Them Before Us Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

What is really happening at the southern U.S. border and is it possible to consider even something like immigration from a children's rights perspective?

Our Pro-Child Politics author featured today is Lora Ries, the Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. You'll finish this episode feeling much more informed at the children's rights violations happening at the border and some ideas for what can be done to make it right.

Follow Lora on X https://x.com/lora_ries

and read more of her work at https://www.heritage.org/staff/lora-ries

*Disclamer: We discuss mature themes in this podcast*

In this episode, Jon Schweppe from the American Principles Project joins us to shed light on his powerful chapter in Pro-Child Politics, fighting back against the porn industry. Jon exposes some big lies about pornography, the impact on minors and how we can fight back. Discover why the government has both the power and the duty to regulate this dangerous material and how we can safeguard our kids in the digital age.

Pre-Order Pro-Child Politics today!

• Substack: https://jonschweppe.substack.com/

• https://www.instagram.com/jonschweppe/

• X @JonSchweppe

• https://americanprinciplesproject.org/profile/jon-schweppe/

Them Before Us staff Jenn & Patience explore Nancy Verrier's groundbreaking 1993 book, "The Primal Wound," which has stirred debate among scholars, parents, adoptees and psychologists. They dip into the existing research about maternal separation and what we know about surrogacy, the million dollar industry separating babies from their mothers for money.

Emma Water's latest article on what we know and don't about surrogacy's impact on children. And for our interview with Emma about her research, check out episode #27.

In this episode you will hear from Brad Wilcox, a professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. He's written a new book on the importance of marriage and why it's good for all of us.

Buy Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization

Find more from Professor Wilcox:

• https://twitter.com/BradWilcoxIFS
• https://ifstudies.org/

In this episode, we get a sneak peak into Katy's third book, a collaboration of experts on how every major political issue (energy, education, business) could be seen from the perspective of children's rights. Katy also gives us the rundown on her upcoming Rome trip for the Casablanca Declaration meeting.

Next we take on some questions from social media:

• What are some of the differences in care and investment from non-related adults in a child's life compared to a biological parent?
• What is "selective reduction" in IVF and what are the statistics?

(PLEASE NOTE: At min 17:25, Katy accidentally says "adoption" twice when she means to say "abortion." Selective Reduction is a term used to mean culling out or terminating human embryos, generally when multiple embryos implant and that was not intended.)

• Is the Pro-Life movement going to hope the IVF controversy fades away since it's not a winning political issue?
• Michigan is set to overturn it's ban on surrogacy for pay (commercial surrogacy). Why is commercial surrogacy so important to some?
• What's the best way to handle being invited to a surrogacy baby shower?

In today's episode, we get to hear from Delano Squires, a Research Fellow in the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at The Heritage Foundation. His research, writing, and commentary focuses on marriage, family, and fatherhood.

You can find more from Delano at:

https://twitter.com/DelanoSquires

https://www.heritage.org/staff/delano-squires

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Warren Farrell, who wrote a book called "The Boy Crisis" and has written and spoken for many years about the challenges facing men and boys in Western Culture. Let us know what you think.

https://warrenfarrell.com/

https://boycrisis.org/

Katy and Jenn go over some interesting news around IVF and donor conception, including a woman who learned at 39 that she dated her half brother in high school and has 22 half siblings. Ireland's redefinition of womanhood and family is also considered.

https://nypost.com/2024/03/05/opinion/irelands-about-to-take-women-out-of-its-constitution/

https://wng.org/opinions/ireland-erases-women-1709787556

Jenn and Katy chat about the Alabama State Supreme Court's ruling on IVF and a number of other questions from social media or listeners:

• Will the Alabama decision change the IVF industry?
• How should we speak to our church friends who say they're Prolife but are in favor of IVF and disagree with the Alabama ruling?
• Stat we quote: 1.7 million embryos created for IVF have been thrown away, and just 7 per cent lead to pregnancy
• How do we respond to people who've already participated in children's rights violating technologies and practices?
• How should we interact with those who are considering using these processes or technologies and haven't yet?
• What's Them Before Us' stance on "fertility treatments?" and is there an ethical way to do IVF? What about IUI?
• NaProTechnology (We're not advocating for this specific office, but just trying to give people the language, a link to check it out for yourself)
• What's the best way to interact with compassion and truth to a same-sex couple living next door with kids your kid's age?
• How to change laws in your state?
• Embryo adoption?
• Should divorced Christians date/remarry?

Jenn interviews Lezlee, a member of the Not Parent Expected (NPE) community on her experiences growing up and coming to learn the man who raised her wasn't her biological father.

Check out more from Lezlee at her website: www.iamlezlee.com and her book, If You Only Knew: Navigating DNA Surprises and the *NPE (Not-Parent Expected) World.

Other resources Lezlee mentioned were:

https://www.hiraethhopeandhealing.com/

https://dnasurpriseretreat.com/