Nick Spencer speaks with Richard McNeill Douglas, research fellow at the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity. 24/06/2025

The idea that society should grow – and continue to grow, economically, without ending, without limits – is a relatively new and fiercely defended idea. It emerged first in Western countries but has captured much of the world today.

How realistic is it? How “sustainable”? What should we think about “limits to growth”? Is it a narrative of declinism, best ignored? Or a warning we dismiss at huge peril?

This week Nick Spencer talks with Richard McNeill Douglas about his book ‘The Meaning of Growth: The Rhetoric of Environmental Scepticism and the Defence of Modernity’

Richard’s book will be published in Autumn, find out more here.

Tune in to the episode here. 

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