#1204

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RECORDED ON DECEMBER 3rd 2025.
Sarah Dierna is a PhD candidate in Interpretation Studies at the Department of Humanities at the University of Catania, where she collaborates with the chair of Theoretical Philosophy. She has published essays, articles, and reviews in various scholarly journals and collective volumes. In 2023, she edited the Italian translation of David Benatar's The Misanthropic Argument for Antinatalism for Oxford University Press. In 2025, she published the monograph È il nascere che non ci voleva. Storia e teoria dell'Antinatalismo (Mimesis).

In this episode, we focus on “È il nascere che non ci voleva”. We start by talking about how Sarah got interested in antinatalism. We then talk about the metaphysics of antinatalism, what it is to be born, whether people really want children, abortion, the harms of life, and the reality of death. We discuss why people reject antinatalism. We go through the history of antinatalism in the West and the East, including the Greeks, Christianity, and Buddhism. We discuss the strongest arguments in favor of antinatalism, whether death is always a harm, the ethics of parenthood, the strongest arguments against antinatalism, and extinctionism. Finally, we talk about how to approach people about antinatalism.

Time Links:
00:00 Intro
00:49 How Sarah got interested in antinatalism
05:45 Metaphysics
14:35 What is it to be born?
15:13 Do people really want children?
19:52 Abortion
20:53 The harms of life
23:52 The reality of death
27:34 Why do people reject antinatalism?
36:12 The history of antinatalism in the West and the East
1:07:15 The strongest arguments in favor of antinatalism
1:21:52 Is death always a harm?
1:24:43 The ethics of parenthood
1:37:06 The strongest arguments against antinatalism
1:40:31 Extinctionism
1:44:49 How to approach people about antinatalism
1:47:21 Follow Sarah’s work!
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È il nascere che non ci voleva: https://tinyurl.com/mvv7ffx8
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A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: PER HELGE LARSEN, BERNARDO SEIXAS, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, ROBERT WINDHAGER, RUI INACIO, ZOOP, MARCO NEVES, COLIN HOLBROOK, PHIL KAVANAGH, SAMUEL ANDREEFF, FRANCIS FORDE, TIAGO NUNES, FERGAL CUSSEN, HAL HERZOG, NUNO MACHADO, JONATHAN LEIBRANT, JOÃO LINHARES, STANTON T, SAMUEL CORREA, ERIK HAINES, MARK SMITH, JOÃO EIRA, TOM HUMMEL, SARDUS FRANCE, DAVID SLOAN WILSON, YACILA DEZA-ARAUJO, ROMAIN ROCH, YANICK PUNTER, CHARLOTTE BLEASE, NICOLE BARBARO, ADAM HUNT, PAWEL OSTASZEWSKI, NELLEKE BAK, GUY MADISON, GARY G HELLMANN, SAIMA AFZAL, ADRIAN JAEGGI, PAULO TOLENTINO, JOÃO BARBOSA, JULIAN PRICE, HEDIN BRØNNER, FRANCA BORTOLOTTI, GABRIEL PONS CORTÈS, URSULA LITZCKE, SCOTT, ZACHARY FISH, TIM DUFFY, SUNNY SMITH, JON WISMAN, WILLIAM BUCKNER, LUKE GLOWACKI, GEORGIOS THEOPHANOUS, CHRIS WILLIAMSON, PETER WOLOSZYN, DAVID WILLIAMS, DIOGO COSTA, ALEX CHAU, CORALIE CHEVALLIER, BANGALORE ATHEISTS, LARRY D. LEE JR., OLD HERRINGBONE, MICHAEL BAILEY, DAN SPERBER, ROBERT GRESSIS, JEFF MCMAHAN, JAKE ZUEHL, MARK CAMPBELL, TOMAS DAUBNER, LUKE NISSEN, KIMBERLY JOHNSON, JESSICA NOWICKI, LINDA BRANDIN, VALENTIN STEINMANN, ALEXANDER HUBBARD, BR, JONAS HERTNER, URSULA GOODENOUGH, DAVID PINSOF, SEAN NELSON, MIKE LAVIGNE, JOS KNECHT, LUCY, MANVIR SINGH, PETRA WEIMANN, CAROLA FEEST, MAURO JÚNIOR, 航 豊川, TONY BARRETT, NIKOLAI VISHNEVSKY, STEVEN GANGESTAD, TED FARRIS, HUGO B., JAMES, JORDAN MANSFIELD, CHARLOTTE ALLEN, PETER STOYKO, DAVID TONNER, LEE BECK, PATRICK DALTON-HOLMES, NICK KRASNEY, RACHEL ZAK, DENNIS XAVIER, CHINMAYA BHAT, AND RHYS!
A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, JIM FRANK, ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK, TOM VANEGDOM, BERNARD HUGUENEY, CURTIS DIXON, BENEDIKT MUELLER, THOMAS TRUMBLE, KATHRINE AND PATRICK TOBIN, JONCARLO MONTENEGRO, NICK GOLDEN, CHRISTINE GLASS, IGOR NIKIFOROVSKI, AND PER KRAULIS!
AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS, MATTHEW LAVENDER, SERGIU CODREANU, AND GREGORY HASTINGS!

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