Birth Rate Debate: “40% Of Girls Will Never Be Mothers” - #1099

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2026

⏱️ 224 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this birth rate debate, we explore: - The cataclysmic impacts of the current birth rates for future generations. - Why so many young women are opting out of motherhood. - What can be done to fix declining birth rates globally. - and much more... Guests: - Lyman Stone is a demographer, researcher, and a writer. - Simone Collins is an author and pronatalist advocate focused on fertility and demographic decline. - Stephen J. Shaw is a data scientist and filmmaker. Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/deals⁠⁠ Get up to $350 off the Eight Sleep Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom Get up to 20% off Timeline powered by Mitopure (now at a lower price) at https://timeline.com/modernwisdom Get the brand new Whoop 5.0 and your first month for free at https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom Get 15% off your first order of my favourite Non-Alcoholic Brew at https://athleticbrewing.com/modernwisdom Get ChatGPT to explore ideas, solve problems, and learn faster at ⁠https://chatgpt.com Timestamps: (0:00) Why We Should Be Worried About Birth Rate Decline (5:20) The Shocking Reality of Falling Fertility (8:12) What Happens If the Population Shrinks? (17:40) Is Low Fertility a Threat to the Economy? (25:39) Why Are Birth Rate Debates So Controversial? (38:46) Is Having Kids Too Expensive Now? (51:45) Why People Are Delaying Parenthood (58:41) Would Marrying Younger Fix the Problem? (01:01:45) Do Kids Actually Make You Happier? (01:12:14) Does Age Predict Fertility Levels? (01:18:34) The Hidden Risks of Selection Pressure (01:27:52) How Does Education Impact Birth Rates? (01:35:05) Do Men Want Families More Than Women Now? (01:38:59) Are We Choosing Travel Over Children? (01:45:06) Do You Lose Yourself When You Have Kids? (02:07:20) Should Mothers Get Free Education? (02:10:20) Are Women Being Blamed for Declining Birth Rates? (02:20:51) Why Is Everyone So Offended? (02:29:51) Should Fathers Be Doing More at Home? (02:39:41) Birth Rates vs Climate Change: What Matters More? (02:46:29) Should Governments Pay People to Have Kids? (02:57:48) Are Families Getting Smaller? (03:07:50) Are Tax Policies Punishing the Child-Free? (03:12:51) Is Education the Answer? (03:19:36) The Most Shocking Birth Rate Facts (03:26:47) Does Contraception Actually Affect Birth Rates? (03:34:46) Will This Change Your Mind? Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/books⁠⁠ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: ⁠⁠https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom⁠⁠ Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠ #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠ #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/contact⁠⁠ - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why should anyone listen to anything that you guys have to say?
0:04.1	I mean, you've brought in an interesting group, right?
0:06.3	I mean, whenever people, like, don't want to read something and they just want to, like,
0:10.8	watch something to understand falling fertility, inevitably, I'm like, well, there's,
0:14.4	there's this movie you can watch online about how fertility is falling.
0:18.8	Why?
0:19.0	What's going on?
0:20.0	And I reference your work, and I passed him basically to you.
0:24.1	I mean, I'm a demographer.
0:26.5	I'm, at some point today, I will, during this conversation, I will probably try to draw a graph in the air with my hands.
0:33.5	You can, you can, like, lunge and slot my hand down when I do it.
0:38.2	But, so, I mean, for me, there's that.
0:41.5	And then, of course, the Collinses are, like, practically the people who've, like, made this an issue for a lot of people.
0:48.3	We're the punchable face of pronatalism.
0:51.0	So I guess I'm kind of intro for, like, multiple people here.
0:55.4	And then you're like, you're like then you're like, it's so true.
0:58.1	It's so true.
0:59.9	I don't want to punch you, but it's, yeah.
1:02.3	Yeah, Simone, have you got this just a passing interest, a passion for you?
1:06.7	What is this?
1:07.5	We are, we're heart effect of altruists.
1:09.5	We care about the long-term future of humanity.
	...

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