David Remnick

Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbus of Tune Yards, with additional music by Louis Mitchell.

This episode was produced by Max Balton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Mike Kutchman, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul, and Ursula Sommer.

with guidance from Emily Botin and assistance from Michael May, David Gable, Alex Barish, Victor Guan, and Alejandra Deckett.

The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Cherena Endowment Fund.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.

I'm David Remnick.

In olden times, meaning about a decade ago, asking your intended spouse to sign a financial agreement, a prenup, carried with it a whiff of scandal, I think.

This was a plot line from Seinfeld.

George Costanza asked his fiancée Susan to sign a prenup, hoping she'd get so mad that she'd be the one to call off their wedding.

A prenup?

But times have changed.

Jennifer Wilson just reported a piece on prenups for The New Yorker.

And during her reporting, she found that younger couples now embrace prenups wholeheartedly for a whole complicated mix of reasons.

So, Jen, what got you interested in writing about prenups in the first place?

When I was young, the only people that got prenups were Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy.

Or movie star X or, you know, some gazillionaire on Fifth Avenue.

When did that change?

When did that start to change?

That's Laura Wasser, a divorce attorney you spoke with.