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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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Leading the Legal Fight for Animals
Animal rights are the next frontier of civil rights. Jeff Kerr, PETA’s longtime Chief Legal Officer, leads the organization’s bold, precedent-setting legal strategy. From the “monkey selfie” case to freeing animals from experimentation and exploitative entertainment to exposing agribusiness humane-washing, Jeff fights 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. He advocates for an anti-capitalist animal politics that builds alliances with social justice movements to advance both 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 vegan 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.
The Megamachine and Green Growth Delusions
Techno-industrial extractivism is driving environmental destruction, and the media is complicit in upholding the growth model that sustains it. Christopher Ketcham, author of This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption Are Ruining the American West, joins us.
Toward Animal and Human Liberation
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.
Confronting Ecological Overshoot
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 ecological footprint analysis, joins us.
Rewilding Nature and Ourselves
What happens when we renounce our ego and allow nature to become our teacher? Rainforest conservationist and educator Suprabha Seshan chats with us about her incredible efforts to protect and restore the forest at the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Kerala, India.
The Beauty and Complexity of Animal Cultures
Human supremacy keeps us from appreciating the incredible beauty and complexity of other creatures and their cultures. Carl Safina, ecologist and author of Becoming Wild, joins us.
The Costs of Population Denialism
Dr. Helen Kopnina pays tribute to late Dr. Hadyn Washington and his uncompromising commitment to sustainability and justice. She also discusses her personal introduction to an eco-centric worldview through nature’s healing power, as well as the social and ecological costs of population denialism.
Weaving Meaning Back into Life
The dominant worldview that we are machines driven by selfishness and competition needs to be dismantled and replaced with a life-affirming worldview of deep interconnectedness that weaves together modern science and traditional wisdom. Jeremy Lent, author of The Web of Meaning and The Patterning Instinct, joins us.