Full Episode
Hi, I'm Blythe Terrell filling in for Wendy Zuckerman, and you are listening to Science Versus. This is the show that pits facts against falling fertility. Today, we're talking about the claim that people are having fewer and fewer babies and that it could be bad news for humanity. We've actually been hearing about this fear for years, but recently it has made its way to the White House.
President Donald Trump is pushing for a baby boom.
We want more babies, to put it very nicely. I'll be known as the fertilization president, and that's okay. That's not bad. I've been called much worse.
Vice President J.D. Vance has gone in on this, too.
So let me say very simply, I want more babies in the United States of America.
And it's not just the US. This idea that people need to have more babies has been popping up all over the world with headlines about low birth rates in parts of Europe.
Italy is suffering through one of the worst demographic crises anywhere in the world. Spain's population is disappearing. Plus Japan and South Korea. The Korean population crisis has reached a new milestone. The nation's population could free fall by 85% over the next century.
China, which famously had a policy limiting couples to one child only, has done a 180.
For the first time, Beijing has announced a nationwide child care subsidy policy in a bid to boost the country's birth rate.
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