What Does Toxic Stress Do to Children?
Dr. Nadine Burke Harris\u2019s pioneering work on how childhood trauma shapes adult outcomes led to her being named the first surgeon general of California. That was in 2019. And then, of course, the novel coronavirus hit. The job of California\u2019s surgeon general in 2020 was not what it was in 2019. But in some ways, Burke Harris\u2019s expertise was more necessary than ever.\n\nThis conversation is about the growing evidence that difficult experiences we face as children reverberate in our lives decades later. It\u2019s profound research that should reshape how we think about social insurance, public morality and criminal justice. But it\u2019s also a conversation about what the coronavirus has done to children \u2014 whether this year will be a trauma that marks a generation, and remakes their lives. How has it changed socialization for toddlers \u2014 like my 2-year-old son? What has it meant for children who can\u2019t go to school, who watched their parents lose work or who had family members die alone in a hospital? How do we help them? How do we even understand what they\u2019ve gone through, particularly when they can\u2019t tell us?\n\nWe also discuss the lessons California learned from the early difficulties in its vaccine rollout (\u201csimplicity saves lives,\u201d Burke Harris says), why we need to be investing a lot more in mental health therapeutics, the debate over universal child allowances, how to address racial and income disparities in vaccine distribution, the drivers of vaccine hesitancy in Black and brown communities, what a safe path to post-pandemic reopening would look like, why Covid-19 cases have been declining across the country, and much more.\n\nThis is one of those conversations that will leave you looking at vast swaths of public policy differently. Don\u2019t miss it.\n\nMentioned in this episode:\n\nThe Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity by Nadine Burke Harris\n\n\u201cRoadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General\u2019s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health\u201d\n\n\u201cRelationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study\u201d\n\n\u201cThe prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) in the lives of juvenile offenders\u201d\n\n\u201cAdverse childhood experiences and the risk of premature mortality\u201d \n\nRecommendations: \n\n"Why Zebras Don\u2019t Get Ulcers" by Robert Sapolsky\n\n"The Emotional Life of the Toddler" by Alicia Lieberman\n\n"The Woman Behind the New Deal" by Kirstin Downey\n\n"The Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein.\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Rog\xe9 Karma and Jeff Geld; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld.