Overpopulation and the Ethics of Procreation | Trevor Hedberg

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