“When a child comes out of the womb, it should have a parent at home for a bunch of weeks who does not have to worry about putting food on the table for that time.”
Josh Levs
I host a weekly radio show on SiriusXM 111, Business Radio Powered by Wharton, called Work and Life. We publish edited versions of my conversations as free podcasts. I invite you to listen to the episode (embedded below) that is my conversation with Josh Levs, an author, entrepreneur, and expert on fathers in the workplace. For 20 years, Josh wrote for NPR and CNN. He is a six-time Peabody award-winner and two-time Edward R. Murrow award-winner. At the time of the birth of his third child he sued his employer, CNN/Time Warner, to obtain a paternity leave for biological fathers that matched the company’s leaves for mothers and adoptive parents. This experience led him to write All in: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses – And How We Can Fix It Together.
In this episode, Stew and Josh discuss paternity leave and the outmoded policies and biases that prevent fathers from providing care. Josh recommends sweeping changes in both government and the private sector to support families by extending paternity leave. He describes the personal struggle he had supporting his third child and the progressive changes his employer, CNN/Time Warner, eventually made to support fathers. Other companies throughout America are making this leap. They support families by allowing fathers to be the caregivers. Read a transcript of the interview here.