• Adam Levy 00:00 Hello, I’m Adam Levy, and this is Off Limits: Academia’s Taboos, a podcast from Nature Careers. • In this episode: fertility and parenthood. • Academia can be incredibly, overwhelmingly, demanding. • Many feel that they have to dedicate all their time and energy to establishing and sustaining a successful career. • But many don’t want an all-encompassing career. • And there are profound parts of life that can get pushed to the sidelines by these demands.

Article Summaries:

  • A Nature Careers podcast titled “Academia’s parent trap” highlights how academic careers can clash with parenthood. Host Adam Levy interviews Alison Behie, a biological anthropologist at the Australian National University, who shares her late‑career fertility challenges. Behie explains that after a first child, she struggled to conceive a second, undergoing multiple IVF cycles and miscarriages over two years. She describes the emotional toll and guilt of prioritizing career over family, noting that such struggles were once taboo in academia and rarely discussed. The episode underscores a growing shift toward openness about fertility and parenthood within scholarly circles.

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