OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

Education is critical to solving our biggest challenges - but it needs a new approach. Zoe Weil, co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education and author of The Solutionary Way , joins us. 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 "sol...

"Development" is destroying the planet and erasing cultural wisdom. Ashish Kothari, environmentalist and author, joins us. 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 exi...

The global economy is failing socially and ecologically. Clive Spash, an ecological economist and pioneer of social ecological economics, joins us. 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...

We need to shift from systems of domination - rooted in control, hierarchy, and violence - to systems of partnership grounded in mutual respect, equity, and care for all life. Riane Eisler, a social systems scientist, futurist, cultural historian and author of The Chalice and the Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations , joins us. Highlights include:  Riane's childhood experiences of being a Holocaus...

The suffering of animals trapped within human systems of exploitation and oppression is hidden in plain sight. Jo-Anne McArthur, animal photojournalist and founder of We Animals Media, joins us. Highlights 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 Phot...

The dystopian visions of ecologically blind tech billionaires are shaping our future in alarming ways. Émile P. Torres, philosopher and historian, joins us. Highlights 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...

How many humans can the planet support without capsizing? Alan Weisman, journalist and author of Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? , joins us. Highlights include:  How growth-biased cultures, religions, nationalities, tribes, and political systems are collectively undermining our ability to live within planetary limits; How both the intended and unintended consequences of the G...

Childfree adults make up a significant portion of the population, yet they remain largely invisible in policymaking and demographic surveys. Zachary Neal and Jennifer Watling Neal, psychologists and childfree researchers, join us. Highlights include:  A discussion of how childfree adults make up a significant portion of the population, yet they remain largely invisible in policymaking and demograp...

Modern life is filled with confusing and often terrifying problems, leaving many of us struggling with how to make morally decent choices. Travis N. Rieder, bioethicist and moral philosopher and author of Catastrophe Ethics , joins us. Highlights include: Why modern life can be both morally exhausting and puzzling and individual action can often seem insignificant within the context of the massive...

Pronatalism shapes how we think about parenthood and reproduction, often in ways we don't even notice. Laura Carroll, an expert on pronatalism, the childfree choice, and author of The Baby Matrix , joins us. Highlights include: Highlighted stories of women from Laura's latest book,  A Special Sisterhood: 100 Fascinating Women From History Who Never had Children; A discussion of the various pronata...

Techno-industrial extractivism is driving environmental destruction, and the media is complicit in upholding the growth model that sustains it. Christopher Ketcham, author of This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption Are Ruining the American West , joins us. Highlights include: How techno-industrial extractivism plagues modern societies and the media is complicity in failing to challenge...

Patriarchy has shaped societies across the globe, but how did it take root? Angela Saini, science journalist and author of The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule , joins us. Highlights include: How gendered roles, pronatalism, and militarism – key features of patriarchies – are very recent phenomena within the long span of human history, emerging with the rise of early states and empires and their p...

When and why did population become a dirty word? Diana Coole, political theorist and feminist scholar, joins us. Highlights include: Why population shaming is the main barrier to open conversations about overpopulation - an major contributor to mounting social and ecological catastrophes, including climate change, biodiversity destruction, resource scarcity, and conflict; How population shaming pu...

Environmental and social breakdown from intersecting crises is accelerating, but how can we navigate it? Asher Miller and Rob Dietz of the Post Carbon Institute join us to discuss their latest report, Welcome to the Great Unraveling . Highlights include: Why human supremacy and ecological overshoot are the root causes of the unfolding 'great unraveling'; How global suffering could increase with th...

Oppression, exploitation, and domination harm both humans and nonhumans, but how can we dismantle these systems? Hope Ferdowsian, president of Phoenix Zones Initiative and a public health physician, joins us. Highlights include: Why the exploitation of animals in food production and research is linked to broader global violence and conflict; How powerful corporate interests fuel issues like hunger...

How has blind faith in human exceptionalism, neoliberal economics, and technological optimism led us into a state of ecological overshoot? Bill Rees, population ecologist and co-creator of the ecological footprint analysis, joins us. Highlights include: How human exceptionalism, techno-optimism, and neoliberal economics have blinded us to ecological limits and fueled ecological overshoot; How chea...

Modern-day slavery persists as a global tragedy, violating fundamental human rights and causing widespread ecological destruction. Kevin Bales, Professor of Contemporary Slavery and Research Director of the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham, UK and an expert on modern day slavery, joins us. Highlights include:  How population growth, pronatalism, religion, economic systems, and war have s...

How has Japan's slightly declining population given rise to a toxic mix of patriarchy, biomedical capitalism, and nationalism? Isabel Fassbender, a Japan-based feminist scholar and author of Active Pursuit of Pregnancy: Neoliberalism, Postfeminism and the Politics of Reproduction in Contemporary Japan , joins us. Highlights include: How Japan's panicked response to a slight population decline refl...

Human activity is driving climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity, and pandemics, creating compounding crises that demand urgent attention. Camilo Mora, professor and researcher, joins us. Highlights include: Why moving past population denial is critical for addressing our multiple ecological challenges; How population pressures have impacted life in his native Columbia - including th...

What are the ethical implications of bringing new life into existence, both for the child and the planet? Trevor Hedberg, environmental and procreative ethicist and author of The Environmental Impact of Overpopulation: The Ethics of Procreation , joins us. Highlights include: How pronatalism influences procreative decision-making; Why the right to found a family must be balanced with the rights of...

What happens when we renounce our ego and allow nature to become our teacher? Subrabha Seshan, rainforest conservationist and educator, joins us. Highlights include:  What the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Kerala, India is doing to serve as an ecological "ark" amid the flood of human expansion; How Subrapha's work combines traditional knowledge and scientific practices to protect endangered plan...

Male involvement in family planning is key to changing population dynamics and promoting gender equity in Uganda. Andrew Kyamagero, a Ugandan journalist and family-planning advocate, joins us. Highlights include:  How patriarchal norms drive high fertility, child marriage, and low female education and workforce participation in Uganda; Why Western imperialism, both historical and ongoing, continue...

Reproductive autonomy and empowering choice are key to both human rights and planetary health. Robert Engelman, researcher, writer, former newspaper reporter and author of More: Population, Nature, and What Women Want , joins us. Highlights include: How women have been controlling their fertility for thousands of years through various forms of contraception; What 10,000 years of history reveal abo...

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? Amanda Janoo, Economics and Policy Lead at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, joins us.   Through clear examples and policy strategies, Janoo illustrates the cultural and metaphysical transformation that can occur within communities when social and...

Free-market fundamentalism undermines democracy and exploits marginalized communities to benefit a small minority of elites. Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and co-author of The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Marke t, joins us. Using her latest book th...