Bad Idea #45 "Eating wildlife is more sustainable’" with Sylvia Earle

Saving the World From Bad Ideas · Mar 25, 2026 · 1h 48m · transcript

At 90 years old, Sylvia Earle has witnessed more ocean change than perhaps anyone alive. In this conversation, the legendary oceanographer delivers an urgent message: we're destroying the very systems that keep us alive, and we're running out of time to stop. Earle dismantles the illusion that wild-caught seafood is sustainable.

Since the 1950s, we've removed roughly half the ocean's wildlife. Ninety percent of big predators like tuna and swordfish are gone. Half the phytoplankton—the ocean's oxygen generators and carbon capturers—have disappeared. We're now killing whales not by hunting…