Dear Article Clubbers,
Thank you for the kind birthday wishes last week. It’s true that our reading community is 10 years old. And we’re just getting started!
Just like that, we’re in July, which means this week’s issue is dedicated to featuring the article of the month and encouraging you to join our discussion.
I’m happy to announce that this month, we’re going to be diving into “The End of Children,” by Gideon Lewis-Kraus. Published in February in The New Yorker, the article explores the imminent stark drop in population around the world, most notably in South Korea.
Don’t worry: Even though the declining human fertility rate has become a political topic in the United States, this piece is nuanced and deeply reported. I’m certain you’ll appreciate it, even if you end up disagreeing with the writer’s stance.
Inside today’s issue, you’ll find:
Melinda and my first impressions of the article (on the podcast)
My blurb about the article
A short bio of the author
A warm invite to join our discussion on July 27
If you can’t be bothered by all of that, and just want to sign up for the discussion right here and now, by all means, please do!
The End of Children
Growing up, I worried about many things. One source of worry was my family’s evacuation plan in case of fire; it wasn’t robust enough. Another source was the world’s exponential population increase, which would inevitably doom us.
Turns out, at the time, my concern was not unfounded. In 1968, Paul Ehrlich wrote in The Population Bomb that millions of people would die of starvation unless governments aggressively curtailed the fertility rate. But instead of population rising without bound, the opposite has happened. In 2023, for the first time ever, because on average each woman had fewer than 2.1 children (the “replacement rate”), the world’s population shrank. All projections say this trend will continue, until one day, there won’t be enough people for us to sustain as a species.
In Seoul, where writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus focuses this article, “children are largely phantom presences.” There are more dogs than children. Ask anyone on the street, a Korean demographer said, and they’ll know the country’s fertility rate. (It is 0.7, the lowest in the world.) Kids bring ick. Many businesses are “no-kids zones.”
The United States (fertility rate: 1.6) is headed in a similar direction, Mr. Lewis-Kraus argues. The truth is, for whatever reason (and there are many), younger Americans no longer think having children is an inevitability. As immigration declines, and climate concerns rise, and structural inequities worsen, our country may face the same problem as Korea. And that could lead to catastrophe.
Should we care about the declining fertility rate? Or is it just a misogynistic conservative ruse to distract our attention from the deleterious effects of climate change? In my opinion, this is the first article written by a progressive that has looked seriously at the issue and presented it to a mainstream audience.
By Gideon Lewis-Kraus • The New Yorker • 42 min • Gift Link
➕ Bonus: Here’s the article with my handwritten highlights and annotations.
About the author
A staff writer at The New Yorker, Mr. Lewis-Kraus grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Stanford. He writes reportage and criticism and is the author of the digressive travel memoir A Sense of Direction as well as the Kindle Single No Exit. Previously, he was a writer-at-large at The New York Times Magazine, a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine, and a contributing writer at WIRED magazine. He has lived in San Francisco, Berlin, and Shanghai, and now lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two small children. Mr. Lewis-Kraus generously recorded an interview with Article Club, which will be published in two weeks.
About the discussion
My hope is that you’ll read “The End of Children” and want to talk about it! (Even though we don’t “debate” at Article Club discussions, I predict this topic will lead to a spicier-than-usual conversation.)
We’ll be meeting up on Zoom on Sunday, July 27, 2:00 - 3:30 pm PT. We’ll spend the first few minutes saying hi and doing short introductions. Then after I frame the piece and share our community agreements, we’ll break out into small, facilitated discussion groups. The small groups usually include 5-8 people, so there’s plenty of time to share your perspectives and listen to others. That’s where we’ll spend the bulk of our time. Toward the end, we’ll return to the full group, sharing our reflections and appreciations of fellow participants.
If this sounds interesting to you, sign up by clicking on the button below.
If you’re unsure, I get it. If you don’t know me, it might feel strange to sign up for an online discussion with total strangers. But I am confident that you’ll find yourself at home with other kind people who like to read deeply and explore ideas in community. We’ve done this 58 times, and by now, it’s not a surprise that we’re able to create an intimate space, almost like we’re in the same physical room together.
I hope that you read the piece. If it resonates with you, I encourage you to take the plunge and join us on July 27!
Thank you for reading and listening to this week’s issue. Hope you liked it. 😀
To our 8 new subscribers — including Bruna, J.M., Heidy, Jelena, Mervin, Elisa, Ryan, and Nancy — I hope you find the newsletter a solid addition to your email inbox. Welcome to Article Club. Make yourself at home. 🏠
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