“There’s nothing like a national crisis to get the country thinking about child care. An obvious and recent example is the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

That’s the opening of Season 2, Episode 1 of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s “600 Atlantic” podcast (named after the bank’s address).

The first season covered the country’s geographic disparities, the “widening gaps in economic and social well-being between regions.”

“Season 2: A Private Crisis” looks at the fact that, “The nation’s child care system is broken. Parents strain to afford it, low-paid workers struggle to stay in it, and high-quality care is hard to find. This puts perpetual stress on families and the economy. Still, major reform has been elusive.”

One glimmer of hope: The pandemic has forced the country to appreciate child care’s importance.

“Advocates say the pandemic has shown that a healthy child care sector is critical to the economy, and the time for comprehensive reform is now. But it faces major obstacles. The cost is massive, and there is sharp disagreement about what it should look like.”

The podcast unpacks these issues in a series of episodes:

1 – “What’s the real economic impact of child care?”

2 – “U.S. history hides clues about child care and the fight for reform”

3 – “The shared burden of a broken child care system falls on parents, providers, workers”

4 – “Women’s work: Women bear the brunt of the child care crisis,” and

5: “What’s the true cost of child care reform? Change v. the status quo”

A key podcast question: Will child care change in ways that make the country stronger, or will the potential for powerful reform fade as the country moves through the pandemic?

Please check out the podcast and share it with your networks. And click here to find more Federal Reserve Bank resources on child care.