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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 

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 

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 

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 

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Obsession with growth is enriching elites and killing the planet. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and author of The Poverty of Growth, joins us. 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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 

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Eating animals isn’t just a personal choice. It’s shaped by an invisible belief system, carnism, that conditions people to see eating animals as normal, natural, and necessary. Melanie Joy, social psychologist and author of Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, joins us. 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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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 https://www.populationbalance.org/

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Animals feel deeply, and recognizing their emotions could transform how we treat them. Marc Bekoff, animal behavior expert and author of The Emotional Lives of Animals, joins us. 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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 

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

Population growth and extreme weather events converge to create growing challenges in vulnerable regions. Chris Funk, climatologist and director of the Climate Hazards Center, joins us. 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

The dominant economic system delivers neither ecological nor social justice. Joshua Farley, an expert in ecological economics, argues for 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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 

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

We need to respect what water wants. Erica Gies, journalist and author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge, joins us. 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Hello, this is Nandita Bajaj, co-host 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

ABOUT US

Beyond Pronatalism is brought to you by Population Balance, the only nonprofit 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/

Copyright 2024 Population Balance

Economic growth is failing the planet, and it’s time for a change. James Hopeward, environmental civil engineering professor, joins us. 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Our legal system is failing animals by treating them as either property or persons. Maneesha Deckha, Professor and Lansdowne Chair in Law at the University of Victoria and author of Animals as Legal Beings: Contesting Anthropocentric Legal Orders, joins us. Highlights include:

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 “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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

“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 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 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 many growth agendas of mainstream economics while also peddling population denialism and human supremacy;

• Why Social Ecological Economics provides a scientific and ethical 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 Green Revolution helped push us beyond Earth’s carrying capacity, while devastating natural ecosytems; 
• The ethnic, religious, and political complexities and history of the Israel-Palestine conflict and how pronatalism and ecological overshoot factor into it;
• How Iran, Thailand, and Costa Rica developed some of the most successful family planning programs in the world;
• The role of the Catholic Church as a potent force of pronatalism around the world. 

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 demographic surveys;
• Zak and Jenna's 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;
• 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;
• How the combination of market forces and alarmist ‘population crash’ arguments are increasingly influencing demographic research, making it less reliable;
• How the childfree community can leverage social network theory – by using bonding and bridging ties between childfree and parent individuals – to build stronger childfree social networks and shift societal norms towards greater acceptance of childfree choices.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 and complex systems that surround our daily lives;
• How we can overcome this sense of 'moral dumbfounding' to better align our actions with our values;
• Why the decision to have a biological child is an example of 'monumental ethics' that requires a great amount of moral deliberation;
• Why an overly narrow focus on utilitarian ethics can be dangerous and the modern 'effective altruism' movement reflects these dangers. 

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 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;
• 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 and the planet.
• 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 the growth model on which it is based;
• How environmental destruction in the U.S. West has been aided and abetted by corrupt federal land management agencies that have been captured by the livestock, forestry, and mining interests they're supposed to be regulating;
• The U.S. Department of Interior has failed to enforce the Endangered Species Act and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service engages in ongoing and shocking mass slaughter of animals that threaten the livestock industry;
• How 'green growth' ideology is fueling the lithium mining on sacred indigenous lands and aligns leading environmental groups with 'green' industry interests;
• Chris’ vision of ecological restoration which 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 pressures on women to have many children for the state for the sake of greater economic and military power; 
• The diversity of human arrangements, including the prevalence of egalitarian and matrilineal societies around the world – past and present – reveal that male-supremacy is neither natural nor immutable.
• 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 pushed overpopulation from a central environmental issue in the 1970s to a near-taboo topic today;
• How fears of neo-colonialism in the Global South made population issues politically untouchable;
• How associations with past eugenics programs silenced overpopulation discourse in the Global North;
• Why neoliberalism and the fixation on economic growth continue to promote population growth policies;
• What the 1974, 1984, and 1994 World Population and Development conferences reveal about shifting religious, cultural, and political attitudes toward population.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 the threat of rising polarization, techno-solutionism, and conflict; 
• Why embracing complexity, uncertainty, and competing priorities is key to maintaining social cohesion and international peace;
• How seeking wisdom and knowledge from communities who have experienced collapse and suffering can help us build household and community resilience for this precarious time.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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, climate change, extinction, and pandemics through institutionalized animal exploitation;
• What ethics-based policy changes in academia, public health, and global institutions can do to transform harmful systems;
• How the “phoenix effect” in survivors of trauma reveals pathways to healing, resilience, and justice for all beings.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 cheap and abundant energy enabled the transformation of nature into human artifacts and the exploitation of poorer nations by richer ones;
• Why continuing the same path of economic growth obsession in the form of "green growth" will still lead to ecological collapse;
• Why nothing short of a cooperative, well-planned, orderly contraction of economic activity, consumption, and population is needed to align human activity with Earth's productive and assimilative capacities;
• Why Bill concludes what is “ecologically necessary is politically infeasible, while the politically feasible is ecologically catastrophic”;
• How communities grounded in ecological wisdom might act as lifeboats guiding us toward a livable post-industrial future.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 sustained slavery in the past and present;
• Why modern slavery is often difficult to identify due to cultural practices and laws such debt bondage, forced marriage, and labor exploitation that are provided cultural and legal camouflage; 
• How modern slavery contributes disproportionately to environmental harm, including CO₂ emissions and biodiversity loss;
• What it takes to dismantle slavery today and the joy that Kevin feels in helping free thousands of people from slavery.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 reflects a troubling blend of patriarchy, nationalism, and biomedical capitalism;
• Why a country with an ecological overshoot and chronic overwork crisis should welcome population decline but instead promotes pronatalist alarm;
• What exploitative tactics Japanese policymakers and media use to pressure women into reproduction, in collaboration with the fertility industry;
• How poor sex education, limited abortion provision, and limited reproductive rights undermine women’s autonomy in one of the world’s least gender-equal industrialized nations.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 the loss of biodiversity, worsening of poverty, and the erasure of traditional cultural wisdom.
• Why small, disconnected "protected areas" are a failed strategy of biodiversity conservation, especially in the Global South;
• How he's witnessed the devastation of ocean life biodiversity in the relatively short span of his career;
• How global warming is increasing the prevalence of human disease;
• How scientists, including climate scientists, continue to ignore the fundamental role of population in ongoing ecological crises;
• Why population reduction through womens' empowerment and affordable family planning 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/ 

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 others to not be harmed;
• Why Trevor rejects both antinatalism and misanthropy;
• Why population reduction is a moral imperative in order to reduce unnecessary suffering to people and other species;
• How rights-based policy strategies can be used to ethically reduce population levels. 

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 plants of the Western Ghats biome;
• Why understanding plant interdependence is essential for restoring forest ecosystems and supporting biodiversity;
• How rewilding efforts at the sanctuary provide refuge for both nonhuman life and human spirit in a time of ecological destruction;
• What lessons human societies can learn from living in harmony with complex plant communities.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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, continues to challenge Uganda’s sovereignty;
• Why engaging boys and men in confronting patriarchy and pronatalism is essential for sustainable gender equality;
• How male advocacy complements the empowerment of girls and women to achieve true gender equality and ecological sustainbility in Uganda.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 about the link between the erosion of women’s reproductive rights, population growth, and environmental degradation;
• How women lost control over both the timing and frequency of their pregnancies as patriarchal cultural norms became more established;
• How fertility rates have declined alongside gains in gender equality over the past century and why continuing this trend is vital for both reproductive and ecological justice.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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 Market, joins us.

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

Humans are overpowering Earth’s natural systems and oppressing one another. Richard Heinberg, author of Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival and one of the world’s foremost experts on energy and sustainability, joins us. 

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

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

If autonomy is a basic human right, why do many women have little or no choice when it comes to motherhood? Amrita Nandy, a feminist scholar and author of Motherhood and Choice: Uncommon Mothers, Childfree Women, joins us.

India has just surpassed China as the most populous country in the world. What role has patriarchal pronatalism played in spurring this growth? What 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, researcher, and writer.

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

ABOUT US

OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]

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

Copyright 2025 Population Balance