Book · 2019 · Social Science
Full Surrogacy Now
Feminism Against Family
Why people recommend it
Full Surrogacy Now by Sophie Lewis is a provocative examination of reproductive labor, family structures, and alternative approaches to domestic life and caretaking. The book entered the conversation on The Ezra Klein Show during the April 18, 2023 episode titled The ‘Quiet Catastrophe’ Brewing in Our Social Lives, when host Ezra Klein referenced the work by his colleague Sophie Lewis while discussing alternative family models alongside an essay by David Brooks. Klein returned to the book on the December 22, 2022 episode titled Best Of: The ‘Quiet Catastrophe’ Brewing in Our Social Lives. During this segment, he elaborated on the core arguments presented by Lewis, explaining that the author characterizes the traditional nuclear family unit as a kind of hostage situation. Klein detailed how Lewis critiques the rigid compulsions, unwritten rules, and exhausting expectations historically bound to domestic nuclear arrangements, suggesting that these societal pressures are frequently impossible for individuals to genuinely satisfy. By highlighting these critiques, the podcast episodes utilize Lewis's radical perspective to prompt listeners to reconsider traditional domestic boundaries, question the commercialization and policing of care, and imagine more expansive, communal, and equitable networks of social support and kinship outside the nuclear model.
Who recommended it
- Ezra Klein Discussed
Ezra Klein — 2 mentions
“now in that book Lewis talks about the family unit as a hostage situation that there are certain compulsions and expectations that come with our life as part of a nuclear family unit that are actually impossible to satisfy”
“I remember that essay by David Brooks and it makes me think of a book on a similar topic by a colleague of mine Sophie Lewis which is called full surrogacy”