Danielle Sulikowski, professor of evolutionary psychology, presents a controversial theory on why global fertility rates and birth rates are collapsing. She argues that an evolutionary strategy known as female mate suppression—where dominant women repress the reproductive success of rivals—has shifted in humans into a modern form of antinatal social contagion. Rather than direct biological suppression, the strategy manifests as propaganda and cultural messaging that discourage motherhood, promote career over family, and accelerate population decline. We explore how intrasexual competition among women could shape civilization itself, why some groups might defect against their own society to gain an evolutionary edge, and how this connects to broader debates in feminism, cultural evolution, and civilizational collapse. The conversation also ties in the density-dependent dynamics of Calhoun’s Rat Utopia experiments as a possible parallel to modern urbanization, social media, and declining birth rates. PATREON https://www.patreon.com/c/demystifysci PARADIGM DRIFT https://demystifysci.com/paradigm-drift-show OUR HOMEBREWED MUSIC Check out our band's new album: https://secretaryofnature.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-so-good-here Vinyl pre-orders available now: https://buy.stripe.com/14A5kC3Od5d21Ms7zPdEs09 #evolutionarypsychology , #civilization, #feminism, #sociology, #anthropology, #culturewars, #birthrates, #psychology, #society, #population, #decline, #history, #civilizations, #future #philosophypodcast , #longformpodcast ABOUS US: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. PATREON: get episodes early + join our weekly Patron Chat https://bit.ly/3lcAasB MERCH: Rock some DemystifySci gear : https://demystifysci.myspreadshop.com/all AMAZON: Do your shopping through this link: https://amzn.to/3YyoT98 DONATE: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD SUBSTACK: https://substack.com/@UCqV4_7i9h1_V7hY48eZZSLw@demystifysci BLOG: http://DemystifySci.com/blog RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss MAILING LIST: https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671