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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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   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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

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/

We are joined by Amanda Janoo, Economics and Policy Lead at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance where we unpack the fundamentals behind the Wellbeing Economy. 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? 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, and the economy becomes the means to help us achieve those goals by putting our fundamental needs for Dignity, Nature, Purpose, Fairness and Participation at the core of its activities and getting things right the first time around. 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/podcast/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/

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/podcast/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/

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/podcast/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/