85: Election 2024 – Stephanie Attempts to Talk Dave Off the Ledge
GrowthBusters
Dave and Stephanie dig into what caused voters to ignore Donald Trump’s felony convictions, indecency, incompetence, narcissism, and dishonesty – and elect him president. This includes a review of the 50-year war waged by the mega-rich and corporations to undermine civility, compassion, equity and rule of law, to elevate the free enterprise system, rob the working class and enrich themselves. The Lewis Powell Memo kicked this into high gear 50 years ago. They also propose theories about why Dave’s campaign for president failed in its mission to alert the public, media and policymakers to...
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84: Strong Economy Begins With Shrinking Workforce
GrowthBusters
A new study debunks depopulation panic. For decades economists have perpetuated the false narrative, “If population growth reverses and begins to decline, the economy is doomed.” This belief has so frequently been repeated by economists, politicians, business people and the public, that it is generally taken as gospel. Psychologists have characterized the phenomenon as the illusory-truth effect, or believing something to be true if it’s repeated often enough, even if it is false. For the first time in modern history, a handful of countries are witnessing actual population declines. The...
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83: We Roasted Elon Musk, Raising the Curiosity of Thousands
GrowthBusters
We made it VERY clear that Musk’s worries about population collapse are ill-founded, and that attracted thousands more listeners than usual to our podcast. How did that happen? What kind of comments did we get? Find out in this episode. And get important truths about overshoot and overpopulation. Plus, learn how we’ll give YOU the mic for an episode of the GrowthBusters podcast. We explain the long wait for this episode, and share our offer to listeners to “adopt” a future episode to discuss an aspect of limits to growth important to you. If you do want to guest-host an...
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82: Governor Whitmer Unveils Ponzi Population Policy
GrowthBusters
The Michigan Governor is apparently unaware that the world, the U.S. and even Michigan are overpopulated. Michigan population has been growing a little too slowly for her taste, so Whitmer has appointed a Chief Growth Officer and formed the Growing Michigan Together Council. Not surprisingly, her bottom line is to “spur economic growth.” In an episode you should share with YOUR governor, you’ll get the details and find out why this news puts “a bee in Dave’s bonnet,” plus news about some outstanding new studies, a wonderful commentary in Newsweek, a crazy podcast you’ll like, and...
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81 Overpopulation Think Tank – Part 2
GrowthBusters
Are many vegans self-righteous, overbearing and insufferable in their efforts to recruit us? Would you believe “overpopulation” is still a taboo word? Or that human population numbers are still an “off-limits” topic at some conferences? This episode continues the conversation we began in episode 79 with five smart people: Nandita Bajaj, executive director of Population Balance Sarah Bexell, director of humane education at the Institute for Human Animal Connection at University of Denver Paul Sutton, professor of geography & the environment at DU Stephanie Gardner, co-host of the...
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80 How Do We Get Out of This Mess? University Students Brainstorm
GrowthBusters
Students in a DU ecological economics class discuss their biggest concerns and how our society might overcome them. Overshoot, polarization, the American Dream, politics, selfish individualism, and the capitalism growth imperative are among the topics explored – as GrowthBuster Dave Gardner sits down with leaders of tomorrow. Dave is joined by Professor Paul Sutton at the University of Denver and students Lilia Davis, Julia Gainey, Cassienne Levan, Nathan Cox, Mikey Ford, Geordie Shonk, Elsa Krantz, and Alexandra Van de Water. Surprisingly, all the students seem to have a clear...
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79 Overpopulation Think Tank – Part 1
GrowthBusters
Five thought leaders break the silence on the role of human overpopulation in ecological overshoot –with an informed, engaging conversation about the subject. This is what intelligent discourse sounds like. For thirty years, many people – some well-intentioned – have been trying to silence discourse about human overpopulation. One of our goals on the GrowthBusters podcast is to break that silence, and this episode does that well by bringing together three great thinkers – actually five, educators and crusaders on the subject. The occasion was a visit to Colorado by Nandita Bajaj,...
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78 Discussing Overpopulation: Let's Clear the Minefield
GrowthBusters
Why do discussions of overpopulation often elicit emotional responses of fear, anger, or indignation? Are anger and indignation what prevents productive discussion of population? These responses in a graduate college class provide an opportunity to explore how we might pave the way for productive conversations. Our guest in this episode, Professor Christopher Bystroff of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute wonders whether a “global therapy session” could end what he describes as a “global, sullen silence.” We need intelligent discourse on the subject, but too often it is being shut down....
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77 Fact-Checking News of China’s “Demographic Crisis”
GrowthBusters
The news that China’s massive population dropped by nearly a million people last year was almost universally reported as a “crisis.” In this episode we unpack the news coverage and take journalists to task for completely overlooking the fact that, in an overpopulated world, population contraction should be greeted with a collective sigh of relief. The population news was accompanied by an announcement that China’s economy grew by only three percent, less than half the previous year’s 8.1 percent. This, too, was reported as bad news for China. Of course, obsession with GDP growth is...
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76 Now Here's What We Call an Eco-Superhero
GrowthBusters
Getting take-out in your own reusable container, recycling bubble-wrap properly, and getting arrested – it’s all in a day’s work for an eco-superhero. Stephanie and Dave learn about climate activism with Extinction Rebellion, sharing quirky sustainability life hacks on social media, and the joy of a 58-hour train trip – from Stephanie’s former co-worker and friend, James Comiskey. Find out... why James is angry and thinks he has a right to be if #AmtrakLife should be your new favorite hashtag why Steve Bannon wears three shirts at one time why Dave proposes we organize a conference...
info_outlineThe climate pact achieved at COP26 was woefully inadequate. We could be in for over four degrees Fahrenheit of warming this century over pre-industrial temperatures, and some scenarios would put us closer to eight degrees. In this episode, Paul Sutton shares his observations from Glasgow, and we get assessments from a few other noted experts.
Policymakers are not willing to embrace any climate actions that give up economic growth, but economic growth virtually guarantees climate disaster. The bottom line: only drastic policy and behavior changes will avoid a very bleak future.
Sutton is a Professor in the Department of Geography & the Environment at the University of Denver. He served as an official delegate for the American Association of Geographers (AAG) at the COP26 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow in early November of 2021. He is not speaking for the AAG in this episode. One interesting class Paul teaches is Envisioning Utopia Through the Lens of a Wellbeing Economy.
Also: recommended reading, and the new movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
The Titanic cartoon in this episode’s graphic was created for the GrowthBusters project by artist/writer Stephanie McMillan. https://stephaniemcmillan.org/
The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Running Out of Gas – Episode 26 of the GrowthBusters podcast, with Paul Sutton and James Ward
https://www.growthbusters.org/running-out-of-gas-podcast-episode-26/
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth – free on YouTube
https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo
The Limits to Growth
https://collections.dartmouth.edu/teitexts/meadows/diplomatic/meadows_ltg-diplomatic.html
Planet of the Humans documentary
https://planetofthehumans.com/
More Fun, Less Stuff – Episode 55 of the GrowthBusters podcast, with Mike Nickerson
https://www.growthbusters.org/more-fun-less-stuff/
COP26: If We Don't Know Where We’re Going, We Will End Up Someplace Else – by Paul Sutton
https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/579095-cop26-if-we-dont-know-where-we-are-going-we-will-end-up-someplace?rl=1
Bankers Took Over the Climate Change Summit. That’s Bad for Democracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/25/opinion/cop26-gfanz-climate-change.html
Soylent Green – trailer; see the movie on YouTube, AppleTV, Vudu and elsewhere
https://youtu.be/N_jGOKYHxaQ
The Powell Memorandum
https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/powellmemo/
The Powell Memo and links to many essays about it
https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/democracy/the-lewis-powell-memo-a-corporate-blueprint-to-dominate-democracy/
The Powell Memo – a critical book excerpt about the memo
https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
A Finer Future – by L. Hunter Lovins, Stewart Wallis, Anders Wijkman, and John Fullerton
https://ourfinerfuture.com/
Quick Take from Katharine Hayhoe of The Nature Conservancy
https://youtu.be/9wZz253lZwg
Planet in Crisis podcast from Scientists Warning Europe
https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/podcast
World Scientists’ Warnings into Action, Local to Global – New paper from Scientists Warning Europe
https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/signature
Shared Socioeconomic Pathways
https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-how-shared-socioeconomic-pathways-explore-future-climate-change
Prosperity Without Growth – by Tim Jackson
https://timjackson.org.uk/ecological-economics/pwg/
COP26 demonstrations – photos by Paul Sutton
https://urizenapw02-vlp.du.edu/~paul.sutton/COP26/
Rebelling Against Black Friday Consumerism – Episode 61 of the GrowthBusters podcast
https://www.growthbusters.org/non-material-holidays/
So Kind Gift Registry
https://sokindregistry.org/
Make a Year-End Gift to the GrowthBusters project
https://www.growthbusters.org/donate/
RECOMMENDED READING:
Insist that Public Policy Respects the Rights of Children and Women – by Dave Gardner
https://medium.com/ending-overshoot/insist-that-public-policy-respects-the-rights-of-children-and-women-d961478d36f5
Ending Overshoot – a publication on Medium edited by Dave Gardner and Jem Randles
https://medium.com/ending-overshoot
Welcome to Gilead: How Population Fears Drive Women's Rights Abuses – new report from Population Matters
https://populationmatters.org/news/2021/11/welcome-gilead-how-population-fears-drive-womens-rights-abuses
To Breed or Not to Breed – by Alex Williams in the New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/style/breed-children-climate-change.html
The End of Growth: Ten Years After – by Richard Heinberg
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/11/20/end-growth-ten-years-after
Climate Change with 8 Billion Humans - by Joseph Chamie
http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/11/climate-change-8-billion-humans/
Why Renewable Energy isn’t the Only Answer in our Climate Emergency - by Julie Peconi, also from Scientists Warning Europe
https://www.scientistswarningeurope.org.uk/discover/why-renewable-energy-isnt-the-only-answer-in-our-climate-emergency
On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.
Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.
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