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OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance
The OVERSHOOT podcast 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%, we draw listeners from across 150 countries.
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New to our podcast?
There are over 100 episodes of OVERSHOOT. If you are new to the podcast, we recommend you listen to these episodes first:
William Rees: Confronting Overshoot Eileen Crist: Beyond Human Supremacy Angela Saini: How Men Came to Rule Alan Weisman: Countdown
Episodes
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The Collapse of Modernity
The collapse of modern techno-industrial civilization is inevitable. William Rees, human ecologist and ecological economist, argues that humanity's nature evolved in simpler times and has left us wholly incapable of understanding the enormously complex and life-destroying global civilization we've created. The worldview of human exceptionalism, fueled by fossil energy and sustained by the myth of limitless growth and human ingenuity, is driving us deeper into ecological overshoot and leading humanity toward a painful contraction in both human population and consumption.
The Oceans’ Deadliest Animal
Oceans are the next frontier of destructive human expansionism and extraction. Peruvian marine biologist and ocean life advocate, Daniel Cáceres Bartra, argues that human population growth and expansionism have already devastated nonhuman life on land, making it critical to protect the oceans before they suffer the same fate. From overfishing to deep-sea mining, Daniel advocates for top-down international action to protect marine life before humanity consumes the last great frontier of biodiversity.
Beyond Human Supremacy (Replay)
Republished from August 2022. The worldview of human supremacy is driving the human expansionism that is devastating the living world. Philosopher and environmental writer Eileen Crist, author of Abundant Earth: Toward an Ecological Civilization, offers a compelling alternative - reimagining ourselves as "Earthlings" and creating societies that make space for the flourishing of all life.
Animals and the Right to Politics
For millennia, animals have been treated as property or passive recipients of moral concern rather than as political beings with agency. Political philosophers Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, authors of Animals and the Right to Politics, argue that decades of research reveals that animals are members of complex political societies capable of negotiation, cooperation, and collective decision-making.
The Hoax of Lab-Grown Meat
Vasile Stănescu, animal liberation scholar, exposes the ‘humane’ hoax and explains why the uncritical adoption by animal advocates of ‘humane’, cage-free’, ‘free-range’, and lab-grown meat, funded by effective altruism philanthropy and the animal agriculture industry, not only reproduces the myth that meat is normal, natural, and necessary, it represents an ultimate defeat for animals.
Combatting the Extinction Crisis
Biodiversity is collapsing under the pressures of human overpopulation, overconsumption, and animal agriculture. Tierra Curry and Stephanie Feldstein of the Center for Biological Diversity explain how science, law, and advocacy can protect wildlife and wild places. They also share strategies for combating extinction and staying motivated to act in an age of ecological crisis.
Confronting Human Exceptionalism
The myth of human exceptionalism casts humans as separate from and superior to the rest of life. Primatologist Christine Webb, author of The Arrogant Ape, shows how science and culture reinforce this worldview, and why replacing it with awe and empathy for the natural world is essential to life’s future on Earth.
Leading the Legal Fight for Animals
From freeing animals from experimentation and exploitative entertainment to exposing agribusiness humane-washing, Jeff Kerr, PETA’s Chief Legal Officer, leads the organization’s bold, precedent-setting strategy to secure legal recognition of animals as beings with inviolable rights.
Capitalism’s War Against Animals
A global war against animals is driven by capitalist exploitation and profit. Dinesh Wadiwel, author of Animals and Capital and The War Against Animals, shows how capitalism treats animals as commodities, raw materials, and self-reproducing labor and how we might advance animal and human justice.
The Omnivore’s Deception
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, joins us.
Oscar Winner Fighting for Animals
Academy Award-winning 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.
The Sexual Politics of Meat
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.
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.
Animals are Not Ours
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.
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 Meat Paradox
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.
The Emotional Lives of Animals
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.
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.
Animals as Legal Beings
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.
Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene
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.