The two co-hosts advocate for living a child-free life.

They argue that overpopulation contributes to the climate crisis — “The planet was not built for this many people,” BJ quips. “We're overbooked like a New York City restaurant at 7 p.m. for dinner.”

Speaking of dinner, Rosie sees the child-free argument similarly to the nuanced approach to eating meat. Instead of being an omnivore-hating vegan, or a vegan-hating omnivore, a nuanced viewpoint calls for a decrease in meat consumption to reduce pollution.

“We're not saying don't eat meat — we're saying limit,” Rosie explains, “That's what I'm encouraging with the child-free view. You don't have to have five kids, it's not 1950.”

The co-hosts also discuss the role advertising plays in priming the culture to idealize nuclear families.

📚 “How to Win Friends & Influence People,” by Dale Carnegie, 1936.

📺 How the Egg Freezing Industry Preys on Fertility Fear, from “Adam Ruins Everything” on truTV.

📺 George Carlin on politicians using children as rhetorical shields.

📻 Abortion and Crime, Revisited, an update of the controversial study included in a “Freakonomics” chapter.

📚 The Baby Matrix: Why Freeing Our Minds From Outmoded Thinking About Parenthood & Reproduction Will Create a Better World, by Laura Carroll.

📑 “Mothers Who Regret Having Children” article in Marie Claire.

⭐ [Serious] Parents who regret having kids: Why? a Reddit thread.

📚 The Conscious Parent: Transforming Ourselves, Empowering Our Children, by Dr. Shefali Tsabary.

📚 “Adult Children of Alcoholics,” by Dr. Janet G. Woititz EdD.

⭐ NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, a society that advocates for placing severely mentally ill people, not just ones that have threatened to hurt themselves or others, into mental health facilities.

📑 Having Kids Makes You Happier, But Only When They Move Out, an article in “New Scientist.”

⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter

In the premiere episode of Rosie & BJ Save the World, comedian and podcaster, Rosie Tran, alongside social media marketing expert, and best selling author, BJ Mendelson, share their views on ending the war on drugs.

Get ready listeners, BJ and Rosie are here to save the day.

Rosie is in favor of decriminalizing drug use as a means to end drug addiction. She cites Portugal's "use rooms" as an example of state-sanctioned drug use that actually decreases usage and helps those suffering from addiction to seek rehabilitation.

📚 “Chasing the Scream: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection,” a memoir by Johann Hari, who "set out on a three-year, 30,000-mile journey to discover what really causes addiction — and what really solves it."

📑 "Want to Win the War on Drugs? Portugal Might Have the Answer," an article in Time magazine that shows Portugal's "use rooms" decrease drug use.

📚 “Dying for a Paycheck,” by Jeffrey Pfeffer.

📚 “Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History,” by Kurt Andersen, takes a comprehensive look at American history to show how we've ended up in this "fake news" moment.

📑 "Sold by drug users, Illegal, a new Danish street magazine, aims to reform drug policy" article about a Danish magazine that funds clean needles and supplies to decrease needle sharing.

⭐ NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness, a society that advocates for placing severely mentally ill people, not just ones that have threatened to hurt themselves or others, into mental health facilities.

📺 Weed: A Sanjay Gupta, MD, Special Report, a CNN Documentary about medical marijuana. Medical marijuana was the only thing that helped relieve seizures for Charlotte Figi, a young girl with Dravet Syndrome.

📚 “Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman,” a memoir by Yvon Chouinard, who is the founder of Patagonia, Inc.

⭐ BJ Mendelson Newsletter, Check out BJ's newsletter

⭐ Out of The Box, Rosie’s other podcast

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