March 18, 2026

Paul Ehrlich (1932-2026): Behaving Against Our Interests

32 minutes

We lost scientific and environmental icon Paul Ehlich on March 13. We're honoring his memory by revisiting Dave Gardner's first interview with Paul, outside his Stanford University office in 2007 for the documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth.

Ehrlich was most famous for authoring, with wife Anne Ehrlich, the bestselling 1968 book, The Population Bomb. While the book inspired widespread concern about human overpopulation, those who profited from growth worked to discredit the book, the scientist, and the notion that human numbers above 2 or 3 billion would seriously harm our life-supporting ecosystems. Undaunted by the critics, Ehrlich spent the next 58 years speaking the truth that we were testing very real limits to growth.

We'll devote several episodes of the GrowthBusters podcast to this smart and fearless scientist. This episode reprises episode 110 of the Conversation Earth syndicated radio series.

LINKS:

Conversation Earth radio series: http://www.conversationearth.org/episode-list/

GrowthBusters Podcast episodes featuring Paul Ehrlich:

#70 Paul Ehrlich on The Limits to Growth: https://www.growthbusters.org/ehrlich-limits-to-growth/

#43 Paul Ehrlich Uncensored on Earth Day 50th Anniversary: https://www.growthbusters.org/ehrlich-earth-day-2020/

New York Times obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/15/books/paul-r-ehrlich-dead.html

The Population Bomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb

One With Nineveh – by Paul and Anne Ehrlich: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/282038.One_With_Nineveh

Meeting the Challenges of Population, Environment, and Resources: The Costs of Inaction – by Paul Ehrlich, Kenneth Arrow, E.O. Wilson and others: https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/820031468764393924/pdf/multi-page.pdf

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future – by Paul Ehrlich, Anne Ehrlich, William Ripple, Eileen Crist and others: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth (documentary by Dave Gardner): https://growthbustersmovie.org

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The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/

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.

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GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth – free on YouTube https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo

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By Dave Gardner and Stephanie Gardner on sustainability

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