Pronatalism and Overpopulation Webinar

The decision to have children or not is largely regarded as an isolated personal decision, but how personal is it really? We are joined by four expert international panelists to unpack the pervasive and oppressive powers of pronatalism.

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

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

Moderator: Nandita Bajaj, Executive Director of World Population Balance

Panelists:

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

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

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

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

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

https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/pronatalism-and-overpopulation

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.

*Episodes from 2016-2021 were hosted by former executive director Dave Gardner and later with co-host Erika Arias, and then with co-host Nandita Bajaj.

Learn more at populationbalance.org

Copyright 2025 Population Balance

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