The Edition: Baby doomers

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The Spectator

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2021

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week’s episode: Why are a growing number of people putting the planet before parenthood? Madeleine Kearns writes about this phenomenon in this week’s issue and thinks that some of these fears might be unfounded. Tom Woodman author of Future is one of these people that Madeleine’s piece talks about. Tom has very real worries about bringing a child into the world. It's not only the least green thing he could do but also that the standard of living for that child could be severely limited due to a climate catastrophe. (00:47)

Also this week: Has Boris Johnson brought Conservatism full circle? That’s the argument Tim Stanley makes in this week’s Spectator. He joins Lara on the podcast along with one of the MPs mentioned in the piece, Steve Baker. (12:50)

And finally: What is the state of the Booker Prize shortlist? The Booker Prize shortlist has been released and it’s fair to say one of our critics Philip Hensher is not too impressed with the batch. But how are these books selected? What are the criteria? Can a Booker Prize winner be funny? To answer all those questions, Philip joins Lara along with The Spectator’s Books Editor and former Booker judge, Sam Leith. (20:51)

Hosted by Lara Prendergast

Produced by Sam Holmes

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is sponsored by Canacord Genuity Wealth Management, award-winning wealth managers who go above and beyond to support and guide you.
0:09.3	Visit can-dowealth.com to start building your wealth with confidence.
0:24.6	Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator.
0:29.1	Every week we take a look at some of the most important and intriguing stories from the issue with the writers behind them.
0:31.2	I'm Lara Prendergast, the Spectator's executive editor.
0:34.5	This week, why are a growing number of people putting the planet before parenthood?
0:39.5	Plus, has Boris Johnson brought conservatism full circle? And finally, what is the state of the
0:45.3	Booker Prize shortlist? First up, our cover story this week looks at the people deciding not to
0:51.1	have kids because of climate change concerns. Madeline Kearns writes about this phenomenon and thinks that some of these fears might be unfounded.
0:59.2	Tom Woodman, author of the graphic novel Future, is one of these people that Madeline's piece talks about.
1:04.2	They both join me now.
1:05.8	Maddie, you write our cover article this week about the growing trend amongst millennials to factor in climate change
1:11.2	when deciding whether to become parents. And a recent poll by The Lancet showed that 39% of
1:17.3	people feel hesitant about having children due to climate change. Were you surprised that that was
1:21.7	such a concern for some people? I think so, yeah. I mean, the reasons often cited are that having a child contributes to the problem of climate change, and then there's a very different argument that it wouldn't be fair on a child to bring them into the world when it's in such an awful mess. To be honest with you, I don't find either of those arguments particularly persuasive,
1:47.2	especially when you look at the broad sweep of history and everything that our ancestors have
1:51.5	gone through before. But it's certainly an interesting phenomenon and I think speaks strongly to
1:56.8	how panicked and paralysed many of my generation feel on this question.
2:03.4	Tom, you're one of these people and you also write in the Seeks magazine about why you're not
2:08.6	having children because of climate change reasons. What are your biggest concerns about bringing a
2:13.8	child into the world? Well, I would first of all say that I am not necessarily not
2:18.9	having children. It's more that this is a big consideration for me. Being able to consider your
	...

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