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OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance
OVERSHOOT tackles today’s social and ecological crises driven by our excessive population and consumption and explores the paradigm shifts needed to bring our human footprint into balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests, hosts Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware examine the drivers of overshoot: from the pronatalism fueling overpopulation, to economies based on consumerism and social injustice, to the worldview of human supremacy that exploits animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance offers transformative pathways beyond technological fixes, toward interconnectedness with all beings. With a global rank of 1.5%, we draw listeners from across 150 countries.
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There are over 90 episodes of OVERSHOOT. If you are new to the podcast and looking for a good place to start, we recommend you listen to these episodes first.
Episodes
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An “Abundance Agenda” for Nature
We need an “abundance agenda” for nature. Ben Goldfarb, environmental journalist and author, challenges the techno-fix growth agenda that delivers an abundance of concrete and condos and a scarcity of wildness and wildlife. He urges us to replace extinction-prevention minimalism with a bolder commitment to restoring the abundance of keystone species, thriving ecosystems, and the freedom of wildlife to roam, migrate, and flourish.
Progress: Humanity’s Worst Idea
For 5,000 years civilizations have told themselves stories of progress. Today, the progress myth has become humanity's most dangerous illusion. Samuel Miller McDonald, geographer and author of Progress: A History of Humanity’s Worst Idea, illuminates the destructive lineage of progress, why these myths endure, how they enable socially and ecologically parasitic societies, and what values might guide us beyond them.
Complexity and Collapse
Modern techno-industrial civilization is running up against the law of diminishing returns - and societal collapse is inevitable. B, author of The Honest Sorcerer blog, reveals why our civilizational complexity carries the seeds of its own destruction.
The Elite’s Fixation with Low Birth Rates
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, joins us.
Pro-Nuclear Propaganda and Our Future
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, author of Nuclear is Not the Solution, joins us.
Escape from Overshoot
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, discusses the forces that deepen overshoot and what we might do to create a post-growth future.
Hospicing Modernity
Modernity is dying within and around us, and we need to face that death with courage and compassion. Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, Brazilian educator, Indigenous and land rights activist, and author of Hospicing Modernity, joins us.
“Hopium” and the Long Defeat
The rhetoric of “hopium” is failing as ecological overshoot deepens. We're living in the long defeat and we must own and confront it with courage. Award-winning essayist, Pamela Swanigan, joins us.
The “Energy Transition” Delusion
There is no energy transition - only ongoing and symbiotic energy addition. Historian Jean-Baptiste Fressoz, author of More and More and More: An All-Consuming History of Energy, joins us.
From Grief to Regeneration
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.
The Biggest Risk to Humanity
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.
Progressive Pathways for a Smaller Population
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.
Walking with Gorillas
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.
The Poverty of Growth
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.
Early Warning Systems
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.
The Lies Economists Tell
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.
Water Always Wins
We need to respect what water wants. Erica Gies, award-winning journalist and author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge, joins us.
The Delusion of Decoupling
Economic growth is failing the planet, and it’s time for a change. James Hopeward, environmental civil engineering professor, joins us.
Social Ecological Economics
The global economy is failing socially and ecologically. Clive Spash, an ecological economist and pioneer of social ecological economics, joins us.
Highway to Hell: The Dystopian Fantasies of Tech Billionaires
The dystopian visions of ecologically blind tech billionaires are shaping our future in alarming ways. Émile P. Torres, philosopher and historian, joins us.