89: Bezos: We’re Going to Need Another Planet

Written by Dave Gardner on March 27, 2025. Posted in Podcast

Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos thinks the U.S. can grow its way out of a massive deficit. He says we need a “growth mindset.” Stephanie and Dave call it a “suicide economic model,” and note that growth addiction is exactly what afflicts most policymakers around the world. The dynamic duo discuss the little-understood fact that a shrinking economy can be healthy – when it accompanies a contracting population.

Bezos also proposes that we plunder the universe in order to protect Earth “we’ve sent robotic probes to all of the planets in this solar system. This is the good one.”)

Also:

The Congressional Budget Office lowers U.S. population projections, further stoking the fires of depopulation panic – the result of a lack of overpopulation literacy

Isaac Asimov’s “metaphor of the bathroom,” about the need for more regulation as our population grows (we dug up great video of Asimov; see link below)

The parable of the Mexican fisherman

A great poem, Rather Than by Sandy Trust. Featured in an episode of one of our favorite podcasts, Planet Critical (see link below)

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Congressional Budget Office Lowers U.S. Population Projections

Immigrants Fill the Birth Dearth: U.S. Population Will Crater Without Newcomers – New York Daily News editorial

The Interview: From Amazon to Space — Jeff Bezos Talks Innovation, Progress and What’s Next – 2024 New York Times DealBook Summit, with Andrew Ross Sorkin

The Four Hour Work Week – by Tim Ferriss

The Story of the Mexican Fisherman A blog post on the website of Courtney Carver, author of Soulful Simplicity: How Living with Less Can Lead to So Much More, and Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want

Isaac Asimov on World of Ideas – 1988 Interview by Bill Moyers

Planetary Solvency – Finding Our Balance With Nature – report by Institute and Faculty of Actuaries

Planetary Solvency: Sandy Trust – episode of Planet Critical with Rachel Donald Sandy Trust responds to one question with his poem, Rather Than

• Record a voice message for us to play on the podcast: 719-402-1400
• Send an email to podcast at growthbusters.org

The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones.

On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.

Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described “energy nerd,” Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.

Join the GrowthBusters online community

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth – free on YouTube

Join the conversation on Facebook

Archive of GrowthBusters podcast episodes

Subscribe to GrowthBusters email updates

Explore the issues right here, at growthbusters.org

View the GrowthBusters channel on YouTube

Tags: depopulation panic, economic growth, growth addiction, overpopulation

Trackback from your site.