Audiobooks by Dean Spears

After the Spike: The Risks of Global Depopulation and the Case for People

"Brought to you by Penguin. An eye-opening exploration of humanity’s unprecedented path to global depopulation and why it's in everyone's interests to prevent it IIf we continue as we are, with birth rates falling globally, the world’s human population will peak in the next few decades – and then begin a sudden and rapid decline. It would be easy to think that fewer people would be better: better for the planet, better for the people who remain. In After the Spike, two leading population economists ask us to think again. Carefully weighing the evidence and the many claims that surround this controversial subject, Dean Spears and Mike Geruso explain why depopulation is not the solution we urgently need for the climate crisis, nor will it improve lives. Far more likely is that the progress which has raised living standards so dramatically over the last two centuries will slow or even reverse. As humanity’s future shrinks, it will become more fragile and less certain, and harder for us to escape from global poverty, disease and injustice. Halting this decline and stabilising the population need not mean sacrificing a greener future or reverting to past gender inequities. In fact, they argue, it can only be achieved with women’s reproductive rights and individual choice as driving forces. But if we want future generations to enjoy lives even better than our own, it’s time to take seriously society’s collective task of lifting the burdens of parents and other carers. Deeply reasoned and uncompromisingly humane, After the Spike sheds important light on a dramatic shift in the human story and asks us to consider what future we should want for our planet, our children, and one another. © Dean Spears and Michael Geruso 2025 (P) Simon and Schuster LLC 2025"

Dean Spears, Michael Geruso (Author), Sean Patrick Hopkins (Narrator)

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Where India Goes

"Around the world, people live healthier lives than in centuries past, in part because latrines keep faecal germs away from growing babies. India is an exception. Most Indians do not use toilets or latrines, and so infants in India are more likely to die than in neighbouring poorer countries. Children in India are more likely to be stunted than children in sub-Saharan Africa. Where India Goes demonstrates that open defecation in India is not the result of poverty but a direct consequence of the caste system, untouchability and ritual purity. Coffey and Spears tell an unsanitized story of an unsanitary subject, with characters spanning the worlds of mothers and babies living in villages to local government implementers, senior government policymakers and international development professionals. They write of increased funding and ever more unused latrines. Where India Goes is an important and timely book that calls for the annihilation of caste and attendant prejudices, and a fundamental shift in policy perspectives to effect a crucial, much overdue change. ©HarperCollins India 2018"

Dean Spears, Diane Coffey (Author), Shaswatishree Sharma (Narrator)

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