Listen to the trailer.
Listen to Episode 1, “There Are Limits to Everything.”
Every once in a while, someone enters your life who changes everything. Herman Daly was one of those for me (and plenty of other people as well). When I met Herman in 2005, I was cruising along with my career in conservation biology and in full retreat from my former work in economic policy. I had lost interest in economics as a field of inquiry and a career pursuit, as it seemed both unscientific and detached from what I observed in the real world. That’s why it’s odd that Herman, an economist who worked in academia and at the World Bank, set me on a new course.
I was introduced to Herman Daly in person, and in writing, at a conference. After speaking with him, as I was browsing books in the exhibit hall, I spotted a big green book with the title Ecological Economics that he had written with his coauthor, Josh Farley. I picked it up, read the first few paragraphs, and was happy to buy a book written by someone I had met. I proceeded to read this college textbook from cover to cover. Is it possible for a textbook to be refreshing, to provide relief for an economics refugee? Where had this treatment of economics been when I was studying the subject? From simple principles, such as:
- the economy is a subset of the broader society, which is a subset of the biosphere, and
- growing the economy can be good or bad, depending on the costs and benefits of the growth,
Herman and Josh laid out an economic worldview and set of policies that made sense in a world beset by all sorts of environmental and social problems. I wanted in. So I quit my job with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and managed a startup nonprofit dedicated to spreading Herman’s ideas about the steady-state economy – a sustainable and fair economy that is right-sized for the ecosystems that contain it.
I got to work with Herman for a spell, and I stayed in touch with him until his death in 2022. Now, 20 years on from when I met him, I’ve been contributing time and effort to a new podcast series that covers his life and legacy. The podcast features never-before-released interviews with him (it’s good to hear his voice again), and I learned things that I never knew about him. It also features the voices of his family members and some of the brightest do-gooders Herman influenced during his lengthy career. I hope you’ll give it a listen. Our friends at C40 Cities and the Cities 1.5 podcast have done a fantastic job putting it together.
About the Podcast
Going Steady with Herman Daly: How to Unbreak the Economy (and the Planet) is a five-episode audio miniseries from the Cities 1.5 podcast.
This miniseries explores the life, ideas, and enduring legacy of ecological economist Herman Daly, a quiet revolutionary who spent decades challenging the myth of endless economic growth. Through never-before-heard archival interviews, personal stories from family members, and reflections from leading economists and thought leaders such as Kate Raworth, Peter Victor, Clóvis Cavalcanti, Gaya Herrington, Bob Costanza and many more, the miniseries traces how Daly’s vision of a steady-state economy offers a blueprint for surviving climate breakdown, tackling runaway inequality, and rethinking the notion of prosperity itself. With cities across the world on the frontlines of escalating wildfires, floods, and political instability, driven by a global economy still hooked on fossil fuels, GDP growth, and failed neoliberal dogma, Daly’s work provides the moral and intellectual grounds for a new economic direction that is rooted in sustainability, justice, and ecological balance.
Going Steady with Herman Daly is produced by University of Toronto Press and supported by C40 Cities and the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy.