In this episode of the First Things Podcast:
A surprising new statistical study reveals that members of the Millennial Generation are having less sex, and with fewer partners, than did members of the preceding generations at the same age. Reasons include careerism, pornography, and fear of “catching feelings.” Editor Rusty Reno, senior editor Mark Bauerlein, and associate editor Julia Yost discuss what’s happening with these strangely asexual young folks, and what it means for Christian morality.
Then: We are witnessing a decoupling of the elites from the middle classes in the West. Peggy Noonan has observed it but can’t explain it. Rusty knows one reason—the “Elephant Graph,” which shows the economic interests of Western elites diverging from those of the Western middle classes, aligning instead with the interests of the developing world. What happens when leaders cease to take a national outlook, and start to view the voters who elected them as obstacles to global thriving? In the age of globalization, can the nation-state survive?
Finally, returning to the generational-strife theme of the first segment, Rusty and Mark try to guess the authors of three aphorisms, each on the subject of “Youth and Age.”
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