The world —and especially the West— is having fewer babies than ever. But what's causing this rapid shift? Is it really a big of a deal as many claim? If so, what can we do about it?
My guest today thinks so. Professor Dean Spears is a demographer, economist and author of the new book "After The Spike" which explores why people are choosing to have fewer babies, and the stark realities it would mean if births remain far beneath replacement level as they currently are.
As you’ll see, this is was live-with-a-studio-audience recorded conversation, so worth sticking around for the latter half of the episode, which opens up into a group discussion with the audience, including number of previous Win-Win guests. After all, such a complex and deeply personal topic requires as many perspectives as possible!
Curious to hear what you think too, so feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy!
Chapters
0:22 - Introduction to the Fertility Crisis
4:12 - Why Over-Population Isn’t A Thing Any More
11:17 - What’s Causing It?
16:03 - Role of Social Trends
18:20 - Role of Biological Infertility & Toxins
23:10 - Wouldn’t Fewer People Take Pressure Off The Environment?
28:56 - Climate, Ocean and Other Planetary Boundaries
32:28 - Paul Erlich and Dangers of Zero-Sum Thinking
36:25 - Can’t AI & Robots Fill The Economic Gap?
42:58 - Historical Strategies That Increased Birth Rates?
48:40 - Impact of Contraception
52:57 - Which Sub-Populations Are Bucking The Trend?
57:37 - How To Help Women Have Careers And Babies?
59:56 - The Issues of A Heavily Elderly Population
1:05:13 - Examples of Successful Incentives
1:09:07 - More AI Stuff
1:17:47 - Opportunity Cost Hypothesis
1:22:28 - Won’t People Just Adapt?
1:27:55 - COVID-19 And Fertility Rate
1:29:17 - Family Size Distributions
1:34:31 - Research on Declining Intimacy
Links:
♾️ Dean's Website: https://deanspears.net/
♾️ After The Spike Book - https://www.simonandschuster.com/book...
♾️ Dean's NYTimes article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/op...
♾️ Population Projections: https://ourworldindata.org/un-populat...
Credits
♾️ Hosted by Liv Boeree
♾️ Produced by Luca de Vico
The Win-Win Podcast
Poker champion Liv Boeree takes to the interview chair to tease apart the complexities of one of the most fundamental parts of human nature: competition. Liv is joined by top philosophers, gamers, artists, technologists, CEOs, scientists, athletes and more to understand how competition manifests in their world, and how to change seemingly win-lose games into Win-Wins.
Alternative links:
♾️ Youtube: • Win-Win with Liv Boeree
♾️ Spotify:
♾️ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
♾️ Pocketcast: https://play.pocketcasts.com/podcasts...
Share this post