logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2025
34m 22s

Why are birth rates falling? With Alice ...

Financial Times
About this episode

Birth rates are falling fast and not just in highly developed countries. And as populations age, it’s becoming harder to fund pensions or raise labour productivity. But falling fertility could also be harming social cohesion and impeding the innovation needed to solve problems such as climate change. Today on the show, John Burn-Murdoch talks to Alice Evans, a senior lecturer at King’s College, London, and the author of the newsletter, The Great Gender Divergence. Together, they try to figure out why fewer people are choosing to have children, or even coupling up in the first place, and what should be done about it. 


John Burn-Murdoch writes a column each week for the Financial Times. You can find it here


Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen.


Presented by John Burn-Murdoch. Produced by Edith Rousselot. The editor is Bryant Urstadt. Manuela Saragosa is the executive producer. Audio mix and original music by Breen Turner. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. 


Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Sep 11
Will US debt burst the AI bubble? With Ruchir Sharma
Building data centres and running the US government have something in common: they cost a lot of money. Tech companies are borrowing heavily to fund the AI build out, just as Washington is borrowing vast sums to fund the US government, and those two borrowing binges may be on a c ... Show More
27m 21s
Sep 4
Memory chip mania isn’t going away, with Dan Kim
In recent months, part of the chip market has been going bananas. Prices for memory chips – which AI data centres use in droves – have rocketed, as US tech companies lock in massive orders. That’s bad news for consumers facing more expensive electronic devices. But what are the b ... Show More
32m 16s
Aug 29
Kevin Warsh spoke — what did we learn? With Torsten Slok
Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh took to the stage at Jackson Hole under pressure. Inflation is sticky, bond markets have been wobbling and his insistence on minimal Fed communication has been seen by some to make matters worse. Soumaya speaks to Torsten Slok, chief economist at ... Show More
19m 3s
Recommended Episodes
May 2025
How the iPhone Drove Men and Women Apart
<p>What would make you want to have more children? This week on “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat speaks with Dr. Alice Evans, a social scientist who is as concerned about the global decline in fertility as he is. The two discuss why this isn’t just a gender issue — it’s “a solit ... Show More
54m 17s
Nov 2021
Baby Boom or Bust
Birth rates in many countries, including China, Japan, Italy and the UK have dropped below replacement level. Clare McNeil asks if we should be concerned about this, and the burden it will place on taxpayers and the young, or welcome it as a good thing for climate change, where s ... Show More
29m 8s
Nov 2024
Social infertility: What's behind falling birth rates?
The proportion of people without children is growing around the world. For some, this new reality reflects changing social attitudes and a desire not to have children, but for others, the decision has been taken out of their hands by a range of factors. The latest statistics avai ... Show More
26m 7s
Mar 2024
Birthrates Are Plummeting Worldwide. Why?
<p>For a long time, the story about the world’s population was that it was growing too quickly. There were going to be too many humans, not enough resources, and that spelled disaster. But now the script has flipped. Fertility rates have declined dramatically, from about five chi ... Show More
1 h
Sep 2025
Honey, we shrunk the kids: population fall
Falling fertility makes a global decline in population inevitable. That will change the shape and make up of societies. But it may not make us poorer. Are large language models really woke? And reading is on the wane – and why that matters. Listen to what matters most, from globa ... Show More
23m 46s
Jun 2023
Not born yesterday: the world’s ageing population
<p>Fertility rates are falling to worrying levels, and an <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/06/01/global-fertility-has-collapsed-with-profound-economic-consequences?utm_campaign=a.io&utm_medium=audio.podcast.np&utm_source=theintelligence&utm_content=discovery.conten ... Show More
26m 10s
Sep 2025
Honey, we shrunk the kids: population fall
Falling fertility makes a global decline in population inevitable. That will change the shape and make up of societies. But it may not make us poorer. Are large language models really woke? And reading is on the wane – and why that matters. Listen to what matters most, from globa ... Show More
23m 46s