Mum, Dad and 2.4 children... how old-fashioned. Single parent families, multi-parent households, step-brothers and half-sisters and the rest - it's old news that the 'nuclear family' model is outdated. So why does society keep on telling us it's the only way to be? Single-mother stigma is still alive and well, and unmarried people in their 40s and over are universally assumed to be sad, lonely, and yearning for a partner.

Adam Buxton wonders how our ideas about family came about, and whether there might be a better way to organise things. Is the 'decline of family' really such a bad thing?

Produced in Bristol by Emily Knight. Show less