Episode

The man who bet against humanity — and lost

Podcast
Unexplainable
Published
May 20, 2026
Duration seconds
1014
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.vox.com/unexplainable
Audio
https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/257/traffic.megaphone.fm/VMP7238578429.mp3?updated=1779223074
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/unexplainable-1382958/episodes/the-man-who-bet-against-humanity-and-lost
Markdown
/podcast/unexplainable-1382958/the-man-who-bet-against-humanity-and-lost.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/unexplainable-1382958/episodes/the-man-who-bet-against-humanity-and-lost/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/unexplainable-1382958/the-man-who-bet-against-humanity-and-lost.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Paul Ehrlich was famous for predicting a population explosion that would destroy the planet, but he didn't count on human ingenuity. Guest: Bryan Walsh, Vox senior editorial director This episode was made in partnership with Vox’s Future Perfect team. For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ We read every email. Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices