Good morning! Tariffs are here, AI comes to college campuses (officially), and Fortune’s Alicia Adamczyk dives into the Chappell Roan drama roiling MomTok.
– In hell. During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast last week, pop star Chappell Roan set off a firestorm of social media ire when she told host Alex Cooper that many of her childhood friends who are moms aren’t doing great.
“All of my friends who have kids are in hell. I don’t know anyone, I actually don’t know anyone, who’s happy and has children at this age,” the 27-year-old responded after being asked if she wanted kids one day. “I literally have not met anyone who’s happy, anyone who has light in their eyes, anyone who has slept.”
Though Roan and Cooper quickly moved on to the next topic, her comments spread like wildfire across sites like Reddit and TikTok, with many moms taking offense, while others acknowledged the U.S. doesn’t make motherhood easy, especially for working women.
While many of the videos retreaded the conversation working mothers have been having for decades, I was struck by one response in particular, from country singer Maren Morris. Morris, who is a single mother to a 5-year-old, said she took no issue with what Roan said. It’s hard to be a parent, and it’s also hard not to be a parent, especially as a woman who has “that pushed on you all day every day.”
“The most heartbreaking thing is I’ve seen so many women get off the road because they had to choose between their artistry or being in a touring band or a crew and having a family,” Morris said in a TikTok video. “I’ve seen so many people disappear from this industry because they couldn’t sustain both.”
The singer touched on her own touring band and protections she put in place for employees once she had her child, including maternity and paternity leave. She then went on to highlight an issue Roan herself has also called attention to (and also took heat for)—the lack of health benefits for many people in the music industry.
“You work your entire life in music, no healthcare, no support, and then you also want to start a family and it’s just impossible to,” said Morris. “With the little power I have, as the CEO of me and my band, LLC, I have provided that health care to my band. And shouldn’t that be the conversation?”
It’s easy to get mad and defensive about comments made by a young, up-and-coming pop star. But Roan isn’t the problem here—she is simply acknowledging what many women feel. Having a child, particularly when you work in an industry with few benefits and protections, is life-altering and potentially career-halting. That’s not because of mothers, but because companies, and the U.S. as a whole, could do so much more to support parents and families.
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- T-day. President Donald Trump announced his sweeping tariffs yesterday. We'll have our eyes on business impact and higher prices everywhere from GM to Botox. Fortune
- AI on campus. Anthropic cofounder Daniela Amodei tells Fortune about the official rollout of its Claude large language model designed for higher education. Her goal is for universities to feel like the advent of AI is something they can participate in, rather than something “that's happening to them.” Fortune
- Contraception cuts. Almost 50 million women will lose contraception access as the U.S. cuts its support of many developing countries’ family planning programs—34,000 women could now die each year from preventable maternal deaths. New York Times
- Flag forward. The NFL is reportedly looking at proposals for a women’s professional flag football league, with Serena Williams as a prospective backer, through venture capital firm Seven Seven Six with her husband Alexis Ohanian. And while the league is still planning on starting a men’s flag football league, it’s prioritizing a women’s league due to growing popularity for the sport. Bloomberg
- Wisconsin win. Democrat-backed Susan Crawford won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, in spite of Elon Musk’s multimillion-dollar campaign against her. “As a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford said. With her victory, liberals will maintain their 4-3 advantage on the state’s court. NBC
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
The Century Foundation, a think tank, named Julie Margetta Morgan president. Most recently, she was associate director of research, monitoring, and regulations at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
3Ci, a talent and technology solutions provider, named Andrea Densmore president. Most recently, she was a business strategy leader at Slalom.
WorldSprings, a hot springs company, appointed Vimla Black-Gupta as board director and advisor and Jackie Stauffer as chief marketing officer. Black-Gupta is the cofounder of Ourself, where she was previously CEO. Stauffer is the founder and former CEO of The Sprout Collective and Recess.
Law firm BCLP appointed Karen Mitchell as chief people officer. Most recently, she was CHRO at Newmark Group.
Wipfli, an advisory firm, named Rebekah Gardner chief growth officer. Previously, she was chief sales officer at Ryan LLC.
ON MY RADAR
Inside Meghan’s real kitchen, away from the cameras New York Times
Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni are getting real on new podcast The Burnouts People
The Snow White controversy, like our zeitgeist, is both stupid and sinister The New Yorker
PARTING WORDS
“I was like, ‘What am I going to wear?’”
—Katy Perry on her initial reaction to being invited to space. She’ll be part of Blue Origin’s upcoming all-women spaceflight.
