The Paradox of Modern Parenthood

In this talk, Jennifer Senior will explore some of the unseen forces that are making modern parents so anxious, including the historic transformation of the child’s role; the liberating-yet-confusing introduction of personal choice; and dramatic changes to how we live and work. In so doing, she hopes to make parents see that their challenges, which they so often assume are of their own making, are in fact part of a much larger picture, and that they are by no means struggling alone. She will also speak about what can be done to help us think differently about raising children, examine the distinction between happiness and joy, and ultimately shed light on why most parents still say that raising children is the most meaningful thing that they’ll ever do.

Jennifer Senior is a contributing editor at New York Magazine, where she writes profiles and cover stories about politics, social science, and mental health. She won the Front Page Award from the Newswomen’s Club of New York in 2014, the Erikson Prize in Mental Health Media in 2011, and her work has been anthologized four times in The Best American Political Writing.

She has been a frequent guest on NPR and numerous television programs, including Charlie Rose, The Chris Matthews Show, Morning Joe, Good Morning America, and Today. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review, and in 2003-2004 was a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine.

“All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood”, published in January of 2014, is her first book. It spent seven weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, is being translated into ten languages, and was named one of Slate's Top 10 Books of the Year. This March, Senior spoke at both TED's annual conference and at the Sydney Opera House. She graduated summa cum laude in anthropology from Princeton University in 1991. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with her husband and son.