of the increase of reproduction (of the species) with the decline of wages. Huh? Well, families need kids whose labour they need to sell to the owners of the factories. My two cents, which are worth so little these days.
	♥ 5:29pm Dan S: ↳ Dan S @5:27 My full title might be NINKNOPE. No Income, No Kids, NO PEts.
	♥ 5:30pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ hectic @5:19 I wonder if it's the amount of FINANCIAL responsibility they can handle. These are lousy economic times. Owning a home is a pipe dream. Jobs aren't paying enough. And kids are EXPENSIVE.
	♥ 5:31pm slugluv1313: greetings, Ben! Everyone! i will try to chime in a bit later -- right now, Los Gatos Locos want their DINNER!!! (YES, i am one of those EVIL Childless Cat Ladies, hahahahaha!) for those who may be interested, there is EngenderHealth -- i first heard/read about them in a New York Times (Magazine?) article, when i was still in high school, in the 1970s and they were still known as the Association for Voluntary Sterilization: www.engenderhealth.org... i was still a teenager, and living with the parents! but, by my last year at college, i was (finally!) able to follow up with AVS, do some research, and get laparoscopic surgery :) the thing that kills me now (as it did then!) is the accusations that "you feminists" are being "selfish" bc "you want a career" instead of kids -- which NEVER made sense, at least for me, bc i always thought hell, maybe if i DID have decent "career," maybe i WOULD have kids, DUH!
	♥ 5:31pm Dan S: ↳ hectic @5:27 That's one of the better reasons (excuses?) I've heard lately.
	5:33pm hectic: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:30 definitely. also, since my generation is growing up addicted to phones and social media, they're developing in different ways than previous generations. and i'm kind of worried about whether they'd be responsible parents or not.
	♥ 5:33pm joe mulligan: NITWC no income, though with cats
	♥ 5:35pm Shamar Morales: I got a Midland ER-310 and i sacrificed my father's bank account for this delivery.
	♥ 5:35pm Dan S: ↳ joe mulligan @5:33 Pretty good one, though I don't think it beats NINKNOPE.
	♥ 5:36pm MarciB: Proud child-free married older listener here. My husband and I often congratulate ourselves on not having kids. We love our nieces and nephews and some of our friends had kids (who are adults now, some having their own). Our reasons for not having them are varied but I knew early on I had zero interest in being a mother (yet I can be pretty motherly to friends and fam!) We've managed to save money to retire on (hopefully, all bets are off with this mad regime we're living in). And I honestly don't understand wanting to bring kids into this world, esp now.
	♥ 5:36pm joe mulligan: ↳ Shamar Morales @5:35 doomsday machines are the best hahah
	♥ 5:36pm red_door_what_for in ypsilanti: Great show topic! just chiming in that the common talk of "birth rate decline" is just unfounded scaremongering as many of you already know, and sharing this article: www.unfpa.org...
	5:37pm BVP: I am absolutely loving listening to this show while being childless and out for a chill ride on the south shore of Lake Michigan.
	♥ 5:37pm Shamar Morales: ↳ joe mulligan @5:36 Yeah and you can be sure that I am childfree. Birth rates are declining and I don't care if it's fearmongering or not.
	♥ 5:37pm slugluv1313: ↳ Song: "Cracker Jack" by "Dolly Parton" Dolly 💖💖💖 damn, she ALWAYS totally gets it!
	♥ 5:37pm joe mulligan: ↳ Dan S @5:35 yours wins for sure, but you sure you don't want a pet?
	5:39pm Matty cannabis: friends and neighbors!! epic bass line Charlie Haden🔥
	♥ 5:39pm Dan S: The few plants I've had all died on me. I don't want to inflict that on an animal.
	♥ 5:40pm MarciB: ↳ slugluv1313 @5:31 Isn't the misogyny against "feminists" amazing? I mean, you never hear that charge thrown against men. They get to be "old bachelors" while women are "angry feminists" and back in the 60s/70s, we were "old maids" - now "childless cat ladies" (like that's a bad thing!)
	♥ 5:40pm Hunterian: ↳ Dan S @5:39 I hear that
	♥ 5:40pm Dan S: ↳ joe mulligan @5:37 The few plants I've had all died on me. I don't want to inflict that on an animal.
	♥ 5:42pm Dan S: I could also mention that I'm single by choice. Not my choice, but somebody made it, I presume.
	♥ 5:42pm slugluv1313: re: so called decline in human population -- honestly, mean as it may sound, when asked about the environment, my response is that the best thing for this planet would be human extinction (ESPECIALLY when some human complains about some other species being "invasive and destructive" 🤬🤬🤬)
	5:43pm ledzeppelinsucks: Dolly Parton is a full on fraud. I saw her ‘show’ at Hardly Strictly in Golden Gate Park. It was obvious it was all faked to tape. Then the vocals tape failed, and Dolly Parton kept miming. Then the band tapes failed, the band kept strumming and banging to no sound. Then all of the sound was clumsily brought back blaring, then adjusted. Dolly Parton steals from paying fans by putting on a fraud and sends some of those embezzled funds to charity for her image. It’s a disgusting scam.
	5:44pm Dean: I should clarify that I make no judgment whatsoever about people who choose not to procreate. That's a political choice all should be free to make. In my case, the rational choice was outvoted by the genetic. As for feminism, well, Andrea Dworkin has long been one of my heroes. Among the cherished moments in my life are meeting her at the women's bookstore in Westwood where I volunteered and later meeting Catharine Mackinnon at Chicago and again at Berkeley. Anybody interested in feminism should read Christine Littleton's "Reconstructing Sexual Equality": https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1112886?v=pdf I studied with her at UCLA when I was in library school.
	♥ 5:45pm MarciB: ↳ slugluv1313 @5:42 My husband and I say this to each other regularly!
	5:45pm Cosmic: I don’t have kids. Half tempted to put a “yet” on the end of that sentence. However, as it won’t be a planned occurrence, I can really only speak as things are.
	♥ 5:46pm slugluv1313: ↳ MarciB @5:40 omg right? iirc, Gloria Steinem said something about how men are never questioned about how they can balance a career with children
	♥ 5:46pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ MarciB @5:40 Saw something on social media the other day. Dude was saying that men throw "childless cat lady" around as a threat. Like, if you don't improve yourself you'll never find a man, and then you'll be a cat lady. That kind of stuff. This dude pointed out that a lot of women are finding peace in being single, and when they reject a particular man it's because he destroys her peace in some way. Dude concluded that men aren't competing with some idealized version of masculinity. They're competing against literally nothing. And they're failing.
	♥ 5:48pm Dan S: While birth rates are declining in most parts of the world, the human population is still increasing. It is now well over 8 billion. That's about 3X the world's population at the time of my birth (admittedly, a long time ago). So I have little concern about human extinction due to declining birth rates.
	♥ 5:49pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ slugluv1313 @5:42 Look at what happened to nature in the early pandemic days when humans were staying home. You heard more birds chirping. The fresh air felt fresher.
	♥ 5:50pm MarciB: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:46 Excellent points - and hence the intense + toxic masculinity rampant now. I've been with my husband for nearly 40 years (we got married about 10 yrs ago) and I'm so grateful he's also a feminist. Wish more men were open hearted rather than threatened by women and girls empowering themselves.
	♥ 5:50pm Dan S: BTW, which does Elon Musk think is the greater threat, too much empathy or too few children? The guy has become a psycho.
	5:52pm Dean: If Marx is right--and he was in many, but not all respects--then declining birth rates at the local or regional, not necessarily global level correlate with improved conditions for the proletariat, i.e., us. But recall that correlation is not causation.
	5:52pm fractal84: I’m thankfully childless. I can barely take care of myself. It’s quite pathetic and sad. I wish I had a better upbringing that could have led me into family life better.
	♥ 5:52pm Dan S: ↳ Song: "On Horseback" by "Mike Oldfield" A beautiful song. Thanks for the song choices, Ben, even if the music got overshadowed by the discussion topic.
	5:52pm Saltonstall: The horse is like “Neigh, great Mike, I love you too, but your kids weigh a lot less. Can we cut this jaunt a short? Neigh.”
	♥ 5:54pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ MarciB @5:50 I have no hope of ever marrying. I can't even imagine a guy asking me out for a cup of coffee. So I can either sit at home and feel like a failure, or I can derive pleasure from my own company. Seems like the latter is the better choice.
	5:54pm laurapanic: this autistic lady had 3 kids in an toxic relationship. I had twins after having sex with my partner to stop him harassing me. I wish I had known I was autistic then and why I worked the way I do. Now have 3 teens. They are nice enough folks I guess, but I absolutely wish I was not a mum. Masking full time for other people you live with is very hard.
	♥ 5:55pm slugluv1313: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:49 YES! the trees were exceptionally green and lush! and the Hudson River was cleaner than i had ever seen it!
	♥ 5:56pm yerfriendpaul: ↳ Song: "Every Sperm is Sacred" by "Monty Python" So great!!
	♥ 5:56pm Dan S: Thanks, Ben. Remember everyone, with all the money we save from being childless, we can afford to donate some dough to WFMU.
	♥ 5:57pm MarciB: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:54 In the end, we all need to be comfortable with our own company. If I hadn't met my husband when we were young, I'd be a solo ager (and probably pretty content).
	♥ 5:58pm red_door_what_for in ypsilanti: Lovely words about capturing the youthful spirit! Whether or not you have kids i wish that for all of you (as Monty Python plays lol) Appreciate this show and peoples responses! Here's more about how replacement theory is a white supremacist myth: washingtonstatestandard.com...
	♥ 5:58pm Dan S: ↳ Cheryl The Nerd @5:54 Well said. That all applies to me too.
	♥ 5:58pm Cheryl The Nerd: ↳ Dan S @5:56 If there's a better reason not to reproduce, I can't think of it! Fewer Rugrats, MORE SWAG!!
	5:58pm Edith: Not the Monty Python cum song 😭😭😭 Awesome show, listening from Atlanta
	5:58pm Dean: I'm sensing that we Americans have fully succumbed to a cost-benefit approach to life. Here I will be judgmental: I find that so utterly and sometimes instinctively wrong. You--we--all know better.
	♥ 5:59pm MarciB: Thanks Ben and all- great show and discussions here !
	5:59pm Listener: Gross song.
	♥ 5:59pm slugluv1313: ↳ Dan S @5:48 yes, exactly! when i was 11, one of those little "growing up and liking it" booklets wrote "one day, you will fall in love, get married, and want to have children" -- i was like, HOW DO YOU KNOW?!? this was 1970 -- i was learning about overpopulation, Zero Population Growth, and had already seen numerous photos of children in diamond mines, famine stricken areas, etc. -- NO WAY did I want to contribute to that!
	♥ 6:01pm slugluv1313: ↳ Song: "Every Sperm is Sacred" by "Monty Python" 😹😹😹 this song always has me in stitches! thanks so much, Ben, for a fantastic thoughtful show!
	♥ 6:01pm red_door_what_for in ypsilanti: ↳ laurapanic @5:54 🫶Im so sorry you went through that. I'm glad they are nice kids though. Learning about yourself is so healing!
	6:03pm Dean: "i was like, HOW DO YOU KNOW?!?" I doubt the booklet authors in fact knew this, but they were generally correct. They know, because our species wants to procreate. At the end of the day, it's pretty simple.
	6:03pm ?: I hadn't planned to have kids, but i was persuaded by a woman who was willing to have sex with me. I love my kids, but I regret thrusting existence upon them. Nonexistence, wherein there is no suffering, is always preferable to existence.
	🎸 ♥ 6:12pm Ben in Newark: Thanks everyone for listening, and for a great discussion!
	6:14pm Dean: Thank you, Ben.
	♥ 1:05am Handy Haversack: Had to listen in the Archive but did it as soon as possible. Nice job, Ben! Now I'm just going to nip out and get another vasectomy. My guy has a punchcard program -- every twelfth one is free!

Radio Row: Playlist from April 13, 2025

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