Shows / GrowthBusters
GrowthBusters
Humankind has outgrown the planet, so we explore ways to recover from growth addiction. We dig into the more fascinating and hard-hitting aspects of public policy and the joy of living sustainably. It's all about ending our culture's love affair with "more," which is not making us happier and is killing our planet. No half-hearted greenwashing here; we share the brutal and joyful truth! Co-host Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul…
Episodes
GrowthBusters100: What's On Your Mind? A GrowthBusters Roundtable
Cohosts Dave Gardner and Stephanie Gardner sat down with a handful of ardent growthbusting advocates to give them the microphone and hear their assessment of…
GrowthBusters99: Unless Someone Like You Cares a Whole Awful Lot
Who can we count on to make the dramatic changes needed in a civilization in ecological overshoot? Will it have to be the leaders of tomorrow? And are they up…
GrowthBusters98: In Memory of Richard Heinberg 1950 – 2026
Brilliant journalist and educator Richard Heinberg passed away July 19 from pancreatic cancer. In his honor we're sharing my last conversation with him here…
GrowthBusters97: The Wit and Wisdom of Paul Ehrlich
Continuing our tribute to the late Paul Ehrlich, we discuss the critiques and praise that followed news of his passing, and we share a VERY candid – and…
GrowthBusters96: Paul Ehrlich (1932-2026): Behaving Against Our Interests
We lost scientific and environmental icon Paul Ehlich on March 13. We're honoring his memory by revisiting Dave Gardner's first interview with Paul, outside…
GrowthBusters95: Technology – Fast and Furious Into Overshoot
The academy awarding the Nobel Prize in Economics is still drinking pro-growth Kool-Aid, while spiritual leader Acharya Prashant is serving up a healthier…
GrowthBusters94: Reporting on Population – Sense and Nonsense
Population growth is making headlines for the wrong reason or with a biased perspective. It's too easy to draw erroneous conclusions about dropping fertility…
GrowthBusters93: Ezra Klein's Abundance Delusion
Just say "NO." Some approaches to "abundance" are healthy, but one brand of abundance that's been capturing the cultural moment lately is a recipe for a dead…
GrowthBusters92: Economic Wisdom from the Natural World – The Serviceberry
In this trial run for the "GrowthBusters Book Club," we discuss The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World - by Robin Wall Kimmerer…
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91: Growth Addiction and Water in the American Southwest – with Gary Wockner
Prolific river protector Gary Wockner gives us the straight scoop on the state of the Colorado River (and others), and the growth obsession that keeps…
GrowthBusters90: Degrowth – by Design or Disaster
Learn about a new think tank that's doing some of the most important thinking on the planet. Matt Orsagh is co-founder of the Arketa Institute for Post-Growth…
GrowthBusters89: Bezos - We're Going to Need Another Planet
Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos thinks the U.S. can grow its way out of a massive deficit. He says we need a "growth mindset." Stephanie and Dave call it a…
GrowthBusters88: Shutdown315: Start Post-Growth Living Saturday
Unplug from an overshoot economy serving a growth-obsessed oligarchy. On March 15, the multitudes will begin a general strike across the U.S. – starving our…
GrowthBusters87: The Shit Hits the Fan
In the face of accelerated global warming and increasingly severe consequences of climate disruption, UN projections are outdated and understating the problem…
GrowthBusters86: Projecting Optimism in the Time of Overshoot
Is optimism required in order to alert folks to our ecological overshoot emergency? Dave and Stephanie discuss the challenge of communicating the depth and…
GrowthBusters85: Election 2024 – Stephanie Attempts to Talk Dave Off the Ledge
Dave and Stephanie dig into what caused voters to ignore Donald Trump's felony convictions, indecency, incompetence, narcissism, and dishonesty – and elect him…
GrowthBusters84: Strong Economy Begins With Shrinking Workforce
A new study debunks depopulation panic. For decades economists have perpetuated the false narrative, "If population growth reverses and begins to decline, the…
GrowthBusters83: We Roasted Elon Musk, Raising the Curiosity of Thousands
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…
GrowthBusters82: Governor Whitmer Unveils Ponzi Population Policy
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…
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81 Overpopulation Think Tank – Part 2
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…
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80 How Do We Get Out of This Mess? University Students Brainstorm
Students in a DU ecological economics class discuss their biggest concerns and how our society might overcome them. Overshoot, polarization, the American…
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79 Overpopulation Think Tank – Part 1
Five thought leaders break the silence on the role of human overpopulation in ecological overshoot –with an informed, engaging conversation about the subject…
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78 Discussing Overpopulation: Let's Clear the Minefield
Why do discussions of overpopulation often elicit emotional responses of fear, anger, or indignation? Are anger and indignation what prevents productive…
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77 Fact-Checking News of China's "Demographic Crisis"
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…
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76 Now Here's What We Call an Eco-Superhero
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…
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75 A Vasectomy Could Save Herschel Walker a Lot of Money
More men are stepping up and taking responsibility for avoiding unplanned parenthood. Dave celebrates this trend as he shares GrowthBusters plans for the new…
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74 Bleak Friday, 8 Billion Post-Mortem and Damage Done by Guilt
Examining news coverage and commentaries about human population passing 8 billion on November 15, we unpack the reasons far too many of us avoid discourse…
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73 Eight Billion is Too Many: Don't be a Twit About Overpopulation
While Elon Musk erroneously claims population collapse is our biggest worry, world population is hitting 8 billion, adding the latest billion faster than any…
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72 Upping Our Game Alerting the World to Limits to Growth: New Online Community
World population may peak this decade and start dropping, over 60% of Coloradans are fed up with the negative consequences of growth of their communities, a…
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71 World Population Day 2022: We're Overpopulated. Pass It On.
As we approach the 8 billion population milestone, activist/author Valorie Allen thinks it's high time we stop avoiding the overpopulation subject. Yet here we…
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70 Paul Ehrlich on The Limits to Growth
Biologist Paul Ehrlich reflects on the 1972 MIT study, The Limits to Growth, on its 50th anniversary – including the fact that it has been refuted (poorly)…
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69 Chickens are Coming Home to Roost
While nary a week goes by that we don't get a new report of the destruction we're wreaking on our home planet, the news has been particularly bad over the last…
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68 Paul Ehrlich, Unfiltered (Special Earth Day Episode)
A reprise of Paul Ehrlich's candid conversation with us on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, in April of 2020. We discuss the COVID pandemic, overpopulation…
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67 Obsessive-Compulsive's Guide to Cutting Your Carbon Footprint
Chickens, Tomatoes and Cars: The Wonky Numbers Behind Your Carbon Footprint We NEED to be obsessed with shrinking our footprint, and Lloyd Alter did the…
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66 Can Living a 1.5 Degree Lifestyle Make a Difference?
Should we be sitting around eating burgers and driving pickup trucks, and just wait for the system change needed to live sustainably on this planet? We attempt…
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65 What Do College Students Think Their Future Holds?
OK, boomers, we blew it. Our best hope is that younger generations are aware and smart enough to save the planet. What do they know, and what are their…
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64 Is Parenthood an Entitlement?
Get married, buy a house, raise a family. For many of us, that's the expected life trajectory. Are we entitled to meet that expectation? If many follow the…
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63 Stuck in Traffic? Head to Mars
"If people don't have more children, civilization is going to crumble," according to Time Magazine's "Person of the Year" – Elon Musk. He is, of course, dead…
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62 World Leaders COP Out
The climate pact achieved at COP26 was woefully inadequate. We could be in for over four degrees Fahrenheit of warming this century over pre-industrial…
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61 Rebelling Against Black Friday Consumerism
We generate 23% more waste during December than other months of the year, but more than three in four Americans wish the holidays were less materialistic. Our…
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60 Populating and Plundering the Universe
We're running out of booty on planet Earth, so billionaires are racing to mine and populate the rest of the universe. In this follow-up to our Billionaires in…
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59 Too Much of a Good Thing: Richard Heinberg
"Once a species becomes powerful enough to take over a planet, then is it also intelligent enough to understand the limits to its own power?" This is a…
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58 Billionaires in Space
Are Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and Elon Musk doing civilization a favor and advancing science? Are they preparing to colonize space like the Borg in Star…
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57 Overshoot: World's Best Introduction
Everything your friends, family, colleagues, journalists and elected representatives need to know about Earth Overshoot Day. Every other week, another…
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56 Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Green New Deal
What do the Green New Deal, Santa Claus and the tooth fairy have in common? Find out as we talk with the founder of The REAL New Green Deal Project. Megan…
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55 More Fun, Less Stuff
"We need to end the game of Monopoly and start playing the game of sustainability – recognizing the limitations of the planet and building our systems to live…
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54 The Good Ancestor: Following the Intergenerational Golden Rule
How often do you think about the effect of your actions today on the wellbeing of future generations? What do we owe our children's children? Are we capable of…
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53 Finding Common Ground
Can we achieve some unity without giving up our integrity and core values? That's a very current conundrum, so this seems the perfect time for us to publish…
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52 Shrinking Your Travel Footprint
Is flying always the worst travel choice for climate stability? Is traveling by rail always the best? You might be surprised. In this episode of GrowthBusters…
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51 Philosophy of Shrinking Footprints
We set out to make this the second of a series of episodes about shrinking our travel footprint, but the conversation ended up being a broader exploration of…
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50 Taking a Vacation from Carbon Emissions
How far will you go in your quest to shrink your carbon footprint? What's eco-tourism, and is it really ecologically responsible? International tourism…
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49 Damn, It's Earth Overshoot Day Already!
If we were on a spaceship, the end really would be near – August 22. That is Earth Overshoot Day for 2020. We all know we can't graze 100 head of cattle for…
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48 Things Are Not Fine
Physician Sofia Pineda Ochoa became so concerned about the future of life on Earth that she wrote, produced and directed the new documentary, Endgame 2050…
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47 Sarah's Wildlife Friendly Wedding
If you're planning your wedding, or have a friend planning theirs, this episode is for you. The idea of a virtual wedding seemed pretty geeky a year ago, but…
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46: 1-See Planet of the Humans; 2-Resolve Overshoot
What should we do in response to the key messages of the 2020 documentary, Planet of the Humans? This is a continuation of the discussion begun in part one of…
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45 Planet of the Humans: What Did the Film Get Right?
"There are too many human beings, using too much, too fast." Those are the words of Richard Heinberg in a controversial new documentary executive produced by…
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44 Just Sitting Around Waiting for the World to End
Is there any use in choosing to live more sustainably if you're surrounded by an unsustainable system? There are those who argue there is little value in…
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43 Paul Ehrlich - Uncensored on Earth Day 50th Anniversary
Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich reflects on more than 50 years of effort to educate the public about the unsustainability of endless economic and population…
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42 The Silver Lining of COVID Induced Recession
Coronavirus has brought the economies of the world to a grinding halt. The world is (almost) universally mourning the recession – almost. There is a small, but…
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41 Bury Mom in the Back Yard? The Ins & Outs of Green Burial
Did you know we bury enough metal in caskets each year to build a new Golden Gate Bridge? You're living your life trying to be green. Have you given any…