The Global Fertility Crisis Is Worse Than You Think

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News, News Commentary

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2026

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fertility rates are collapsing around the world. In rich countries and poor ones, in secular societies and religious ones, people are having fewer children than ever before. Some explanations focus on economic factors like housing costs, childcare costs, and student debt. Others point to a harder-to-measure, broader sense of uncertainty about the future. At the same time, economist Jesús Fernández-Villaverde thinks we are underestimating how big a deal this really is. In his view, only two forces will truly shape the future of human history in this century: artificial intelligence and fertility, and changes are already underway. Today, Fernández-Villaverde joins Derek to talk about the global fertility decline, why it is happening across so many different societies, and why he believes this shift could reshape economics, culture, and the future of civilization. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Jesús Fernández-Villaverde Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some follow the noise.
0:08.0	Bloomberg follows the money, whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's trillion
0:13.2	dollar swings.
0:14.8	There's a money side to every story.
0:17.1	Get the money side of the story.
0:19.1	Subscribe now at Bloomberg.com.
0:25.2	Head to the coast in Abercrombie's latest summer drop.
0:28.9	It's short season, and their new C-Fade shorts add the perfect wash look to your fit.
0:34.3	They're so easy to throw on and pair with everything in your closet.
0:39.2	Complete the look with a new shirt and your set. Prep for summer with Abercrombie in the app online and in stores.
0:48.0	Today, the future of fertility.
0:55.7	In the last few weeks, I've been struck by two pieces of media, a long article and a long speech, both about the future of babies.
1:04.7	The first was a blockbuster essay in the New York Times by Anna Louis Sussman, entitled, Why So Few Babies? We might have overlooked the biggest reason
1:13.6	of all. An excerpt from her forthcoming book, Inconceivable. That essay central argument
1:19.6	is that declining fertility is not primarily about money or daycare or gender roles. Rather,
1:26.0	the overlooked reason is a pervasive sense of existential uncertainty.
1:31.5	Young adults today feel a crushing uncertainty about the future to justify the irreversible
1:36.8	commitment of having a child.
1:39.0	It's not just climate change or housing costs or political instability.
1:46.0	It's climate change and housing costs or political instability, it's climate change and housing costs and political instability and AI and inflation chaos and doom scrolling and declining social
1:51.9	trust all coming together to cast a shadow on the future. Now, there is something here. There's
1:59.6	something to all of this, But I'm always wary of analyzing
	...

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