Want to Make America Great? Make More Americans.

My talk at the 2025 Natalism Conference.

Tech vs. Trad Natalism

An actual slide Razib Khan used in his talk at the conference comparing me to Elon. Yes, I have fewer kids, but it’s not fair—he’s working with more uteruses than me.

Hello, fellow natalists! And hello to all the natalist-haters here. Welcome! I also want to thank my husband for unshackling me from the stove so I could be here today. He’s so good to me. Thanks, honey!

There is a Flannery O’Conner quote I used on the first page of my book, Domestic Extremist: “Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you.​” And that’s why we are all here tonight.

When I spoke at this conference in 2023, I made the case that the easiest way to raise birthrates was to make motherhood great again—to somehow convince more fertile young women to start families. For those of you who only speak NPR, that means convincing America’s uterus-havers to remember that they have uteruses—before it's too late.

Did it work? It’s too soon to say, but some reports indicate that 2024 actually did have a slight uptick in births.

Bad news: it was all anchor babies.

I’m going to use my brief time to quickly address three things, first, why are a lot of young women rejecting marriage? Second, can technology save them? And finally, some thoughts on why approaching life from a more “Trad” direction may be our best shot at fixing the crisis.