This is the weekend edition of Culture Study — the newsletter from Anne Helen Petersen, which you can read about here. If you like it and want more like it in your inbox, consider subscribing.
thank you for sharing this detailed view of your process! i finished my PhD last year, and i've been genuinely curious about how your research and writing process compares to the type of research one does in graduate school.
Awesome read! Love the process pieces and all of the thinking on childcare.
Cars: Peter Norton, author of “Fighting Traffic” on how the automobile industry stole our streets. Planner Jarrett Walker who consults for cities on public transit; Jeff Speck, same and also author of “Walkable City” that has some car history in it. Everyone at Rail~Volution (a transit advocacy organization), starting maybe with Jeff Woods who does the Talking Headways podcast and will know just the right people to speak with.
Not all of this is directly related to what you’re looking for necessarily but all of these people are deeply informed about everything around our car-centric world.
No worries! Also I do realize these are pretty much all white men, but Jeff Woods has talked with more people in the diverse community/transit space than I can think of. I think you’d love Tamika Butler who does bike advocacy in LA for maybe a future topic. She’s phenomonal and phenomnally smart.
I'd also offer Donald Should (admittedly another older white male) - he's done a lot of research and writing on the topic of parking, notably "The High Cost of Free Parking".
I don't know who you'd talk to, but Tucson, AZ, was the most bike-friendly city I've ever lived in! There were bike lanes on most of the major streets, bike awareness was a constant reminder, bike rentals were available (and they were just becoming a Thing). Might be worth digging in to some of the older city council members because this had the feeling, in 2013-2017, of having been in place for a long time.
You may already know about this, but just in case: Journalist & author Michelene Maynard has a website called "Curbing Cars" at http://www.curbingcars.com/ It sounds like a good resource for your cars piece!
Loved this deep dive into your process! Here's a follow-up. You put a lot of hours into the interviews for the piece before you started writing. Do you only ever do that when you know you have an assignment lined up (like you did at Vox)? Or do you sometimes go down a rabbit hole without clear knowledge that you will/can get a story out of it and what it will be?
Thanks for sharing this view into your process. I found the article really interesting as well. As a parent of a toddler who is currently paying A LOT per month on childcare, I appreciated seeing solutions for how caregivers can receive better wages and how the system in general can be improved. However, it would be have been great to include the answer to the question you posed, "where is the money going?" If the caregivers are receiving such a low salary, why is my daycare center, which is on the lower end where I live, so expensive?
Hi! So I tried to put the very straightforward summary of where it goes in the piece, but the rest of it was in so many different articles, graphics, websites, etc., that I didn't want to spend much time on it. (This is pretty great summary: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2018/02/14/446330/child-care-dollar-go/) With that said: if people still have questions about it, clearly it was something that I should've dedicated even just a few sentences to in the piece.
My understanding is insurance is also a big part of it. I’ve known two early childcare places that closed down due to insurance cost, especially for kids under 18 months.
And that's where I think the fed or state governments can help in a big way. If they created a program similar to US' flood insurance, where daycares have to pay a small percentage but the gov't pays for the rest, how much would that loosen their pockets to pay better salaries? (Yes, I realize that flood insurance is problematic, but it is a decent idea lousily executed.)
That is actually a great comparison that I'd never thought of before. Yes, federal flood insurance is a wreck, but it doesn't have to be! And we could learn from those mistakes.
As a non-parent, I suspect my views are regarded as irrelevant but anyway... why is childcare regarded by virtually all parents as a job for women only? How many parents would be willing to leave their tiny offspring in the hands of a childcare that employed only men? Is there a gender issue here that has yet to be explored? Child care as a job will never achieve the status and conditions it deserves until it's being done by men as much as by women, and I suspect that day is a long way off, in large part because few mothers trust men around their children.
We had a GREAT teacher for our younger daughter in a Montessori preschool. He was absolutely wonderful to all of the kids! NO, this is not a female-only job! (He actually left for a year to do work in his old field of computing, then came back because he missed the kids too much.)
And I REALLY wish more men would get into the field - there are SO many kids who grow up in broken homes and don't have good male role models. Yet, when I was going through college as an education major in the early 00s, the only men going into the field were history majors who wanted to become coaches. Ah, the glorious Oklahoma education system, where history teachers MUST be coaches. *insert eye roll here* Until it is a respected field with good pay and benefits, it won't attract the attention of most men. (The men I knew who wanted to be teachers focused on secondary not only because of coaching, but because in our conservative Christian environment they were expected to be the head of the house and provide for their families. You can't do that on an ECE salary unless you own the daycare. Also, we didn't talk about it then, but it was certainly considered emasculating to teach at the elementary or ECE levels. "Why would a REAL man do women's work??" attitude is alive and well until we put our money where our mouth is.
So deliciously insightful. I quit the journo beat abour 10 years ago but the process you described brought the excitement flooding back of being a proper writer. Thank you.
I'm curious about how you like being on substack and how this compares to something like Patreon, which I'm more familiar with due to YouTube. How, now that the era of blogs is over, does Substack compare to something like blogs? I've found a few voices I like on Substack (you, Heather Richardson, the Tangle, etc). I don't like that I can't lump them together easily (or at least haven't found a way yet), like I could see a feed on Patreon. What are your thoughts?
thank you for sharing this detailed view of your process! i finished my PhD last year, and i've been genuinely curious about how your research and writing process compares to the type of research one does in graduate school.
It's basically a whole lot more talking time talking to people (and slightly less time reading)
Awesome read! Love the process pieces and all of the thinking on childcare.
Cars: Peter Norton, author of “Fighting Traffic” on how the automobile industry stole our streets. Planner Jarrett Walker who consults for cities on public transit; Jeff Speck, same and also author of “Walkable City” that has some car history in it. Everyone at Rail~Volution (a transit advocacy organization), starting maybe with Jeff Woods who does the Talking Headways podcast and will know just the right people to speak with.
Not all of this is directly related to what you’re looking for necessarily but all of these people are deeply informed about everything around our car-centric world.
Thank you Nia!!!!
No worries! Also I do realize these are pretty much all white men, but Jeff Woods has talked with more people in the diverse community/transit space than I can think of. I think you’d love Tamika Butler who does bike advocacy in LA for maybe a future topic. She’s phenomonal and phenomnally smart.
I'd also offer Donald Should (admittedly another older white male) - he's done a lot of research and writing on the topic of parking, notably "The High Cost of Free Parking".
I'm guessing you meant to type "Shoup"? ;) His website: https://www.shoupdogg.com
There is so, so much to talk about cars ...
Woops, autocorrect - thanks!
I don't know who you'd talk to, but Tucson, AZ, was the most bike-friendly city I've ever lived in! There were bike lanes on most of the major streets, bike awareness was a constant reminder, bike rentals were available (and they were just becoming a Thing). Might be worth digging in to some of the older city council members because this had the feeling, in 2013-2017, of having been in place for a long time.
You may already know about this, but just in case: Journalist & author Michelene Maynard has a website called "Curbing Cars" at http://www.curbingcars.com/ It sounds like a good resource for your cars piece!
Loved this deep dive into your process! Here's a follow-up. You put a lot of hours into the interviews for the piece before you started writing. Do you only ever do that when you know you have an assignment lined up (like you did at Vox)? Or do you sometimes go down a rabbit hole without clear knowledge that you will/can get a story out of it and what it will be?
Thanks for sharing this view into your process. I found the article really interesting as well. As a parent of a toddler who is currently paying A LOT per month on childcare, I appreciated seeing solutions for how caregivers can receive better wages and how the system in general can be improved. However, it would be have been great to include the answer to the question you posed, "where is the money going?" If the caregivers are receiving such a low salary, why is my daycare center, which is on the lower end where I live, so expensive?
Hi! So I tried to put the very straightforward summary of where it goes in the piece, but the rest of it was in so many different articles, graphics, websites, etc., that I didn't want to spend much time on it. (This is pretty great summary: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2018/02/14/446330/child-care-dollar-go/) With that said: if people still have questions about it, clearly it was something that I should've dedicated even just a few sentences to in the piece.
Makes sense given the research that you're working with. Thanks for pointing me to that article, it was quite informative.
My understanding is insurance is also a big part of it. I’ve known two early childcare places that closed down due to insurance cost, especially for kids under 18 months.
And that's where I think the fed or state governments can help in a big way. If they created a program similar to US' flood insurance, where daycares have to pay a small percentage but the gov't pays for the rest, how much would that loosen their pockets to pay better salaries? (Yes, I realize that flood insurance is problematic, but it is a decent idea lousily executed.)
That is actually a great comparison that I'd never thought of before. Yes, federal flood insurance is a wreck, but it doesn't have to be! And we could learn from those mistakes.
As a non-parent, I suspect my views are regarded as irrelevant but anyway... why is childcare regarded by virtually all parents as a job for women only? How many parents would be willing to leave their tiny offspring in the hands of a childcare that employed only men? Is there a gender issue here that has yet to be explored? Child care as a job will never achieve the status and conditions it deserves until it's being done by men as much as by women, and I suspect that day is a long way off, in large part because few mothers trust men around their children.
We had a GREAT teacher for our younger daughter in a Montessori preschool. He was absolutely wonderful to all of the kids! NO, this is not a female-only job! (He actually left for a year to do work in his old field of computing, then came back because he missed the kids too much.)
And I REALLY wish more men would get into the field - there are SO many kids who grow up in broken homes and don't have good male role models. Yet, when I was going through college as an education major in the early 00s, the only men going into the field were history majors who wanted to become coaches. Ah, the glorious Oklahoma education system, where history teachers MUST be coaches. *insert eye roll here* Until it is a respected field with good pay and benefits, it won't attract the attention of most men. (The men I knew who wanted to be teachers focused on secondary not only because of coaching, but because in our conservative Christian environment they were expected to be the head of the house and provide for their families. You can't do that on an ECE salary unless you own the daycare. Also, we didn't talk about it then, but it was certainly considered emasculating to teach at the elementary or ECE levels. "Why would a REAL man do women's work??" attitude is alive and well until we put our money where our mouth is.
Very nice you sharing the topic. Beautiful written you post. Very helpful information. I like.
So deliciously insightful. I quit the journo beat abour 10 years ago but the process you described brought the excitement flooding back of being a proper writer. Thank you.
I'm curious about how you like being on substack and how this compares to something like Patreon, which I'm more familiar with due to YouTube. How, now that the era of blogs is over, does Substack compare to something like blogs? I've found a few voices I like on Substack (you, Heather Richardson, the Tangle, etc). I don't like that I can't lump them together easily (or at least haven't found a way yet), like I could see a feed on Patreon. What are your thoughts?