
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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