After the Spike

De: Dean Spears, Michael Geruso

Narrado por: Sean Patrick Hopkins

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

What if the challenge for humanity’s future is not too many people on a crowded planet, but too few people to sustain the progress that the world needs?

Most people on Earth today live in a country where birth rates already are too low to stabilize the population: fewer than two children for every two adults. In After the Spike, economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso sound a wakeup call, explaining why global depopulation is coming, why it matters, and what to do now.

It would be easy to think that fewer people would be better—better for the planet, better for the people who remain. This book invites us all to think again. Despite what we may have been told, depopulation is not the solution we urgently need for environmental challenges like climate change. Nor will it raise living standards by dividing what the world can offer across fewer of us. Spears and Geruso investigate what depopulation would mean for the climate, for living standards, for equity, for progress, for freedom, for humanity’s general welfare. And what it would mean if, instead, people came together to share the work of caregiving and of building societies where parenting fits better with everything else that people aspire to.

With new evidence and sharp insights, Spears and Geruso make a lively and compelling case for stabilizing the population—without sacrificing our dreams of a greener future or reverting to past gender inequities. They challenge us to see how depopulation threatens social equity and material progress, and how welcoming it denies the inherent value of every human life. More than an assembly of the most important facts, After the Spike asks what future we should want for our planet, for our children, and for one another.

©2025 Michael Geruso and Dean Spears (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Good Start, Weak Finish

Depopulation is a super interesting topic and overall this is a great book; however, it becomes political and that almost ruins the book. I'd recommend the book, but it would be better if less preachy.

Clear, compelling, and deeply important

Definitely a top social science book for the year. I strongly recommend it. Plus the performance and presentation are just top notch.