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OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance
OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings. Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Ranking in the top 1.5% of all podcasts globally, we draw listeners from across 150 countries.
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New to our podcast?
There are over 80 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.
Latest Episodes
The Other Significant Others
Friendship is not a “nice-to-have” but a core, potentially transformative human connection. Rhaina Cohen, author of The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life With Friendship at the Center, joins us.
Water Always Wins
Erica Gies, award-winning journalist and author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge, chats with us about the complex relationships between water, nature, and human societies, emphasizing the need to embrace 'slow water'—respecting the natural rhythms of water’s cycles for the benefit of both human and nonhuman life.
New Podcast Announcement: "Beyond pronatalism | Finding fulfillment, with or without kids"
We’re excited to share that we’ve launched a second podcast, Beyond Pronatalism: Finding Fulfillment, With or Without Kids. Host Nandita Bajaj interviews women and men from diverse backgrounds who are courageously and creatively navigating pronatalism - the powerful pressures to have children - and forging unconventional pathways to fulfillment.
Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene
In this episode we speak with Jo-Anne McArthur, acclaimed animal photojournalist and founder and president of We Animals Media, an organization whose photographers document the lives of unseen and ignored animals caught within human systems of exploitation and oppression.
The Childfree Choice More Prevalent than Reported
In this episode with Dr. Zachary Neal and Dr. Jennifer Watling Neal, we explore their research about the prevalence and characteristics of childfree adults in the US and globally, and how their research methods not only offer a more inclusive representation of this globally minoritized group, but also more objective demographic data.
My So-Called Selfish Life
Therese Shechter discusses her new paradigm shifting documentary film My So-Called Selfish Life about one of our greatest social taboos: choosing not to become a mother. She exposes the oppressive and powerful cultural narratives that seek to maintain control over women's minds, bodies, and lives.
Meet our New Executive Director
New Executive Director and podcast co-host Nandita Bajaj shares her brief history and the evolving path that led her to becoming a sustainable population advocate. She discusses why our growing human enterprise is the most pressing planetary justice issues of our time.
Choosing Childfree
For over the last 15 years, Laura Carroll has been researching the childfree choice and those who make it, and has interviewed thousands who’ve made this choice. The discussion includes our pronatal culture, myths about family size, and the cost of raising children.