Podcaster Joe Rogan has issued a stark warning to Americans, suggesting they could face a future reminiscent of the film “Children of Men” if the problem of food toxins isn’t addressed.
Rogan, 58, sat down with Environmental Epidemiologist, Shanna H Swan, on Tuesday’s episode to discuss the link between chemicals in foodstuffs and America’s declining birth rate.
Rogan and his guest highlighted the potential threat posed by microplastics, which they believe could be undermining human fertility and endangering the species’ future.
Expressing his concern, Rogan suggested that the combination of delayed parenthood and the pervasive presence of these toxins might lead the United States towards a scenario like that in the dystopian 2006 sci-fi movie. In “Children of Men,” women cease to conceive, leading to a gradual extinction of the human race.
Shanna Swan, a guest on the podcast, emphasized that endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastics and food are significantly contributing to the decline in fertility rates.
“A significant factor appears to be that we’re essentially poisoning ourselves,” Rogan explained during the episode, “through our dependence on plastics in our modern lifestyle.”
Both Rogan and Swan pointed to the decreasing birth rate as evidence of this troubling trend.
The average number of children per American household in 1960 is 3.62. In 2018, that dropped to 1.73, Population Education said.
Joe Rogan, 58, warned microplastic toxins are effecting the birth rate and fertility and the world could face a Children of Men-type future
Children of Men is a 2006 sci-fi movie in which people have stopped getting pregnant and leave the world on the brink of extinction
In South Korea, the birth rate is even lower. In 2014, it was 1.20 children per family, now it’s 0.75, as of 2024, according to CNN.
‘They’re down quite a bit,’ Rogan said, referring to America’s reproduction levels. ‘They’re not at the level that we need in order to keep our population.’
‘Fertility is in the toilet,’ Swan agreed.
Rogan brought up how IVF has become normal amongst families, especially those who are older when they start family planning.
‘They put their careers aside in their 30s, they decided now it’s time to have kids. They’re worried that it’s too late,’ the podcaster said.
Swan also brought up how animals are also reproducing at a lower rate. Referencing a study on alligators, it found the animals’ genitals have become smaller over the years due to chemical pollution. Their eggs are also less durable.
Scientist Lou Gillette’s groundbreaking work found that long-term exposure to environmental contaminants do have consequences and found many parallels to human health, according to the National Library of Medicine.
The lower birth rate, Swan said, has become a huge societal problem, as there aren’t enough younger people to care for the elderly, who are living longer than ever.
‘Fertility is in the toilet,’ Swan agreed with Rogan. She cited studies that showed animals’ genitals got smaller from long-term exposure to microplastics
The pair believe microplastics are threatening the survival of the human race. An NYU study recently found nearly two million preterm births were linked to a certain chemical found in plastics
The pair had spoken about a similar topic five years earlier, which shocked Rogan how very little the American public knew about the potential links.
A new NYU Langone Health study found that close to two million premature births in the world were due to being exposed to Di-2-ethylhexylphthalate (DEHP), a chemical found in cosmetics and detergents.
DEHP is used to make plastics more flexible. The chemical has also been linked to cancer, heart disease, and infertility, among other conditions.
In 2018, 1.97 million preterm births were due to chemical exposure. The study also linked the chemical to 74,000 newborn deaths.
In a 2025 study, it found a baby’s placenta had a significantly higher amount of microplastics in a preterm birth than in a full-term birth.
Microplastics were found in the placenta in 2020 and have also been found in breast milk, semen, and bone marrow, among other places.
