John, Jim, Peggy, and Shelly discuss the future of families as portrayed in a New York Times article by Debora Spar. The article and the conversation cover the various societal and biomedical changes that have enabled non-traditional family units to have and raise children. As a new father in a two-father home, John brings his personal experience to bear on the discussion. He explains how his thinking about how the meaning and importance of family has continued to evolve.

While techniques like in vitro fertilization and practices like surrogacy have already enabled the rise of non-traditional parenting, the author of the Times article speculates that new reproductive technological advances will further break the paradigm. Shelly, from her perspective in the field of genetics, and Peggy, from her perspective as a health care professional raise the threshold question of whether or not public policy is developing fast enough to keep up with the pace of scientific change. The discussion also focuses on the implications of being able to design the genetic makeup of your yet unborn child and the priorities involved in devoting precious resources to genetic experimentation as opposed to other urgent medical care matters. There is the additional and related question of the economic privilege exercised by individuals who employ these reproductive technologies. Among the unrelated tangents that the fearsome foursome gets off on are the question of what constitutes selling out and what is the ethical difference between having sex with a robot and having sex with a vibrator. The latter subject cries out for further exploration.