The Overpopulation Podcast

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Republished from August 2022. The worldview of human supremacy is driving the human expansionism that is devastating the living world. Philosopher and environmental writer Eileen Crist, author of Abundant Earth: Toward an Ecological Civilization, offers a compelling alternative - reimagining ourselves as "Earthlings" and creating societies that make space for the flourishing of all life. Highlights include: * Why the biodiversity crisis is fundamentally a crisis of ongoing and relentless human expansion and results in continued depopulation of the nonhuman world; * How the worldview of human supremacy - the belief that humans are superior to nonhumans and all of nature - is the pervasive and unrecognized force driving human expansionism; * How human expansionism began with the first expanding empires, much earlier than modern capitalism; * Why creating an ecological civilization requires 'scaling down' human activity and 'pulling back' from nature to make space for nonhuman life; * Why plant-based eating is one of the most effective ways of increasing biodiversity; * Why language is critical, and how words like "weed" and "natural resources" distort our relationship to nature; * How we need to regain our indigenous-inspired identity as responsible, interconnected Earthlings; * Why an ecological civilization will be local in terms of living and also globally connected, replacing domination with coexistence in an age of deepening ecological overshoot.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/eileen-crist-2

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Humanity is pushing life to the brink. Mathematical ecologist, Corey Bradshaw, explains how our growing population and consumption are driving the depopulation and extinction of countless species while pushing Earth's ecosystems beyond their limits. We explore why overpopulation remains politically taboo, why fears of falling birth rates are misplaced given the evidence of better socioeconomic outcomes in aging societies, and why, although the future will be 'ghastly,' it's still up to us to make it 'less worse.' Highlights include:

How human activities shrink wildlife populations and genetic diversity, making species increasingly vulnerable to extinction through environmental shocks;
Why humanity is likely driving a mass extinction, even though we may never be able to fully measure its scale because most species remain undiscovered;
Why rising wealth and technological efficiencies have resulted in more ecological degradation, not less;
How the evidence is overwhelming that increased human population density is associated with greater biodiversity threats and ecological degradation - as well as declines in human health;
What slowing population growth rates in recent decades reveal about the planet's long-term sustainable human population;
Why fears of low birth rates and aging societies are driven more by economic growth imperatives than by evidence, which shows aging populations enjoy better socioeconomic and health outcomes;
Why discussion of population growth and overpopulation remains taboo across the political spectrum, and even within organizations like the UN Population Fund;
Why Corey is an 'optimistic pessimist' who believes the future will be worse on many objective measures but that it's up to us to make it both less worse and more equitable.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/corey-bradshaw

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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For millennia, animals have been treated as property or passive recipients of moral concern rather than as political beings with agency. Political philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, authors of Animals and the Right to Politics, argue that decades of research reveals that animals are members of complex political societies capable of negotiation, cooperation, and collective decision-making. We explore what it would mean to recognize animals' political rights and build a meaningful politics with animals, and why that requires transforming our laws, institutions, and everyday relationships with animals from violence and domination toward coexistence. Highlights include:

Why we need to move beyond the idea of the "minimal animal," which focuses on the animal's capacity to suffer or engage in species-specific behaviors, toward the "maximal animal" recognized as an agent with personality, culture, and political capacities;
Why we must learn to elicit and be responsive to animals' needs and wants - their political communication - and not assume that humans can represent animals' interests easily and accurately;
Why animal politics requires attending not only to animals' resistance to violence and domination but also to the many ways they express cooperation, preference, and consent;
Why the "cosmopolitan bias" in animal ethics privileges humans' global mobility over the place-based lives of both animals and indigenous and local human communities;
How meaningful coexistence and honoring animals' rights to politics differs for domesticated, liminal, and wild animals - from expanding freedom and choice, to redesigning shared living spaces, to respecting territories and habitats.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/will-kymlicka-sue-donaldson

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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For most of our history, humans lived in relatively egalitarian societies that actively prevented the accumulation of power. Author of Goliath's Curse, Luke Kemp, examines how hierarchical states, 'Goliaths', came to dominate the world. We explore why Goliaths repeatedly collapse, the likely trajectories of today's global Goliath, and what it might take to radically democratize power before history repeats itself. Highlights include:

Why Luke rejects the term 'civilization' in favor of 'Goliath' to describe the large-scale societies that have emerged over the past several thousand years and were built on dominance hierarchies such as ruler and ruled, rich and poor, man and woman, and free and slave;
How archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that for most of human history people lived in relatively egalitarian, democratic, and cooperative societies, challenging long-standing assumptions about humanity's supposedly violent and selfish nature;
How humans historically constrained would-be tyrants through ridicule, ostracism, exile, and if necessary group execution;
How the first Goliaths emerged thousand of years after intensified agriculture, using war and violence and growing their power through the 'Goliath fuel' of 'lootable resources, monopolizable weapons, and caged land';
How 'babies, bombs, bacteria, and barbarism' enabled Goliaths to expand across the globe, conquering and absorbing non-state people into today's global Goliath;
Why the 'darker angels of our nature' - status competition, the 'dark triad' of personality traits, and the authoritarian impulse - also provide fuel to the growth and persistence of Goliaths;
Why Goliaths function as engines of inequality that become increasingly vulnerable to shocks like popular rebellion, environmental stress, disease, and how this makes societal collapse a recurring feature of large-scale societies throughout history;
Why, if we continue with business as usual, the most likely long-term fate of today's global Goliath is collapse, and why in the short term we may be heading toward a 'Silicon Goliath' of increased digital surveillance and potential for autocratic repression;
How we might 'shackle' Goliath through a process of radical democratization in 4 different forms of power - political, economic, violence, and information.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/luke-kemp

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Every age is the Stone Age. Geologist and author Marcia Bjornerud discusses how thinking like a geologist can cultivate the grounded humility of a deep time perspective. We explore Earth's turbulent history, humanity's emergence as a geologic force, and why humanity and all of life - past, present, and future - is utterly dependent on the rocky planet beneath our feet. Highlights include:

Why geology is not just the study of rocks but the habit of seeing in four dimensions - including time;
Why rocks should be seen as 'verbs' and not just 'nouns', preserving the memory of long ago ecosystems and Earth processes that created them;
The geologic history of Earth in about 5 minutes;
Why humanity's massive impact on the planet is affecting Earth and its atmosphere faster than any known geologic force in Earth history;
Why the process of evolution is not inherently 'progressive' and how Earth's long history teaches us that change is the only constant - and that 'bad things do happen to good planets';
Why geology is in a 'golden age' of discovery and has made incredible advancement in both the understanding of Earth processes and the tools to measure and analyze those processes;
Why we're still in the 'stone age' - utterly dependent on the rocky Earth for biological life and all of the products of humanity's modern techno-industrial civilization;
How 'timefulness' - thinking like a geologist - can help us develop a deeper sense of both the past and the future, cultivating humility and countering the narcissistic focus on the perpetual 'now'.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/marcia-bjornerud

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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The uncritical adoption of 'humane', 'cage-free', 'free-range', and lab-grown meat by animal advocates, funded by effective altruism philanthropy and the animal agriculture industry, not only reproduces the myth that meat is normal, natural, and necessary, it represents an ultimate defeat for animals. Vasile Stănescu, animal liberation scholar exposes the 'humane' hoax and explains why the failure of many animal advocates to frame veganism as a social justice movement in solidarity with other social justice movements is sustaining and reproducing systems of oppression and exploitation of humans, animals, and nature. Highlights include:

How parents and society teach us to repress the childhood trauma that's triggered when we learn about the animal suffering and death from eating animal products;
Why the so-called 'humane', 'cage free', and 'free range' agriculture practices are a hoax funded by the animal agriculture industry that are even more harmful for the animals — both wild and domesticated — and the planet than the conventional factory farming systems they claim to replace;
Moral philosopher Peter Singer's complicity in perpetuating these 'humane' myths, and the growing shift from liberation to welfarism within the animal advocacy movement through Singer-supported effective altruism philanthropy;
The relevance of Jevon's paradox to animal advocacy and how new categories such as 'cage-free' or 'free-range' do not replace the old system, but rather expand it, and why animal advocates must reject market-based or technology-based 'solutions' as they sustain and reproduce the current system of speciesism, exploitation, and growthism;
How the slaughterhouse and its dis-assembly line of animals' bodies became the template for the manufacturing assembly line of modern capitalism;
How western governments historically promoted 'cheap meat' to keep the laboring classes content with their low wages and help them continue feeling superior to the 'effeminate' and 'weak' rice and corn eaters of colonized Asia and South America;
How vegetarian and vegan eating are pathologized in a way that diets with animal products are not — even though large consumption of animal products is in no way 'natural' in much of the world or through the majority of human history;
Why lab-grown meat — still in its experimental phase — is not vegan, as its growth medium relies on the blood of unborn cows, not environmentally beneficial, as it requires huge amounts of energy, and is exorbitantly expensive; meanwhile, in collaborating with the animal agriculture industry for its creation, proponents of lab-grown meat are throwing animals — and animal advocacy — under the bus;
Why some animal rights activists turn to effective altruists and the money they offer to placate their despair and see short-term 'faux wins' - while not appreciating that successful social justice movements have always taken time and persistence;
Why veganism should be framed not as a consumerist diet lifestyle option but as a social justice movement in solidarity with other social justice movements.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/vasile-stanescu

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Pronatalism is the oldest form of reproductive control. Population Balance Executive Director, Nandita Bajaj, joins fellow guest and legal scholar Michele Goodwin and host Shoshanna Ehrlich in this republished episode of Ask a Feminist, a podcast from the Signs Journal. They discuss the rise of patriarchy and pronatalism in the first empires, the racist and eugenicist history of pronatalism in the U.S., and why 'progressive' pronatalism must be resisted as forcefully as pronatalism from the right. Highlights include:

How pronatalism arose with patriarchy in the first states and empires to serve economic, nationalist, religious, and expansionist state goals;
How pronatalism has historically been shaped by racism, classism, and eugenicist beliefs - with some people encouraged to reproduce and others discouraged;
How pronatalism and 'fertility crisis' rhetoric has been embraced not only by racist, anti-immigrant far-right advocates but also by mainstream liberals and progressives who advance growthist, supposedly 'pro-family' agendas;
Why pronatalism, as a primary feature of patriarchal control, must be challenged by anyone committed to feminist principles.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/nandita-bajaj-michele-goodwin

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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As South Korea's birth rates continue to decline, reporter JiHye Jeong highlights the rising tide of young feminists who are staging a strike against patriarchy. Despite relentless cultural and political backlash, the surge in South Korea's women's resistance movements - from the 2015 feminist 'reboot' to 'escape the corset' and 4B - offers a radical response to the misogynistic forces that compel women into marriage and motherhood. Highlights include:

How strong cultural expectations in South Korea pressure women toward marriage, motherhood, and male approval from an early age,
How women's high educational achievement contrasts sharply with persistent gender inequality in pay and leadership roles;
How the 2015–2018 feminist 'reboot' emerged and was fueled by events like the Gangnam Station murder and #MeToo;
How spy cams in public and private spaces and the widespread distribution of these materials combined with weak government responses fueled feminist anger and 'my life is not your porn' protests;
How despite intense political and media backlash, there is a dramatic rise in women-led resistance movements like 'escape the corset', which challenge both the outward corset of beauty norms and the inner corset of gendered behavioral expectations, and the 4B movement, which represents a radical rejection of dating, marriage, sex, and childbirth under patriarchy;
How the ideal of a normal, desirable life centered on motherhood fuels South Korea's growing IVF industry and makes critical media coverage of the industry nonexistent;
How media narratives frame low birth rates as an economic issue rather than a gender inequality problem;
What JiHye's upcoming film, No-Birth Generation, reveals about a growing generation of women rejecting patriarchal life paths and pushing for greater autonomy in their lives.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/jihye-jeong

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Sociologist Philip N. Cohen debunks the pronatalist claims on both the right and left that falling birth rates spell disaster. Noting that pronatalism is a key feature of authoritarian states, Cohen warns that the adoption of the problematic 'fertility crisis' framing among liberals is paving the way for coercive right-wing policies, and why we must abandon this narrative. We also explore evolving definitions of family beyond the traditional model and why public-facing scholarship matters more than ever. Highlights include:

Why framing low birth rates as a crisis on the political left can push policy toward coercive pronatalism when those incentive-based approaches fail;
Why left-leaning policies like healthcare, education, housing, and childcare should be pursued on justice-based grounds, not in an attempt to raise birth rates;
Why right-wing pronatalism is often tied to not just economic growth concerns but also to xenophobic, racist, and anti-feminist agendas that serve to entrench male dominance;
Why fears of population collapse are overstated and overlook the realities of delayed childbirth and the unreliability of long-term demographic projections;
How lower birth rates create additional resources and improved opportunities for younger generations;
Why media's 'both-sides' framing of demographic debates leads to unqualified pronatalist proponents being amplified;
Why we should consider taxing marriage, not subsidizing it, given the numerous benefits attached to marriage;
Why academics should move beyond the ivory tower to share clear, engaging, and useful knowledge with the public as active 'citizen scholars' in a democratic society;
How the core caregiving role of families endures even as their forms and definitions continue to evolve and diversify in the modern era.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/philip-cohen

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Biodiversity is collapsing under the pressures of human overpopulation, overconsumption, and animal agriculture. Tierra Curry and Stephanie Feldstein of the Center for Biological Diversity explain how science, law, and advocacy can protect wildlife and wild places. They also share strategies for combating extinction and staying motivated to act in an age of ecological crisis. Highlights include:

Why human population pressure, industrial animal agriculture, and growth economies are key issues that the Center addresses, even though they are often ignored or treated as taboo by most environmental organizations;
How rapid, human-driven extinctions are mutilating the tree of life, and why biodiversity is essential not just for wellbeing and thriving of all the species, but also for human survival;
How water and other ecosystems in the U.S. are threatened by lax regulation, industrial agriculture, and political attacks on protections like the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and Clean Air Act;
Why industrial agriculture's promotion of pasture grazing and regenerative agriculture is based on myths, and what the facts show about meat reduction as the most effective strategy to preserve habitats and wild animals;
How positive change requires both individual action, such as plant-based diets, and collective political action to protect ecosystems and biodiversity;
Why love of the natural world spurs both Stephanie and Tierra to action, despite immense ecological grief.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/stephanie-feldstein-tierra-curry

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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AI, under the dangerous control of tech oligarchs, is creating a world with shrinking human choice, creativity, and connection. Technology journalist Jacob Ward, author of The Loop: How Technology is Creating a World without Choices and How to Fight Back, describes why restraint and resistance are necessary to fight back against the AI juggernaut. Highlights include:

How tech journalism emphasizes novelty and business profits and amplifies tech companies' hype as journalists seek to maintain access to powerful tech leaders;
How profit-driven AI exploits a human bias toward fast, easy thinking and decision-making that leads us to outsource our choices and judgment to automated systems;
Why AI large language models (LLMs) are like cover bands providing the 'greatest hits' of humanity's past achievement - an 'artificial hive mind' that is biased toward middle-of-the-road, derivative, and unoriginal ideas;
How impersonal, unaccountable, 'black box' AI decision-making creates Kafka-esque systems in government services, jobs, and loans - disproportionately harming the least powerful in society;
Why AI large language models are 2 to 3 times more biased than the average person across various cultural and demographic dimensions;
How AI will increase addiction and social isolation, replacing real-world relationships with flattering, always available chatbot 'friends';
Why our collective sense-making and democratic decision-making will be further threatened by AI - creating even more tightly sealed, individually customized information bubbles that conform to our feelings, not the truth;
How many tech oligarchs pushing AI are also involved in genetic engineering projects with the aim of breeding 'optimized' babies;
Why tech companies' legal liability and U.S. states' AI regulations are hopeful avenues of AI pushback;
Why we need to rediscover the value of restraint and realize that not all innovation is beneficial for humanity and the planet.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/jacob-ward

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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The myth of human exceptionalism casts humans as separate from and superior to the rest of life. Primatologist Christine Webb, author of The Arrogant Ape, dismantles this belief, showing how science and culture sustain human exceptionalism - and why replacing it with awe and empathy for the natural world is essential to life's future on Earth. Highlights include:

How an early experience with Bear the baboon led Christine to a deep insight about nonhuman animals' complex theory of mind - the ability to know what others know;
How human exceptionalism is deeply rooted in Western thought from Aristotle through medieval Christianity to the Enlightenment and modern science;
How human exceptionalism influences both the research questions asked and the methods used in primate research and science in general - such as using symbolic language tests on captive animals that privilege human cognition, and self-recognition mirror tests that privilege visually dominant animals like humans and disadvantage animals like dogs that 'see' with their sense of smell;
Why animals should be studied in their natural habitats, taking seriously each species' worldview, and developing relationships with individual animals grounded in mutual accommodation and trust which allows them to show who they really are;
How many Indigenous societies have long understood animals as individuals with agency and autonomy who structure their own societies - a relational understanding Western science has only recently begun to recognize;
Why empathy, the attempt to understand the "minded life of another being", must be "un-tabooed" in Western science;
How human population pressure, in addition to driving animal depopulation and extinction, also reduces the complexity of animals' social relationships and cultural diversity;
Why "human exemptionalism", the belief that technology will save humanity from environmental limits, is a delusional form of human exceptionalism;
How her book ultimately calls us to resist the inherited role of the "arrogant ape" through everyday awe practices, such as "slow-looking" practices in nature that shift our perspective toward deeper understanding and appreciation of the more-than-human world.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/christine-webb

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Silicon Valley billionaires, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman, promise salvation through space colonization, immortality, superintelligent AI, and endless growth. Adam Becker, astrophysicist and author of More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity, debunks these profoundly immoral and biophysically impossible delusions, and explains why resisting them through collective action is essential. Highlights include:

How tech billionaires confuse science fiction for reality and why their fantasies of space colonization are biophysically impossible;
Why Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) remains an ill-defined concept that is based in the false assumption that humans' evolved brains work like computing machines;
Why large language models (LLMs), the dominant form of AI, are neither creative nor accurate enough to achieve the dreamed-for leap in machine intelligence;
What the end of Moore's Law tells us about diminishing returns to technological complexity and the expectation of endless technological growth;
Why longtermism is a dangerous ideology of technological salvation and endless growth, prioritizing hypothetical future populations while excusing present-day social injustice and ecological destruction;
How the fear of death underlies techno-utopian off-planet and transhumanist fantasies;
Why resisting their oligarchic visions requires calling out the ridiculousness of their ideas and organizing collectively to push back both politically and economically.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/adam-becker

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Data is the resource, and our lives are the territory. Ulises Mejias, co-author of Data Grab: The New Colonialism of Big Tech and How to Fight Back, reflects on data colonialism as a new social order that extends the extractive logic of historical colonialism into our everyday lives. Highlights include:

How terms of digital service agreements, written in dense legalese, resemble past colonial proclamations to indigenous people intended to dispossess;
How data colonialism, a system of continuous data extraction from our everyday lives, mirrors traditional colonialism in that both generate wealth for the few and enable new forms of social and behavioral control;
Why colonialism was essential for the development of capitalism and remains central in understanding today's data-driven capitalism;
How data colonialism uses the 4 X's of traditional colonialism - explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate - to move into new 'data territories' like education, health, agriculture, policing, and war;
How both traditional and data colonialism use 'civilizing narratives' to justify their extraction and colonize peoples' minds;
How AI amplifies the worst of bureaucratic proceduralism and the costs fall on the least powerful in society;
What resistance to data colonialism can learn from resistance to traditional colonialism: working within the system, against the system, and beyond the system.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/ulises-mejias

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Shaped by fears of overpopulation and ecological collapse, Stephanie Mills was launched into prominence with her 1969 college commencement vow not to have children. A long-time bioregionalist, Mills reflects on decades of questioning growth and cultivating a rooted relationship with the living world, and explains why bioregional living will become a necessity as global industrial civilization continues to unravel. She finds solace in and advocates for an Epicurean simplicity - choosing the simple pleasures of community, place, and nature. Highlights include:

How the conversation around overpopulation has shifted over time and why today's birth-rate panic and pronatalist politics are a retrograde distraction from the deeper failures of growth-based economics;
How exposure to bioregionalist ideas and people and a deep desire to reconnect with land led Stephanie from urban San Francisco to rural Michigan in the 1980s;
Why our sense of awe and meaning arose within wild and biodiverse habitat and what we lose when nature is reduced to resources that feed the technosphere;
Why ecological restoration and bioregionalism are fundamentally community endeavors, grounded in cooperation, mutual aid, and shared stewardship;
How learning the natural history, watershed, and foodshed of one's place help us become more bioregional in thought and action;
How 'epicurean simplicity' provides a materially simple but inwardly rich approach to living, helping us distinguish needs from wants and avoiding the pain caused by a life of 'getting and spending'.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/stephanie-mills

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Effective altruism's technocratic worldview narrows our moral imagination and helps sustain human and animal injustice. Philosopher Alice Crary argues that effective altruism (EA) and longtermism, both shaped by Silicon Valley's techno-utopian fantasies, ignore social structures of oppression and offer either incremental welfarism or galactic transhumanism over genuine animal and human liberation. Highlights include:

Why effective altruists treat concerns about personal integrity as a form of self-indulgence;
How EA's welfarist approach functions as a band-aid that allows its billionaire funders and organizations like Open Philanthropy, Animal Charity Evaluators, and Faunalytics to avoid confronting the larger systems generating animal and human oppression;
How longtermism - rooted in Silicon Valley transhumanist ideology - both preceded EA and continues to shape EA's pro-technology stance;
What longtermism's emphasis on maximizing numbers of future off-planet, posthuman beings reveals about its disregard for present-day ecological and social crises;
Why EA and longtermists are some of the biggest champions of declining-birth-rate panic;
Why longtermist transhumanism reframes existential risk not as threats to social justice or planetary limits but as anything that obstructs an off-planet, techno-utopian future - including growth-limiting social and ecological movements.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/alice-crary

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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We need an "abundance agenda" for nature. Ben Goldfarb, environmental journalist and author, challenges the techno-fix growth agenda that delivers an abundance of concrete and condos and a scarcity of wildness and wildlife. He urges us to replace extinction-prevention minimalism with a bolder commitment to restoring the abundance of keystone species, thriving ecosystems, and the freedom of wildlife to roam, migrate, and flourish. Highlights include:

Why the so-called "abundance agenda" and its proposed weakening of environmental laws creates an abundance of concrete and a scarcity of nature;
How the renewable energy abundance of solar and wind farms, and AI data centers, spells even greater destruction of wildlife habitat;
How 40 million miles of global roads devastate ecosystems through roadkill, noise, and pollution - and why electric vehicles aren't the solution;
Why the "development agenda", including the building of highways and induced demand for transportation, have been used as tools to subjugate the most marginalized human communities;
Why the first rule of environmentally sound road building is asking whether a new road is needed at all;
Why true abundance for wildlife depends on their ability to roam and migrate long distances, as shown by the Yellowstone-to-Yukon corridor;
How beavers generate extraordinary ecological benefits for both wildlife and humans;
Why restoring keystone species such as beavers, salmon, prairie dogs, and sea otters creates nature abundance by rebuilding biodiverse ecosystems;
Why fish and marine creatures are undervalued and how their beauty and ecological importance emerge when we pay closer attention.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/ben-goldfarb

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Animal rights are the next frontier of civil rights. Jeff Kerr, PETA's longtime Chief Legal Officer, leads the organization's bold, precedent-setting legal strategy. From the "monkey selfie" case to freeing animals from experimentation and exploitative entertainment to exposing agribusiness humane-washing, Jeff fights to secure legal recognition of animals as beings with inviolable rights. Highlights include:

How Jeff was inspired to get involved in animal law and become a lifelong vegan after attending an accidental lecture on animal rights;
Why PETA's legal strategy rejects timidity and instead boldly confronts the legal system's speciesist hypocrisy head-on;
How PETA uses bold, precedent-setting cases, like orcas at SeaWorld and a monkey's selfie copyright, to challenge the boundaries of animal personhood;
How PETA has won cases against animal cruelty in factory farming and freed thousands of animals from exotic animal dealers;
How PETA exposes humane-washing and fights ag-gag laws that conceal the violence of industrial animal agriculture;
How PETA's advocacy helped end the use of elephants, big cats, and other animals in circuses and petting zoos;
How PETA invokes free speech law to defend its right to communicate with monkeys tortured in laboratories;
Why the foundation of animal rights lies in rejecting the notion that animal "otherness" justifies human domination.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/jeff-kerr

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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The one-child family is becoming the fastest-growing family size in many countries. Social psychologist Susan Newman, author of Just One, shares the abundant research challenging long-held myths that only children are lonely, selfish, or spoiled, and why the growing popularity of one-child families reflects greater parental and child satisfaction and ecological awareness. Highlights include:

How Susan's experience parenting four stepchildren earlier in her life and one biological child later in life shaped her understanding of one-child families;
Why negative stereotypes of only children as spoiled or lonely stemmed from flawed early research and cultural bias;
What modern cross-cultural studies reveal about only children being as well-adjusted and socially capable as those with siblings;
Why mothers of only children often report higher happiness and lower stress than mothers of larger families;
Why parental influence and home environment matter more to child development than the number of siblings;
How the one-child family has become normalized worldwide amid rising costs, alternative life opportunities, and climate anxiety;
Why pronatalist government policies are failing to reverse declining birth rates;
What parents of only children can do to foster independence and realistic expectations for their child;
Why the choice to have one child is increasingly pursued as a proactive, deliberate, values-based decision rather than a perceived limitation.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/susan-newman

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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A global war against animals is driven by capitalist exploitation and profit. Dinesh Wadiwel, author of Animals and Capital and The War Against Animals, shows how capitalism treats animals as commodities, raw materials, and self-reproducing labor. He advocates for an anti-capitalist animal politics that builds alliances with social justice movements to advance both animal and human justice. Highlights include:

Why the concept of 'hierarchical anthropocentrism' is essential in revealing how human-centered thinking and systems of hierarchy together justify domination over both animals and marginalized human groups;
How 'hierarchical anthropocentrism' spread globally through colonialism with its racial and ethnic hierarchies and was then exponentially increased in its destructiveness by global capitalism;
How human relationships with animals - from industrial farming to pet ownership - reflect human domination and control of animals;
How we are waging a war against animals, even as we try to hide the reality of industrial animal killing through consumer distance and sanitized language;
Why animals' physical resistance to human violence is politically significant and doesn't rely on moral appeals to animal sentience;
Why the rise of utilitarianism within animal rights philosophical theory coincides with the rise of neoliberal capitalism;
How animal agriculture has grown so large - not because of human need - but to serve capitalist profits by stimulating demand for cheaply overproduced animal products;
How capitalism sustains animal exploitation by treating animals as laborers that reproduce themselves as profitable commodities;
Why an effective animal rights movement must have a structural critique of capitalism that allows it to build alliances with social justice groups, such as labor and indigenous rights, in order to resist the capitalist structures that oppress both animals and people;
Why the lack of a theory of the state weakens animal advocacy by leading activists to overestimate the role of liberal democracies and legal reform, even as both animals and many humans experience increasingly totalitarian relations to the state.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/dinesh-wadiwel

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today's interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity's excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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A dystopian fusion of human and machine is being pushed on us by a big tech elite. Michael D.B. Harvey, author of The Age of Humachines: Big Tech and the Battle for Humanity's Future, warns of the 'humachinator' worldview that weds unrestrained technology and capitalism - and what we might do to reclaim a future rooted in democracy and ecological balance. Highlights include:

How the 'humachine' blurs the line between human and machine, technologizing everything and everyone;
How the history of scientism and empiricism has led humachinators to imagine the brain as a computer and the body as a machine and the belief that engineering can control humanity, biophysical laws, and even death itself;
How big tech oligarchs merge unfettered science with unfettered capitalism to produce 'ultrascience';
Why big tech oligarchs' faith in unrestrained technology and markets has merged into 'ontocapitalism' - a form of capitalism that commodifies nature and all human experience;
How humachinators use 'tricknology' to hype their technologies and get us, especially the young, addicted to their products;
What the five types of humachination are: cognitive, emotional, relational, the mechanized human, and a totalizing daily environment where our lives are surveilled, interpreted, and mediated by machines;
How the extreme individualism in Silicon Valley undermines democracy and collective decision-making;
How the 'G' word, growth, is behind all the humachinators' actions and dreams;
Why our relationship with technology is ultimately political, not inevitable, and that we need to resist big tech oligarchs who profit most from unrestricted technology;
Why we need to move from CIMENT values (competitiveness, individualism, materialism, elitism, nationalism, and technologism) to CANDID values (cooperative, altruistic, non-materialist, democratic, internationalist, and deferential to nature) - and how we might shift those values.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/michael-db-harvey

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Across India and around the world, communities are resisting destruction and reclaiming their right to shape their own futures. Shrishtee Bajpai, researcher and activist with the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, reveals how local struggles for self-determination connect across cultures and what is being done to weave a 'pluriverse' of possibilities rooted in social and ecological justice. Highlights include:

How Shrishtee's upbringing as an upper caste, urban Indian girl living along the river Ganga shaped her search for personal freedom and ecological and social justice;
How her work with Indian village communities resisting ecological and social destruction helped her connect academic critiques of feminism and development to lived realities;
How she challenges oppressive systems while also interrogating her own privilege and colonial inheritance;
Why creating a 'pluriverse' of diverse, locally-rooted alternatives is essential to move beyond the dominant development model and progress narrative;
Why the Global Tapestry of Alternatives supports 'radiating out' values and lessons rather than 'scaling up', which risks destroying the important nuance of local context;
Why strengthening communities’ imagination, confidence, and self-determination is central to her work;
Why the Rights of Nature movement must de-emphasize the perspectives of NGOs and governments and center the voice of local communities with long-standing connections to their environments;
How profound experiences with the more-than-human world and with story-based community ritual sustain her work.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/shrishtee-bajpai

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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For 5,000 years civilizations have told themselves stories of progress. Today, the progress myth has become humanity's most dangerous illusion. Samuel Miller McDonald, geographer and author of Progress: A History of Humanity’s Worst Idea, illuminates the destructive lineage of progress, why these myths endure, how they enable socially and ecologically parasitic societies, and what values might guide us beyond them. Highlights include:

How narratives of progress have persisted from Mesopotamia to today, and how those narratives have persisted even as the means of material subsistence and political economy have changed enormously over time;
How the progress narratives of today are primarily divided into four camps: techno-liberal, Silicon Valley's android kingdom, the social justice vanguard, and right-wing grifters and political opportunists;
How the ecological, energy exchange relationships of mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism offer a framework for understanding human societies' concrete and abstract energy capture historically and in the present;
Why long-lived societies tend to be mutualistic or commensalistic with animistic, biophilic worldviews and egalitarian practices, while parasitic societies collapse due to the ecological and social destruction they cause;
How parasitism has evolved across three broad ages of mythical, secular, and today's economistic, fossil-fueled, and globalized capitalist network;
Why neoliberalism, the latest economistic project, is so resilient - and how it prioritizes economic growth over political rights, co-opts reformist movements and exploits the human cooperative impulse while entrenching corporate power at the expense of democracy;
Why elite fantasies of transhumanism and off-planet escape are dangerous and delusional extensions of parasitic growthism;
What more mutualistic and commensalistic alternative paths forward might look like, from agroecological local systems and rewilding to indigenous land rights, fossil fuel bans, rejecting AI, and class struggle - all guided by values of biophilia, fairness, and restraint.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/samuel-miller-mcdonald-2

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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Modern techno-industrial civilization is running up against the law of diminishing returns - and societal collapse is inevitable. B, author of The Honest Sorcerer blog, reveals why our civilizational complexity carries the seeds of its own destruction. Highlights include:

What led B (who also shares his reasons for remaining anonymous) from believing modern civilization would persist for centuries to recognizing collapse as inevitable;
Why diminishing returns on energy, materials, and innovation are central to the collapse of complex societies;
Why societal collapse is a long process taking place over decades or centuries rather than a single event, unfolding as a stair-step decline with sharp drops in complexity followed by brief recoveries and stabilizations;
Why declining fertility rates should be embraced as a natural adjustment to overpopulation, rather than a cause for elite-driven panic;
Why collapse will be liberating for some, devastating for most, and why adaptation to a simpler life will favor poorer communities that already know how to live simply;
How and when to strategically leverage large-scale political change, and the role writers, thinkers, and local action can play in helping people face collapse more calmly .

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/the-honest-sorcerer

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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From center-left Ezra Klein to right-wing Matt Walsh, the fertility panic is an elite fixation that is rooted in a human supremacist worldview and a deep fear of slowing growth. Samuel Miller McDonald, geographer and author of the book Progress: A History of Humanity's Worst Idea, exposes how our parasitic relationship with Earth lies at the core of ecological overshoot, and why resisting authoritarianism in an age of contraction means embracing a pluralistic and just degrowth vision. Highlights include:

Why our modern relationship to Earth is fundamentally parasitic - regardless of whether societies are capitalist or socialist;
How media commentators resist degrowth in various stages and how their rejection reveals their lack of maturity in accepting responsibility for the ecological destruction we are causing;
Why degrowth policies and practices should emphasize pluralistic, context-specific approaches rooted in democratic participation, not top-down master plans;
Why many degrowth proponents have been dismissive of population concerns;
Why the political right is more poised to benefit from ongoing economic contraction and why the liberal 'abundance agenda' needs to be resisted;
Why conviviality and class solidarity are key to a successful degrowth transition and how modern societies undermine them;
Why core values like fairness, autonomy, and ecological integrity will be essential in resisting authoritarians' claims to power in the coming challenging decades.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/samuel-miller-mcdonald

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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In vitro fertilization (IVF) is often seen as a triumph of reproductive freedom, but its origins are deeply entangled with patriarchy, pronatalism, and eugenics. Pamela Mahoney Tsigdinos, IVF survivor and author of Silent Sorority and Finally Heard, discusses how under-regulation and cultural obsession with biological motherhood allows the multi-billion dollar fertility industry to obscure the truth about its low success rates and the trauma it causes. Highlights include:

What the IVF process entails how time-consuming, expensive, and emotionally and physically wrenching it is;
How John Rock, pioneer of the birth control pill, was motivated by a religiously pronatalist desire to help specifically Catholic women conceive, and how IVF pioneer, Patrick Steptoe, performed experimental gynecological procedures on hundreds of women without their consent;
How the multi-billion dollar fertility industry both benefits from and exacerbates pronatalism and exploits the hope of vulnerable patients, who are often treated as commodities, through aggressive marketing, unproven add-on services, and cherry-picked success rates;
How Pamela found deep emotional connection with online communities around the world - the 'silent sorority' of IVF survivors;
How pronatalist culture magnifies the emotional pain for IVF patients, surrounding them with pronatalist expectations and deeply rooted stereotypes, especially against women without children;
Why feminist empowerment rhetoric can backfire if it uncritically promotes fertility services without acknowledging the exploitative practices and emotional toll experienced by the many female patients in the fertility industry;
How individuals struggling with infertility can make better informed decisions about their available options.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/pamela-mahoney-tsigdinos

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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The meat industry and its defenders promise ethical consumption and sustainable farming, but animal agriculture fuels ecological destruction, entrenches human supremacy, and masks cruelty with comforting myths. John Sanbonmatsu, philosopher and author of The Omnivore’s Deception, shatters the myths of “humane meat” and the 'naturalness' of eating meat, and explains why abolishing the animal economy is essential to living an ethical human life. Highlights include:

Why growing up as the child of a Jewish mother and Japanese-American father in the U.S. sensitized John to bullying and injustice - against both human and nonhuman animals;
Why the origins of human domination over animals are rooted in patriarchy and an ancient human estrangement from animals, and reinforced today by a toxic nexus of masculinity, human supremacy, neoliberal capitalism, and pronatalism;
Why focusing only on factory farming misses the fundamental problem of human domination of animals and the planet - and how books like Michael Pollan's The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the new American pastoral ethos perpetuate myths of so-called ethical meat while attacking the animal rights movement;
Why justifying meat-eating as “natural” is ethically bankrupt - on par with past appeals to nature to justify slavery or denying women’s rights - and how vegans and vegetarians provoke defensive ridicule because they reveal uncomfortable truths;
Why the flood of scientific studies on animal cognition and emotion hasn’t changed behavior - and how cultural fascination with AI and plant consciousness distracts from our brutal treatment of fully sentient animals;
Why bad faith - our self-deception about how we treat animals - is the most destructive force preventing moral progress, and why what we’re doing to animals deserves to be called 'evil';
How empathy, an evolved trait we share with animals and desperately need to nurture, is being eroded by increasing social disconnection and anti-empathy tech bro ideologies;
Why lab meat, also known as 'clean meat', is not the solution to speciesism and human supremacism and consuming our way to animal liberation is a delusion;
Why the animal rights movement is being undermined by the money pouring into utilitarian effective altruism and “realistic” approaches - when true compassion demands not animal welfarism, but the abolition of animal exploitation and a direct challenge to the entrenched power structures that prevent moral progress.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/john-sanbonmatsu

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Support our work with a one-time or monthly donation: https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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The nuclear industry and its boosters promise clean, abundant energy, but nuclear power delivers expensive electricity while posing catastrophic radiation risks and a constant threat of nuclear war. M. V. Ramana, physicist and author of Nuclear is Not the Solution, explains why respecting the limits of the biosphere means reducing our energy use and rejecting elites’ push for endless growth. Highlights include:

Why nuclear energy is inherently risky due to its complex, tightly coupled systems that are prone to catastrophic failures that can't be predicted or prevented;
Why nuclear waste poses long-term threats to all life by remaining dangerously radioactive for thousands of years, with no safe, permanent disposal solution and frequent storage failures;
Why nuclear energy is expensive, with projects routinely running over budget and behind schedule;
Why the expansion of nuclear energy increases the likelihood of devastating nuclear war;
How climate change and war-time accidents or direct targeting increase the risks of nuclear catastrophe;
Why nuclear Uranium mining and its wastes often require ‘sacrifice zones’ that are disproportionately found in indigenous land and less powerful communities;
How the nuclear industry shapes nuclear policy and debate by capturing regulators and creating an energy ‘panic’ based on one-sided narratives that block democratic discussion and scrutiny;
Why, despite the hype from the nuclear industry, new nuclear plant designs like small modular reactors are subject to the same cost and safety concerns as the old designs;
Why the best answer to dealing with renewable energy's variability is not nuclear or fossil fuels but reducing demand;
Why renewable energy is no panacea for planetary overshoot and why we need to have a broadly democratic conversation about living within the limits of the planet.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/mv-ramana

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Learn more at https://www.populationbalance.org

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The world is colliding with the ecological limits of growth - and mainstream economics is still looking the other way. Peter Victor, ecological economist and author of Escape from Overshoot, joins us. Highlights include:

How 'the pre-analytic vision' of ecological economics, unlike mainstream economics, recognizes that all economic activity is embedded in the biosphere of Earth;
Why population growth has been the main driver of ecological overshoot in recent decades;
Why markets routinely fail to protect public goods like clean air and water and often produce socially and ecologically unjust outcomes without government intervention;
Why the adjectives put in front of the word 'growth', like 'inclusive growth' or 'green growth', reveal how the goal of economic growth is failing on a wide range of dimensions;
Why the goal of green growth is delusional, as emissions must fall by 10 percent annually for 30 years in a row to meet climate goals - something no country has ever achieved;
Why the money metric of valuing nature is woefully inadequate and why we should embrace multiple perspectives that recognize the sacred and relational dimensions of our relationships to nature;
Why mainstream economists' assumption of infinite wants is misguided and why we should focus instead on moderating our material wants to achieve an abundance of joy and wellbeing.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/peter-victor

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://www.populationbalance.org/subscribe

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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Academy Award-winning vegan filmmaker and former National Geographic photographer Louie Psihoyos joins us to share how he is using the power of storytelling to spark transformation for animal rights, human health, and environmental conservation. Highlights include:

How The Cove, his Oscar-wining documentary and the first documentary to sweep all the film guilds, inspired activism that helped reduce dolphin and porpoise slaughter in Japan by over 90%;
How his team’s audacious projection events of endangered species on iconic buildings including The Empire State Building, The United Nations and The Vatican for their film Racing Extinction, received over 5.4 billion media views and led to laws that protect some of Earth’s most endangered animals;
How his third film, The Game Changers, a film about plant-based super athletes that exposes the myth that meat is necessary for protein, strength, and optimal health, triggered a 350% spike in online searches within a month of premiering on Netflix;
What his Netflix Series, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, uncovered about the 8-week health benefits of plant-based eating, and how the results went viral;
His most recent film Mission: Joy a buddy film starring his Holiness, The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu about how to find joy in a world of sorrow has been seen by 10’s of millions of people around the globe;
Where Louie’s focus is turning next: a new film exposing the destructive health impacts of plastic.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/louie-psihoyos

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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Modernity is dying within and around us, and we need to face that death with courage and compassion. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, author of Hospicing Modernity, joins us. Highlights include: * How her mixed Indigenous and German heritage in Brazil exposed her to a complex mix of love and violence, deepening her understanding of how socialization and education can perpetuate harmful relationships; * Why the ‘house of modernity’, which is built on a foundation of humanity’s separation from the rest of nature, is structured to ultimately fail; * Why we need to ‘hospice modernity’ both within and around us, without feeling overwhelmed or rushing for quick fixes, while making space for something much larger to emerge; * Why we need to compost the ‘pedestal’ sense of agency from modernity and its elevated sense of certainty and subject-object relationships and embrace a more intersubjective mycelial sense of agency; * Why ‘outgrowing modernity’ will require us to prepare for a ‘well-died death’ and a greater sense of emotional sobriety, relational maturity, intellectual discernment, and interspecies and intergenerational responsibility.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/vanessa-andreotti

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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The rhetoric of “hopium” is failing as ecological overshoot deepens. “Hopium”, a colloquial term that is a blend of the words “hope” and “opium” (as though it were a drug), represents a faith in technological and market-based solutions to address our multiple reinforcing crises, despite evidence to the contrary. We're living in the long defeat and we must own and confront it with courage. Award-winning essayist, Pamela Swanigan, joins us. Highlights include:

How children's literature is full of reverence for nature but children's literature analysis done in the academy is dominated by the perspective of human exceptionalism;
The role that Judeo-Christianity has played in promoting the worldview of human exceptionalism while destroying the millennia-old biophilic and animistic belief systems;
Why Pamela was astonished that she won the Berggruen Prize Essay Competition given the magical thinking of human exceptionalism and techno-solutionism embodied by the attendees;
Social reformer and US Commissioner for the Bureau of Indian Affairs John Collier’s concept of the 'long hope'- that indigenous cultures and their nature-sacralizing beliefs could help humanity survive after the collapse of techno-industrial civilization;
Why the delusional and pervasive rhetoric of hope among social change advocates (such as Jane Goodall and David Suzuki) defies evidence, and why we must embrace JRR Tolkien's concept of the 'long defeat' in order to courageously fight against ecological destruction and social injustice.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/pamela-swanigan

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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There is no energy transition - only ongoing and symbiotic energy addition. Historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, author of More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy, joins us. Highlights include:

How the symbiotic relationships between wood, coal, and oil have led to increased use of all of them;
Why decoupling economic growth from energy and materials use is a delusional myth;
How the energy transition narrative evolved and why it's an "intellectual scandal" used to delay climate action through faith in techno-driven growth;
How the IPCC’s focus on economic growth drives the energy transition narrative, downplays degrowth and sufficiency, and relies on unproven techno-fixes, such as Carbon Capture Storage (CCS);
How safety norms were invented to secure industrial capital, and how criticisms and objections around technological risks were silenced or overcome to establish technological modernity.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/jean-baptiste-fressoz

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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Patriarchy and misogyny fuel global conflicts that further increase the oppression of women and girls. But the resistance of women and girls remains steadfast. Sally Armstrong, award-winning war correspondent, author, and human rights activist, joins us to share their stories. Highlights include:

How Sally broke the story about mass rape in the Balkan War in the 1990s that was ignored by male-dominated mainstream media;
How patriarchy became established and why women’s role in human history has been unrecorded and ignored;
Why cultural relativism can be an enemy of greater justice for girls and women;
How misinterpretations of religious doctrine are used as justification for continued oppression of girls and women;
How women and girls from Bosnia to Kenya to Afghanistan to Senegal continue to resist the injustice of patriarchy and misogyny in their daily lives.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/sally-armstrong

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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Our patriarchal culture animalizes women and sexualizes animals, and without compulsory pregnancy among human and nonhuman females, both patriarchy and animal agriculture would fail. Carol Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegan Critical Theory, joins us. Highlights include:

How Carol got started on her personal journey to veganism;
Why patriarchal cultures associate masculinity with meat-eating and how women and animals become ‘absent referents’;
Why feminism and veganism have a long history of deep interconnection;
How sexism persists in the animals rights movement;
Why a vegan diet is a daily act of anti-oppressive resistance.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/carol-j-adams

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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We have it in us to create a more beautiful, regenerative future that allows both humans and nonhumans to flourish. Dr. Sarah Bexell, professor of social work and co-founder of the Center for a Regenerative Future at the University of Denver, joins us. Highlights of our conversation include:

Why captive breeding programs for endangered species are both cruel and ineffective;
How the mental health of both conservation professionals and animal rights activists is deeply impacted by the ongoing suffering of both wild animals and farmed animals;
How ongoing ecological destruction is causing eco-anxiety and eco-distress in students and some of the more effective classroom approaches to address it;
How environmental justice differs from ecological justice and why we need to address both if we hope to create a more just, regenerative future;
How Sarah helps students become aware of the role that human overpopulation plays in humanity’s ecological overshoot and helps make the classroom a comfortable place to discuss it.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/sarah-bexell-2

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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Ecological overshoot is the second largest risk to humanity. Not reacting to it is the biggest. Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the ecological footprint and co-founder of the Global Footprint Network, joins us. Highlights of the conversations include:

How ecological footprint is calculated as a measure of how much of nature’s regenerative capacity humanity is using;
Why the estimate that we’re using the natural regenerative capacity of 1.7 Earths is an underestimate of humanity’s actual ecological overshoot;
Why shrinking our ecological footprint needs to be framed as an opportunity for resource security, not just noble and charitable but absolutely necessary if humanity hopes to end overshoot more by design and less by disaster;
Why international development schemes that emphasize GDP growth and not resource security won’t work for the ¾ of humanity stuck in the ‘ecological poverty trap’ of depleted resources and insufficient income to buy those resources from other countries;
Why countries not putting resource security at the center of their economic development plans is suicidal;
Why peoples’ motivation to end ecological overshoot will be driven by desire, agency, and curiosity - not by trying to command and control peoples’ behavior.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/mathis-wackernagel

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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ANNOUNCEMENT

Hello everyone, here we are in 2025 and we have some important news to share. Last year was a really challenging year – we grappled with new climate records, we saw worsening global conflict, and we saw an upsurge in regressive pronatalism. And the year ahead looks like it will include much of the same—which means that all of us will have to remain steadfast, and become even bolder in our work to fight back and advocate for life-affirming alternatives.

PODCAST NAME CHANGE

As part of that commitment, we’ve decided to rename the podcast. It’s been called the Overpopulation Podcast since 2016, yet in recent years we have increasingly explored subject-matter that goes well beyond the problem of overpopulation. We’ve delved into the injustice of pronatalism, the fallacy of pursuing endless economic growth, the inadequacy of technological solutions, and the hubris of human supremacy on a planet of unbounded natural wonders and riches. All these are facets of our perilous state of overshoot, wherein modern humanity’s demands on Earth’s natural systems outstrip their ability to recover and regenerate.

Overshoot has increasingly been the underlying target of our podcast, and it’s driven by more than excessive human numbers. Although overpopulation will remain a central theme, it is time that the podcast name reflects the full scope of our concerns. We will continue to bring you the same caliber of guests and range of topics as always—with the drivers of overshoot, and pathways out of this predicament, the common unifying theme.

ARTWORK

We also have new artwork. The design juxtaposes an impoverished biosphere that is the result of continued overshoot and the Earthly abundance that is possible if we reverse overshoot by downscaling the human enterprise. The exponential growth curve at the root of our predicament separates these two realities.

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.

Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

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Friendship is not a “nice-to-have” but a core, potentially transformative human connection. Rhaina Cohen, author of The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life With Friendship at the Center, joins us. Highlights of our conversation include:

The “friendship recession” and how modern culture undervalues friendships compared to romantic or family ties;
Historical and cross-cultural insights into how friendship has been understood and prioritized in different societies;
Stories from Cohen’s book about people redefining relationships, including platonic co-parents and friends who live together as chosen family;
The legal and cultural barriers to elevating friendship as a socially sanctioned form of kinship and how policy reforms could better accommodate diverse relationships;
Cohen’s personal experiences with an intense friendship that reshaped her understanding of love, intimacy, and societal expectations.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/rhaina-cohen

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment. For International Animal Rights Day, we are joined by Ingrid Newkirk, co-founder and President of PETA, the world’s largest animal rights organization. Highlights of our conversation include:

The formative experiences that inspired Ingrid to co-found PETA and dedicate her life to animal liberation;
PETA’s groundbreaking campaigns that include both bold, confrontational activism as well as behind-the-scenes deliberation and negotiation;
Major victories of PETA in transforming industries like food, fashion, experimentation, and entertainment to reduce animal suffering and the challenges that remain;
Ingrid’s thoughts on global overpopulation, pronatalism, effective altruism, and the power that all of us have to help end animal suffering.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/ingrid-newkirk

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Population dynamics are deeply connected to environmental sustainability and social justice. That's the message of Pam Wasserman and Hannah Evans from Population Connection - the oldest grassroots population organization in the U.S. Highlights include:

The origins of Population Connection and its evolution from ZPG (Zero Population Growth) to a broader mission addressing the intersections of population, environment, and social justice;
How their K-12 education program trains thousands of teachers annually to teach students the importance of population dynamics within the broader issues of environmental sustainability;
The connections between population growth, resource consumption, and climate vulnerability, and how addressing reproductive health and gender equality is key to mitigating these challenges;
Insights into the challenges of discussing population in today’s polarized political climate and how depopulation panic gets in the way of meaningful dialogue;
The impact of global partnerships and advocacy efforts, including family planning initiatives and tackling patriarchal norms for the sake of community empowerment and environmental protection.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/hannah-evans-pam-wasserman

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Healthy and thriving animal communities depend on healthy and thriving human communities. That’s the message from this week’s guest, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian and founder of Conservation Through Public Health. Highlights include:

How a scabies outbreak among gorillas reshaped her approach to conservation, linking human health to the health of the gorillas;
The role of family planning and community health education in reducing human population pressure, human-wildlife conflict and improving both conservation outcomes and local livelihoods;
The balance between the benefits of ecotourism for funding conservation and the risks it poses to gorilla health;
How Gorilla Conservation Coffee provides alternative livelihoods for farmers while supporting endangered gorillas and their habitats.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/gladys-kalema-zikusoka

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Obsession with growth is enriching elites and killing the planet. That’s the message of this week’s guest, Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and author of The Poverty of Growth. Highlights include:

Why poverty is about more than low income and how unequal economic growth creates greater social exclusion and status anxiety for the majority of people that growth leaves behind;
How global trade practices benefit corporations over workers, especially in low-income countries, driving inequality and limiting worker protections;
Why ‘green growth’ is a myth and that economic growth continues to be tied to both resource depletion and environmental damage;
How the commodification of life drives consumption and inequality, with more services that were once free or communal now privatized, creating a need for income rather than creating greater wellbeing;
How adopting norms of sufficiency could shift economies to focus on collective wellbeing and fair resource distribution over perpetual growth.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/olivier-de-schutter

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we sit down with social psychologist, Dr. Melanie Joy, to explore her groundbreaking concept of “carnism” - the belief system that conditions people to see eating animals as normal, natural, and necessary. Dr. Joy offers insights into how hidden ideologies shape behavior, and how building relational literacy can foster healthier relationships across social movements. Highlights include:

How the three 'N's’ - normal, natural, necessary - are used to justify systems like carnism and pronatalism, and how dismantling these myths creates space for more compassionate choices;
How cognitive distortions like objectification and dichotomization impact both human and animal relationships, perpetuating cycles of violence and oppression;
Why dysregulated people dysregulate people and the formula for healthy relating;
How relational literacy can empower activists to communicate skillfully, avoid burnout, and avoid infighting.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/melanie-joy

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The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we talk with animal behavior expert Dr. Marc Bekoff about the emotional lives of animals and the urgent need for a shift in how we treat them. A pioneer in the field of cognitive ethology, Dr. Bekoff shares his insights on animal emotions, the interconnectedness of animal rights and environmental sustainability, and how we can better understand and care for the incredible beings with whom we share the planet. Highlights include:

How cognitive ethology helps us understand the minds and emotions of animals, and why this understanding is essential for improving their wellbeing;
What is wrong with the traditional animal welfare approach and why Dr. Bekoff advocates for a science of animal well-being that values each individual animal’s life;
Why human overpopulation exacerbates habitat destruction and the suffering of animals, stressing the need to reduce human impact on ecosystems;
Why the language we use to describe animals, such as referring to them as “who” instead of “it,” plays a crucial role in shaping our perceptions and treatment of them.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/marc-bekoff

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Note: Despite the slightly compromised sound quality, Chris offers absolutely essential insights.

In this episode, we talk with climatologist and director of the Climate Hazards Center, Dr. Chris Funk, about the intersection of population growth and extreme weather events. With a focus on regions vulnerable to extreme heat and drought, particularly in Africa, Chris has helped create early warning systems that reduce suffering and save lives. Highlights include:

How rapid population growth in already hot and humid regions of Africa increases the number of people exposed to extreme heat, drought, and flood;
What Funk’s research reveals about how El Niño and La Niña events are amplifying extreme weather in the Global South and their impacts on food security;
Why early warning systems, particularly in Africa, are crucial for predicting and mitigating the impacts of droughts and extreme temperatures;
Why localized responses and infrastructure resilience are key to minimizing the humanitarian impacts of extreme weather events.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/chris-funk

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we talk with Dr. Joshua Farley, an expert in ecological economics, about the urgent need to realign our economic systems with ecological and social justice imperatives by reclaiming our humanity from the destructive grip of mainstream economics. Highlights include:

How mainstream economic ideologies disregard planetary boundaries and contribute to ecological damage through unchecked economic growth;
A critique of the ‘Homo economicus’ model in mainstream economics, which inaccurately depicts humans as purely rational, self-interested, competitive, and insatiable, and misrepresents our fundamentally cooperative nature;
Why markets, while suitable for catering to individual tastes and preferences, are wholly inadequate in addressing ecological constraints and achieving secure sufficiency for everyone;
How overpopulation disproportionately benefits the wealthy, driving down wages and inflating the costs of land, food, housing, and other basic necessities.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/joshua-farley

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we chat with Erica Gies, award-winning journalist and author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge. We explore the complex relationships between water, nature, and human societies, emphasizing the need to embrace 'slow water'—respecting the natural rhythms of water’s cycles for the benefit of both human and nonhuman life. Highlights include:

Erica’s personal decision not to have biological children as both a personal choice and a contribution to reducing human pressure on the planet;
The concept of 'slow water' and allowing for water’s natural cycles on the land contrasted with modern, infrastructure-heavy approaches that focus on controlling water;
The broader implications of population growth on water and the need to address this issue within environmental and degrowth movements;
The hidden complexity of natural systems in water ecology and the need to both appreciate our ignorance of these natural systems’ complexity while also working to understand them better in order to live more in harmony with the natural world;
The significance of traditional knowledge and ecological wisdom in living more in harmony with natural water cycles.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/erica-gies

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Hello, this is Nandita Bajaj, cohost of The Overpopulation Podcast and Executive Director of Population Balance. I am excited to share that we’ve launched a second podcast, Beyond Pronatalism: Finding Fulfillment, With or Without Kids. Please subscribe and share it widely. Episodes drop every two weeks and you can find them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t miss the chance to hear stories that could very well resonate with your own experiences—or open your mind to new ways of thinking about family, community, and personal fulfillment. And, if you’d like to be on the show, check out the show notes on how you can get in touch with me.

Show Notes and Transcript

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/beyond-pronatalism

Beyond Pronatalism | Finding fulfillment, with or without kids

To have or not have kids is one of the biggest decisions we make in our lives, and yet how many of us know that we even have a choice about how we define and create our families? Beyond Pronatalism host Nandita Bajaj interviews women and men from diverse backgrounds who are courageously and creatively navigating pronatalism - the powerful pressures to have children - whether from family, friends, or the culture at large. Through intimate conversations, they discuss how they are forging unconventional pathways to fulfillment, including redefining what family means to them - whether that means being childfree or childless, having biological children, adopting or fostering children or animals, or creating close-knit communities of friends and loved ones.

https://www.populationbalance.org/beyond-pronatalism-podcast

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Beyond Pronatalism is brought to you by Population Balance, the only non profit organization advancing ecological and reproductive justice by confronting pronatalism. This podcast is produced and hosted by Nandita Bajaj, with the support of the production team - Josh Wild, Elisabeth Strunk, Alan Ware and Kirsten Stade. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we chat with Dr. James Hopeward, an environmental civil engineering professor at the University of South Australia. We explore the limitations of conventional economic growth models and their environmental impacts, emphasizing the need for more holistic and ecologically grounded engineering practices and cultural beliefs.

Highlights include:

Why decoupling economic growth from energy and material use relies on temporary efficiency gains and ultimately fails in a growth-based system, rendering the concepts of absolute and relative decoupling meaningless;
How the IPCC treats economic and population growth as exogenous to its modelling scenarios, and has therefore both overestimated fossil fuel supplies and underestimated catastrophic social and ecological outcomes resulting from overshoot;
Why understanding exponential growth was a crucial lesson for James and is now a key part of his engineering curriculum;
Why future infrastructure projects must prioritize climate resiliency;
Why the significance of population issues within environmental and degrowth movements must be urgently elevated to minimize further overshoot-related harm and suffering.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/james-hopeward

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we chat with Maneesha Deckha, Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria, about her research in critical animal law. We discuss her 2021 book, Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders in which she argues for a new legal category of “beingness” for animals that transcends the inadequate legal categories of “persons” or “property.” We also dive into her 2023 article Animalization and Dehumanization Concerns: Another Psychological Barrier to Animal Law Reform, in which she highlights why a critique of human exceptionalism is essential to advancing the goals of anti-racism and decolonization.

Highlights include:

Maneesha’s personal journey into exploring the links between animal legal studies and critical animal studies, health law, reproductive ethics, feminist analysis of law, and postcolonial and critical race theory;
Deckha’s evaluation of the 2022 decision by the New York Court of Appeals with respect to the ongoing captivity of Happy, an elephant at the Bronx Zoo, in which she outlines why the dissociation of humans from animals is counterproductive to eliminating racism and other intra-human prejudices and inequities;
How the legal classification of animals as “property” creates problems, such as commodification and objectification; meanwhile, using the “personhood” category for animals exacerbates the concept of human exceptionalism. Deckha argues for a new category of “beingness’ for nonhuman animals which recognizes their embodiment, relationality, and vulnerability;
A new six-part series documentary series targeted towards secondary school students, A Deeper Kindness: Animal Law and Youth Activism, which surveys the current field of animal law and policy through the eyes of four youth active in animal advocacy.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/maneesha-deckha

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests that draw the connections between pronatalism, human supremacy, social inequalities, and ecological overshoot. Population Balance's mission to inspire narrative, behavioral, and system change that shrinks our human impact and elevates the rights and wellbeing of people, animals, and the planet.

Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we chat with Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education, about her pioneering work in the area of comprehensive humane education, an approach to teaching that draws the intimate links between human rights, animal protection, and environmental sustainability. Highlights include:

Zoe’s personal journey of co-founding the Institute for Humane Education in 1996, and the many programs and resources offered through the Institute;
The description of a “solutionary” as someone who transforms unjust, unsustainable, and inhumane systems for the most good and least harm, and how one can cultivate a solutionary mindset;
How to use a humane education lens to understand the connections between overpopulation, lack of reproductive autonomy, animal exploitation, and ecological degradation;
Zoe’s reflections on societal double standards around reproductive choices - how not having children is stigmatized while having children is the unquestioned default;
The purpose and joy of living in alignment with our values while simultaneously working in community towards system change.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/zoe-weil

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we explore with environmentalist and author Ashish Kothari how entrenched “development” ideologies have led to an immense loss of traditional knowledge and cultural systems and caused immeasurable ecological destruction in India and globally. Ashish highlights radical alternatives being led by communities in India and around the world who are resisting the dominant capitalist, statist, and patriarchal model of “development” and offering transformative solutions from the ground up that are based in social justice and ecological wisdom. Highlights include:

How the Western model of development in India, combined with colonialism and globalization, led to incalculable social injustice and ecological destruction;
How the elite class within countries reinforces neoliberal and neo-colonial models, exacerbating existing inequalities such as gender and caste;
The concept of radical ecological democracy, as expressed through the Flower of Transformation, the Global Tapestry of Alternatives, Vikalp Sangam (Alternatives Confluence), all of which highlight and connect local community-led radical alternatives of social transformation, ecological restoration, and revival and sustenance of multiple knowledge and cultural systems;
Pathways to authentically engage in the practice of decolonizing knowledge systems and cultural practices to allow for the emergence of social and ecological diversity.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/ashish-kothari

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode we speak with Dr. Clive Spash, an ecological economist who is fundamentally challenging conventional economic paradigms through his development of social ecological economics. His work addresses the intersections of human behavior, environmental values, and economic systems - advocating for a radical transformation towards a more socially and ecologically just world. Highlights include:

A critique of mainstream economics for failing to consider not only ecological and biophysical realities, but also pro-social human behavior and relationships, as well as power hierarchies;
How economists who have completed multiple degrees in economics are found to be particularly closed-minded and resistant to alternative perspectives;
How major environmental NGOs, including The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, and World Wildlife Fund, have been taken over by corporate and neoliberal ideologies;
How prominent advocates of degrowth and alternative economic models, such as Jason Hickel, Tim Jackson, Kate Raworth, and Timothée Parrique, are unwittingly supporting the growth agendas of mainstream economics while also engaging in population denialism;
Why Social Ecological Economics provides a scientific basis for degrowth economics that considers the rights of nature and of people.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/clive-spash

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode we speak with Riane Eisler, a social systems scientist, futurist, cultural historian, attorney, consultant, speaker, and author of many books, including The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations, about how to construct a more equitable, sustainable and less violent world based on partnership rather than domination. Highlights include:

Riane’s childhood experiences of being a Holocaust survivor and living as a refugee in Cuba, which informed her study of contrasting societal models of dominator versus partnership;
How domination systems enforce violence through rigid rankings, while partnership systems reduce abuse through democratic structures;
How gender inequality, pronatalism, and population growth are integral to domination systems, and why engaging in population denial perpetuates hierarchies of domination within the family and within politics;
How partnership model values, such as caregiving and non-violence, were prevalent in pre-historic times and are more conducive to individual human happiness and flourishing;
Why examining past societies' egalitarian models can help us redefine power structures and gender in order to reconstruct models that are relevant in today’s societies.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/riane-eisler

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode we speak with Jo-Anne McArthur, acclaimed animal photojournalist and founder and president of We Animals Media, an organization whose photographers document the lives of unseen and ignored animals caught within human systems of exploitation and oppression. HIghlights of this episode include:

How, motivated by the power of photography to catalyze social change and to raise awareness about animal exploitation, Jo-Anne created a new genre of photojournalism, namely Animal Photo Journalism (APJ);
APJ’s mission to capture, memorialize, and expose the experiences of animals who are caught within the complex human-dominated systems and whom we fail to see - animals within the industrial food systems, animals used for entertainment, such as in circuses, zoos, aquaria, theme parks, and rodeos, and animals used in research;
Jo-Anne’s travels to over 60 countries that catalogue our complex relationship with animals, captured in her three books, We Animals, Captive, and Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene, and her feature role in the acclaimed Canadian documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machines;
inspiring stories of animal advocacy and highlights of the work of women on the front lines, captured in the Unbound project by We Animals Media;
how Jo-Anne manages the emotional impact of documenting animal suffering while staying committed to animal liberation;
and finally, on behalf of our planet which is groaning under the pressure of human dominion, Jo-Anne’s reflection on her personal journey of choosing not to have children, emphasizing the importance of considering alternative and richer ways to express love and fulfillment.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/joanne-mcarthur

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we chat with philosopher and historian Dr. Émile P. Torres about the dystopian fantasies of ecologically-blind tech billionaires – transhumanists, longtermists, and effective altruists – of defying nature, transcending humanity, and colonizing the universe. Highlights of our conversation include:

how transhumanism is built on the idea of creating God-like AI to reengineer humanity to achieve immortality, sustain capitalist growth, and colonize space;
how the effective altruism’s utilitarian approach to philanthropy is not only blind to systemic change, social inequalities, and moral integrity, but it also perpetuates neoliberal ideology that further contributes to inequality and exploitation, e.g. Sam Bankman-Fried’s ‘Earn to Give’ fraud;
the intersection of capitalism, longtermism, and the proliferation of global catastrophic risks in the age of AI, and the ethical implications of unchecked technological progress and environmental destruction;
the stark differences between the indigenous long-term-thinking approach and the impoverished and hubristic longtermism philosophy put forward by William MacAskill and Nick Bostrom, which prioritizes the existence of trillions of future disembodied people living in computer simulations over the suffering of current day people and nonhumans;
their dangerous rhetoric around ‘depopulation panic’ based on the underestimation of environmental destruction and anthropocentrism, and how some people like Malcolm and Simone Collins are repopulating humanity with their own seemingly superior genetic material.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/emile-torres

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode with award-winning author and journalist Alan Weisman, we discuss his 2013 book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? capturing his journey to over 20 countries over five continents to ask what experts agreed were probably the most important questions on Earth, and also the hardest. ‘How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing?’ This wide-ranging and immensely stimulating interview captures how growth-biased cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems are collectively undermining our ability to live within planetary limits, and also offers inspiring examples of people finding ways of better balancing our needs with those of the planet's and humanity's future - examples which could provide ways of imagining how we might better get through this bottleneck century.

We discuss the intended and unintended consequences of the Green Revolution which pushed us grossly beyond Earth’s carrying capacity, while causing irreparable harm to natural ecosystems. Weisman unpacks the ethnic, religious, and political complexities and history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and how pronatalism and ecological overshoot factor into it. We also chat about some of the most successful family planning programs across the world, such as in Iran, Thailand, and Costa Rica, as well as outliers with the worst programs, including in China and India. The controversial role of the Catholic Church in pushing for large families not just across the West, but also in Africa, as well as in shunning the population conversation in environmental conferences, is also highlighted.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/alan-weisman

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode with Dr. Zachary Neal and Dr. Jennifer Watling Neal, we explore their research about the prevalence and characteristics of childfree adults in the US and globally. Despite the fact that people without children make up a significant portion of the population, both nationally in the US (20-25%) and globally, this group remains largely underrepresented in policymaking and demographic surveys. Driven by the desire for more inclusive representation of this group and for more objective demographic reporting, Zak and Jenna’s research tackles the inconsistency across various surveys - both in data collection and data reporting. What sets apart their research from other demographic research is their attempt to create a consistent definition of “childfree” by including specific questions about people’s desire for children rather than their biological capability for having children. Their findings show that among people without children, being voluntarily childfree is significantly more prevalent than being involuntarily childless, which challenges the often alarmist and pronatalist media and demographic narratives.

The underrepresentation of the needs and desires of people without children in real estate planning, which privileges the needs of people with children, is also reflected in their lower levels of satisfaction with their neighborhoods. We also discuss how the combination of market forces and alarmist ‘population crash’ arguments are increasingly influencing demographic research, making it less reliable, and why reproductive choice should never be driven by state or economic forces. Lastly, we chat about how the childfree community can leverage social network theory – by using bonding and bridging ties between childfree and parent individuals – to build stronger child-free social networks and shift societal norms towards greater acceptance of child-free choices.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/zachary-neal-jennifer-watling-neal

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode with bioethicist and moral philosopher Dr. Travis N. Rieder, we discuss his latest book Catastrophe Ethics, in which he explores how individuals can make morally decent choices in a world of confusing and often terrifying problems. We explore the morally exhausting and puzzling nature of modern life in which individual actions can often seem insignificant in the face of massive and complex systems. Rieder offers suggestions on how to overcome this sense of ‘moral dumbfounding’ so that we can better align our actions with our values towards ethical living. Among the small and large individual actions that we discuss, Rieder places a special focus on the ethics of procreation — what he calls monumental ethics — and the degree of moral deliberation that is needed to arrive at the decision to have a biological child. We also discuss the dangers of utilitarian ethics, with a specific focus on Effective Altruism.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/travis-rieder-2

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th, we interviewed Laura Carroll, internationally recognized expert on pronatalism and the childfree choice, who starts by sharing highlights from her latest book A Special Sisterhood: 100 Fascinating Women From History Who Never had Children. We also unpack her book The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World, in which she busts the many pervasively pronatalist assumptions that people have to navigate while deciding whether or not to have children, and the effects of those decisions on people and planet. While laying out each of the assumptions, Laura offers alternative perspectives that elevate reproductive autonomy — such that parenthood and non-parenthood are equally acceptable options, and reproductive responsibility — a consideration of the wellbeing of potential child(ren) and the planet. She also shares important strategies on how to respond to pronatalist pressures from family and friends in as loving a way as possible, while staying grounded in our own knowledge and truth.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/laura-carroll-2

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this interview with freelance writer Christopher Ketcham, we unpack the techno-industrial extractivism that plagues modern societies and the media’s complicity in failing to challenge the growth model on which it is based. We discuss Chris’ book This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption Are Ruining the American West in which he outlines the environmental destruction caused by unregulated public lands livestock grazing, corruptly supported by the federal land management agencies, who are supposed to be regulating these industries. He tracks the Department of Interior’s failure to implement and enforce the Endangered Species Act and investigates the destructive behavior of U.S. Wildlife Services in their shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry.

We also chat about the green growth ideology behind the lithium mining at Thacker Pass in Nevada which is driving the destruction of ecosystems and species as well as the displacement of local Indian tribes from what they consider to be their sacred lands. This same ideology, combined with the failure to acknowledge and reckon with the realities of ecological overshoot, has caused many leading environmental groups to abandon their commitment to nature conservation in order to prioritize industry interests. Chris’ vision of ecological restoration calls for freeing the trampled, denuded ecosystems from the effects of grazing, enforcing the laws already in place to defend biodiversity, allowing the native species of the West to recover under a fully implemented Endangered Species Act, and establishing vast stretches of public land where there will be no development at all, not even for recreation.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/christopher-ketcham

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this interview with award-winning science journalist Angela Saini, based on her bold and radical book The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule, we explore the roots and complex history of how patriarchy first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present. Angela discusses how gendered roles, pronatalism, and militarism – key features of patriarchies – are very recent phenomena, which emerged with the rise of the early states and empires, with pressure on women to have many children for the state and on men to defend the state. By detailing the diversity of human arrangements, including the prevalence of egalitarian and matrilineal societies around the world – past and present – Angela reveals that male-supremacy is neither natural nor immutable. However, she notes that as long as nation states remain committed to valuing productivity and growth – primarily by maintaining control over women’s reproduction and over nature – achieving gender equality and ecological justice will remain illusory goals, even in the most progressive nations.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/angela-saini

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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When and why did population become a dirty word? And why are so many people shamed for advocating for population reduction? Despite innumerable scientific studies showing the impact of human overpopulation and overconsumption on mounting social and ecological catastrophes, including climate change, biodiversity destruction, ocean acidification, resource scarcity, and conflict, most policymakers, journalists, and academics are too afraid to discuss population. In this episode with political theorist and feminist scholar, Dr. Diana Coole, we unpack the history of the toxification of the population discourse over the last 30 years and the dire social and ecological consequences that this silencing has unleashed.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/diana-coole

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we chat with Asher Miller and Rob Dietz of the Post Carbon Institute about their latest report "Welcome to the Great Unraveling", which explores ways to navigate the environmental and social breakdown resulting from multiple intersecting crises. Recognizing human supremacy and overshoot as the drivers of the polycrisis, we discuss the threat of increased polarization, techno-solutionism, conflict, and suffering as the situation worsens. We speak about the need to grapple with complexity, uncertainty, and conflicting priorities, while maintaining social cohesion within societies and peaceful relations between them. Seeking wisdom and knowledge from communities who have experienced collapse and suffering, in order to build household and community resilience for this precarious time, can help us imagine a more hopeful future.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/asher-miller-rob-dietz

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The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Dr. Hope Ferdowsian, president of Phoenix Zones Initiatives (PZI) and a public health physician, discusses how she and her colleagues are working to dismantle the roots of oppression, exploitation, and domination harming humans and non-humans. She highlights the physical and psychological suffering and harm that animals face in food production and in research labs, and how this systematic exploitation of animals is linked to violence and conflict globally. These same systems, propped up through powerful lobbying efforts by corporate elites, also contribute to global issues like hunger, malnutrition, species extinction, climate change, and infectious diseases.

Using ethics-based policy interventions within academia, public health, and intergovernmental organizations, PZI is working to transform these systems. Hope highlights the “phoenix effect” she has witnessed among human and nonhuman survivors of severe suffering who have rebounded, recovered, and healed. She shares how as practitioners and advocates of social and ecological justice we can cultivate the strength and resilience needed to facilitate that transformation for ourselves and for those in need.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/hope-ferdowsian

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We chat with population ecologist, co-creator of the ecological footprint analysis, and one of the world’s best big-picture ecological thinkers, Dr. Bill Rees. Bill explains how our blind faith in human exceptionalism, technological optimism, and neoliberal economics fooled us into disregarding ecological limits and brought us into a state of extreme overshoot. These same false stories enabled humans to use cheap abundant energy to convert nature and nonhumans into human artifacts, and rich nations to exploit the resources of other countries, while degrading the biophysical basis of existence. Continuing on this trajectory but with green-tinted glasses will be catastrophic. Nothing short of a co-operative, well-planned, orderly contraction of the human enterprise – economic activity, production, consumption, and population – is needed to align with Earth’s productive and assimilative capacity. But, as Bill concludes – that which is “ecologically necessary is politically infeasible, while the politically feasible is ecologically catastrophic”. Can communities like ours, rooted in ecological wisdom and natural limits, act as lifeboats paddling strongly away from the eddies of the sinking Titanic to prepare for a post-industrial world?

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/william-rees-2

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Dr. Kevin Bales, world-renowned expert on contemporary global slavery, shines a light on the human rights violations and ecocidal impacts of modern day slavery, which tragically still exists in much of the world today. Dr. Bales discusses the history of slavery, from ancient civilizations to modern times, highlighting how it has evolved over time, including the role that population growth, patriarchal pronatalism, religion, political regimes, global and local economies, and conflict play in perpetuating it. With practices such as debt bondage, forced marriage, and labor exploitation, modern enslavement is often difficult to identify as it is often camouflaged within cultural and linguistic norms and policies. He also illuminates the disproportionate environmental impact resulting from global slavery, in terms of CO2 emissions, destruction of natural habitats, and decimation of non-human species populations. He concludes the interview by highlighting the support needed to end this practice, and sharing his joyful experiences of helping thousands of individuals transition from slavery to freedom.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/kevin-bales

ABOUT US The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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Japan-based feminist scholar, Dr. Isabel Fassbender, discusses her new book, Active Pursuit of Pregnancy: Neoliberalism, Postfeminism and the Politics of Reproduction in Contemporary Japan, and how a toxic mix of patriarchy, biomedical capitalism, and nationalism has emerged in response to Japan’s slightly declining population.

As a country whose ecological footprint is nearly 8 times its biocapacity, and whose citizens chronically suffer from a culture of overwork and socio-economic and political disempowerment, Japan should be welcoming a decline in its population. However, in keeping with its lowest rank on the gender equality index among industrialized countries, Japan has instead created a sense of panic around the declining birth rate, and has employed a series of exploitative tactics to compel Japanese women to produce more babies.

By joining forces with the multi-billion dollar fertility industry, Japanese politicians have infiltrated the mass media and the education system to teach young women about the importance of family and reproduction; meanwhile, the quality of sex education, abortion provision, and reproductive rights remain abysmally poor. Isabel is empowering her college students to think critically about these rigid gender and pronatalist norms and to become politically engaged to confront them.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/isabel-fassbender

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this interview with Dr. Camilo Mora, widely acclaimed professor and award-winning researcher, we discuss the impacts of human activity on climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, and pandemics, and how to move past population denial to grapple with our compounding crises. Dr. Mora shares his firsthand experience of the direct impact of population pressures he has experienced in Colombia, including the loss of biodiversity, worsening of poverty, and the erasure of traditional cultural wisdom. He also talks about the pitfalls of setting up “protected areas” for biodiversity conservation in the Global South, and why population reduction is the most effective pathway forward for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/camilo-mora

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We chat with environmental and procreative ethicist Dr. Trevor Hedberg about his recent book The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation, and the ethical implications of bringing new life into existence, both in terms of the risk of harm to which the child is subjected, but also the environmental impact that it has on the planet. We also discuss the role that pronatalism plays in influencing procreative decision-making, and why the right to found a family must be balanced with the rights of others to not be harmed, while also rejecting antinatalism and misanthropy. We conclude by discussing the moral imperative for population reduction in order to reduce unnecessary suffering to people and other species, and Dr. Hedberg shares some of his ideas on rights-based policy strategies.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/trevor-hedberg

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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What happens when we renounce our ego and allow nature to become our teacher? We talk with rainforest conservationist and educator Suprabha Seshan about her incredible efforts to protect and restore the forest at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Kerala, India. Suprabha shares with us her decades of work which has involved the integration of scientific and traditional practices, understanding the complex conditions in which plants exist and relate to each other, and how human societies can exist in harmony with this diversity. She sees the botanical sanctuary as providing an ‘ark’ for the endangered plants of the Western Ghats biome from the ‘flood’ of human expansionism, and the remarkable ways in which rewilding can offer a refuge to the remaining exuberance of life, including ourselves.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/suprabha-seshan

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We chat with Andrew Kyamagero, an award-winning Ugandan journalist and family-planning advocate, about the interaction of population dynamics, family planning, and male involvement in the promotion of gender equity within Uganda. Because of his incredible efforts to enhance gender equity and healthcare delivery across the country, Andrew has been appointed by the Ugandan Ministry of Health as the National Family Planning and Male Involvement Champion. We discuss the role of patriarchy in driving the high fertility rates, high rates of child marriage and teenage pregnancy, and low rates of education and female labour force participation in Uganda. We also discuss the role of Western imperialism, past and present, in undermining Uganda’s attempts at becoming a sovereign nation. Andrew highlights his unique work in engaging boys and men to confront patriarchy and pronatalism as an important strategy to complement the empowerment of girls and women in order to achieve true gender equality and sustainability in the country.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/andrew-kyamagero

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In honor of World Population Day, we are joined by Robert Engelman, researcher, writer, and former newspaper reporter on environmental, demographic, reproductive health and gender-related topics. Through his deep learning experiences over three decades at leading environmental, journalism, and population organizations, Bob shines a light on the intimate links between reproductive autonomy and planetary health, which were also the subject of his seminal 2008 book, More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want. We discuss the fascinating trends over the last 10,000 years that have led to the progressive diminishment of women’s reproductive rights, and the accompanying growth in population and environmental degradation. We also discuss the positive trend towards gender equality and the subsequent reduction in fertility rates over the last century, and the concerted efforts that are needed to sustain and accelerate that trend for the sake of reproductive and ecological justice.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/robert-engelman

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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What happens when we stop treating people and the planet like they're here to serve the economy and start treating the economy like it's here to serve us by putting our fundamental needs for Dignity, Nature, Purpose, Fairness and Participation at the core of its activities? We are joined by Amanda Janoo, Economics and Policy Lead at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance where we unpack the fundamentals behind the Wellbeing Economy. Through clear examples and policy strategies, Janoo illustrates the cultural and metaphysical transformation that can occur within communities when social and ecological wellbeing become our primary goals. We also discuss the work of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance in leading the collaboration of organisations, alliances, movements and individuals working to transform the economic system.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcasts/amanda-janoo

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance executive director Nandita Bajaj, researcher Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We are joined by Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University, and a world-renowned earth scientist, historian and public speaker. Using her latest book that she co-authored with Erik M. Conway, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loath Government and Love the Free Market as the basis of our conversation, she explains how free-market fundamentalism has had a long history of undermining democracy and exploiting marginalized communities to benefit a small minority of elites. We also discuss the role that libertarian, techno-fundamentalist, and Catholic anti-choice think tanks such as the Cato Institute, Foundation for Economic Education, the Breakthrough Institute, and Population Research Institute have played in fueling anti-Science propaganda on overpopulation denialism, and why these forces must be vehemently opposed for a more just and sustainable planet.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcasts/naomi-oreskes

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We are joined in this episode by Richard Heinberg, one of the world’s foremost experts on energy and sustainability. Using his latest book, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival as the basis of our conversation, we unpack how humans have come to overpower Earth's natural systems and oppress one another and how we might address this. Richard challenges the techno-utopian absurdity of “green growth” and explains how unfettered human expansionism, even with a “green” tint, is incompatible with natural limits. We discuss how we might deliberately rein in our power, starting with an urgent transition away from fossil fuels, and move from a culture of unabated growth toward a culture of sufficiency, simplicity, and resilience.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcasts/richard-heinberg

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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If autonomy is a basic human right, why do many women have little or no choice when it comes to motherhood? Do women know they have a choice? Why roles do patriarchy, religion, and the free market play in institutionalizing marriage and motherhood, and what influence does that have on women's lives and identities? And how might we reimagine the widest sense of family-making and spiritual kinship that includes our love for all humans and more-than-humans? These are some of the questions we explore in this episode with Dr. Amrita Nandy, India-based feminist, research, and writer and author of the book Motherhood and Choice: Uncommon Mothers, Childfree Women.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/amrita-nandy

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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To counteract the increasingly alarmist fears of population decline, we have a sobering conversation with population economist and author of the book, Decline and Prosper! Changing Global Birth Rates and the Advantages of Fewer Children, Dr. Vegard Skirbekk. Dr. Skirbekk takes us through decades of demographic research to lay to rest apocalyptic forecasts and insecurities around exploding healthcare costs, high shares of people dependent on others for care and economic support, labor shortages, and economic and cultural stagnation, and explains why instead a declining birth rate is not only a positive trend but one that can lead to more prosperity. Dr. Skirbekk provides key ideas on how governments can and should embrace and adapt to an aging population through citizen-centered policies and attitudes.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/vegard-skirbekk

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We are joined by ecologist and author Carl Safina, whose writing explores the human relationship with the natural world. We discuss how human supremacy keeps us from appreciating the incredible beauty and complexity of other creatures, and has led to the diminishment of most wild beings and places. Carl's work fuses scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action; he sees that the durability of human dignity and survival of the natural world will depend on each other; we cannot preserve the wild unless we preserve human dignity, and we cannot preserve human dignity while continuing to degrade nature.

See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:

https://www.populationbalance.org/carl-safina

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this illuminating episode, we talk with Dr. Kristyn Brandi, an Obstetrician-Gynecologist, proud abortion provider, and board chair with Physicians for Reproductive Health, where she debunks the “biological clock” among other pronatalist myths and shares how the medical institution in one of many that fuels pronatalism. We also discuss what the overturning of Roe v Wade means in terms of safe abortion care for the already marginalized communities, including BIPOC, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and those living in poverty, within the U.S.. We end the conversation by unpacking the dark history of reproductive control, including slavery, eugenics, and population control, and why centering reproductive autonomy through a deep understanding of Critical Race Theory (CRT), Reproductive Justice (RJ), and pronatalism, is essential to upholding reproductive rights and a sustainable environment.

See episode website for show notes and links:

https://www.populationbalance.org/dr-kristyn-brandi

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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We were scheduled to speak with Dr. Helen Kopnina and Dr. Haydn Washington on December 16th when this episode was recorded. We are very sad to report that Haydn died on December 10th after a battle with cancer. We are grateful to be joined by his friend and colleague, Helen, and we dedicate this episode to the memory of Haydn Washington.

Highlights of this episode include:

Helen’s tribute to Haydn and his uncompromising commitment to sustainability and justice
The definition of ecocentrism and Helen’s personal introduction to an eco-centric worldview through nature’s healing power
Helen’s personal experiences of living in Soviet Union, the US, Europe, and India and how those informed her views on degrowth and sustainability
The social and ecological costs of population denialism, and the loss of academic integrity on this topic
A recognition of our need to unite efforts across the different liberation movements in order to maximize our impacts against systems of oppression

See episode website for show notes and links:

https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-85-helen-kopnina

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode, we speak with deep and integrative thinker and writer Jeremy Lent, whose work integrates science and traditional wisdom to lay out a solid foundation for a life-affirming worldview of deep interconnectedness. By dismantling the dominant narrative that we are machines driven by selfishness and competition, Jeremy helps us reconsider our human identity in the context of the deep intelligence and cooperativeness that animates life both within and around us. Such a recognition behooves us to drop the veil of supremacy that keeps us separate from the rest of nature and to embrace a path in which we can participate in changing the course from that of potential collapse to one of regenerating the Earth for symbiotic flourishing.

See episode website for show notes and links:

https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-84-jeremy-lent

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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While those of us without children are frequently warned of the possibility of regretting their absence, a story we don’t often hear is of the parents who regret having children. In this episode with Israeli sociologist Dr. Orna Donath, we unpack her groundbreaking work on this highly stigmatized topic of motherhood regret. Orna helps us understand the distinctions between ambivalence and regret, as well as non-natalism and anti-natalism.

We also discuss her thoughts on the stringent control that society has over our emotions and actions, specifically as they relate to procreative decisions. From voluntary childlessness to the influence of neoliberalism on feminist thought, we end with reflection on how pronatalism is inherently oppressive and a cause for much confusion and suffering for parents and non-parents alike, while also being ecologically destructive.

See episode website for show notes and links:

https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-83-orna-donath

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode with world renowned economist Sir Partha Dasgupta, we are taken on a journey of how the current growth-based economic models came to be, and why their Nature-destructive policies have turned our planet into a house of cards. We unpack Sir Partha’s most recent publication The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review from 2021, a 600-page study that was commissioned by the UK Government, which examines the economic benefits of biodiversity and the cost of losing it.

He also explains how he arrived at his approximation of 3.2 billion as a sustainable human population at a decent standard of living, and how using a behavioral economics approach, we can achieve such a goal. Dasgupta ends off by appealing to social scientists to embrace an integrative approach to academic thinking that is not encumbered by political correctness, which has led to such widespread denialism of the population factor and, as a result, a perilous situation for us and the rest of the planet.

See episode website for show notes and links: https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-82-partha-dasgupta

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode with world renowned economist Sir Partha Dasgupta, we are taken on a journey of how the current growth-based economic models came to be, and why their Nature-destructive policies have turned our planet into a house of cards. We unpack Sir Partha’s most recent publication The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review from 2021, a 600-page study that was commissioned by the UK Government, which examines the economic benefits of biodiversity and the cost of losing it.

He also explains how he arrived at his approximation of 3.2 billion as a sustainable human population at a decent standard of living, and how using a behavioral economics approach, we can achieve such a goal. Dasgupta ends off by appealing to social scientists to embrace an integrative approach to academic thinking that is not encumbered by political correctness, which has led to such widespread denialism of the population factor and, as a result, a perilous situation for us and the rest of the planet.

See episode website for show notes and links: https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-82-partha-dasgupta

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions. Learn more here: https://www.populationbalance.org/

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In this episode with Robert Jensen, retired journalism professor, prolific author, and life-long social and environmental justice advocate, we discuss his latest book “An Inconvenient Apocalypse: Environmental Collapse, Climate Crisis, and the Fate of Humanity” that he co-authored with his colleague and elder, and The Land Institute’s co-founder Wes Jackson. Against the backdrop of cascading ecological and social crises of subjugation of people and nature under the dominion of patriarchy, capitalism, imperialism, and anthropocentrism, we engage in a humbling dialogue about what it would mean for us to grapple with difficult questions and to consciously embrace limits, as a pathway to a more graceful and meaningful co-existence with one another and with Nature.

See episode website for show notes and links:https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-81-robert-jensen

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions.

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We are joined in this episode by Bill Ryerson, founder and long-time leader of one of the most effective sustainable population organizations in the world—Population Media Center.

A nonprofit leader internationally for the past two decades, Population Media Center's TV and radio shows have promoted important social and cultural changes and have helped 500 million people in more than 50 countries.

Bill discusses the inspiration for PMC’s groundbreaking edu-entertainment—the Sabido-Bandura method, a combination Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory—that people learn from role models whose behavior they wish to emulate, and Miguel Sabido’s serialized dramas that make use of such role models through mass media.

We also hear about some of the most uplifting success stories Bill has witnessed over his 50-year long career in the field, as well as PMC’s exciting future plans. As someone who, along with his wife, chose not to have children decades before the childfree choice was popular, we are excited to also add Bill to our “Celebrating the Childfree Choice” https://www.populationbalance.org/choosing-childfree page!

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions.

Find us here: Population Balance https://www.populationbalance.org/

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Population Media Center https://www.populationmedia.org
Miguel Sabido https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Sabido
Albert Bandura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bandura
Dr. Paul D. McLean - Triune brain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triune_brain
Indian Serialized Drama: Hum Log https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hum_Log_(television_series)
Book: India’s Communication Revolution https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/indias-communication-revolution/book220657
PREP: Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program https://prepinc.com
PMC’s Crossing the Line Podcast https://www.populationmedia.org/news/crossing-the-line-a-new-podcast-from-east-los-high-creator-population-media-center-about-reproductive-freedom
Dr. Brian C. O'Neill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_C._O%27Neill
Episode 79: Dr. Eileen Crist https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-79-eileen-crist
Episode 76: Dr. Sarah Conly https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-76-is-too-much-autonomy-bad-for-us
Episode 74: Dr. S. Y. Quraishi https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-74-tackling-islamophobic-population-myths
Share Your Thoughts With Us https://www.populationbalance.org/contact-us
Support this Podcast https://www.populationbalance.org/donate

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In this enlightening interview with Dr. Eileen Crist—a deep, profound, and compassionate systems thinker—we are led through a journey on how to reframe our relationship to the planet for a more harmonious co-existence with all life on earth.

We discuss the biodiversity crisis and destruction of wild places, pathways to halt these trends, and ways forward toward creating an ecological civilization. Dr. Crist shines a light on the worldview of human supremacy that foregrounds our relationship of dominion towards non-human animals and all of nature, and the role that human expansionism plays in driving a multitude of ecological crises.

She concludes the discussion with a grounded, yet inspiring vision of how to protect this incredible life-giving planet by shifting our language, our identities, and our actions—through pulling back and scaling down—so that we are more in alignment with our indigenous-inspired roles as Earthlings.

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions.

Find us here: Population Balance https://www.populationbalance.org/

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

About Eileen Crist https://eileencrist.com/
Population Balance Board of Directors https://populationbalance.squarespace.com/our-team
Abundant Earth: Toward An Ecological Civilization https://www.amazon.com/Abundant-Earth-Toward-Ecological-Civilization/dp/022659680X
Earth Tongues: Publications by Eileen Crist https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/author.php?id=au14
Val Plumwood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_Plumwood
Derrick Jensen: The Myth of Human Supremacy https://derrickjensen.org/myth-of-human-supremacy/
Nature Paper: Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3010-5
Scientific American article: Human-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-made-stuff-now-outweighs-all-life-on-earth/
Our World in Data: Meat and Dairy Production https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production
Podcast Episode 77: Dr. Paul Ehrlich https://www.populationbalance.org/episode-77-paul-ehrlich
Share Your Thoughts With Us https://www.populationbalance.org/contact-us
Join Our Monthly Podcast Club https://www.populationbalance.org/join-our-meetup
Support this Podcast https://populationbalance.squarespace.com/donate

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Affectionately known in Thailand as “Mr. Condom”, one of TIME Magazine’s “Asian Heroes”, and the winner of many awards including the United Nations Gold Peace Medal and the Bill and Melinda Gates Award for Global Health, today’s guest Mechai Viravaidya is the founder and chair of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA). Using creativity, humor, and unassailability in finding partners and allies, Mechai championed the most successful family-planning, AIDS prevention, and poverty reduction programs ever known. Through his innovative efforts, Mechai not only brought prosperity to millions by helping to lower the Thai Total Fertility Rate (TFR) from 7 to under 2 within decades, but also was responsible for preventing upwards of 10 million AIDS-related deaths. He now runs some of the world’s most successful social enterprises, including the UN-endorsed Mechai Bamboo Schools, the goal of which is to use schools as a hub for education, community projects, and citizen-engagement.

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the intersectional impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions.

Find us here: Population Balance

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

About Mechai Viravaidya
Mechai Viravaidya Foundation
Population and Community Development Association (PDA)
UNFPA: In Thailand, an innovative school provides a safe space – and a foundation for life
TED Talk: How Mr. Condom made Thailand a better place for life and love
Planned Parenthood Association of Thailand
Episode 66: Pronatalism and Overpopulation - Challenging the Social Pressures to Procreate
Episode 70: Understanding The Right To Have Children
Episode 71: The Not-So-Selfish Choice To Be Childfree
Share Your Thoughts With Us
Join Our Monthly Podcast Club
Support this Podcast

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To commemorate the 32nd World Population Day on July 11, 2022, we are honored to be joined by the legendary Paul Ehrlich, who also celebrates his 90th birthday this year. Author of over 40 books, including the best-selling book The Population Bomb, published in 1968, Dr. Ehrlich was made more famous by numerous appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson - the largest late night show in the 1960’s and 70’s.

We got the rare opportunity to chat with him about his decades-long career in sustainable population advocacy, his studies on natural butterfly populations, as well as his interest in cultural evolution with respect to environmental ethics. We delved into:

the need to end the unhelpful consumption vs. population debate
optimal population size and wealth redistribution for a decent standard of living for all
the ethics of nation states and borders
rights to nature
the threat of a nuclear war
the impacts of the agricultural revolution on the human jaw
the maddening rate of planetary degradation and biodiversity loss
a variety of urgent solutions that must be undertaken

ABOUT US

The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations between Population Balance Executive Director Nandita Bajaj, cohost Alan Ware, and expert guests. We cover a broad variety of topics that explore the impacts of our expanding human footprint on human rights, animal protection, and environmental restoration, as well as individual and collective solutions.

Find us here: Population Balance

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich - Publications
Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior (MAHB)
Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
Episode 75 Dr. Kimya Nuru Dennis: The Unique Challenges of Being Black and Childfree
Ms. Magazine article by Nandita Bajaj: Abortion Bans Are a Natural Outgrowth of Coercive Pronatalism
Aldo Leopold
Herman Daly
A Finnish phenomenon: Where students learn how to ask, not only answer, questions
Robert L. Carneiro The Circumscription Theory
Book - Jaws: The Story of a Hidden Epidemic Sandra Kahn and Paul R. Ehrlich
Optimum human population size Gretchen C. Daily, Anne H. Ehrlich & Paul R. Ehrlich
Returning to “Normal”? Evolutionary Roots of the Human Prospect Paul R Ehrlich, Anne H Ehrlich
Population Media Center
Share Your Thoughts With Us
Join Our Monthly Podcast Club
Support this Podcast

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Philosopher and ethicist, Sarah Conly explains why the concept of absolute individual autonomy is flawed, and why in most cases, having too much autonomy can actually be harmful for us, both personally and collectively. We also discuss the different methods of external societal guidance to encourage a positive change in beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours, such as education, behavioural nudges, and coercive paternalism. She argues that in light of our current ecological predicament, we do not have a moral right to have more than one biological child, and why we must balance procreative autonomy with procreative responsibility.

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In this interview with community advocate, sociologist and criminologist, educator, and researcher, Dr. Kimya Nuru Dennis (Keem-ya New-ru Dennis), we discuss the findings of her research on the Black childfree diaspora in countries around the world, as well as the unique challenges of being Black and childfree. We also touch upon the role that patriarchy and male domination plays in the relative powerlessness of women to take control over their reproduction, especially in BIPOC and LGBTQIA communities. Dr. Dennis ends off by discussing the need to have uncomfortable and real conversations in order to engage in authentic equity and justice work.

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Former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr. S.Y. Quraishi discusses his latest book The Population Myth: Islam, Politics, and Family Planning in India. Dr. Quraishi debunks the myth around exaggerated fears of Muslim numbers, born out of right-wing Islamophobic political propaganda, while also sharing that the lack of socio-economic empowerment rather than religiosity fuels higher fertility rates.

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Columbian-born American award-winning Family and Reproductive Health Specialist, Dr. Esgar Guarín (goo-ah-reen) talks about his journey that led him to becoming a full-time vasectomist. Using a mobile vasectomy clinic as his advocacy vehicle to drive around the US spreading humor and activism, while offering free on-site mobile vasectomies, Dr. G is on a mission to help destigmatize male reproductive responsibility for the love of their partners and the planet.

In this episode, we discuss the simplicity of a non-scalpel out-patient vasectomy procedure, the statistics and stigma surrounding sterlization, and the need to reclaim the procedure for reproductive liberation and responsibility.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

World Vasectomy Day
Dr. Esgar Guarin
Simple Vas Vasectomy Clinic
Dr. Michel Labrecque, Quebec
Interview with Dr. Li Shunqiang, the originator of no-scalpel vasectomy
No-Scalpel Vasectomy International, Inc. - The Philippines

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance.

We offer education and solutions to address the impacts of human overpopulation and overconsumption on the planet, people, and animals. We do this by: empowering people to make liberated and informed family choices free from the pervasive forces of pronatalism that pressure us into having children; advocating for a radical shift in our relationship to animals and the rest of the natural world—from that of dominion to one of reverence and stewardship; challenging unjust and growth-driven cultural, political, and economic systems that exploit marginalized human communities and threaten all life on earth.

Join co-hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, along with guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Podcast Club

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Support Us

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Biodiversity scientist, collaborative team-builder, conflict-resolver, global change scientist and policy strategist and CEO of STable Planet Alliance, Dr. Phoebe Barnard is on a mission to bend the curve on population and consumption. With decades of experience working in South Africa and Namibia, and as the lead author of the World Scientists' Warnings Into Action: Local to Global paper, Phoebe discusses the importance of moving beyond dichotomous thinking and rallying together leaders from communities across faith, science, and activism to urgently take actions to protect our incredible spaceship Earth - with humility, love, and deep collaboration.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Stable Planet Alliance
World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency
World Scientists' Warnings into Action, Local to Global
Girl Planet. Earth
Population Conversations
A Planet of 3 Billion
UN 2020 Decade on Restoration
Homeward Bound Women’s Leadership
Christopher Tucker: Part 1 - How Many of Us Can Earth Support?
Christopher Tucker: Part 2 - Sex, Religion, Politics, & Overpopulation

Share Your Thoughts With Us

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance.

We offer education and solutions to address the impacts of human overpopulation and overconsumption on the planet, people, and animals. We do this by: empowering people to make liberated and informed family choices free from the pervasive forces of pronatalism that pressure us into having children; advocating for a radical shift in our relationship to animals and the rest of the natural world—from that of dominion to one of reverence and stewardship; challenging unjust and growth-driven cultural, political, and economic systems that exploit marginalized human communities and threaten all life on earth.

Join co-hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, along with guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Podcast Club

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Support Us

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Award-winning filmmaker Therese Shechter discusses her new paradigm shifting documentary film My So-Called Selfish Life about one of our greatest social taboos: choosing not to become a mother. At a time when reproductive rights are increasingly under threat due to growth-driven pro-natalist population policies, Therese shines a light on these oppressive unspoken but powerful cultural narratives that seek to maintain control over women’s minds, bodies, and their imagined life stories. We also discuss the need to promote a broader conception of the word 'family', childfree dating, and ways to host a film screening in your own community.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Film - My So-Called Selfish Life Film
NBC Article - Remembering Betty White as 'America's grandmother' highlights a double standard
The Globe and Mail Article: Pope Francis’s criticism of childless couples hurts parents and nonparents alike
Small-Footprint Families
Childfree Convention Facebook Page
Childfree Convention YouTube Page
Book - Pronatalism: The Myth of Mom & Apple Pie
Book - The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World
Graduate Course - Pronatalism and Overpopulation: The Personal, Cultural, and Global Implications of Having a Child

Share Your Thoughts With Us

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance.

We offer education and solutions to address the impacts of human overpopulation and overconsumption on the planet, people, and animals. We do this by: empowering people to make liberated and informed family choices free from the pervasive forces of pronatalism that pressure us into having children; advocating for a radical shift in our relationship to animals and the rest of the natural world—from that of dominion to one of reverence and stewardship; challenging unjust and growth-driven cultural, political, and economic systems that exploit marginalized human communities and threaten all life on earth.

Join co-hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, along with guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Legal scholar and ethicist Carter Dillard elegantly argues why the act of having children is interpersonal rather than personal, and shares his vision for a just and sustainable society in which each child is brought into this world in a manner that ensures they have an ecologically and socially fair start in life.

His model seeks to replace the dysfunctional parent-focused model created by governments to ensure population growth and evade collective responsibility to invest in kids. He discusses why the rights to have children must be balanced with the obligations towards these children, as well as to the rest of the living world - both current and future.

Mentioned in this Episode

Fair Start Movement https://fairstartmovement.org/ Justice as a Fair Start in Life: Understanding the Right to Have Children https://www.elivapress.com/en/book/book-2237832918/ Population Media Center https://www.populationmedia.org/ The theory heard 'round the world (Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory) https://www.apa.org/monitor/oct02/theory Complaint with UN Human Rights Council https://fairstartmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Art-16-Filing-Oct-2021.pdf

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance.

We offer education and solutions to address the impacts of human overpopulation and overconsumption on the planet, people, and animals. We do this by: empowering people to make liberated and informed family choices free from the pervasive forces of pronatalism that pressure us into having children; advocating for a radical shift in our relationship to animals and the rest of the natural world—from that of dominion to one of reverence and stewardship; challenging unjust and growth-driven cultural, political, and economic systems that exploit marginalized human communities and threaten all life on earth.

Join co-hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, along with guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Michael Bayliss from Sustainable Population Australia shares his vision for a post-growth society that is rooted in a background in economics, on-the-ground town-planning advocacy, tangible conversations with stakeholders, indigenous consultation, experiential awareness, spirituality, compassion, and love. Michael also discusses how being childfree, vegan, and minimalist offers him existential reprieve and allows him to maximize his advocacy in service of our beautiful planet and all its sacred inhabitants.

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance.

We offer education and solutions to address the impacts of human overpopulation and overconsumption on the planet, people, and animals. We do this by: empowering people to make liberated and informed family choices free from the pervasive forces of pronatalism that pressure us into having children; advocating for a radical shift in our relationship to animals and the rest of the natural world—from that of dominion to one of reverence and stewardship; challenging unjust and growth-driven cultural, political, and economic systems that exploit marginalized human communities and threaten all life on earth.

Join co-hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, along with guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

View Details

Sarah Baillie and Kelley Dennings from The Center for Biological Diversity share their exciting initiatives and advocacy work on destigmatizing sex, contraception, and reproductive decisions. They also share the state of the sex ed curriculum across the states in the US, as well as their important work on awareness campaigns relating to population and consumption pressures on biodiversity.

Nandita Bajaj welcomes long-time staff member of Population Balance, Alan Ware, as her new co-host, and they discuss the recent news about the rising levels of climate anxiety among youth around the world, and how our current predicament impacts intergenerational justice.

Mentioned in This Episode

Today’s youth will face ‘unmatched’ climate extremes compared to older generations

https://www.carbonbrief.org/todays-youth-will-face-unmatched-climate-extremes-compared-to-older-generations

Four in 10 young people fear having children due to climate crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/14/four-in-10-young-people-fear-having-children-due-to-climate-crisis

New Coalition of Organizations Calls for Sustainable Family Planning In Face of Climate Crisis

https://www.populationbalance.org/news

Women on Their Choice To Be Child-Free

https://msmagazine.com/2021/09/24/child-free-women-no-kids-contraception-birth-control/

Birds and the Bees: The Need for Sex Ed Curriculum Updates

https://msmagazine.com/2021/08/12/back-to-school-comprehensive-sex-ed-curriculum/

Stop Panicking—There Are a Lot of Positives to the Baby Bust

https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/15/baby-bust-positives-declining-birth-rate-covid-population-growth-earth-overshoot-day/

The Fight for Reproductive Health Care Is a Fight for Human Rights

https://msmagazine.com/2020/11/18/contraception-birth-control-the-fight-for-reproductive-health-care-is-a-fight-for-human-rights/

Reproductive Justice is Climate Justice: Why I’m Celebrating My IUD This Earth Day

https://msmagazine.com/2018/04/20/reproductive-justice-climate-justice-im-celebrating-iud-earth-day/

SIECUS - Sex Ed For Social Change

https://siecus.org/sex-ed-is-a-vehicle-for-social-change/

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance.

We offer education and solutions to address the impacts of human overpopulation and overconsumption on the planet, people, and animals. We do this by: empowering people to make liberated and informed family choices free from the pervasive forces of pronatalism that pressure us into having children; advocating for a radical shift in our relationship to animals and the rest of the natural world—from that of dominion to one of reverence and stewardship; challenging unjust and growth-driven cultural, political, and economic systems that exploit marginalized human communities and threaten all life on earth.

Join co-hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware, along with guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Physician turned documentarian Sofia Pineda Ochoa explains why she is taking our society to task for ignoring the peril of human overpopulation. Habitat destruction, species extinction, and animal agriculture top the list of topics. Human numbers are the root of the problem. “Can’t we talk about something that’s so obvious and undeniable?” asks Ochoa.

Co-host Nandita Bajaj also shares a name change and updated mission, plus a new tag line, “shrink toward abundance.” World Population Balance is now Population Balance, and the web address is now populationbalance.org. Also, we announce that co-host Dave Gardner is leaving the podcast. Listen in for all the details.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Population Balance Board of advisors
https://www.populationbalance.org/boa

We Need to Talk About Overpopulation: An Interview with Nandita Bajaj
https://humaneeducation.org/we-need-to-talk-about-overpopulation-an-interview-with-nandita-bajaj/

Endgame 2050 documentary
https://youtu.be/o8YomEOExkc

MeatYourFuture
https://meatyourfuture.com/

3 recent videos by Sofia Pineda Ochoa

Humanity's Land-Grab Disasterhttps://youtu.be/D9rSeKFcx18

Vanishing Insects Spell Trouble for Humanshttps://youtu.be/bCUFTYuABhg

The Betrayal of Ignoring Human Overpopulationhttps://youtu.be/SHTeCHKGh7w

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by Population Balance. We make the connections between overpopulation and the many vexing issues of the day. We make it possible for individuals and couples to make more fully informed and carefully considered family-size decisions. Smaller families are key to achieving a sustainable population and creating a more resilient and beautiful future.

Overpopulation is one of the two main drivers of resource depletion, poverty, climate change, and species extinction. The good news: overpopulation is solvable - ethically, equitably and voluntarily. Join co-hosts Dave Gardner and Nandita Bajaj, along with occasional guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Are our decisions about having children really made freely – without pressure from government, church, business, media, family and friends? The decision to have children or not is arguably one of the most important decisions we make in our lives. It’s largely regarded as an isolated personal decision and a natural rite of passage into adulthood. But how personal, really, is our decision to have a child?

This podcast episode features audio from the World Population Day webinar hosted by World Population Balance on 7 July, 2021: Pronatalism and Overpopulation: Challenging the Social Pressures to Procreate. You can view the video of the webinar at https://www.populationbalance.org/our-webinars

Moderator: Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of World Population Balance

Panelists:

Laura Carroll

Internationally recognized expert on the childfree choice
Author, The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds from Outmoded Thinking about Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World
Co-Author, Man Swarm: How Overpopulation is Killing the Wild World
Contributor, Voluntary and Involuntary Childlessness: The Joys of Otherhood?
Author, Families of Two: Interviews with Happily Married Couples without Children by Choice

Elisabeth Dimitras

Freelance researcher based in Greece for international anti-speciesist NGOs
Creator of educational online platform, Ethos & Empathy

Orna Donath

Israeli sociologist, lecturer, writer and feminist activist
Author, Regretting Motherhood
Teaches at Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University, and the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo

Dr. Amrita Nandy

New Delhi-based researcher and writer whose work on gender, rights and culture has been published in national and international books, journals
Author, Motherhood and Choice: Uncommon Mothers, Childfree Women

LINKS:

Pronatalism and Overpopulation: Challenging the Social Pressures to Procreate – webinar video
https://www.populationbalance.org/our-webinars

Lund University study:
The Climate Mitigation Gap: Education and Government Recommendations Miss the Most Effective Individual Actions – by Seth Wynes and Kimberly A. Nicholas
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance. We make the connections between overpopulation and the many vexing issues of the day. We make it possible for individuals and couples to make more fully informed and carefully considered family-size decisions. Smaller families are key to achieving a sustainable population and creating a more resilient and beautiful future.

Overpopulation is one of the two main drivers of resource depletion, poverty, climate change, and species extinction. The good news: overpopulation is solvable - ethically, equitably and voluntarily. Join co-hosts Dave Gardner and Nandita Bajaj, along with occasional guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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“Humankind is using up the biophysical basis of its own existence.” That’s the bottom line of this Earth Overshoot Day conversation with William Rees, the father of ecological footprint analysis. According to Rees, “the only way out of overshoot is less production and less consumption, so it means a much smaller economy and far fewer people.”

Earth Overshoot Day in 2021 is July 29. At this point in the year, we've already demanded a year's worth of the Earth's sustainable regenerative capacity.

LINKS:

Pronatalism and Overpopulation: Challenging the Social Pressures to Procreatehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7FCMriyVEeMLd3ng0lMWDojlpIFkjuyV

Earth Overshoot Day
https://www.overshootday.org/

Global Footprint Network
https://www.footprintnetwork.org/

This Sustainable Life podcast
https://joshuaspodek.com/podcast

Untucking Overpopulation with Alexandra Paul - Episode 62 of The Overpopulation Podcast
https://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/podcasts/2021-06-02-episode-62-untucking-overpopulation-alexandra-paul

Human Overpopulation: An Overview – Alexandra Paul presentation at San Diego State University
https://sdsu.zoom.us/rec/play/s7FhvLVhomKSK4j66kW1XhIKOKO_4pR4Z_MrIFZhY6GGejMa9cedngAfqq4QGT1nB6IMacWdQa90kdOa.MU51GB96njRiOXW-?continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=UaetWGlsSOaWSg-JoJ7VRw.1622056257385.2a26ec9ce8972216cf8b211a77a179f9&_x_zm_rhtaid=604

Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth – by William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/318225.Our_Ecological_Footprint

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance. We make the connections between overpopulation and the many vexing issues of the day. We make it possible for individuals and couples to make more fully informed and carefully considered family-size decisions. Smaller families are key to achieving a sustainable population and creating a more resilient and beautiful future.

Overpopulation is one of the two main drivers of resource depletion, poverty, climate change, and species extinction. The good news: overpopulation is solvable - ethically, equitably and voluntarily. Join co-hosts Dave Gardner and Nandita Bajaj, along with occasional guest experts, as we shine a little light on this often misunderstood subject.

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Activists online community

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Population Institute Canada’s Madeline Weld has a sustainable vision for Canada. Growth boosters and the media’s assumption that growth is good top the list of topics in this conversation with Weld, president of Population Institute Canada. We get her thoughts about U.N. messaging and action on World Population Day (July 11).

On the Canadian front, the Century Initiative in Canada is calling for the nation to nearly triple its 38 million population to 100 million by century’s end. We discuss the myth that Canada has plenty of room for a much larger population, and the many reasons further population growth and “development” in Canada diminishes biodiversity, ecosystem health and quality of life. Weld also acquaints us with the history and advocacy work of Population Institute Canada.

LINKS:

Population Institute Canada

Deconstructing the Dangerous Dogma of Denial – by Madeline Weld

Sadly, Malthus Was Right—Now What? – by Madeline Weld

Should Canada Have a Population Policy? – presentation by Madeline Weld to Canadian Association for the Club of Rome

Canada's population Needs to be 100 Million by 2100

Former Prime Minister Wants Canada’s Population to Grow To 100 Million

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Activists online community

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Great strides have been made in advancing women’s reproductive autonomy, but there is still much to accomplish. Kathleen Mogelgaard, new president of the Population Institute discusses the Institute’s work, including reducing the unmet need for family planning (affecting over 200 million women around the world) and an active effort to permanently repeal the global gag rule (which interferes with provision of important family planning services).

Regarding the recent surge in baby-bust alarmism, Kathleen notes that the lower birth rate in the U.S. represents real progress – women taking advantage of a greater diversity of opportunities, and fewer unintended and fewer teen pregnancies. We all agree the response to dropping birth rates – an emphasis on bumping up birth rates – is demeaning, reducing the role of women to manufacturers of future workers, consumers and taxpayers. Also on the agenda: the history of the “population taboo,” the continuing need to improve overpopulation literacy, and the real possibility of seeing an end to population growth this century.

LINKS:

Pronatalism and Overpopulation: Challenging the Social Pressures to Procreate – register here for free webinar hosted by World Population Balance on July 7, 2021

Double Dividends: Population Dynamics & Climate Adaptation – 2014 Wilson Center panel

What is a Solutionary?

Population Institute

Population: Off the Radar, Not Off the Map – by Kathleen Mogelgaard

Don't Panic About Slower Population Growth – by Kathleen Mogelgaard

2019 UNFPA State of the World Population Report: Unfinished Business: The Pursuit of Rights and Choices for All (Kathleen Mogelgaard was lead researcher and author)

Global Health, Empowerment and Rights Act

ORNA DONATH Speaks About FREEDOM on [m]otherhood – video clip

Regretting Motherhood – by Orna Donath

[m]otherhood – a transmedia documentary

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Activists online community

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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It’s an insane world where speaking the scientific truth is an act of courage. Actress Alexandra Paul has been courageously educating people about human overpopulation for over thirty years. Her most notable effort is a TEDx Talk, Overpopulation Facts - The Problem No One Will Discuss. The questions we ask her about that TEDx experience reveals just how irrational our society is about discussing this subject.

We also discuss other actions Alexandra takes as a sustainable population activist, including op-eds and letters to newspapers like the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Also on the table: baby bust hysteria, veganism and animal rights, over 20 arrests, overconsumption, and our obsession with economic growth.

LINKS:

Overpopulation Facts - The Problem No One Will Discuss – Alexandra Paul at TEDx Topanga

The Cost of Cool – Early overconsumption education film featuring Alexandra Paul

Human Overpopulation: An Overview – Alexandra Paul presentation at San Diego State University

Long Slide Looms for World Population, With Sweeping Ramifications (New York Times)

Declining U.S. Birth Rate Adds Urgency to the Need for Smart Immigration Reform (Los Angeles Times)

Why California Should Welcome the End of Unsustainable Growth (Los Angeles Times Letters to the Editor)

The Declining American Birth Rate Could Actually be Good for the Economy (Business Insider)

Switch4Good podcast

Why Seth Rogen and His Wife Don’t Want Kids (The Howard Stern Show)

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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New Executive Director and podcast co-host Nandita Bajaj shares her brief history and the meandering path that led her to becoming a sustainable population advocate. Former Executive Director Dave Gardner interviews Nandita her about her plans for World Population Balance and why she is dedicating her life to this cause.

Nandita shares her perspectives of the tightly woven links between pronatalism, anthropocentrism and human overpopulation and why our growing human enterprise is one of the most pressing planetary justice issues of our time. A passionate advocate for minimalism, veganism, and childfree living, Nandita speaks about the joy of living simply in communion with all life on our planet.

Dave and Nandita also share their excitement about continuing as the co-hosts of the podcast.

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

LINKS:

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Podcast co-host Dave Gardner reflects on the agony and the ecstasy of working to alert, educate, and inspire action to end our overpopulation crisis. Nandita Bajaj turns the table and interviews Gardner about his 6 years on the podcast and serving as executive director of World Population Balance. Who IS this guy? Why has he been working seven days a week for years to alert people about population overshoot and to “save the planet?”

Don’t worry, Dave’s not leaving the podcast. But on May 1 he is stepping out of his position leading World Population Balance, the nonprofit standing up for the rights of future generations to live in a world worth inheriting. Gardner reflects on the state of the issue, and what progress has been made. He also shares his assessment of some of the obstacles to our work – including news media, economists, the population taboo, overpopulation denial, myths, misassumptions, and baby bust alarmism.

Our next episode will announce and introduce World Population Balance’s new executive director. Don’t miss it!

LINKS:

Proven Solutions to Our Environmental Crises – view this panel on Earth Day
https://www.earthday2021.org

8 Billion Angels – info and screenings of new film about overpopulation
http://www.8billionangels.org

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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On an overpopulated planet, a baby bust is cause for celebration. It’s exactly what we need. Yet today, because of growth addiction and widespread ignorance of the overpopulation crisis, dropping birth rates are being universally reported as bad news. We circle up for roundtable discussion of the phenomenon – and provide the very important alternative, science-based, viewpoint – in this episode.

LINKS:

How Many of Us Can Earth Support - episode 57 of The Overpopulation Podcasthttps://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/podcasts/2021-03-03-episode-57-how-many-us-can-earth-support

8 Billion Angels - film by Terry Spahr
Earth Day panel, world premiere and other screenings info https://8billionangels.org/find-a-screening/

Final Report - The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review – by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review

Baby Bust – UK Guardian video series by Leah Green
https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/baby-bust

COVID-19 "Baby Bust" an Acceleration of Longer-term Trend – CBS This Morninghttps://www.cbsnews.com/video/covid-19-baby-bust-an-acceleration-of-longer-term-trend/

We Expect 300,000 Fewer Births Than Usual This Year - by Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip B. Levine
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/opinion/coronavirus-baby-bust.html

National Footprint and Biocapacity Accounts (Global Footprint Network data)
https://data.footprintnetwork.org/

Stop Panicking—There Are a Lot of Positives to the Baby Bust – by Sarah Baillie
https://msmagazine.com/2021/03/15/baby-bust-positives-declining-birth-rate-covid-population-growth-earth-overshoot-day/

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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The solution to the human overpopulation crisis is quite beautiful. It means less childhood poverty, parents who aren’t exhausted, children receiving ample parental attention, families can afford nutritious food, health care and educational opportunities, and the planet can meet our needs long into the future. In part two of our conversation with Christopher Tucker, author of A Planet of 3 Billion, we continue exploring how to make the “uncomfortable” conversation about overpopulation more comfortable. One thing is certain: We’re keeping up the conversation, because the more we discuss it, the less uncomfortable the conversations.

We also explore how the solution to human overpopulation can play out. Tucker explains that we have no choice; we absolutely must figure out how to run a prosperous global economy under continuous population decline. “If we just make the moral choice, and be bold, I have no doubt in my mind we can bend the curve early, and save our planet and our species from annihilation.”

Christopher Tucker is chairman of the American Geographical Society, and strategic advisor to the US national security community. He holds a BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia University. Chris serves on a number of boards including the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and the Open Geospatial Consortium.

LINKS:

How Many of Us Can Earth Support? – Episode 58 of The Overpopulation PodcastPart one of our conversation with Christopher Tucker
https://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/podcasts/2021-03-03-episode-57-how-many-us-can-earth-support

Are There Too Many of Us on Our Planet? Yes! – Episode 54 of The Overpopulation Podcast
https://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/podcasts/2020-12-18-episode-54-are-there-too-many-us-our-planet-yes

The Culling – novel by Robert Johnson
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18499955-the-culling

World Scientists’ Warning on Climate Changehttps://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/70/1/8/5610806

A Planet of 3 Billion: Mapping Humanity’s Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Futurehttp://planet3billion.com/index.html

Rights Based Voluntary Family Planning Motion
International Union for Conservation of Nature
https://margaretpyke.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/A1-IUCN-Motion.pdf

What Keeps the Growth Imperative Entrenched in our Culture?Dave’s presentation at the Intermountain Sustainability Summit on March 18, 2021
https://www.weber.edu/issummit

More Fun, Less Stuffhttps://medium.com/@sustain5/more-fun-less-stuff-472ae3a86e91

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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We’re asking the Earth to support 80 million more humans every year, and we add to the challenge by deleting some of the needed resources from the planet each year. Meanwhile, too few us ask the question, “What is a sustainable human population?” Christopher Tucker did ask the question, went to work on it, and wrote a book about it: A Planet of 3 Billion: Mapping Humanity’s Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future. He came up with an “optimistic” answer of 3 billion. This episode features the first half of an insightful conversation we recently had with Tucker.

Our discussion includes why he avoids using the term “overpopulation” (and why we DO use it), how and why the taboo on discussion of this topic came about, and the beautiful way we can bend the curve of human population numbers. How does achieving a global average fertility rate of 1.5 by 2030 sound? Is that really so crazy? Tucker points out this is just accelerating a norm shift that’s already underway.

Christopher Tucker is chairman of the American Geographical Society, and strategic advisor to the US national security community. He holds a BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia University. Chris serves on a number of boards including the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation and the Open Geospatial Consortium.

LINKS:

A Planet of 3 Billion: Mapping Humanity’s Long History of Ecological Destruction and Finding Our Way to a Resilient Future
http://planet3billion.com/index.html

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT)
http://www.vhemt.org/

The Pregnancy Reaction Videos You Won't Seehttps://www.cracked.com/video_20223_the-pregnancy-reaction-videos-you-wont-see.html

We Know How Many People the Earth Can Support – by Christopher Tucker in the Journal of Population and Sustainability December 2020
https://jpopsus.org/full_articles/we-know-how-many-people-the-earth-can-support/

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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A smorgasbord of good and bad news about efforts to achieve a sustainable population on this planet. The good news is more and more people are recognizing – and speaking out about – the need for society to end our obsession with growth.

We give a shout out to James Pogue, a writer at Harper’s Magazine, for his enlightened comment on Real Time with Bill Maher about the fact that we WILL need a national conversation about ending our obsession with infinite economic growth (hear his words in this episode).

Also, good news that South Korea’s fertility rate has dropped below 1.0. While growth-addicted policymakers, economists and journalists are treating this as a problem, it is actually very good news for a nation that imports more than half its food supply.

The bad news is Canadian politician Garnett Genuis continues to defame the One Planet, One Child billboard campaign, despite Dave’s repeated attempts to correct his misassumptions. Also, scientists’ assessment of our progress on diminishing the climate crisis is not good.

A shout out to Population Matters Head of Campaigns Alistair Currie for his interview with Judy Lynn Wong, founder of the Black Environment Network, who said, “"Young people have a hunger to protect the environment – let’s talk about population. They’re ready for it."

Plus, celebrities are making big bucks with sponsored tweets announcing their pregnancies. Should World Population Balance sponsor tweets sharing the good news of negative pregnancy test results?

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Aging Population: Nothing to Fear – Episode 55 of The Overpopulation Podcasthttps://www.worldpopulationbalance.org/podcasts/2021-01-05-episode-55-aging-population-nothing-fear

Ending Overshoot publication on Medium
https://medium.com/ending-overshoot

Dear Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: Build Forward to a Sustainable Futurehttps://medium.com/ending-overshoot/dear-joe-biden-and-kamala-harris-build-forward-to-a-sustainable-future-4ba74225b9c2

One Planet, One Child billboard campaign
https://oneplanetonechild.org/

Biden Repeals the 'Global Gag Rule,' But Next Steps Will be 'Huge Undertaking'https://www.devex.com/news/biden-repeals-the-global-gag-rule-but-next-steps-will-be-huge-undertaking-98954

The Climate Emergency: 2020 in Review (a new World Scientists Warning)
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-climate-emergency-2020-in-review/

Corey Bradshaw (lead author) interview
https://youtu.be/sEHot7F_dnI

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Futurehttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full

Greta Thunberg’s Message to the Davos Agendahttps://www.weforum.org/videos/greta-thunberg-s-message-to-the-davos-agenda

Jane Goodall: 'Change Is Happening. There Are Many Ways to Start Moving in the Right Way'https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/03/jane-goodall-change-is-happening-there-are-many-ways-to-start-moving-in-the-right-way

Can Icebergs Be Towed to Water-Starved Citieshttps://www.whoi.edu/news-insights/content/can-icebergs-be-towed-to-water-starved-cities/

Is the US Population in Decline? More Ponzi Demographyhttps://thehill.com/opinion/finance/533411-is-the-us-population-in-decline-more-ponzi-demography

As Birthrate Falls, South Korea’s Population Declines, Posing Threat to Economyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/world/asia/south-korea-population.html

Demographic Crisis Cannot Be Tackled With Piecemeal Measureshttp://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinon/2020/12/202_300988.html

As Families Change, Korea’s Elderly are Turning to Suicidehttps://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/17/world/asia/in-korea-changes-in-society-and-family-dynamics-drive-rise-in-elderly-suicides.html

Celebrity Pregnancy Is Big Businesshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/style/celebrity-pregnancy-social-media.html

The Love of the Human: Interview with Ludy Ling Wonghttps://populationmatters.org/news/2020/12/02/love-human-interview-judy-ling-wong

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Are nations with low birth rates going to collapse due to a temporary bulge in the ranks of the elderly? On an overpopulated planet, this is an important question. Depopulation alarmists in numerous countries are pushing for baby bonuses or high immigration quotas in order to avoid getting into recovery from growth addiction. It’s all for the sake of maintaining perpetually increasing numbers of taxpayers, consumers and workers. This approach to demography is unsustainable and dangerous.

Dave Gardner and guest co-host Nandita Bajaj are joined by Jane O’Sullivan, lead author of the paper, Silver Tsunami or Silver Lining? Why we should not fear an ageing population. Jane explains why the fears propagated by alarmists are vastly exaggerated or ill-founded.

LINKS:

Silver Tsunami or Silver Lining?Why we should not fear an ageing populationLead author: Jane O’Sullivan

ABC’s RN Breakfast with Fran Kelly
Interview with MP Alan Tudge, Australia’s Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure

Some of Jane O'Sullivan's Writing:

Will Global Population Peak Below 10 Billion?

Five Myths About Population, Aging and Environmental Sustainability

World Population Prospects, 2019 – Good News or Bad

WWF Living Planet Report 2018 – “aiming higher”, but not on target

Aging Human Populations: Good for Us, Good for the Earth

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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A recent report on Deutsche Welle’s Eco India environmental news magazine recently asked, “Are There Too Many of Us on Our Planet?” The report mysteriously arrived at the conclusion that, “It’s not the population element that’s going to be the problem.” Reporter Aditi Rajagopal advised our attention should be redirected to, “the more hidden and dangerous concerns of waste and overconsumption.”

We applaud Rajagopal for covering this topic, but we’re compelled to go through her report and correct an array of instances of faulty logic. At the top of our list: the mistaken notion that there is a contest between overpopulation and overconsumption for biggest worry. We invite her to join us on a future episode if she’d like to discuss this with us. We need journalists to be up to speed on the human overpopulation issue.

Please keep episodes of The Overpopulation Podcast coming. Remember World Population Balance in your year-end giving. Donate here, or mail a check to:

World Population Balance
PO BOX 14175
St. Paul, MN 55114

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Are There Too Many of Us on Our Planet?

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Some have the perception that social justice and environmental sustainability don’t necessarily go hand in hand. Some social justice advocates have, at times, been critical of sustainable population advocacy. Our guest in this episode confirms that sustainable population efforts go hand-in-hand with, and do not inherently conflict with, social equity.

We asked Majora Carter to have this conversation with us to help us and other sustainable population advocates improve our understanding of social and environmental justice issues. “We just want to be seen, and heard, and treated equally,” she tells us. The conversation is far-ranging and fascinating.

Majora Carter is a real estate developer and urban revitalization strategy consultant. She has a lot of experience working to improve status and opportunity for challenged communities that have been left behind. Majora established Sustainable South Bronx and Green for All, among other organizations, and in 2008 she opened the Majora Carter Group, a private consulting firm, which was named Best for the World by B-Corp in 2014.

LINKS:

Majora Carter Group

Voluntary Associations and Fertility Limitation

Sustainable Development Goals

People Like Us: How Our Identities Shape Health and Educational Success

Hey, Election-Weary Americans, Canada Would Love to Take You In

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter (please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

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We lead with an update on the battle of the overpopulation billboards with Canadian politicians. Our One Planet, One Child project is posting an ad responding to MP Garnett Genuis’ ad promoting large families.

Then we turn the conversation to the overarching question that academics, politicians, and humanity as a whole struggle to answer: How can humanity move towards a common vision and process for achieving ecological sustainability and justice, before we suffer an irreversible catastrophic collapse of civilization? Those advocating for planetary protection and those fighting for social justice want the same thing.

Links:

Developing Trust: An Integrated Vision for Social and Environmental Sustainability and Justice

Justice and Sustainability

Justice and Future Generations

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is a root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Is an advertising battle brewing? A member of Canada’s parliament has promised to run “pro-family” ads on buses in Vancouver in response to recent ads about overpopulation. Garnett Genuis has a problem with the One Planet, One Child billboard campaign, which supports informed decisions and celebrates small-family choices in the interest of reversing population growth and achieving a sustainable population.

In this episode, the World Population Balance team reviews remarks Mr. Genuis recently made to the House of Commons. We take particular exception to the notion of pursuing population growth in order to raise taxes. It’s been far too easy to get hooked on a pyramid scheme to fund social programs – where each generation must be larger than the last. We review the many reasons this is ill-advised on a full planet, not respectful of humanity, and just plain wrong. Every elected official needs to hear this episode.

Spot the ads and we’ll send you a T-shirt. Genuis has indicated he’ll run this ad on Vancouver buses:

If you spot the ad, please send us a photo and/or video of it. We’ll send a free One Planet, One Child t-shirt to anyone providing us with decent quality photos or video.

Sustainable Population Meetup – gather virtually with like-minded activists.

Saturday, November 14, 2020. More information and registration

Planet in Crisis, a pre-COP event hosted by Scientists Warning Europe: Population is the topic on day three of this free virtual event. Dave Gardner, co-host of this podcast and executive director of World Population Balance, will be one of the presenters. More information and registration

Send us your feedback

LINKS:

Garnett Genuis Takes Aim at Anti-Family Ads in Vancouver

Brief List of Scientific Reports documenting overshoot

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

Adopt a Billboard for Your Community

Sustainable Population Meetup

Balanced View Newsletter

Overpopulation Updates via email

World Population Balance YouTube Channel

Sustainable Population Pledge

Support Our Vital Work

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Why have One Planet, One Child billboards sprouted in Vancouver, Canada? Their presence has stirred a flurry of questions, critiques and controversy, and support. World Population Balance welcomes the conversation, so we hosted a webinar on 7 October to address the questions and criticism. This episode features the audio from that webinar.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Billboard Campaign Crowdfunding Site

Scientific Reports List from One Planet, One Child website

iPopulation App Dave used to show global population second, by second

Can All 7+ Billion of Us Live the "Good Life" Sustainably?

Sustainable Population Meetup

Balanced View Newsletter

Overpopulation Updates via email

World Population Balance YouTube Channel

Sustainable Population Pledge

Support Our Vital Work

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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The One Planet, One Child billboard campaign has generated a flurry of media coverage, social media conversation and community response. The loudest reactions have been completely off-base. In this episode, the World Population Balance staff shares and discusses some of the feedback, and demolishes the most common overpopulation myths, misconceptions and misassumptions. Accusations of racism led us to drop one ad and issue an apology for making it too easy to be misinterpreted. Those accusations and other public discomfort also led the outdoor ad company to relent to public pressure and remove several other ads.

You can get your questions about the campaign answered at a free webinar on 7 October at 6 pm PDT. Register at Why Should Canada be Talking About Overpopulation?

Contribute to bring billboards to other communities at the campaign’s crowdfunding site.

Help us replace the ads we lost. Submit your billboard design for a chance to win up to $500 in our One Planet, One Child billboard contest.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

One Planet, One Child billboard campaign

Our One Planet, One Child Declaration of Intent

Our Intentions Were Misconstrued; We Could Have Done Better

Crowdfunding website

One Planet, One Child Campaign Expands (youtube & crowdfunding video)

Billboard Contest

Why Should Canada be Talking About Overpopulation? Webinar Oct 7

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

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Men spend most of their lives trying to have more sex. Women spend the lion’s share of their lives trying not to get pregnant. Separating sex from childbirth is what most women and men want, and it’s exactly what contraception allows us to do. As World Contraception Day (26 September) approaches, Dave and Erika pick the brains of two experts, Alisha Graves and Malcolm Potts. Potts is Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, was the first chair in Population and Family Planning, and founded the Bixby Center for Population, Health & Sustainability. Graves is President of Venture Strategies for Health and Development, a non-profit organization aiming to help stabilize global population by securing women’s freedom to choose their family size.

Also in this episode:

Release of the 2020 Living Planet Report

Launch of new One Planet, One Child billboard campaign in Vancouver, Canada

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

One Planet, One Child billboard project

One Planet, One Child T-Shirts, Buttons, Stickers & More

You Had Me at Childfree – new episode

Battle for the Planet of the Humans – virtual discussion events

2020 Living Planet Report

Humans Exploiting and Destroying Nature on Unprecedented Scale – Report (in UK Guardian)

Dereliction of Duty as WWF Ignores Population in Living Planet Report - by Population Matters’ Robin Maynard

World Contraception Day – comprehensive contraception information

Why World Contraception Day is Important

Bixby Center for Population, Health, and Sustainability

Venture Strategies – nonprofit programs discussed in this episode

OASIS Initiative (Organizing to Advance Solutions in the Sahel)

Liberate the Pill – a program to make The Pill over-the-counter

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Human civilization has been in overshoot (making unsustainable demands on the planet) since about 1970. If there was any hope we’ve changed our ways, that hope was dashed on August 22, 2020. Learn more in this episode. There are lots of contributors to overshoot, but the one most often avoided, or at least ignored, is overpopulation. In this episode we applaud a few NGOs for NOT hiding from the subject.

Also: The Australian government readily admits it depends on population growth as the main driver of economic growth, and it is hooked on economic growth. So closed borders due to COVID-19, coupled with couples choosing to delay or even decline to bring children into these dark times, is “bad news” for the nation’s growth-addicted economy.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Coronavirus Pandemic Prompts Couples to Delay Pregnancy PlansCBS News in the U.S. 8/10/2020

Bad News for the Economy Reliant on Population GrowthABC in Australia

Thibaud Aronson Population Voice

Crowdedplanet.org
New online resource library by Center for Biological Diversity compiling studies, reports and reviews that make the connection between human population growth and the extinction crisis.

Earth Overshoot Day– official website

Earth Overshoot Day and Population

If the World Was as Densely Populated As...*
(density/footprint analysis tool in above essay)

Manage Your Own Planet
(data analysis tool in above essay)

What Gets Left Behind for Future Generations? Reproduction and the Environment in Spey Bay, Scotland by Katharine Dow

One Planet Prosperity - Our Regulatory Strategy
Scottish Environment Protection Agency

Physicists: 90% Chance of Human Society Collapsing Within Decades

Delayed Earth Overshoot Day Points to Opportunities to Build Future in Harmony with Our Finite PlanetEarth Overshoot Day news release

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Society can flourish with declining birth rates. That’s what the world needs to know, according to João Abegão, author of The Human Overpopulation Atlas. He wants men and women to desire a smaller family and be able to easily exercise that choice.

Our conversation with João covers depopulation panic and growth mania, civilization collapse, pessimism, overconsumption, the value of simple living, and a billboard campaign in Portugal that celebrated small families (similar to our One Planet, One Child campaign in the U.S.).

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

The Human Overpopulation Atlas (and other writing by João Abegão)

Controversy in Portugal Over a Campaign That Invites "To Celebrate Low Birth Rates"(Overpopulation Billboards in Portugal)

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

Depopulation Panic: Don’t Fall for It – Episode 45 of The Overpopulation Podcast

Americans Aren’t Making Babies, and That’s Bad for the Economy – by Peter Coy

Where The Wild Things Were is Where Humans Are Now – by João Abegão

Eternal Recurrence: The Complex Dynamics of Collapse – by João Abegão

Do All Roads Lead to Collapse? – by João Abegão
A Review of the book The Limits to Growth - The 30-Year Update

Trial by Fire – by João Abegão
João’s experiment to live a low-impact lifestyle

Simplicity Institute

No Impact Man (documentary film)

No Impact Man (the book) – by Colin Beavan

You Had Me at Childfree – new podcast hosted by Erika Arias

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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World population COULD peak in 2064 instead of sometime after 2100, according to a new world population estimate. On an overpopulated planet, a 2064 peak is far better than post-2100. But you wouldn’t know it based on the news coverage. The BBC headline read, Fertility Rate: 'Jaw-Dropping' Global Crash in Children Being Born. In this episode, we dig into the coverage and highlight how journalists’ pro-growth bias colored the reports – giving very little weight to the environmental benefits and unwarranted emphasis on the challenges economies face in adjusting to a shrinking number of consumers and workers.

Also:

How do some overzealous sustainable population advocates turn potential allies off?
Overpopulation Denial AND Shaming run amok at Resilience.org. Crazy Town is one of the best podcasts going, but what is the problem with the podcast’s mothership?

Email your feedback to: podcast@worldpopulationbalance.org

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Dear George Monbiot, Shaming Sustainable Population Advocacy Must Stop - by Dave Gardner

World population in 2100 Could be 2 Billion Below UN Forecasts, Study Suggests

Fertility Rate: 'Jaw-Dropping' Global Crash in Children Being Born

International Childfree Day (August 1)

You Had Me at Childfree (new podcast debuts August 1)

Bill and Lou’s Not So Excellent Adventure - Crazy Town podcast episode 14

A Lesson from COVID-19: Growth is Part of the Problem - by Robert Engelman

Welcome to Overshoot: Have a Nice Day – Conversation Earth Special:

Podcast
Radio Broadcast Version

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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World Population Day is July 11, but The Overpopulation Podcast team is renaming it World OVERpopulation Day, and we’ve taken over the website worldpopulationday.org to do it. In this episode, we lament how the United Nations avoids the subject of overpopulation in its World Population Day messaging.

We also discuss the sensitivity around the overpopulation issue that leads to discomfort with raising the issue, let alone fully discussing it, and the history and fears we believe are behind the often-false accusations of racism. The modern sustainable population movement rejects racism. It’s not on the agenda here, but we must be sensitive to mistakes of the past.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

World OVERpopulation Day Website (worldpopulationday.org)

United Nations World Population Day info

Let’s Not Return to Dark Ages of Ignoring Overpopulation (at Medium)

Let’s Not Return to Dark Ages of Ignoring Overpopulation (at worldpopulationbalance.org)

How to contact your ambassador to the United Nations:

Blue Book of contact info for all permanent missions to the U.N.

List of UN Representatives

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Overpopulation shaming has raised its ugly head to new heights with unfounded and misleading critiques of the documentary, Planet of the Humans. We thoroughly debunk the defamation in this episode, especially the deceitful and ugly attacks by UK Guardian columnist George Monbiot and filmmaker Josh Fox. We also continue the discussion of what Planet of the Humans got right.

The controversial film, executive produced by Michael Moore, has been pummeled by some renewable energy enthusiasts as unfairly and inaccurately targeting renewables and as being “racist” for bringing up human overpopulation. World Population Balance co-hosted two webinar panel discussions of the film, and now the World Population Balance staff convenes for this third, and final (for now), conversation.

LINKS:

Episode of Useful Idiots with Michael Moore as guest

See Planet of the Humans here

Fact check section of the Planet of the Humans website

Webinars about Planet of the Humans co-hosted by World Population Balance:

Planet of the Humans: a Sequel (Webinar Part 1)
Video Version
Podcast Version

Planet of the Humans Webinar Part 2Video Version
Podcast Version

2 Essays by Dave Gardner mentioned in this episode:

Dear George Monbiot, Shaming Sustainable Population Advocacy Must Stop
A retraction from Josh Fox, George Monbiot and others is warranted

What Does Planet of the Humans REALLY Say About Population?
Detractors are intentionally offering misleading accounts. Let’s set the record straight.

A third, related essay, published since this episode was recorded:
Let’s Not Return to Dark Ages of Ignoring Overpopulation

US Births Fall, and Virus Could Drive Them Down More

Rex Weyler On The Double Bind Of The Pandemic - Rewilding podcast Episode 48

Planet of the Censoring Humans – by Matt Taibbi

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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What should we do in response to the key messages of the 2020 documentary, Planet of the Humans? This is a continuation of the discussion begun in part one of the webinar, Planet of the Humans: a Sequel. In part 2, our panel identifies, considers and recommends actions we can take now – to avoid terminating or greatly harming human civilization. Both parts of the webinar addressed the roles of overpopulation, overconsumption and economic growth in the most serious environmental crises we face.

The webinar was co-hosted by GrowthBusters and World Population Balance.

NOTE: We mention in this episode that the film, Planet of the Humans, had been pulled down by YouTube over a claim of copyright infringement. As we post this episode the film has been reposted to YouTube. If you've not seen the film, find the latest working link at the film's website.

Panelists:

Kristine Mattis: An interdisciplinary environmental scholar with a background in Biology and Earth System Science, Kristine has worked as a medical researcher, a science reporter for the congressional record in the U.S. House of Representatives, and a science teacher. She holds a PhD in Environment and Resources. Her writing encompasses issues of social and environmental justice, public health, risk, and science.

Brian Czech: Executive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE). With a Ph.D. in renewable natural resources, his specialties intersect ecological economics, conservation biology, and public policy. The author of several books, Czech recently edited Best of The Daly News: Selected Essays from the Leading Blog in Steady State Economics.

Dave Gardner: Co-host of the GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living; co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast; director of the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth; host of the syndicated radio series, Conversation Earth; and executive director of World Population Balance.

Erika Arias: Co-host of the GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living; co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast; Programs & Engagement Coordinator for World Population Balance, and a childfree researcher and advocate,

LINKS

VIDEO:

Planet of the Humans: a Sequel (webinar part one)

Planet of the Humans Webinar Part 2

BOOKS:

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered - by E.F. Schumacher

Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources - by Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill

Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train: Errant Economists, Shameful Spenders, and a Plan to Stop Them All - by Brian Czech

Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth - by Juliet Schor

Bullshit Jobs: A Theory - by David Graeber

PODCASTS:

The Overpopulation Podcast

GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living

PAPERS & ESSAYS:

Works by Kristine Mattis

Degrowth A Vocabulary for a New Era (2014)

Nobody Takes the Renewable Energy Transition Seriously - by Richard Heinberg

Beyond Green Growth - by Dan O’Neill

Wake Up Call on the Environment: A Student Manifesto

Exiting the fast Lane: Job Sharing is One Route to Discovering the Personal and Environmental Benefits of Working Less.

How to Make a Job Sharing Situation Work

Planning for Post-Corona: A Manifesto for the Netherlands

Crossroads for Planet of the Humans – by William Rees

PEOPLE & ORGANIZATIONS:

World Population Balance

GrowthBusters

Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Herman Daly

Transition Network

Transition U.S.

Common Future (formerly Business Alliance of Local Living Economies)

Wellbeing Economy Alliance

Doughnut Economics Action Lab

Take Back Your Time

The Simplicity Collective

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Some environmentalists don’t want you to see Planet of the Humans, the new documentary executive produced by Michael Moore, which raises important questions about what we’re being told by renewable energy advocates. The film’s producer/director and narrator, at one point tells the audience:

“It was becoming clear that what we had been calling green, renewable energy, and industrial civilization are one and the same – desperate measures not to save the planet, but to save our way of life.”

Some have accused the filmmakers of racism simply because the film raises the issue of overpopulation. This interview sound bite from respected Post Carbon Institute fellow Richard Heinberg is typical of the film’s messaging about overshoot and overpopulation:

“There are too many human beings, using too much, too fast.”

There’s nothing racist about that statement, but many wanting to defend renewable energy have gone way over the top in their efforts to discredit the film. Planet of the Humans makes some very important points, which were in danger of getting lost in the controversy, so we put together a webinar to explore what value can be taken from the film.

You can view the entire webinar on the World Population Balance YouTube channel (see links below). Or, you can listen to it in this episode of The Overpopulation Podcast as you work, commute, exercise or cook dinner.

The panelists will be continuing the conversation begun at this webinar, which we’ll share as the next episode of The Overpopulation Podcast. Subscribe so you don’t miss it.

The Panel:

Kristine MattisAn interdisciplinary environmental scholar with a background in Biology and Earth System Science, Kristine has worked as a medical researcher, a science reporter for the congressional record in the U.S. House of Representatives, and a science teacher. She holds a PhD in Environment and Resources. Her writing encompasses issues of social and environmental justice, public health, risk, and science.

Brian CzechExecutive director of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE). With a Ph.D. in renewable natural resources, his specialties intersect ecological economics, conservation biology, and public policy. The author of several books, Czech recently edited Best of The Daly News: Selected Essays from the Leading Blog in Steady State Economics.

Dave GardnerCo-host of the GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living; co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast; director of the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth; host of the syndicated radio series, Conversation Earth; and executive director of World Population Balance.

Erika AriasCo-host of the GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living; co-host of The Overpopulation Podcast; Programs & Engagement Coordinator for World Population Balance, and a childfree researcher and advocate

LINKS:

Planet of the Humans film

Planet of the Humans: a Sequel webinar video replay on YouTube

World Population Balance

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

GrowthBusters

GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living

Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Fact Check at Planet of the Humans Website

Full and Sustainable Employment Act (post in Steady State Herald)

The Real Green New Deal Project

Green New Deal

Panelists’ reviews of Planet of the Humans:

The Inconvenient Truth of Planet of the Humans – by Dave Gardner

Climate Crisis: Our Ecological Dysfunction Has a Marketing Problem (and it’s not Michael Moore) – by Kristine Mattis

Planet of the Humans Puts Sacred Cows Out to Pasture – by Brian Czech

Other Insightful Reviews:

Sequence Matters – by Herman Daly

Review: Planet of the Humans – by Richard Heinberg

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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How does the public conversation about overpopulation differ between Australia and North America? Dave and Erika invited Sustainable Population Australia’s (SPA) Michael Bayliss back for a second episode to compare notes and report on the 2019 bushfires, SPA’s public policy recommendations related to population, and to share personal experiences that inform his work today.

In typically direct Australian fashion, Michael explains well why organizations like Sustainable Population Australia and World Population Balance aren’t focusing their energy exclusively on reducing birth rates in high fertility nations in other parts of the world:

“if you say people from THESE countries have to have less children, but OUR country doesn’t, then that creates resentment across the board for many reasons, and it just diminishes the capacity to work cooperatively with our brothers and sisters from overseas, and entrenches more colonialism…. The only way this is gonna work is if everybody everywhere champions the new norms, despite what your country’s fertility rate is at this very moment.”

SPECIAL NOTE: The important film, Planet of the Humans, has been released and is available to view free at home through May 20. The film is being widely criticized as factually inaccurate by environmental organizations and renewable energy advocates. We think you should see the film. It has important themes that are valid. Planet of the Humans is a call to recognize that humans are “hitting limits on multiple fronts, and that the green technology will not save us.” We need to get “a grip on our out-of-control human presence and consumption.” World Population Balance is planning a webinar to discuss the film and these themes on May 19. Subscribe to our email updates to get the details.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Sustainable Population Australia

Sustainable Population Australia Population Policy

SPA YouTube Channel

The Endless Growth Paradigm

Tough Crowd video

Talking Heads video

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Don’t run for the hills; COVID-19 is not a zombie apocalypse. But incidence of zoonotic pandemics has quadrupled over the last fifty years. You’ve probably heard of HIV, Avian Flu, Swine Flu, Ebola, SARS, MERS, West Nile, and Zika. That’s not a comprehensive list, but a scary one.

In this episode we explore the connection between pandemics and population. COVID-19 is a sign from Mother Nature, telling us we’re living beyond ecological limits. We’re becoming more and more vulnerable to pandemics because there are so many of us, we are developing in very dense patterns, traveling quickly and widely, altering the climate, and expanding our footprint into every nook and cranny of the planet. Chances of encountering a more lethal virus are increasing thanks to our expansion.

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

One Planet, One Child Billboard Project

Why Choosing a Smaller Family is Something to Celebrate — on Billboards!
(Dave’s Essay at Medium) The Population Bomb

Sustainable Population Meetup

CORONAVIRUS READING:

Coronavirus Offers "A Blank Page for a New Beginning" Says Li Edelkoort

How Climate Change is Exacerbating the Spread of Disease

'Tip Of The Iceberg': Is Our Destruction of Nature Responsible for COVID-19?

Where's Wally?

How Does Population Size Affect a Pandemic and Social Distancing?

How Deforestation Drives the Emergence of Novel Coronaviruses

COVID-19: Condom Shortage Could Lead to Baby Boom, Experts Say

Coronavirus: 'Nature is Sending Us a Message,' Says UN Environment Chief

The Neo-Malthusian World of the Coronavirus

Bats Are Not To Blame For Coronavirus. Humans Are

A Lesson From the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Perils of Density

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Do a few instances of ugly motives or methods of addressing overpopulation in the past mean overpopulation is not a problem? Or do they mean it’s a problem we dare not attempt to solve? Do they mean there aren’t loving, equitable and ethical ways of reversing population growth?

Whether the excuse for avoiding the overpopulation issue is the existence of economic inequality, unequal distribution of resources, or the belief that discussing or addressing overpopulation perpetuates toxic cycles of racism, sexism, and colonialist agendas, it’s still ‘Overpopulation Denial’. In this episode, we share classic, textbook examples of overpopulation denial, and proceed to debunk them.

A recent episode of TRT World’s Roundtable program provided an overpopulation denial opportunity to two guests, Professor of Epidemiology Ray Deonandan from the University of Ottawa, and Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies Rajani Bhatia from the University of Albany. Our intention in debunking their statements is not to pick a fight. We’re simply treating this as an opportunity to improve overpopulation literacy with an open conversation, to correct misassumptions, and to find common ground that will ensure a brighter future for all.

WPB staffer Carolyn VandenDolder says it well in this episode: “I think that we’re trying to create a new narrative around the topic – a more constructive one and one that does take into account social justice and the fact that we have, in the United States, far and away contributed to the mess more than anyone else.”

We also hear from two enlightened guests on that same Roundtable program, Alistair Currie, head of campaigns and communications at Population Matters, and attorney Karin Kuhlemann, population ethicist at University College London. Roundtable is hosted by veteran journalist David Foster.

Also in this episode, brief mention and dismissal of overpopulation denial at ReasonTV, and at Resilience.org – very disappointing. And an update on the One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign. The staff at World Population Balance thanks YOU for your continuing support, and for making the One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign possible. We share the pain of illness and death, and economic hardship brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope everyone is doing their part to stay in. It’s a good opportunity to catch up on past episodes of The Overpopulation Podcast. You should get college credit, because going through these episodes is like getting an advanced degree in the subject!

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Population: Does it Need Controlling? Roundtable, on TRT World Population IS a Problem Episode 18 of The Overpopulation Podcast (Response to first instance of Chris Smaje overpopulation denial) Yes, (Over) Population IS a Problem! (Written response to first instance of Chris Smaje overpopulation denial) The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Share Your Thoughts With Us

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Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

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Sustainable Population Australia has been working on the global and national population issue since 1988, about four years longer than World Population Balance. In this episode we get an update and overview of the organization and the situation in Australia from Michael Bayliss, the organization’s communications manager.

Michael enlightens us about SPA’s recommendations for an integrated population policy in Australia based on environmental sustainability. We also discuss SPA’s Stop at Two campaign and the creative videos on SPA’s YouTube channel, with all due credit to Bayliss’ creativity. Of course the recent bush fires get some attention, too.

Discussed in This Episode:

One Planet, One Child website

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign crowdfunding

ABC: Why Population Growth is Good for Government and Business but Doesn’t Benefit Everyone

Sustainable Population Australia

Sustainable Population Australia Population Policy

SPA YouTube Channel

The Endless Growth Paradigm

Tough Crowd video

Talking Heads video

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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The decision to parent should be your own decision; society shouldn’t be making that decision for you. The childfree choice is one viable, rational and even emotional response to the state of our world.

Neither the campaign nor this podcast is an attempt to dictate your parenting decision. That is yours to make. In celebration of the childfree choice as one honorable path to help solve world overpopulation, we welcome returning guest, Childfree Choice expert, Laura Carroll! Having spent over 30 years researching this subject, Laura is best known for authoring The Baby Matrix and Families of Two.

On the subject of having children, to this day, Laura confirms, “the assumption is you will have them; it’s just a matter of when…. The messaging is we will all reproduce, and we all should want to reproduce. And if you don’t, you want to get sterilized, there must be something wrong – with you.”

Included in this episode’s discussion: “Family planning” has been about “when” you’re going to have your kids, not “whether” you were going to have any. It’s still very challenging, medically, to make this choice. There are still many, many medical providers who are reluctant to provide sterilization for younger woman who request it. In fact, Laura tells us there is a term for providers who assume you’re going to want kids at some point in your life – medical paternalism (but it’s not just the male doctors who are guilty of this).

In this episode we discuss how today’s adversity – concerns about the climate crisis, primarily – is driving a rapid culture shift, with more and more young women choosing not to bring children into this world. Laura also celebrates the fact that the conversation about being childfree by choice has come a long way in the last twenty years.

This episode is especially important for childfree Co-Host, Erika Arias, as she is determined to research the social and environmental contributions of the childfree community. Motivated by reducing stigmatization and generating more public awareness for how reproductive choices can either support or undermine environmental goals towards sustainability, we discuss what is missing from family planning programs, and why a cultural shift that recognizes the population-environment connection is vital.

As a special treat, stay tuned for a quick update on Laura’s childfree longitudinal study as she enters data analysis phase!

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

Lauracarroll.com

The Baby Matrix, ManSwarm and other Laura Carroll books

Childfree Zone

The Not Mom Conference

To Kid or Not to Kid film

Frida Mom Postpartum Recovery Ad Was Banned from the Oscars | Now This

People Who Don't Have Children Benefit Our Environment More Than Any Campaign – It's Time to Celebrate Them – by Simon Ross

The Last Front Line of Human Rights: The Childfree Choice and Women Empowerment

Childfree by Choice: Stigma in Medical Consultations for Voluntary Sterilization

Zazoo Condom Commercial

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Lonely, selfish and maladjusted? NOT. Careful consideration of all the ramifications of your family-size decision is smart. Perhaps you’re leaning toward having only one child; there are plenty of good reasons to stop there. But you’ve heard only children are spoiled and selfish, or can be peculiar. It turns out these are myths.

Journalist Lauren Sandler did a lot digging, and in this episode she tells us there is “a lot of data supporting the one-child family as a healthy, important choice.” Lauren wrote a Time magazine cover story on the subject, The Only Child: Debunking the Myths. She followed up two years later with the book, One and Only: The Freedom of Having an Only Child, and the Joy of Being One.

Bottom Line: “In hundreds of studies during the past decades exploring 16 character traits — including leadership, maturity, extroversion, social participation, popularity, generosity, cooperativeness, flexibility, emotional stability, contentment — only children scored just as well as children with siblings.”

“As these climate issues have become more a part of our cultural conversation, I have found the population question to be missing in ways that really scare the hell out of me.”– Journalist Lauren Sandler

"When Special Projects Coordinator Carolyn VandenDolder, and I sat down last week for this conversation with Lauren, I was expecting some good information from a knowledgeable journalist. Little did we know, we were in for a supremely thoughtful, intelligent conversation with an amazing woman, mother and citizen of the planet."
– Dave Gardner

Even though “one-child families make obvious sense in a time of diminishing resources,” Lauren reports, “the world is still telling us we should have larger families.”

Lauren shares that kids have been sold a fantastical vision of what adulthood is supposed to be, but they’re bumping into a lot of realities now – student debt, housing costs, job prospects, childcare costs, etc. “It’s not about buying another Barbie for the dreamhouse anymore.” So when women begin choosing childfree or fewer children, the assumption is that they are not getting what they desire. But that’s just because their desires have been “set” before they’re even ready to decide what their desires are.

A few tidbits of her insights:

“We live in a society that expects women to be mothers more than they want us to be anything else.”

“We aren’t really examining our family size choice, and when we do, we generally end up with a smaller family.”

“It turns out brutal sibling rivalry isn’t necessary to beat the ego out of us; peers and classmates do the job.”

“…hundreds of studies in the 1980s and found that only children had demonstrably higher intelligence and achievement; only children have also been found to have more self-esteem.”

“As the mother of one child, I enjoy more time, energy and resources than I would if I had more children. And it is hard to imagine that this isn’t better for my family as well as for me.”

“Instead of making family choices to fulfill breeding assignments we imagine we’ve been given, we might ensure that our most profound choice is a purely independent, personal one.”

“Having the bandwidth for citizenship, pleasure, power, is very difficult for women while they’re raising children.”

“I don’t care if you’re teaching your kids to recycle if you have five of them…. If you want to have five kids and that’s incredibly important to you, great. But don’t see it as the ‘woke’ choice.”

LINKS:

The Only Child: Debunking the Myths – by Lauren Sandler

One and Only – by Lauren Sandler

Only Children: Lonely and Selfish? – by Lauren Sandler

Confessions of a Juggler – by Tina Fey
What’s the rudest question you can ask a mother?

Hey, Tina Fey, One Kid is OK — and Greener, Too

The Only Kids are Alright: Good Reasons to Consider Stopping at One Child

None is Enough: Why Americans are Choosing Not to Have ChildrenTime Spotlight Story 2015 by Lauren Sandler

Why One Child Is Enough for Me—and Might Be for You – by Lauren Sandler
A smaller family means all of the joy, less of the crap.

The Economic Reason for Having Just One Child – by Lauren Sandler

Lauren Sandler’s website

Maybe One: A Case for Smaller Families – by Bill McKibben

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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“The great under-discussed factor in the climate crisis is there are just too many of us, and we use too much shit.” Comedian and social critic Bill Maher said it well. Yes, our profligate lifestyles have a big carbon footprint. And if they do, then the number of footprints makes a big difference, and it is undoubtedly “under-discussed.” So, in this episode, we discuss it.

We also give a big shout-out to Jane Garvey and Anna Lacey of BBC Woman’s Hour. Their radio program/podcast is a gleaming (and rare) example of mainstream media treating the overpopulation topic from an informed perspective, with integrity. Link below.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

Programs and Studies Getting it Right:

Reproduction and the Carbon Legacies of IndividualsOregon State University study

The Climate Mitigation GapLund University research letter

Worksheets from the Lund University work

Project Drawdown Solutions List

Jeff Bezos Commits $10 Billion to New Bezos Earth Fund

Bill Maher: Masturbate, Don't Procreate
(“The great under-discussed factor in the climate crisis is there are just too many of us….”)

BBC Woman’s Hour: Would You Stop Having Kids to Save the Planet?

BBC Woman’s Hour: Choreographer Cathy Marston & 'The Cellist', her new ballet inspired by Jacqueline du Pre

Below-Replacement-Level Fertility: Don’t Fear It, Ross Douthat - Joe Bish of Population Media Center rebuts New York Times opinion piece listed below

Programs and People Missing the Mark:

The Chinese Population Crisis by Ross Douthat in The New York Times

Climate Changers: The 100% Solution with Solomon Goldstein-Rose

Vox: Having Fewer Kids Will Not Save the Climate by Sigal Samuel

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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It’s a beautiful thing: a world in which everyone is aware and informed about overshoot and overpopulation’s role in that, and they all have the freedom to make an informed, loving decision about how many children to conceive. If we continue to avoid the “elephant in the room,” that will bring an ugly future. The topic hasn’t been getting its due, because of avoidance, dismissal and denial.

We get a progress report on the new One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign (have you pledged your support?). This campaign aims to end the misinformation, misassumptions and fears around the subject of human numbers. And speaking of numbers, this episode addresses the math that tells us overpopulation is a thing. Yes, overconsumption is also a problem that must be addressed, but the team takes a closer look at the data that tells us we need to attack overshoot holistically.

The Overpopulation Podcast squad is here to combat fear and avoidance standing in the way of TRUE sustainability. We invite anyone interested in the population-environment connection to walk with us toward a brighter future for the planet and ALL living species.

Discussed in the Episode:

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign

Previous Episodes Addressing Overpopulation Denial, Avoidance & Misassumptions:

Ep 25: Too Nervous to Discuss Overpopulation? (We discuss an episode of The Heat on CGTN)

Ep 23: Getting Overpopulation Right in the Media (Grist magazine overtly avoiding the topic)

Ep 18: Population IS a Problem (Commentary by Chris Smaje suggested it's not a problem.)

Ep 12: What the Media Gets Wrong on Overpopulation (We took on misassumptions in a couple of public radio programs.)

Ep 10: Tap Dancing Around Overpopulation (We address Vox's David Roberts piece: I’m an Environmental Journalist, But I Never Write About Overpopulation. Here’s why.)

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Subscribe to Balanced View print newsletter
(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Overpopulation Illiteracy or Overpopulation Denial - whatever you call it, it’s standing in the way of truly solving world overpopulation. Misconceptions, misassumptions, misplaced sensitivities, and fears have kept the world silent on this crisis far too long. It’s time we root out overpopulation illiteracy and replace it with the truth, and the guts to speak it.

That informs two very big conversations in this episode. The second is an announcement of a brand new initiative that’s going to be very big! So be sure to listen to the entire episode.

This episode’s agenda:

A recent issue of the Sierra Club’s magazine, Sierra, made a clear attempt to dissuade readers from concerning themselves about population’s role in the damage we’re doing to the life-supporting ecosystems of our planet. The writers and editors recommended focusing on our behavior instead. But if behavior is the problem, isn’t the number of people misbehaving part of the sustainability equation? Of course, so The Overpopulation Podcast team recorded this episode to set the record straight.

We’re quite familiar with those barriers to open conversation and action on the population numbers front. We understand the confluence of factors that might lead someone to conclude, “It’s not the population, stupid.” So this episode’s conversation is not intended to embarrass or deride. This is a serenade to the team at Sierra magazine, and anyone else who could benefit (Sierra Club CEO Michael Brune?): we invite you to listen to the case we make, and then join us for a follow-up conversation. Leave your fears at the door, and refrain from jumping to any conclusions. Hear us out. You might be surprised to discover that addressing human overpopulation can be a beautiful thing.

We’ve got to end the silence and educate the public, elected officials and journalists (and if we’re really good at this, economists, too) about the TRUTH about overpopulation and the very ethical, humane solution. Informed decisions will go a long way. And it won’t hurt if we throw in a dash of inspiration, too. So today (February 11, 2020), we’re launching the One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign. Details later in this episode, plus at the link below. You have a crucial role to play, so DO visit the project website at www.oneplanetonechild.org.

DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE:

One Planet, One Child Billboard Campaign (help us crowdfunding this)

Educating Girls May Be Nigeria's Best Defense Against Climate Change by Wendy Becktold

Hope for the Future Lies in the Multitude A Conversation

Humans of the World: A Story in Numbers by Heather Smith

The Trump Administration Goes After Birth Control by Summer Brennan

To Have or Not to Have Children in the Age of Climate Change by Katie O’Reilly

Time to Fix the Population Fixation by Wendy Becktold

Why I Don’t Stay Awake at Night Worrying About Population Growth, and Neither Should You by Wendy Becktold

How Mr. Condom Made Thailand a Better Place Mechai Viravaidya TEDxChange Talk in 2010

Contradictions in Nigeria’s Fertility Transition: The Burdens and Benefits of Having People by Daniel Jordan Smith in Population and Development Review

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

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(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

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Imagine you’re on a spaceship, and your crewmates begin dismantling the craft while you’re hurtling through space. What will you do? We’re facing that predicament now on Spaceship Earth, and 11,000 scientists around the world have issued a third warning. “Stabilize population growth” was listed as one of six ways to mitigate effects contributing to the climate crisis.

The World Population Balance staff gathered around the table to discuss how the warning addressed human population numbers, and to analyze some unwarranted criticism in the press. Was the language in the warning too timid? Why not just come out and say we need to contract our population? Well, they did. But they beat around the bush in getting there. Why?

Contracting our population can be accomplished humanely, ethically and voluntarily. Widespread adoption of one-child families as the norm can move our numbers back to a sustainable level in roughly 100 years.

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Discussed in this Episode:

More Highways won’t lessen traffic
Lois Braun’s Letter to the Editor in the Minneapolis Star Tribune

Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency (November 5, 2019)

Stabilizing the Global Population is Not a Solution to the Climate Emergency – But We Should Do it Anyway by Mark Maslin

Why Climate Change is an Irrelevance, Economic Growth is a Myth and Sustainability is Forty Years Too Late

This Controversial Way To Combat Climate Change Might Be The Most Effective

The Global Fertility Crash (in Bloomberg)

The End of Babies: Something is stopping us from creating the families we claim to desire. But what? (New York Times)

Autumn Balanced View newsletter

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Each year, 80 million people are added to a population that has long exceeded the Earth’s carrying capacity. Our state of ecological overshoot is severe enough that technological advancements and per-capita carbon footprint reduction alone can’t save humanity from experiencing environmental catastrophe.

In this episode, Dave chats with Executive Producer Terry Spahr about his new film, 8 Billion Angels. Terry is a Philadelphia-based former real estate executive who gave up the corporate life to save human civilization. Terry’s first feature documentary film, 8 Billion Angels, takes us on a global field trip examining what our numbers are doing to the planet and what can be done about it.

Covered in this discussion: the population versus consumption debate, and the obstacles to recognizing overpopulation as the root cause of climate change, fresh water shortages, and environmental degradation.

Terry and his film urgently call for global reexamination of family size choices, and advocate for worldwide adoption of family planning, education, and empowerment of women and girls. We can all thrive if we are up to the task. Terry also discusses the nonprofit organization he has founded, Earth Overshoot.

Dave and Terry recorded this conversation in November of 2019. Following the interview, Erika joins Dave for some post-interview analysis. Announcement of the world premiere of 8 Billion Angels is expected soon. If you’re interested in screening 8 Billion Angels, visit www.8billionangels.org to fill out a screening request form.

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Links:

Earth Overshoot nonprofit

8 Billion Angels film

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(please request print version only if you’re not content to get this via email/website link)

Earthinbalance.nl (website mentioned in listener feedback)

Niger Environmentalists Say Family Planning Can Help Reduce Climate Change

Independence Day: PM Narendra Modi Expresses Concern Over 'Population Explosion'

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Bernie Sanders was asked about human overpopulation. How did he handle it? And how was that reported by the media and received by the public? The Overpopulation Podcast team offers observations and analysis.

Why do political candidates rarely volunteer a position about human overpopulation? In spite of the hard work of sustainable population advocates, and progress made, overpopulation and its solutions are still misunderstood. Misunderstandings and misassumptions are so common that the subject remain sensitive. But it shouldn’t be “a poisonous subject.”

That’s one of the main reasons we produce this podcast. The more people who understand the facts, and the more informed and sensitive our conversations, the easier it will be to have the conversations we need.

In this roundtable episode, we remind listeners The Overpopulation Podcast is dedicated to creating a safe space for each of us to openly and honestly discuss the truth about world overpopulation. The team acknowledges the importance of learning from past coercive and unjust attempts to slow population growth, but that doesn’t mean we run from humanitarian solutions.

It’s EVERYONE’S responsibility to take a stand. Our motivation stems from a human rights perspective. We underscore the benefits of equal access to family planning and choosing to have smaller families in an effort to reduce social inequality, poverty, climate disruption and other ecological destruction – to create a better future for us all.

With these goals in mind, we can sensitively and responsibly propose solutions that are based on facts, not misassumptions. We’re reminded that HOW we talk about the overpopulation crisis and its solutions is very critical.

A very special thanks to our hero, Martha Readyoff, for asking Bernie THE million-dollar question. Plus, World Population Balance team members share their take on the subject of episode 27: the groundbreaking paper titled A Human Rights Approach to Planning Families. Just how parent-centered are our reproductive choices, really?

The Overpopulation Podcast is produced by World Population Balance, a non-profit organization committed to alerting and educating that overpopulation is the root cause of resource depletion, species extinction, poverty, and climate change. Our mission is to chart a path for human civilization that – rather than causing greater misery – enables good lives on a healthy planet. We advocate and support a smaller, truly sustainable human population – through dramatic and voluntary reduction in birth rates.

We envision a world where no one suffers in dire poverty and misery for lack of enough food, water, and other basic needs. We see a world where all species thrive and where lower consumption and population are in balance with Earth’s finite resources.

Links:

Share Your Thoughts With Us

Join the Sustainable Population Meetup

Receive Overpopulation Updates via email

Disappointing Media Coverage of Bernie Sanders Population Response:

Bernie Sanders in Climate Change 'Population Control' Uproar (BBC)

Mollie Hemingway: Bernie Sanders' Population Control Plan Would Affect Black and Brown People Most, Supports Eugenics (Fox News)

Lowry: Bernie Sanders and the Anti-people Crusade (National Review)

Cruz Zings Sanders with 'Thanos' Joke After Dem's Response to Overpopulation Concerns

Democrats Once Again Embrace Population Control to Save the Planet (Stephen Moore)

A more informed and fair response:

Bernie Was Right: Climate Change Demands Family Planning (Forbes)

Other items discussed:

Family Size Decisions that Consider Welfare of ChildrenEpisode 27 of The Overpopulation Podcast

Paper: A Human Rights Approach to Planning Families

Choosing Small Families – Part of the Solution to Climate Change (Photos from the St. Paul, MN Climate Strike rally in September, 2019)

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Is motherhood an essential part of womanhood? Some think so, and it might surprise you how much societal pressure remains today for women to have children. Mothers hope for, and some pressure their children to give them) grandchildren. Friends ask newlyweds when they’re going to “start a family” (aren’t the newlyweds already a family?). Even the attitudes of some medical professionals can lack sophistication. Some couples make the decision to have children as an automatic default – just the next step in life.

“No one congratulates you, for not having kids.”

– Maxine Trump

Maxine Trump gave this decision much more careful and thorough consideration. She documents this in her new film, To Kid or Not to Kid. The filmmaker shares her thoughts and observations on the subject with the World Population Balance team.

To Kid or Not to Kid opens in theatres in New York and Los Angeles on November 15, 2019. Maxine Trump will appear at the screening November 15 in New York, joined by special guest Leilani Munter, the famous childfree race car driver, and with Kevin Shane of the Male Contraceptive Initiative. She’ll appear at an LA screening November 18, with My Favorite Murder podcast host Georgia Hardstark and childfree author of The Baby Matrix, Laura Carroll. The film will also screen in Toronto on November 28.

The PBS Independent Lens YouTube channel is also launching a web series with Maxine Trump, Should We Kid or Not?, on November 15.

LINKS:

To Kid or Not to Kid

Host Your Own Screening Party

Independent Lens on YouTube

Family Size Decisions That Consider Welfare of ChildrenEpisode 27 of The Overpopulation Podcast

Choosing ChildfreeEpisode 5 of The Overpopulation Podcast

Coming Out as ChildfreeEpisode 34 of the GrowthBusters podcast

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Today, family planning decisions tend to be all about the desires of parents, with little or no regard for the rights and living conditions of the prospective child and people who are already here. Do two adults have the right to bring a child into a world that’s a dystopian hell? Or do they at least have some responsibility NOT to? If the number of children you decide to conceive will have a direct impact on the quality of life those children experience, should that consequence be factored into your family size decision?

These questions are more relevant now than ever. Today, more and more young women and couples are questioning whether having children is the right thing to do in a world destined for tough times.

A new paper in the journal, Social Change, proposes a more child-centered and community-centered approach. A Human Rights Approach to Planning Families was authored by our guests on this podcast, Sarah Bexell and Catharina Graff-Hughey, along with attorney and Having Kids founder Carter Dillard and animal rights attorney Matthew Hamity.

This episode is the first of several that will share content from – or suggested by – the April 2019 forum Tackling the Population Taboo: Creating a Sustainable Future. The forum was organized by Maureen Cohen Harrington, special projects manager at the nonprofit, Having Kids.

LINKS:

A Human Rights Approach to Planning Families in the journal, Social Change

Tackling the Population Taboo: Creating a Sustainable Future forum

Tackling the Population Taboo: Creating a Sustainable Future (video of forum)

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Dropping birth rates are good news, not a “slump” we should hope is temporary. Yet news reports, headlines and commentaries about this are consistently displaying a pro-growth bias. We have your back. The Overpopulation Podcast team has mallets in hand. In this episode we continue playing whack-a-mole with instances of overpopulation disinformation.

NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Grist, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, and Facebook’s Undivided Attention video series all get a whacking in this episode. On the good news front, syndicated columnist Froma Harrop, Miley Cyrus, Prince Harry and the BirthStrike movement get nods of (modest) approval from the team. On Prince Harry’s declaration that he and Meghan will have no more than two children, podcast host Dave Gardner advises Harry to stop at one child – particularly to set an example.

We just have to share this quote from Froma Harrop’s column in the show notes:

“What makes for a strong society is healthy people, prosperous people and happy people — not more people. Americans can put low birthrates at the bottom of their worry list.”

- Froma Harrop

The team also briefly discusses the UN IPCC report, Climate and Land, which joins the growing list of dire warnings about our destruction of life support systems. In response, Dave suggests we “rally” the public to stop growing the population, rather than rallying technologists to try to feed 10.9 billion people in 2100.

LINKS:

Sustainable Population Australia

Less Sex, Fewer Babies: Blame It on the Internet and Career Priorities
piece by Sam Sanders on NPR’s All Things Considered

America’s Millennial Baby Bust: Profound Cultural Shifts Can’t be Overcome by Pro-Natalist Subsidies
The Wall Street Journal editorial

A Declining Population Need Not Cause Angst
column by Froma Harrop, May 28, 2019

Having Kids asks Grist to Address Sustainable Family Planning

The Royal Baby is Cute and All, but Hello, the Planet is on Fire
Commentary by Lisa Hymas and Ted MacDonald published in Grist

Humans Cause Climate Change. Do We Just Need Fewer Humans?
Grist’s Ask Umbra column discussed in this episode, and in our episode 23: Getting Overpopulation Right in the Media

Miley Cyrus Has Finally Found Herself
Molly Lambert interviews Miley Cyrus in Elle

HRH The Duke of Sussex Interviews Dr. Jane Goodall for the September Issue of Vogue

Climate Change and Land
UN IPCC Study

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The most recent in what’s becoming a never-ending barrage of alarming scientific reports suggests a million animal species are in danger of being pushed off the planet by the relentless expansion of the human enterprise. World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner and Research Associate Alan Ware discuss this news, and ponder whether scientists, and the journalists who report on their work, are doing their part to alert us to the role of human overpopulation in biodiversity loss and climate change.

We’ve suffered over two decades of “population taboo,” in which politicians, journalists, and many environmental activists and NGOs, have tiptoed, tap-danced, detoured, ducked and sidestepped the subject, for fear of offending women, the impoverished, or people of color. In light of the severity of the crises we’re facing, isn’t it time we all face the truth? Ditching plastic straws and protecting duck billed platypus habitat are essential, but not sufficient, to save the planet and human civilization. We must acknowledge the role of human numbers in today’s environmental crises, so that couples making family-size decisions can do so armed with full knowledge of all the implications.

We get into detail analyzing how the overpopulation topic was treated in a recent episode of The Heat, a nightly news program on the China Global TV Network (CGTN). Dave was a guest on the June 3, 2019 episode (link below).

LINKS:

IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – News Release

The Heat television program with Dave Gardner

Newest UN World Population Prospects

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The U.S. Birth Rate is dropping dramatically. Sound the alarm? Or break out the champagne? We explore the subject on this episode.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control reported in May, 2019 that U.S. birthrates dropped 2% over last year, hitting a 32-year low. NPR and other news outlets have characterized this as a “slump” that will be bad news for our economy. We beg to differ. On an overpopulated planet, fewer births are a ticket on the expressway to sustainability. According to host (and executive director of World Population Balance) Dave Gardner:

“We have so many news anchors, journalists, celebrities, elected officials who…really don’t understand that we’re in overshoot today.”

Disappointed that she doesn’t know we are in overshoot, Dave has this message for The View host, Whoopi Goldberg:

“Whoopi,…You said, essentially, ‘Oh my God, our Ponzi scheme is unraveling.”

Carolyn thinks she just needs to “think a little bit harder.” This episode gives you the REAL story about recent coverage and response to dropping birthrates.

LINKS:

NPR: U.S. Births Fell To A 32-Year Low In 2018; CDC Says Birthrate Is In Record Slump

Egypt In Desperate Bid To Curb Birth Rate As Population Nears 100 Million

A New 'Climate Strike': Opting For No Children As Climate Fears Grow

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wonders Whether People Should Have Kids In a Climate-Ravaged World. So Does This Movement Of 'Birthstrikers.'

Three Limits to Growth (Herman Daly and Uneconomic Growth)

"Our Moral Obligation to Conceive Just One Child"
Episode 7 of The Overpopulation Podcast, with Travis Rieder

"Small Family Campaigns and Incentives"
Episode 8 of The Overpopulation Podcast

Fix the Climate with Smaller Families by Ashley Berke of Having Kids

The View – U.S. Birth Rate Lowest In 32 Years

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Is political correctness being over-applied to avoid reporting on the connection between population growth/overpopulation and the numerous environmental crises they create and/or amplify? Sustainable population activist Mike Hanauer submitted this question to Grist, an online news magazine:

“Why doesn’t Grist talk about population?”

According to Hanauer, news and discussion sites such as Nation of Change, The Hll, DailyKOS, GeekWire, and Commonwealth – like Grist, avoid the topic of population growth. His question got the most votes to be answered in Grist’s Ask Umbra column, so the subject was addressed in Humans Cause Climate Change. Do We Just Need Fewer Humans? The column was pretty disappointing, so we invited Mike onto the podcast to help host Dave Gardner dissect that response.

Mike is afraid it’s standard policy at progressive publications like Grist to avoid the overpopulation topic. Dave leaves room for the possibility that we just need to bring some of these journalists up to speed on the “humane, noble, joyful ways to educate and inspire people to voluntarily have smaller families, so that their children can have better lives.” So, in this episode, Gardner invites the author of that Grist column, Eve Andrews, to

1) listen to this podcast and

2) be our guest on a future episode of The Overpopulation Podcast – hopefully to update her position, but even to rebut Dave and Mike’s points in this episode if she still doesn't see things our way.

LINKS (Mentioned in this episode):

Grist: Humans Cause Climate Change. Do We Just Need Fewer Humans?

Forum – The Population Taboo: Creating a Sustainable Future for Children

How We Can Solve World Overpopulation

The Four Lifestyle Choices That Most Reduce Your Carbon Footprint (Lund University study)

(Over) Population IS a Problem (Our podcast episode that challenged a piece on Resilience.org arguing against trying to reverse population growth.)

Crazy Town podcast

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A spate of op-eds have appeared in major news publications around the world suggesting human population is going to peak in just a few decades, and we should be concerned not about population growth, but population decline. It’s an impressive publicity campaign for a new book with the same premise. But not so fast! We unpack this interesting development.

Plus: Educating women is great, but it’s not enough to solve world overpopulation. Are you reluctant to bring up the subject of human overpopulation because it might make someone uncomfortable? What if you’re an environmental journalist? Don’t you have an obligation to cover the root cause of our most urgent environmental crises? The Overpopulation Podcast team picks another bone with David Roberts at Vox and provides an update on an essay at Resilience.org suggesting the sustainability problem is just overconsumption, not overpopulation.

Also, the late science writer Isaac Asimov on our pronatal society, an update on U.S. population and trends, and an exciting forum in Washington DC on April 9.

LINKS:

Our response to the Resilience.org piece by Chris Smaje:

Yes, (Over) Population is a Problem
On our website
At Millennium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere

U.S. Census Data

U.S. Census Population Clock

The Vox piece we took exception to:

I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. By David Roberts at Vox

Population Matters' response to new book, Empty Planet, and the op-eds discussed in this episode)

Will the World Run Out of People?

2017 Guttmacher Institute Study - estimating 23 million fewer births in developing regions if contraceptive needs were met

2011 study in Science - estimating 1 billion fewer people in 2050 if we 'fast-track' girls' education

NBC piece discussed in this episode:
6 Ways Ordinary People Can Prevent Climate Change

Project Drawdown CO2 Solutions

Climate Change Needs Behavior Change (30 behaviors report)

BBC Minute: I’m Not Having Children to Help Fight Climate Change

NY Times survey

Sustainable Population Meetup

April 9, 2019 Forum: Tackling the Population Taboo

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Yes, the world is overpopulated, but the problem is NOT too big to solve. In this roundtable discussion we’ve convened the “overpopulation solution team” from World Population Balance to offer a “sustainable future” scenario. The team paints a picture of the wonderful world that results from a population sized to match our planet.

They enumerate key benefits to having fewer people, including more affordable housing, a welcome mat for migrants, better care and nurturing of our children, and happier parents. People would be valued more, educational opportunities improve, and we might even enjoy a 20-hour workweek.

Learn more at the World Population Balance website.

LINKS:

Living Planet Report 2018 – Told us we’ve lost 60% of the population of vertebrate species over the last 50 years.

IPCC Report: GLOBAL WARMING OF 1.5 °C – Told us we have 12 years to cut in HALF the CO2 we’re on track to emit, to have any hope of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5˚C / 2.7˚ F.

Earth Overshoot Day - Global Footprint Network announced we had burned through a year’s worth of the Earth’s regenerative capacity by August 1, 2018.

World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: Second Notice – Warned that environmental challenges – rather than being solved – are getting worse, thanks to our intense material consumption and rapid population growth.

Population Decline and the Great Economic Reversal by George Friedman, Chairman of Stratfor, a global intelligence firm

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Does it surprise you that democracy does NOT get better with population growth? In a 1989 interview with Bill Moyers, science writer Isaac Asimov observed: “Democracy cannot survive overpopulation; human dignity cannot survive [overpopulation]; convenience and decency cannot survive [overpopulation]; as you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies, the more people there are, the less one individual matters."

In the aftermath of the midterm U.S. election in November, 2018, the World Population Balance team discusses the ways democracy is hamstrung by overpopulation. Each U.S. citizen, for example, is one of over 700,000 constituents represented by a U.S. Representative. 220 years ago, when U.S. population was 5 million (vs. today’s 325 million), just 34,000 citizens had to share a representative. Growing population also creates opportunities for disproportionate influence by moneyed interests, and it necessitates more and more regulation.

This episode includes a classic story Isaac Asimov told about sharing a bathroom, very relevant to population and regulation. The late physicist Al Bartlett, famous for writing Laws Related to Sustainability, and for his college lecture, Arithmetic, Population and Energy, wrote: “Politicians like to talk to people, but because of overpopulation, they can't talk to everyone. So they talk to a few, a self-selecting small group of wealthy and influential people. Because of this dilution, the old statement, ‘One person, one vote,’ is now being replaced by ‘One dollar, one vote.”

LINKS:

World Population Balance website

"Democracy Cannot Survive Overpopulation" – essay by Al Bartlett

"Laws Related to Sustainability" – by Al Bartlett (scroll down to find them)

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News reports and economists exhibit collective angst about declining birth rates and the resulting aging of populations in many nations. They worry about labor shortages, upside-down pension programs, rising health care burdens and stagnating GDP. A research team at The Overpopulation Project wondered if these challenges are outweighed by the ecological advantage of a population shrinking back to a level that won’t crush the Earth.

In this episode World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner visits with one of the researchers, Philip Cafaro, professor of philosophy at Colorado State University and affiliated faculty member of CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability. Up for discussion: Can a contracting population work economically and socially?

LINKS:

Aging Human Populations: Good for Us, Good for the Earth

The Overpopulation Project

Population Aging and Smaller Populations Have Many Socioeconomic and Environmental Benefits by The Overpopulation Project

Population Growth Will Make It Harder to Meet EU Climate Goals, While Stable or Declining Populations Will Help Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the EU by The Overpopulation Project

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And it warrants greater attention, not less. This roundtable discussion with the staff of World Population Balance answers the question, “Is there a problem with population?” An attempt to answer the question with a “not really” was recently published in a commentary at Resilience.org. The article, Population: What’s the Problem?, written by Chris Smaje, made some points that World Population Balance staff members believe should not stand unchallenged.

In this staff roundtable edition of the podcast, Executive Director Dave Gardner, Carolyn VandenDolder and Alan Ware examine Smaje’s premise, his characterizations, and his assumptions. Ultimately, we strongly disagree with his conclusion. You can read an article we wrote in response to Smaje: Yes, (Over)Population IS a Problem!

LINKS:

I=PAT equation

A Good Life for All Within Planetary Boundaries (University of Leeds study)

Detailed fertility rate information (including nations achieving rapid fertility rate reduction) https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate

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We need to put our children first. “We treat human babies as property, not as children or human beings that need jobs, breathable air, and crops that don’t just die out because it’s become too hot or too dry.” It’s true, isn’t it? But it just hasn’t dawned on most of us.

Carter Dillard and Karin Kuhlemann of the non-profit, Having Kids, join host Dave Gardner for a very candid conversation explaining “child-first” family planning and how it will benefit our children and make human civilization more sustainable. The folks at Having Kids have made headlines with their open letters to Khloé Kardashian, Elon Musk, Charlize Theron, and even the royal couple – Prince William and Kate Middleton.

In this episode of The Overpopulation Podcast, Dillard and Kuhlemann explain their strategies and the bold thinking that preceded these campaigns. “It hurts your own children when you have more children,” they explain. They challenge the idea that there is no “limit to our freedom to create ‘extra people.” “Everyone thinks there is a limit,” explains Kuhlemann, “but no one is willing to say where that limit is…. Creating a whole new person is so much more significant than most of our freedoms – freedom of speech, privacy. It’s absurd to treat it the same. It’s the most serious and consequential thing you can do.”

LINKS:

Having Kids

World Population Balance

"We Can't Tackle Overpopulation When The Time Comes - We Need To Talk About It Now" on Huffington Post, by Karin Kuhlemann

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We wanted to hear what you, our listeners, are thinking - about the challenges, the setbacks, and the wins in the race to achieve a sustainable world population. So we convened an online “Listeners Roundtable” for this episode.

Seven listeners joined the four members of our World Population Balance staff for this conversation, which covered: - Ways to break down the population taboo - How to improve “overpopulation literacy” around the world - Getting the topic addressed in schools - Changing the culture to make it okay again, like it was on the first Earth Day, to address overpopulation

Links:

A Call to Action on World Scientists’ Warning - The recent collaboration of several sustainable population groups:

World Population Simulator (website created by listener Christian Roehr)

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth (film mentioned by Mike Hanauer)

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Graduate student Emma Spett was surprised not that people in their twenties aren’t interested in having kids, but that they have children in spite of that feeling. She thinks, “It’s not wise to NOT be deliberate about bringing children into this new world.” Her commentary published by Having Kids, Parenting in the Anthropocene, and this conversation on The Overpopulation Podcast, raised important questions like: “Why does everyone need their own genetic offspring to feel fulfilled?” “Is freedom to choose more important than the sustained existence of our ecological and human systems?”

It just doesn’t fly anymore to get pregnant and start a family without serious consideration of all the ramifications – for that child, for the family, and for the planet. Those ramifications include the fact that the Earth is buckling today under the pressure of 7.6 billion of us. Emma’s curiosity, sensibilities and articulate way of addressing this issue inspired us to invite her to have this conversation with World Population Balance Executive Director (and host of The Overpopulation Podcast) Dave Gardner. Emma Spett is a graduate student at the University of Vermont in community development and applied economics. She’s also a fellow at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics.

Links:

Parenting in the Anthropocene – Commentary by Emma Spett

"Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene" - article by Roy Scranton in the New York Times

We’re Doomed. Now What? - article by Roy Scranton in the New York Times

Learning to Die in the Anthropocene: Reflections on the End of a Civilization By Roy Scranton

'It’s Cool to Choose a Small Family' - Small Family Stickers from GrowthBusters

Sustainable Population Pledge

Gund Institute

World Population Balance

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Can 7.6 billion or more people live sustainably and happily on the planet? Can we avoid the sensitive topic of choosing smaller families simply by eating less meat, taking public transportation and turning the thermostat down in winter and up in summer?

The World Population Balance staff kicks this subject around in response to a study that concluded resource use would need to decline by a factor of two to six times for all the world’s people to live well within planetary boundaries.

LINKS:

Oxfam From Poverty to Power Blog: "If Everyone Lived Sustainably, What Would Their Lives Be Like?" by Andrew Fanning

Global Footprint Network: National Footprint Accounts

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College students grieve when presented the facts about overshoot. World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner picks the brain of a professor teaching a college course on human population. Chris Bystroff, Professor of Biological Sciences and Computer Science, and Director of the Bioinformatics Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shares what he’s observed about the knowledge and attitudes of young adults enrolled in his college course. Bystroff also shares exciting news about his research project to develop an easily reversible contraceptive vaccine.

Links:

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth

Mother: Caring for 7 Billion

How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth? - David Attenborough on BBC

Soylent Green

Immunocontraception Project

Chris Bystroff

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Overpopulation and the impacts of human population growth have been getting more and more media coverage in recent years. World Population Balance thinks it’s important to have the resulting awareness, education and conversations. But how thorough, unbiased and accurate is the coverage?

For this roundtable episode of The Overpopulation Podcast, the World Population team examines two recent radio programs that took up the issue: More People, More Problems, on 1A, produced by WAMU and distributed by NPR; and Can We Avoid Global Catastrophe As the World Population Heads to 10 Billion? on the series, On Point, produced by WBUR and heard on over 290 NPR stations. The WPB staff at the roundtable: Dave Gardner, Alan Ware, Carolyn VandenDolder and Joan Philips.

Links:

More People, More Problems on NPR's 1A

Can We Avoid Global Catastrophe As the World Population Heads to 10 Billion? on NPR's On Point

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Robin Maynard has tremendous faith that the young people of the world have both tremendous power and growing awareness and interest in getting humanity back onto a sustainable path. Our guest, the director of Population Matters, shares his thinking about human overpopulation and talks about the organization’s goals, strategies and tactics. Like World Population Balance, his organization is working hard at “shifting those amplifiers in society who really could reach so many people and talk in a rational, humane and compassionate way about population.”

There is still a perplexing guilt, awkwardness and hesitation to talk about population, among both the general public and even among leaders of environmental organizations. The good news is people ARE becoming a little less cautious in discussing the subject. Hosted by World Population Balance Executive Director Dave Gardner.

To explore this issue further, sign the Sustainable Population Pledge, subscribe to email updates, or donate to support this project, visit worldpopulationbalance.org

Links:

Populationmattters.org

Zombie Overpopulation video

Small Families, Small Planet video

Diana Coole: Too Many Bodies? The Return and Disavowel of the Population Question

MIT Study: Technological Progress Alone Won’t Stem Resource Use

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Is discussing overpopulation politically incorrect? Science tells us there are more people on the planet today than the Earth can sustainably support. Is avoiding the subject the best way to solve the problem?

The World Population Balance team tackles these questions in response to a column by journalist David Roberts explaining why he avoids the subject.

Plus: What do hurricanes Harvey and Irma have to do with overpopulation. And good news on the teen pregnancy front. A rousing discussion with Dave Gardner, Carolyn VandenDolder, Alan Ware and Joan Philips of World Population Balance.

Learn more at worldpopulationbalance.org.

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Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Joel Pett has long had our environment, sustainability and overpopulation on his mind. His cartoons have graced USA Today, the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe and his hometown Lexington Herald-Leader for over three decades.

Frequently lampooning denial and other irrational human behavior disrespecting our critical, life-supporting ecosystems, Joel’s deep connection with the natural world inspires him to use his creativity for good! Pett is also the winner of the 1999 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning, and a 1995 winner of the Global Media Award for cartoons on population issues.

In this charming conversation, Joel shares stories about some of his favorite cartoons and reacts to Overpopulation Podcast host Dave Gardner’s analysis. While you listen, peruse Pett’s population cartoons.

CAUTION: Some adult language.

Links:

Joel Pett's editorial cartoons

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Are there ethical and moral ways for governments to accelerate the move to smaller families - in order to contract population? Ethicists Colin Hickey and Jake Earl weigh in on why this should be done, and how we might do it fairly, in order to shrink our carbon footprint. Earl and Hickey co-authored with Travis Rieder the paper, "Population Engineering and the Fight Against Climate Change".

Links:

Colin Hickey | Universiteit Utrecht Fair Limits | Interview Colin Hickey for Ethics Institute Newsletter Jake Earl, Ph.D. Jake Earl talk highlighted in student newspaper

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Our efforts to date are falling “woefully short” of achieving the greenhouse gas reduction needed to avoid dramatic, probably catastrophic, climate disruption. Bioethicist Travis Rieder shakes things up by asking the question: In the age of climate change, is there a moral imperative not to have children, or to have only one child?

Rieder has brought a degree of scientific rigor to exploring this question that’s finally starting to make this conversation acceptable. Responses to an NPR story about this ran 10 to 1 very favorable.

In this conversation, Rieder starts with the fact that the decision not to have one child is more than 20 times more effective at reducing your carbon footprint than the sum total of an entire lifetime doing the six most common “green” activities. He then takes us through some of the logic he used to arrive at the answer to that morality question.

Links:

Colin Hickey | Universiteit Utrecht Fair Limits | Interview Colin Hickey for Ethics Institute Newsletter Jake Earl, Ph.D. Jake Earl talk highlighted in student newspaper

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Will it take mass murder to bring world population back to a sustainable level? Novelist Benjamin Dancer joins host Dave Gardner to discuss the issues raised in his novel, Patriarch Run.

Link:

Benjamin Dancer

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In observance of International Childfree Day, author Laura Carroll joins host Dave Gardner to discuss the choice couples make to be childfree. Laura served as editor for the book, Man Swarm: How Overpopulation is Killing the Wild World by Dave Foreman, and is the author of The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World, and Families of Two: Interviews With Happily Married Couples Without Children by Choice.

For over the last 15 years, she has been researching the childfree choice and those who make it, and has interviewed thousands who’ve made this choice. The discussion includes our pronatal culture and where to get support, myths about family size, the cost of raising children, and of course doing your part to solve overpopulation. Laura believes there is growing acceptance of the childfree choice.

Links:

Laura Carroll - Nonfiction Author, Childfree Choice Expert International Childfree Day

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Author, naturalist, and World Population Balance advisor, Karen Shragg completely supports working on the many environmental and social issues of our time, "but nothing will matter when we run out of the vital resources of this planet, or create a climate too unstable to grow enough food." In this interview with World Population Balance's David Paxson and Dave Gardner, Shragg explores the premise of her book, Move Upstream: A Call to Solve Overpopulation. The three attempt to untangle the irrational avoidance of fundamental truths about overpopulation. Karen thinks "it’s everyone’s responsibility, who has a microphone, to talk about this issue. We need to be afraid of the problem, not the solution."

Links:

movingupstream.com

Move Upstream: A Call to Solve Overpopulation

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College student Jasmine Stark shares why and how she became concerned about overpopulation, and what she is doing about it. Her responses to the crisis include choosing to conceive just one child and having lots of conversations with her peers to put overpopulation on their radar screens.

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How do we know the world is overpopulated? And why is it necessary to begin dramatically reducing births? Dave Paxson and Dave Gardner are joined by World Population Balance Research Director Alan Ware, who runs down the list of essential, life-supporting natural resources being depleted by the needs and wants of 7.3 billion people. The Overpopulation Podcast features enlightening conversations with World Population Balance President David Paxson, Executive Director Dave Gardner, and guests.

To learn more about the subject or about World Population Balance, and to support our work, visit worldpopulationbalance.org.

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President Emeritus, David Paxson, joins podcast host and Executive Director, Dave Gardner, in this enlightening overview of the overpopulation crisis and how to solve it.

Most of us don’t know that much about world population. Is it growing? How fast? Has it already outstripped the planet’s capacity to support it? How do we know? Is there ANYTHING we can do about it? The biggest surprise is that the solution to overpopulation is within our grasp.

To learn more about the subject and to support the work of World Population Balance visit worldpopulationbalance.org.

The Overpopulation Podcast: Recent Episodes

Population Balance