Birth Rate Debate: Why Is No One Having Kids? - #1099
5/18/20263 hr 44 min
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
Clips
Showing 10 of 15Transcript preview
First 90 secondsChris Williamson· Host0:00
Why should anyone listen to anything that you guys have to say?
Lyman Stone· Guest0:04
I mean, you, you've brought in an interesting group, right? I mean, whenever people, like, don't wanna read something and they just wanna, like, watch something to understand falling fertility, inevitably I'm like, "Well, there's, there's this movie you can watch online, um, about how fertility is falling. Why? What's going on?" And I reference your work, and I pass them basically to you. Um, I mean, I'm, I'm a demographer. I'm, uh... At some point today, I will, during this conversation, I will probably try to draw a graph in the air with my hands. Um, you can, you can, you, you can, like, lunge and slap my hand down when I do it. Um, but, uh, so I mean, for me, I'm, there's that, and then of course the Collinses are, are, like, practically the people who've, like, made this an issue for a lot of people. So I- We're the punchable face of pronatalism. [laughs] [laughs] So I guess I'm kind of the intro for, like, multiple people here. [laughs] And then you're like, you know- It's so true.
Chris Williamson· Host0:57
[laughs] It's so true. I don't wanna punch you, but- [laughs] ... it's, uh, yeah. Yeah, Simone, have you got, uh, uh, this just a passing interest, a passion for you? What is this?
Simone Collins· Guest1:07
We are... We're hard effective altruists. We care about the long-term future of humanity, and you can actually see this among many people who are famous pronatalists, like Elon Musk, right? Like, his interests track with what appear to be existential threats to humanity. He's concerned about the environment. He, he works on Tesla, right? He sees these things. Now he's trying to get humans to space. Um, so people who are very interested in long-term human flourishing