Tanya Mosley

Our guest today is author and cultural critic Amanda Hess. We're talking about her new book, Second Life, Having a Child in the Digital Age. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air.

Our guest today is author and cultural critic Amanda Hess. We're talking about her new book, Second Life, Having a Child in the Digital Age. We'll be right back after a short break. I'm Tanya Mosley, and this is Fresh Air.

I want to talk a little bit about how tech elites are investing in ways to optimize babies. And you actually began to see threads of this early on with that app that you mentioned earlier called Flow, which you started using as a period tracker. And then it evolved to become a pregnancy tracker, which had message boards, kind of operated like this place for perfect pregnancies, it sounds like.

I want to talk a little bit about how tech elites are investing in ways to optimize babies. And you actually began to see threads of this early on with that app that you mentioned earlier called Flow, which you started using as a period tracker. And then it evolved to become a pregnancy tracker, which had message boards, kind of operated like this place for perfect pregnancies, it sounds like.

I want to talk a little bit about how tech elites are investing in ways to optimize babies. And you actually began to see threads of this early on with that app that you mentioned earlier called Flow, which you started using as a period tracker. And then it evolved to become a pregnancy tracker, which had message boards, kind of operated like this place for perfect pregnancies, it sounds like.

And when you tried to talk about your son's condition, though, what did you encounter on those message boards in particular?

And when you tried to talk about your son's condition, though, what did you encounter on those message boards in particular?

And when you tried to talk about your son's condition, though, what did you encounter on those message boards in particular?

Is there something inherently different about an app and us being able to hold these technologies in the palm of our hand and constantly have access to them?

Is there something inherently different about an app and us being able to hold these technologies in the palm of our hand and constantly have access to them?

Is there something inherently different about an app and us being able to hold these technologies in the palm of our hand and constantly have access to them?

You know, I'm thinking about when I was a pregnant person and I just had all the books around what to expect when you're expecting and other types of text that some of them were written by men, some of them were written by pseudoscientists, all of these things, but I saw them as resources, but not places of fact and understanding.

You know, I'm thinking about when I was a pregnant person and I just had all the books around what to expect when you're expecting and other types of text that some of them were written by men, some of them were written by pseudoscientists, all of these things, but I saw them as resources, but not places of fact and understanding.

You know, I'm thinking about when I was a pregnant person and I just had all the books around what to expect when you're expecting and other types of text that some of them were written by men, some of them were written by pseudoscientists, all of these things, but I saw them as resources, but not places of fact and understanding.

Is there something inherently different about our relationship when it is presented to us in the form of technology that has a different effect on us?

Is there something inherently different about our relationship when it is presented to us in the form of technology that has a different effect on us?

Is there something inherently different about our relationship when it is presented to us in the form of technology that has a different effect on us?

That sense of reassuredness, too, I want to talk a little bit about, like, the privilege in that. Because on the face of it, it's like the ability to know and understand that all seems positive. I'm thinking about...

That sense of reassuredness, too, I want to talk a little bit about, like, the privilege in that. Because on the face of it, it's like the ability to know and understand that all seems positive. I'm thinking about...

That sense of reassuredness, too, I want to talk a little bit about, like, the privilege in that. Because on the face of it, it's like the ability to know and understand that all seems positive. I'm thinking about...