Elissa Strauss

Oakland

Parenting & caregiving is a wild, profound ride that men ignored forever so I wrote a book about it for @gallerybooks: "When You Care"

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Articles

Contributor: Why motherhood is its own 'Odyssey'

5 days ago | latimes.com | Elissa Strauss

My first meaningful brush with the Hero’s Journey took place in 11th-grade English class. Our teacher read us Henry David Thoreau on leaving home and heading out on one’s own in order to find wisdom and transcendence, and to avoid being one of the mass of men leading “lives of quiet desperation.” Her deepened voice underscored the gravity of these words.
What If Motherhood Was Considered as Ambitious as ‘Real’ Work?

6 days ago | ca.style.yahoo.com | Elissa Strauss

All products featured on Glamour are independently selected by Glamour editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Condé Nast may earn an affiliate commission. Getty/Glamour designNo type of feminism—not the sex-positive variety I experienced in college nor the reproductive rights battles I participated in later on—got in my gullet like the “Lean In” feminism of the early 2010s.
On Valuing Care Work with Elissa Strauss

1 month ago | elenabridgers.substack.com | Elena Bridgers |Elissa Strauss

Hello everyone!It’s been a crazy few weeks for my family and I with an international move coming up, but I am so pleased to finally be releasing this wonderful interview with Elissa Strauss, author of When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others and the writer behind the popular Substack newsletter MADE WITH CARE (you can sign up for that here).
"Crunched ever inward" and its opposite

2 months ago | courtney.substack.com | Courtney Martin |Elissa Strauss

Hey y’all, don’t miss new episodes out this week from The Wise Unknown and The Greenroom. Do you like these little audio essay experiments? Let me know. And as always, when you subscribe to this substack, or even more, become a paid subscriber, you signal to me that this work matters and is useful and beautiful to you. That’s my whole thing. Thank you so much for being here and creating such a gorgeous example of humanity really showing up in the comments section.
The Choice That Pro-Choice Voters Don't Talk About

Feb 8, 2025 | keralataylor.substack.com | Kerala Taylor |Rachel Cohen |Angela Garbes |Elissa Strauss

NOTE: I received this comment on the story you’re about to read: “I think your article just summarized the concept of reproductive justice, which is a feminist framework created by Black feminists in the 1990s, if I’m not mistaken.” After falling down a Google rabbit hole, I can attest that the commenter is not mistaken! It reminds me that any time I think I have a “new” take on feminism, there is probably at least one Black woman who said it first. And said it better. And said it decades ago.
Sunday 5

Feb 6, 2025 | courtney.substack.com | Courtney Martin |Laurel Braitman |Elissa Strauss

This was a really special conversation. It felt sacred to hear stories from two people who have lost their homes in fires, years apart, and see the ways in which grief and loss and renewal and family are all intertwined so infinitely. And is just always a gift to hear from.
Dana Reeve’s experience of caregiver grief has something to teach us

Feb 2, 2025 | cnn.com | Elissa Strauss

Editor’s note: CNN Films brings the premiere of “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” to CNN at 8 p.m. ET/PT Sunday. Dana Reeve was devoted to caring for her husband, Christopher Reeve, as noted in the new documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.”In her diary, Dana expressed a part of her experience that caregivers often hesitate to say out loud, as read by her son, Will, in the documentary.
The Economics of Male Fertility, and Other Interesting New Research

Jan 8, 2025 | stephaniehmurray.substack.com | Stephanie Murray |Elissa Strauss

Hello Everyone,Okay so, first of all: yes, this newsletter is a day late. I would have given you a heads up about that except that I myself did not realize it was going to be late until 12:20 a.m. yesterday when my jet-lagged daughters were still up and running around. Second of all, a lot of studies were published this week! The original version of this email included like 15, but I managed to cut it down to a more manageable eight. Let’s get into it!Family Stuff is a reader-supported publication.
The Branch of Philosophy All Parents Should Know

Oct 16, 2024 | theatlantic.com | Elissa Strauss

Of the many challenges I encountered as a parent of young children, the biggest was trying to answer the question: Am I doing a good job? I found plenty of people, drawing on expertise in biology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary history, eager to offer opinions and tips. Some of this information was useful. But none of it gave me what I really wanted—a big-picture vision of what it meant to be a “good” parent, or of what I fundamentally owed my kids.
I Hated the Story of Abraham and Isaac — Until I Became a Mother – Kveller

Oct 1, 2024 | kveller.com | Elissa Strauss

Of the many horrific stories in the Torah, I think it may be the worst. God decides to challenge Abraham’s loyalty by asking him to kill his son Isaac. Abraham agrees! Together, they journey to the top of a mountain and things escalate to the point where Abraham is holding a knife directed towards the flesh of his long-prayed-for Isaac, whose name means “laughter,” only to be stopped by God at the last minute.