In this episode of Post Growth Australia Podcast, we welcome special guest Matt Orsagh, from the Arketa Institute for Post Growth Finance, and author of the blog ‘Degrowth is The Answer’. Matt and his colleagues at Arketa have been working to align to financial sector with environmental and wellbeing needs, culminating in the 2025 research paper: “By Disaster or Design: How finance can evolve to avoid the worst of the ecological challenges we face and enable the transition to a better economic mode.” The paper proposes many degrowth solutions to the finance sector, to which Matt explores further in this interview.

We also explore Matt’s own written work at his Substack blog, 'Degrowth is the Answer'. Big themes include wealth inequality, the loneliness epidemic, and collapse. These articles exemplify Matt’s storytelling skills. While describing our current predicaments with unflinching realism, Matt reminds us that the future remains hopeful if our global society transitions toward practical, planned Degrowth solutions.

This episode of PGAP is dedicated to the memory of Tristan Sykes, co-founder of Just Collapse, who recently passed away

Change the World through Changing Economics with Marcus Champ: The premiere episode of season 8 is a great companion episode, as it similarly explores economics and finance.

Planning for a Just Collapse with Kate Booth: Our interview with ‘Just Collapse’ co-founder remains one of our most listened to episodes.

We also encourage you to read the PGAP blog article To populate or not to populate? How we can come together around the eternal debate of everyone’s favourite vexed issue.

This interview explores the following three articles from Matt’s Substack Blog ‘Degrowth Is The Answer’:

Americans Don’t Know How Good They Don’t Have It
Collapse: Don’t Look Down
Everyone I Know is Lonely

You can find the Arketa institute publications HERE, where you may read the report ‘By Disaster or By Design.’

_Enjoyed this episode? Please feel welcome to show your support for PGAP by sharing this and other episodes with your friends, family and networks. Leave a review for us on Apple Podcast or your favourite podcast platform. Contact us anytime with your thoughts and suggestions. _

Time stamp

Introduction:

Start – 00:04:19

Interview Part 1:

00:04:19 – 00:32:06

Intermission:

00:32:06 – 00:34:27

Interview Part 1:

00:34:27 - End

Special Guest: Matt Orsagh.

You can find out more about Women for Conversation here. Please consider supporting their great work, by spreading the word or by making a donation. You can also read more W4C at the Sustainable Population Australia Newsletter here. The full interview can be read at the SPA website here.

On this episode, we played the track ‘Aguita de Paramo” that Isabella recorded under her artist name ‘Isavibe’. You can follow Isavibe’s music at her Spotify account here.

This interview with Women for Conversation is part of a wider dialogue on mythbusting when it comes to family planning and reproductive healthcare, especially for the global south. PGAP has been an active part in this debate. In season two we spoke with Florence Blondel, Ugandan born journalist, feminist and sustainable population advocate. In season one we spoke with CHASE Africa who work with communities in Kenya (a QandA with founder Robin Witt can also be read on the SPA website).

(Artwork from Isabella under the artist name 'Isavibe).

Of course, this discussion is not just exclusive to the global south. In season two PGAP spoke with proud childfree women living in the USA and Australia. We spoke with Nandita Bajaj, executive director of Population Balance, whose organisation aim is to counter systemic pro-natalism. Last but certainly not least, we spoke with Prof. Anne Poelina, Chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council and a Nyikina Warrwa Traditional Owner. She brings to the table Indigenous wisdom and insight into the degrowth and population sustainability debates. The Martuwarra-Fitzroy river region is currently under much environmental stress with flash flooding in the Kimberley. Our thoughts are with all communities who live in this beautiful part of the world, human and non-human.

(Image courtesy of Isavibe).

PGAP is made by the kind support of Sustainable Population Australia (SPA). No strangers to tackling controversial issues, PGAP would like to take the opportunity to thank SPA for allowing us to take on the broader controversial issues of post-growth and degrowth with autonomy, including guests who may share different or opposing views on population. This is a good opportunity to remind that all perspectives and legacies of PGAP guests and their respective organisations are their own and may not always reflect those of PGAP and SPA.

During the interview, Isabella referred to the fantastic work of Kate Raeworth (of doughnut economics). A link to her Ted Talk can be watched here.

As always, we strongly encourage you to spread the post-growth message. Share this episode with your friends, family, colleagues and networks. Rate and review PGAP on Apple Podcasts. Contact us with your feedback, suggestions and guest recommendations.

Want to find out more about your hosts? You can find out more about Mark Allen, Holistic Activism and Town Planning Rebellion here. You can find out more about Michael Bayliss at his website here.

Special Guest: Isabella Cortes Lara.

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Haydn Washington. Haydn was a prolific and passionate writer and speaker on sustainability, degrowth, the need for population stabilisation and denialism against both climate and population realities. He wrote or edited many books. He was active in CASSE and the Ecological Economics community. The Australian Degrowth movement owes much to Haydn’s work. A tribute to Haydn can be found on Rod’s ‘Fuzzy Logic’ science show here. The link includes an interview that Rod did with Haydn at the 2013 Fenner Conference, organised by Sustainable Population Australia.

You can find out more about "10 Journeys on a Fragile Planet" here.

Want to find out more about the Fuzzy Logic Science show? You can listen via Canberra’s radio 2XX or via the Fuzzy Logic Podcast.

As a prolific and energetic volunteer for Sustainable Population Australia, Rod worked with PGAP co-host Michael Bayliss with many of SPA’s video productions, including: “Talking Heads: Choosing to have children...or not” and an interview with the Ambassador of Costa Rica, “Pura Vida Costa Rica with Ambassador Armando Vargas”. Michael owes much to Rod’s impeccable talent for camera angles and lighting.

Rod was also co-editor of "Sustainability and the New Economics" (Springer, 2022) with Steve Williams. PGAP interviewed Steve on a season 3 episode of PGAP. This volume is an invaluable addition to the post-growth economic movement.

"The path to sustainable civilisation" co-written by Rod Taylor and Mark Disendorf is set to be published in mid 2023. With the tag line - 'civilization's broken, this is how we fix it" - we can't wait for the launch!

Sustainable Population Australia has recently launched a new discussion paper, “How many Australians? The need for Earth-centric ethics” authored by Patron Dr. Paul Collins. Paul was also interviewed for a season 3 edition of PGAP here.

Find out more about co-host Mark Allen’s Holistic Activism movement here.

Support PGAP! Share this episode and others with your friends, family and networks. Rate and review us on Apple Podcast. Got any feedback or a suggestion for a future episode? Contact us here.

It has been an epic 2022 for PGAP and the hosts. Thank you for being with us through this journey and see you again in the new year.

Special Guest: Rod Taylor.