OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance

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  

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    

Dr. Camilo Mora, a renowned professor, discusses the impacts of population growth on climate change, biodiversity loss, and pandemics. He shares personal experiences from Colombia, highlighting the connection between population pressures and environmental degradation. The podcast delves into the challenges of addressing overpopulation denial and the importance of implementing sustainable solutions for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

Trevor Hedberg, an environmental and procreative ethicist, discusses the ethical implications of procreation, the environmental impact of overpopulation, pronatalism, and the need for population reduction to reduce suffering. He explores rights-based policy strategies to balance the right to have a family with the rights of others and rejects antinatalism and misanthropy.

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