2 Alan Weisman - Can We Finally Have a Serious Talk About Population?

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2013

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, Chris Mooney talks to environmental journalist Alan Weisman, who explains why, following on his 2007 New York Times bestseller The World Without Us, he decided to centrally take on the issue of human population.For his just-published book Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, Weisman traveled to 21 countries—from Israel to Mexico, and from Pakistan to Niger—to report on how different cultures are responding to booming populations and the strain this is putting on their governments and resources.Importantly, Weisman is no supporter of coercive population control measures such as China's infamous one-child policy. Rather, he makes a powerful case that the best way to manage the global population is by empowering women, through both education and access to contraception.This episode of Inquiring Minds also features a discussion of the latest myths circulating on global warming, and the brave new world of gene therapy that we're entering—where being rich might be your key ticket to the finest health care.Subscribe:itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Friday, September 27th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.
0:06.2	Each week, we bring you a new in-depth exploration of the space where science, politics, and society collide.
0:12.8	We endeavor to find out what's true, what's left to discover, and why it all matters.
0:17.1	You can find us online at climatedust.org, and if you don't already, you can follow us on Twitter at Inquiring Show and on Facebook
0:26.1	at slash Inquiring Minds podcast.
0:33.1	For the show this week, I did an interview with Alan Wiseman.
0:36.9	He's the best-selling author of the book of the
0:38.6	world without us. A lot of our listeners will have read that book. And he is just out with a new,
0:43.7	very, very thought-provoking book, which is called Countdown, which is about how many people,
0:49.6	and how many people doing what, how are they living, how many people can the planet sustain?
0:54.4	And I know this is going to be controversial, but it's actually a very balanced and nuanced book.
0:58.9	And here's a little bit of a short clip from the interview.
1:01.9	Population is a loaded topic.
1:04.2	And people who otherwise know better, great environmentalists oftentimes are very, very, very timid about going there.
1:13.6	And I decided as a journalist, I should go there and find out.
1:17.2	Is it really a problem?
1:18.3	So is there anything acceptable that we can do about it?
1:23.1	Okay, so first we're going to start off with what's in the news a little bit.
1:26.6	This show is airing on a very, very big day for climate change science.
1:31.4	It's the day that the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,
1:35.9	which is the world's leading authority on climate change,
1:38.5	releases what's called its fifth assessment report.
	...

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