John Burn-Murdoch: What's causing the fertility crisis?

John Burn-Murdoch: What's causing the fertility crisis?

From UnHerd with Freddie Sayers by UnHerd

May 21, 2026 · 30 min

About this episode

Freddie Sayers discusses the impact of smartphones and social media on fertility rates with John Burn-Murdoch and researchers from the University of Cincinnati.

UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to John Burn-Murdoch, the chief data reporter for the Financial Times, as well as Hernan Moscoso-Boedo and Nathan Hudson from the University of Cincinnati, to investigate a controversial new study suggesting that the global proliferation of smartphones and social media since 2007 has drastically altered young people's behaviour, halved face-to-face socialisation, and accelerated a worldwide collapse in fertility rates that cannot simply be explained by the global financial crisis. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People in this episode

Host: Freddie Sayers

Guests: John Burn-Murdoch, Hernan Moscoso-Boedo, Nathan Hudson

Topics covered

  • fertility crisis
  • smartphones
  • social media
  • young people's behavior
  • face-to-face socialization
  • global financial crisis

Keywords

  • fertility crisis
  • smartphones
  • social media
  • young people
  • behavior change
  • face-to-face interaction
  • financial crisis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Financial Times, University of Cincinnati

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