When NYT critic-at-large Amanda Hess learned her unborn child had an abnormality, she turned to the internet — but didn't find reassurance. "My relationship with technology became so much more intense," she says. She talks with Tonya Mosley about pregnancy apps, online forums, and baby gadgets. Her new book is Second Life: Having A Child In The Digital Age. Also, Maureen Corrigan reviews Daniel Kehlmann's new novel, The Director. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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I'm Tanya Mosley. Today, I am joined by Amanda Hess. She's a journalist, cultural critic, and now author of a new memoir titled Second Life, Having a Child in the Digital Age. The book starts with a moment every expecting parent dreads, a routine ultrasound that is suddenly not routine.
When Hess was 29 weeks pregnant, doctors spotted something that indicated her baby could have a rare genetic condition. What followed was a spiral of MRIs, genetic testing, consultations with specialists, and like many of us would do, a late-night dive into the internet for answers.
That search led her down a rabbit hole and to fertility tech, AI-powered embryo screening, conspiracy theories, YouTube birth vlogs, the performance of motherhood on Instagram, and threaded through it all, an unsettling eugenic undercurrent suggesting which children are worth having.
Known for her commentary on internet culture and gender at the New York Times, Hess turns her critique inward, asking herself, what does it mean to become a parent while plugged into an algorithmic machine that sorts scores and sells versions of perfection and what's considered normal? Amanda Hess, welcome to Fresh Air.
Thank you so much for having me.
You opened this book with a moment that I mentioned, soon-to-be parents fear. That's a routine ultrasound that shows a potential abnormality. And at the time, you were seven months pregnant. What did the doctor share with you?
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