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Best-selling author Michael Lewis has taken the world into high finance in “Liar’s Poker.” Into Silicon Valley in “The New New Thing.” Into pro sports in “Moneyball” and “The Blind Side.”

Now Lewis is sharing his own ambivalent adventures in fatherhood. He’s a father of three, and still not sure he’s figured it out.

Once upon a time, he says, there were clear expectations of what fathers were and weren’t — what they did and didn’t do. Now, says Lewis, nobody knows. We’re all just making it up.

This hour, On Point: Michael Lewis on American fatherhood now

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Michael Lewis joins us from Seattle. He’s author of “Home Game: An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood.”  (You can read an excerpt at NPR.org.) He’s currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair (where he recently wrote on Iceland’s financial collapse) and a columnist for Bloomberg News.

(AP Photo)

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The state of Nebraska was one of the last in the country to pass a “safe haven” law allowing kids to be dropped off at a hospital and handed over, for good, to the state. The hope was to keep infants, new babies, from being abandoned.

Instead, Nebraska got a wave of teenagers dropped on its doorstep. Parents from as far as Miami, Arizona, Georgia — effectively abandoning their teenage children to the state.

One father dumped nine children in Nebraska’s lap. The stories are heartbreaking, sobering.

This hour, On Point: Nebraska’s wake-up call on kids, parents, and the state.

You can join the conversation. What kind of parent would give a teenage child to the state? Are you outraged? Sympathetic? What can we learn from Nebraska?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Lincoln, Nebraska, is Martin Wells, the former news director for Nebraska’s NET Radio. He’s covering the “safe haven” law.

From Omaha, we’re joined by Chris Costantakos, an attorney practicing juvenile court law in Nebraska for 30 years. She’s author of “Juvenile Court Law and Practice.”

Also from Omaha, we’re joined by Rev. Darryl Eure, minister at the Freestone Baptist Church in Omaha. He’s coordinator for YouthBuild Omaha, a Goodwill Industries program, and works with at-risk youth ages 16-24.

From Princeton, New Jersey, is Yolanda Pierce, professor of African American religion and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary. She’s been writing about the safe haven laws on her blog, “The Kitchen Table.”

And from Cambridge, Mass., is Jane Waldfogel, professor of social work and public affairs at Columbia University.

Not dorks or dweebs — though she really doesn’t mind those terms if they mean studious, authentic, sincere.

In Marybeth Hicks’s parenting world, “geeks” stands for “genuine, enthusiastic, empowered kids.” She doesn’t mind if the acronym sounds cute. Just don’t call it cool.

Cool is killing our kids’ spirits, she says. Trapping them in an empty media-driven culture. Making them grow up too fast, too jaded … too cool.

This hour, On Point: Marybeth Hicks and “bringing up geeks.”

How are you raising your kids? Are you protecting their innocence? Their geek side? Or throwing them into the pool of what’s cool? Do we have to choose? Join the conversation and tell us what you think.

- Tom Ashbrook

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Guests:

Marybeth Hicks, family columnist for The Washington Times and author of “Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid’s Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World.” (You can read an excerpt at the book’s website.)

Stefanie Ilgenfritz, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal’s Personal Journal section. She writes for the section’s blog “The Juggle” about juggling work and family life.