American Dads Are Stepping Up
Plus: hope for pancreatic cancer patients, and Oklahoma bans child marriage.
The pandemic triggered something unexpected: American fathers started working less and spending significantly more time on childcare and housework—and new research suggests it wasn’t remote work or job loss driving the shift, but a genuine realignment of gender norms.
Plus: some scientists are calling this the biggest advancement in cancer treatment in 15 years—a drug called daraxonrasib which is nearing FDA approval and substantially extends the lives of pancreatic cancer patients; Brazil has officially begun demarcating over a million acres of protected land for an uncontacted Indigenous tribe in the Amazon; and Oklahoma became the 17th U.S. state to ban child marriage, ruffling some feathers.
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Transcript
Emma Varvaloucas: American dads are working less and spending more time at home. A drug for a particularly deadly cancer is the first to substantially extend the lives of patients. Major progress for one of Brazil’s indigenous peoples and its rainforests, and one southern US state just banned child marriage, leaving some people a little angry in the House.
Welcome to the What Could Go Right? Progress Report, where we dive into all the good news that you probably missed because it was buried under the barrage of bad news. If you’re new here, I’m Emma Varvaloucas, and I’m the executive director of The Progress Network. Let’s get into it.
Rewind the tape to the 1970s. Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is playing from the radio, and mom is getting her undergrad degree and interviewing for jobs—and no, it’s not for the secretary position.
Let’s skip ahead to the 1980s. Jane Fonda’s workout is playing on VHS. Mom is hanging up her apron and slipping on something a little bit more comfortable. Not like that, you freaks. It’s a padded shoulder suit and a bold chunky necklace. At least I hope it was comfy. Probably was a little itchy… Anyway, power dressing was in, and that style was reserved exclusively for women. After decades of working in the kitchen and taking care of the family, women were starting to nab real opportunities in the workplace.
The economy was booming. For the first time, you could be a wife, mother, and a careerist. And what started to happen? The hours women work started to creep up to men’s working hours. This era, because of how intensely and quickly it transformed the American household, is known as the quiet revolution.
That trend continued into the ‘90s, but at a slower pace. I guess Hit Me Baby One More Time was just not hitting in quite the same way. And by the late 2010s, that progress had basically stopped. Kaput.
Then something unexpected happened: the pandemic. And I definitely don’t need to paint a picture of that for you guys ‘cause, yeah, we don’t need to re-traumatize anyone here.
But during it, there was another quiet revolution happening. Except this time it wasn’t women working more. It was men working less, and specifically fathers spending more time cooking, cleaning, and on childcare. This revelation comes from research by Ariel Binder from the American Institute for Boys and Men.
And check this out. The change is especially striking among college-educated fathers, who between 2019 and 2024 cut their paid work hours by six per week and raised housework and childcare by more than four. Anyone remember that 1983 movie, Mr. Mom, with Michael Keaton and Teri Garr? Well, that’s what was happening amidst the toilet paper rampage and the anti-vaxxer movement kicking into a gear I didn’t even know existed.
What caused all of this? You might think that it was because of the normalization of remote work, or maybe you’re thinking that it was the men having a hard time finding jobs. But my man Ariel B. ran the numbers, and that ain’t it. What happened was actually a massive voluntary realignment of gender norms.
At least, that’s what we suspect. Non-college educated men are also putting in more housework and childcare time. But since their working hours declined less than their college educated counterparts, they pulled the extra time for homemaking from what they’d previously spent on leisure and relaxation. Meaning, housework suddenly went up against Call of Duty, and housework won.
Men may be living a quiet revolution of their own, a shift away from their breadwinner identity and towards something that’s becoming more and more valued: being a husband and a father. Now two people scold their Gen Alpha kids after too much iPad screen time. Mom is done being the only bad cop.
And guess what? This isn’t just happening in America. It’s happening across Europe, Australia, Canada, Japan. Rich countries, in other words. I, for one, am very curious what really caused this huge priority readjustment. What was it about the pandemic? The crisis of childcare caused by lockdowns? Our close brush with mortality? Let me know your theories in the comments.
Before we get into our shorter stories, here are some numbers that will make you smile.
31, that’s how many countries have eliminated the eye disease trachoma. Tunisia is the latest. And if you remember from a previous episode, we literally just announced number 30. Countries are getting rid of trachoma as fast as American dads are picking up a broom.
40%, the drop in new HIV infections worldwide between 2010 and 2024.
52.7%, the share of EVs exported from China in April, beating traditional cars for the very first time.
And 100, the number of dams removed in the US last year, reconnecting nearly 5,000 miles of waterways, a record.
And here are our quick hits for today. First up, a drug for pancreatic cancer that is the first to substantially extend patients’ lives. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dismal diagnoses in medicine. Only 3% of patients whose cancer has spread survive five years. For decades, experimental drugs flopped. Researchers had largely given up.
Now, a drug called daraxonrasib—say that five times fast—is nearing FDA approval. It’s the first treatment to substantially extend patients’ lives, a median of 13 months versus less than seven for chemotherapy. How does it work?
The drug targets a protein inside cells called KRAS, and when KRAS mutates, it’s bad. It fuels nearly all pancreatic tumors. Researchers have called it a greasy ball that is basically impossible to destroy because there’s nowhere on its smooth surface that a drug can attach itself. But it turns out where there’s a will, there’s a way. Daraxonrasib gets around the greasy ball problem by gluing itself, so to speak, to another cell protein, and together, those molecules surround KRAS and shut it down.
I can’t emphasize enough how big of a deal this is. Some scientists are calling it the biggest advance in cancer treatment in 15 years since the arrival of immunotherapy. Just listen to this story. In 2023, Rhea Karras, who was then 64 and a retired lawyer in Palos Verdes, California, got diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer.
She was told she likely had just months to live. But thankfully, soon after, her oncologist told her about a promising experimental drug, derux- Ugh, dara- daruxan, dara- rox, daruxan-ras, daraxonrasib. I really did just say that five times fast.
She joined the trial, and now, three years later, she’s still taking her pills every day.
It’s not all peachy keen. Rhea deals with side effects like fatigue, nausea, digestive problems, but her cancer has shrunk, and she’s still alive. Next month, she plans to travel to Hawaii with her family. She told The New York Times, “I’m living a pretty good life, and I didn’t expect that.”
To top it all off, the method that this new drug uses may also work for lung and colon tumor patients. A pretty good week for scientists and drug researchers, I’d say.
Next up, a story out of Brazil. The country has officially begun marking protected land for the Kawahiva people, an uncontacted nomadic tribe that lives in the Amazon. It’s taken 27 years, and finally, the day has come. The demarcation of one million acres of protected territory in northwest Brazil was confirmed by the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation last week.
The Kawahiva people are one of Amazon’s most vulnerable nomadic hunter-gatherer communities. For decades, they’ve been threatened by farming, land grabs, illegal mining, and logging. But the cool part is, is that some isolated indigenous peoples are showing signs of not only surviving, but thriving in the Amazon.
And by the way Indigenous regions in the Amazon specifically have recorded the lowest rates of deforestation in recent years. And Brazil’s other tropical rainforest, the Atlantic Forest, has recorded its lowest deforestation rate in 40 years, although that rate is still outrageously high. A lot of that is due to Brazil’s current president’s policies, so let’s hope things continue to progress through the next presidential election and following it. We’re keeping our eyes on you, Brazil.
And last up, Oklahoma is the 17th US state to ban child marriage. It’s the first to do it this year, not including DC. This law requires anyone getting married to be over the age of 18, no exceptions. Seems reasonable, right? You might be wondering, how are people under 18 getting married anyway?
Well, current state law in places like Alabama, New Mexico, and even California— shocker I know—allow minors to get married with the consent of a parent or a guardian. And if you’re under 16, you need the authorization of a court.
If you’re icked out thinking about a teenager marrying a balding man in 2026, same here, dude. And if you’re thinking that no parent would ever do that to their kid, think again. Not to mention that these exceptions open loopholes to human trafficking and other really nasty stuff.
And I mean, if you can’t vote, if you can’t buy a house, if you can’t even buy a pack of cigarettes or a beer, should you really be allowed to get married?
The representative who authored this bill, Nicole Miller, doesn’t think so. She says this law will strengthen the institution of marriage by ensuring those entering a binding contract are ready for it. The law passed through the Oklahoma Senate unanimously, but it was met with some disagreement from House Republicans, specifically Representative Justin Humphrey, who seems like the topic hit a little too close to home.
This is what he said: “I know lots of people, and I have people in my family, that were married at 16 and 17, and guess what? They remain married until they’re dead. So are you saying that they should not have had the opportunity to marry?” No, my friend, we’re just saying they could have waited a year or two.
But the ladies in the House stood their ground. They pointed out one of the most important reasons for passing this law. It protects minors from being stuck in toxic and abusive relationships, or even just relationships they don’t wanna be in anymore, because you do need to be at least 18 to file for divorce on your own.
The law goes into effect November 1st in Oklahoma, and we’ll see if the rest of the 33 states follow suit. It might make you feel better to know that advocates have been on a roll the past decade or so making sure that that happens.
And that’s all for this week’s Progress Report. I hope these stories remind you of all the good going on out there in the world, so it’s important not to be blinded by all that’s bad.
And if you got something of value out of this show, maybe a nugget you can share at your next BBQ cookout, share this show with a friend who could really use some positive news. And if you’d like more of these stories delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter. The link is in the description.
Got a good news story that we should cover next week? Let us know in the comments. Thank you for watching, and see you next week on The Progress Report.
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