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The Big Conversation: Is Motherhood Harder than Ever?

Axis Conversations

Release Date: 05/05/2026

The Timeless Wisdom of the Rule of Life with Jen Pollock Michel show art The Timeless Wisdom of the Rule of Life with Jen Pollock Michel

Axis Conversations

Jen Pollock Michel is the award-winning author of six books: A Rule for the Rest of US, Teach Us to Want (Christianity Today's Book of the Year), Keeping Place, Surprised by Paradox (Christianity Today's Book of the Year Award of Merit—Beautiful Orthodoxy), A Habit Called Faith, and In Good Time (Canada's Word Guild Book of the Year Award).  Jen is a sought-after contributor to publications like Christianity Today, The Christian Century, The Gospel Coalition, Mockingbird, and The Dispatch, among others. She is also a first-year mentor in Whitworth University's MFA in Creative Writing...

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Roundtable: The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Meta Gala, and Mother’s Day show art Roundtable: The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Meta Gala, and Mother’s Day

Axis Conversations

Three Big Conversations: The jury is out for - 06:18 The  made people mad for different reasons - 21:00 Moms are ready to organize—so they can - 29:06 Slang of the Week: - 1:28 In Other News: - 42:58 The Savannah Bananas, an “exhibition baseball” team that includes comedy and choreographed dances in games of what they call Banana Ball, played in front of this past Saturday with a cameo from the Dude Perfect team. Angel Studios’ new adaptation of (paywall) hit theaters this past weekend, uniting George Orwell’s classic critique of totalitarianism with fart jokes and...

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CT: The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Meta Gala, and Mother’s Day show art CT: The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Meta Gala, and Mother’s Day

Axis Conversations

The jury is out for , the made people mad for different reasons, and moms are ready to organize—so they can Slang of the Week: In Other News: The Savannah Bananas, an “exhibition baseball” team that includes comedy and choreographed dances in games of what they call Banana Ball, played in front of this past Saturday with a cameo from the Dude Perfect team. Angel Studios’ new adaptation of (paywall) hit theaters this past weekend, uniting George Orwell’s classic critique of totalitarianism with fart jokes and other trappings of modern kids' movies. Scalpers are...

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The Big Conversation: Is Motherhood Harder than Ever? show art The Big Conversation: Is Motherhood Harder than Ever?

Axis Conversations

Parenting right now just feels… different. We’re doing it in the middle of smartphones, social media, and nonstop input. We’re thinking about safety, screen time, mental health, cyberbullying… all of it, all at once aaand probably even before 9am. So this question keeps coming up: is it actually harder to raise kids now, or was it just a different kind of hard back then? Did previous generations have more freedom because they weren’t monitoring devices or even getting pulled into doomscrolling themselves? Or were they carrying a weight we might underestimate? Less support, less...

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Roundtable: Starbucks, Intuition, and Being Born in the Wrong Decade show art Roundtable: Starbucks, Intuition, and Being Born in the Wrong Decade

Axis Conversations

Three Big Conversations: Tweens are  to get a hit of belonging. - 7:24 Third of Gen Z believe they have - 20:10 Nearly half of young adults say they’d  - 33:20 Slang of the Week: - 1:57 → Click here to see the video  → Click here to listen to our podcast episode Freya India on  In Other News: - 46:14 The Devil Wears Prada 2, which comes out today, to make $180 million on its opening weekend. The original film is a cult classic with younger viewers, and the trailer for this sequel of getting 181 million views within 24 hours. , a movie about pop star Michael...

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CT: Starbucks, Intuition, and Being Born in the Wrong Decade show art CT: Starbucks, Intuition, and Being Born in the Wrong Decade

Axis Conversations

Tweens are to get a hit of belonging, a third of Gen Z believe they have ,” and nearly half of young adults say they’d Slang of the Week: →Click here to see the video →Click here to listen to our podcast episode Freya India on In Other News: The Devil Wears Prada 2, which comes out today, to make $180 million on its opening weekend. The original film is a cult classic with younger viewers, and the trailer for this sequel of getting 181 million views within 24 hours. , a movie about pop star Michael Jackson, set its own record for musical biopics with a $97 million opening...

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Freya India on How to Care for Teen Girls in a Digital Age show art Freya India on How to Care for Teen Girls in a Digital Age

Axis Conversations

Freya is the author of the Substack GIRLS, where she writes about the challenges girls and young women face in the modern world. She’s also a staff writer for Jonathan Haidt’s newsletter, After Babel. She has contributed to publications including The New Statesman, The Spectator, and The Free Press.  Today, we are going to be discussing her debut book, GIRLS, Generation Z and the commodification of everything, which will be out in the US in May. Her book serves as both an account of her upbringing in the digital age, as well as an inside look for parents and caring adults about what...

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Roundtable: Birdwatching, Snapchat Posting, and Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry show art Roundtable: Birdwatching, Snapchat Posting, and Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry

Axis Conversations

Three Big Conversations: Teens are  - 13:12 Posting on - 26:50 from John Mark Comer - 41:34 Song of the Week: - 2:08 → Click to read the lyrics (language). → Click to watch The Conversation Starter on Offline Hobbies. In other news: - 58:36 Young people are their Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees, finishing them in as quickly as three months, as less traditional forms of University attendance become more popular. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the in Nintendo’s oddest series, which plays as a mix between The Sims and Animal Crossing, and its brand of social...

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CT: Birdwatching, Snapchat Posting, and Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry show art CT: Birdwatching, Snapchat Posting, and Ruthlessly Eliminating Hurry

Axis Conversations

Teens are , posting on , and from John Mark Comer. Song of the Week: → Click to read the lyrics (language). In other news: Young people are their Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees, finishing them in as quickly as three months, as less traditional forms of University attendance become more popular. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the  in Nintendo’s oddest series, which plays as a mix between The Sims and Animal Crossing, and its brand of social engineering makes for a lot of . Coachella continued into its , highlighted by Justin Bieber inviting Billie Eilish on stage,...

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Roundtable: We will be back with you next week! show art Roundtable: We will be back with you next week!

Axis Conversations

This week, we’re taking a break from the Axis Conversations podcast—including the Roundtable, Ask Axis, and our interview series. We are meeting with members of our Axis community to dream and pray together about this upcoming year and beyond. We appreciate your support, and we’re excited to see you back here next Thursday and Friday, when our regular schedule will resume—including the CT Audio Podcast and the Culture Translator Roundtable! See you then!  - The Axis Team 🎧 Listen / Follow / Connect → Become a monthly donor today, join → Check out the podcast now on our ...

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Parenting right now just feels… different.

We’re doing it in the middle of smartphones, social media, and nonstop input. We’re thinking about safety, screen time, mental health, cyberbullying… all of it, all at once aaand probably even before 9am.

So this question keeps coming up: is it actually harder to raise kids now, or was it just a different kind of hard back then?

Did previous generations have more freedom because they weren’t monitoring devices or even getting pulled into doomscrolling themselves? Or were they carrying a weight we might underestimate? Less support, less language for mental health, less flexibility at work?

 

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