Book · 1968 · Population
The Population Bomb
#91 of 16,745 books, ranked by how many different people bring it up on podcasts
- mentions
- 39
- people
- 21
- podcasts
- 14
- episodes
- 30
- recommendation
- 1
Ehrlich was a man who wrote a book called the population bomb and he said we were all going to be star serving by the year 2000 and that commodity prices basic Commodities would become extremely scarce and their price would Skyrocket out of sight.
Jordan Peterson · This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von · Aug 2023 Listen at 1:21:39 What they say about it
- Authored by Paul Ehrlich“wrote The Population Bomb”16
- Published in 1968“wrote this book in 1968”12
The best things said about it
The Population Bomb still has great, there's real value in reading it, even if the specific statements, as you point out, held up differently, it's still a really important work.
Andrew Huberman Huberman Lab · Oct 2026 Paul Ehrlich publishes The Population Bomb. It is polemical. It is an alarmist work.
Paul Ehrlich wrote this book in 1968 called The Population Bomb, and he basically said that the whole world was going to collapse if we didn't stop people from having kids.
Tucker Carlson The Tucker Carlson Show · May 2026 Listeners who were old enough might remember the book The Population Bomb, the fear that the world was going to starve to death because there were too many people.
Stephen Dubner Freakonomics Radio · Mar 2024 The Population Bomb, a 1968 book by Paul Ehrlich, that was probably the single most influential inspiration behind modern fears of overpopulation, was also profoundly racist.
And in 1968 he wrote an extremely popular books book which sold millions of copies called the population bomb.
Where and when it comes up
Mentions per year
1
4
3
10
10
6
5
How it comes up
21 people who brought it up
Why people recommend it
The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich is a 1968 environmental warning book that predicted global societal collapse due to rapid overpopulation and mass starvation. The book has drawn significant discussion and critique across various podcasts regarding its arguments and legacy. On the Huberman Lab podcast, Andrew Huberman expressed long-standing admiration for the work, maintaining that it still holds real value despite some of its specific statements not holding up as originally predicted. Jared Diamond defended Ehrlich on the same show, objecting to how Ehrlich's Wikipedia entry heavily criticizes the book for failing to prove correct while overlooking his stature as a great modern scientist. Huberman and Diamond also discussed the book's core premise concerning the dangers of overpopulation, contrasting it with current trends of declining birth rates. Other podcasters examined the historical impact of the book and its associated anti-natalist ideology. Tim Pool mentioned on Timcast IRL that prominent wealthy individuals in the 1970s adopted the ideology that the Earth had a finite human carrying capacity. Tucker Carlson noted on The Tucker Carlson Show that Ehrlich argued the world would collapse unless reproduction was halted, using the text to explore population control fears. Andrew Sage referenced the publication on Behind the Bastards while tracing the history of overpopulation anxiety and fears of mass starvation. Stephen J. Shaw discussed the author and book on Modern Wisdom in connection with historical figures who advocated for strict limits on children. Finally, Dan Wang mentioned the title on Freakonomics Radio when discussing historical discussions around population control and the critiques that economists leveled against such policies.
Every mention
Andrew Huberman Long been a fan of his work and him, and I agree. And Jaws is a wonderful book, and I think The Population… 2
Discussed
“Like the population bomb, my understanding was that it argued that we're going to be badly overpopulated by the time we reach now and that that was dangerous. Some people would argue that birth rates are going down.”
Recommended
“Long been a fan of his work and him, and I agree. And Jaws is a wonderful book, and I think The Population Bomb still has great, there's real value in reading it, even if the specific statements, as you point out, held up differently, it's still a really important work.”
Jordan Peterson So Paul Erick who wrote the population bomb and his du kicking around made a very famous bet with an econom… 7
Discussed
“So Paul Erick who wrote the population bomb and his du kicking around made a very famous bet with an economist Julian Simon”
Discussed
“Ehrlich was a man who wrote a book called the population bomb and he said we were all going to be star serving by the year 2000 and that commodity prices basic Commodities would become extremely scarce and their price would Skyrocket out of sight”
Discussed
“Paul Ehrlich, for example at Stanford who wrote the population bomb and the club of Rome who were the original apocalyptic doomsayers”
Discussed
“And just by the way, I should call this out: Ehrlich set up an organization, uh, author of the Population Bomb, of course, called ZPG, which evolved into your population growth.”
Discussed
“So many people who are watching and listening might not be aware, but we there was plenty of doomsaying in the 1960s with regards to the population catastrophe and uh prognostications on the part of people like Paul Erlick most famously who wrote the population bomb that by the year 2000 we'd be out of all our primary resources and”
Discussed
“So many people who are watching and listening might not be aware, but there was plenty of doomsaying in the 1960s with regards to the population catastrophe and prognostications from people like Paul Ehrlich, most famously, who wrote 'The Population Bomb'.”
Discussed
“ehrlich's book the club of rome all these people said”
Ben Bowlin Uh yeah, shout out to the Population Bomb. That's a book that also changed the game. 3
Discussed
“Uh yeah, shout out to the Population Bomb. That's a book that also changed the game.”
Discussed
“Paul Ehrlich publishes The Population Bomb. It is polemical. It is an alarmist work.”
Discussed
“there's a guy named Professor Paul R Ehrlich and he writes a book in 1968 called the population bomb his predictions are a kind of neo-malthusian thing”
Stephen Dubner when Charles Mann was in college there was a book that showed up on the reading list in several classes eco… 3
Discussed
“That's Paul Erlick, a Stanford biologist who in 1968 co-wrote a book called The Population Bomb.”
Discussed
“and listeners who were old enough might remember the book the population bomb the fear that the world was going to starve to death because there were too many people”
Discussed
“when Charles Mann was in college there was a book that showed up on the reading list in several classes ecology you know political science demography so he had the chance to read it several times it was called the population bomb”
Stephen J. Shaw the person you referred to earlier who was telling people that they should be locked up if they have more t… 3
Discussed
“the person you referred to earlier who was telling people that they should be locked up if they have more than two children in America, that was Paul Erlic who wrote the book Population Bomb and clips of him saying that are in the documentary.”
Discussed
“Ehrlich set up an organization, uh author of the population bomb, of course, called ZPG, which evolved into an Zero population growth.”
Discussed
“yeah I mean it goes back to the book of the of exactly that title written by polar Ehrlich um who still um you know expounding his views that children are garbage”
Josh Clark so in 1968 he writes the population bomb uh goes on The Tonight Show it it explodes this huge hit apparentl… 2
Discussed
“so in 1968 he writes the population bomb uh goes on The Tonight Show it it explodes this huge hit apparently he was on more than once too”
Discussed
“Erick did the math in the 60s and said you know what our food production isn't keeping up just like Matha said we're in big big trouble wrote the population bomb and co-founded”
Marian Tupy and in 1968 he wrote an extremely popular books book which sold millions of copies called the population bomb 2
Discussed
“and in 1968 he wrote an extremely popular books book which sold millions of copies called the population bomb”
Discussed
“and that's what people like thomas maltos or poor auric paul ehrlich at stanford university were worried about they freaked out two generation of two generations of people our league's population and we still haven't we still haven't recovered from that”
Neil Oliver Paul Ehrlich wrote the population here and at the same time actually got it hard and wrote The Tragedy of t… 2
Discussed
“Paul Ehrlich wrote the population here and at the same time actually got it hard and wrote The Tragedy of the Commons.”
Discussed
“But you know, obviously, in 1968, Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb, and at the same time, Garrett Hardin wrote The Tragedy of the Commons.”
Alex Epstein he became famous through the 1968 book the population bomb where he's telling human beings not 1
Discussed
“he became famous through the 1968 book the population bomb where he's telling human beings not”
Andrew Sage So we fast forward to 1968 and the biologist Paul Erlich publishes the population bomb. 1
Discussed
“So we fast forward to 1968 and the biologist Paul Erlich publishes the population bomb.”
Dan Wang One of the things I will always be grateful to economists for is that economists were the greatest critics… 1
Discussed
“One of the things I will always be grateful to economists for is that economists were the greatest critics of the one child policy in China as well as briefly when it was kind of discussed in the US after Erlick published the population bomb.”
David Wallace-Wells there was um there was a really famous book in the middle of the 20th century called the Population Bomb 1
Discussed
“there was um there was a really famous book in the middle of the 20th century called the Population Bomb”
Dean Spears When Paul Errolik published his book in 1968, the population bomb, you know, he started it with the warning… 1
Discussed
“When Paul Errolik published his book in 1968, the population bomb, you know, he started it with the warning that there's nothing we can do now to avoid famine because the population is growing”
Hannah Claire Brimlow Biologist paul ehrlich once explained the threat as the population bomb saying quote 1
Discussed
“Biologist paul ehrlich once explained the threat as the population bomb saying quote”
Jared Diamond If you look at his Wikipedia entry, so here's one of the world's great modern scientists, and his goddamn W… 1
Critiqued
“If you look at his Wikipedia entry, so here's one of the world's great modern scientists, and his goddamn Wikipedia, his Wikipedia entry instead harps on his book, The Population Bomb, and says it didn't prove correct.”
Jennifer Sciubba and what's so amazing about that is a lot of people may remember Paul Erick opened his 1968 book population… 1
Discussed
“and what's so amazing about that is a lot of people may remember Paul Erick opened his 1968 book population Bomb by talking about a trip he made to India and there were people everywhere”
Michael Knowles overpopulation is completely made up most notably there was this book the population bomb in 1970-71 it sai… 1
Discussed
“overpopulation is completely made up most notably there was this book the population bomb in 1970-71 it said that within 10 years even if we now coerce abortions which the book called for it coerced sterility”
Robert Evans the population bomb, a 1968 book by Paul Erlick, that was probably the single most influential inspiration… 1
Discussed
“the population bomb, a 1968 book by Paul Erlick, that was probably the single most influential inspiration behind modern fears of overpopulation, was also profoundly racist. It quote opens its fear-mongering with a sensationalized account of traveling through Delhi, India during a taxi ride.”
Saagar Enjeti remember what was the 1960s book about population bomb totally fake 1
Discussed
“remember what was the 1960s book about population bomb totally fake”
Tim Pool There's a book called The Population Bomb. And in the '70s a lot of prominent wealthy individuals bought in… 1
Discussed
“There's a book called The Population Bomb. And in the '70s a lot of prominent wealthy individuals bought into this ideology that there's a finite amount of human population capable on Earth.”
Tucker Carlson And you explain who Paul Ehrlich was for those who don't know. So Paul Ehrlich wrote this book in 1968 call… 1
Discussed
“And you explain who Paul Ehrlich was for those who don't know. So Paul Ehrlich wrote this book in 1968 called The Population Bomb, and he basically said that the whole world was going to collapse if we didn't stop people from having kids.”
Mentioned on the show without a named speaker2
Discussed
“Oh yeah, that's not—I’m thinking of, yeah, different guy. So this guy, he wrote other things besides The Population Bomb.”
Discussed
“there's a guy named Professor Paul R Ehrlich and he writes a book in 1968 called the population bomb”
Also mentioned in the same episodes
Other mentions (5: passing, ad reads, own books)
Passing
“I was gratified to learn that you were close friends with my colleague, Paul Ehrlich, and his wife, Sandra Khan, is still on the faculty at Stanford. Paul wrote, of course, The Population Bomb.”
Passing
“And we were in massive growth, and books like The Population Bomb were written and so forth. But the reality is we are now, we've dropped from 5.7 children per family down to below 2.4 globally.”
Passing
“Listeners who were old enough might remember the book 'The Population Bomb': the fear that the world was going to starve to death because there were too many people, birth rates were too high, and agricultural production was too low. There was a man named John Tanton in Michigan, an ophthalmologist who was an avid conservationist.”
Speaker Freakonomics Radio 581. What Both Parties Get Wrong About Immigration 2024-03-21 Listen at 14:55
Passing
“the uh there was a book back then written called the population bomb and we were all you know we're all supposed to starve to death because there going to be so many people”
Passing
“and books like you know the population bomb and Al Gore's first book Earth and the balance the limits to growth all these great environmental classics all stem directly from his work”