Alan Weisman understands that female education is the key to reducing the human population’s growth rate on a planet brimming with people. While researching Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, Weisman traveled to 21 countries to ask how many humans the planet can hold without capsizing. The answers were devastating, urgent, but ultimately deeply hopeful.

A senior documentary producer for the nonprofit journalism cooperative Homelands Productions, Weisman has worked in more than fifty countries and on all seven continents. His books, which include the international bestseller The World Without Us, have appeared in 34 languages. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, his awards include the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Library of China’s Wenjin Book Prize.