Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Plenty may be possible—but what would it take to make it probable?
In this episode of the Century of Plenty podcast, Sven Smit, Chris Bradley, Nick Leung, and Marc Canal share reactions to their book from around the world and take on the hardest objections regarding demographics, climate change, energy, and AI. They discuss:
◼ How audiences from China to Africa to Europe accept that a world of plenty is possible, but there are real debates about execution.
◼ How collapsing fertility, rather than resource limits, may be the century’s defining challenge, and why growth and adaptation can address climate change even in an economy eight times larger than today’s.
◼ Why AI is better understood as a curve than as a fixed point, and how a shift from zero-sum to non-zero-sum thinking could turn plenty from possible to probable.
*Chapters:*
00:00 - Intro
00:37 - Is optimism different around the world?
04:36 - What stands in the way of plenty?
09:29 - The toughest questions: population, energy, nature & AI
15:22 - The demographic cliff: are we running out of people?
25:50 -Taking on runaway climate change
32:36 -The race for abundant energy
35:39 - Does prosperity destroy—or protect—nature?
48:39 - Is AI different from every technology before it?
56:18 - AI bubble or the beginning of an 8.5x economy?
59:39 - A question of framing
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0340SmMq12xdC0E69h3qDL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/century-of-plenty/id6797611085
Explore the book and research: acenturyofplenty.com
Get your copy of 'A Century of Plenty' on Amazon: https://a.co/d/09oVyVx2
*Connect with us:*
Subscribe to our channel: mck.co/YouTube
Subscribe to our newsletters: mck.co/Subscribe
*Find us on:*
Facebook: mck.co/Facebook
Twitter: mck.co/Twitter
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Plenty may be possible—but what would it take to make it probable?
In this episode of the Century of Plenty podcast, Sven Smit, Chris Bradley, Nick Leung, and Marc Canal share reactions to their book from around the world and take on the hardest objections regarding demographics, climate change, energy, and AI. They discuss:
◼ How audiences from China to Africa to Europe accept that a world of plenty is possible, but there are real debates about execution.
◼ How collapsing fertility, rather than resource limits, may be the century’s defining challenge, and why growth and adaptation can address climate change even in an economy eight times larger than today’s.
◼ Why AI is better understood as a curve than as a fixed point, and how a shift from zero-sum to non-zero-sum thinking could turn plenty from possible to probable.
*Chapters:*
00:00 - Intro
00:37 - Is optimism different around the world?
04:36 - What stands in the way of plenty?
09:29 - The toughest questions: population, energy, nature & AI
15:22 - The demographic cliff: are we running out of people?
25:50 -Taking on runaway climate change
32:36 -The race for abundant energy
35:39 - Does prosperity destroy—or protect—nature?
48:39 - Is AI different from every technology before it?
56:18 - AI bubble or the beginning of an 8.5x economy?
59:39 - A question of framing
Listen on Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0340SmMq12xdC0E69h3qDL
Listen on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/century-of-plenty/id6797611085
Explore the book and research: acenturyofplenty.com
Get your copy of 'A Century of Plenty' on Amazon: https://a.co/d/09oVyVx2
*Connect with us:*
Subscribe to our channel: mck.co/YouTube
Subscribe to our newsletters: mck.co/Subscribe
*Find us on:*
Facebook: mck.co/Facebook
Twitter: mck.co/Twitter
LinkedIn: mck.co/LinkedIn
Instagram: mck.co/Instagram
