Elon Musk is not shy about declaring when he feels civilization is at risk.

Last month, he said the fate of civilization depended on the outcome of an election for one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

I feel like this is one of those things that may not seem that it's going to affect the entire destiny of humanity, but I think it will.

Another existential risk, according to Musk, artificial intelligence.

Only 20% chance of annihilation.

That's a lot better than I thought.

That's him on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast earlier this year.

But Musk has said the biggest danger civilization faces by far is falling birth rates.

In a recent Fox News interview, he said it keeps him up at night.

The birth rate is very low in almost every country.

And unless that changes, civilization will disappear.

And Musk isn't the only one in the Trump administration focused on this issue.

Please help me welcome your vice president of the United States, J.D. Vance.

In one of his earliest speeches as Vice President, J.D. Vance addressed the March for Life, the annual anti-abortion rights rally in Washington.

So let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America.

Musk and Vance are two of the most high-profile Americans pushing this point of view.

But they're not alone.

The birth rate declined and its potential economic consequences are a growing policy concern

on the political right and the left.

And on the right, some of the people worried about this have coalesced around an ideological movement called pro-natalism.

Some of its advocates recently gathered at a conference organized by a man named Kevin Dolan, and NPR was there.

And we have a powerful opportunity this year in particular to have conversations that can become the executive orders, the white papers, the grant proposals

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