The Reason Interview goes deep with the artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and visionaries who are making the 21st century more libertarian—or at least more interesting—by challenging old, worn-out ideas and orthodoxies.

Today's guest is Lenore Skenazy, a journalist and activist dubbed "the world's worst mom" for letting her nine-year-old son ride the New York subway alone back in 2008. Since then, she's become a regular contributor to Reason and the co-founder, with psychologists Peter Gray and Jonathan Haidt, of Let Grow, which pushes for laws and school programs [ok? - a nonprofit can't "change laws"] to restore independence to kids.

She talks with Nick Gillespie about why kids today are more anxious and less free than they used to be, how fear and over-parenting took over American childhood, and why the free-range parenting movement is finally on the rise.

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0:00 –Intro

1:14 –Spend less time with your kids

4:57 –Childhood safety myths

10:50 –Parental fears of failure

17:05 –Generational divides on parenting

20:18 –Criminalizing childhood

26:16 –Politics and parenting

29:09 –Let Grow and local legislation

41:14 –What do children actually want?

45:17 –How Skenazy became the "World's Worst Mom"

48:12 –Childhood autonomy in pop culture

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