DAVE GARDNER BIOGRAPHY (as of 2023)

IN BRIEF: Since completing the documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, in 2011, Dave produced the syndicated radio series, Conversation Earth, launched and co-hosted The Overpopulation Podcast, and today co-hosts the GrowthBusters podcast about coming to terms with limits to growth.

MORE DETAIL:

In 40-plus years as a professional filmmaker, Dave Gardner produced and directed a PBS series and then learned the art of spin as he produced films for over a dozen Fortune 500 companies, including Coca-Cola, IBM, several airlines, oil and chemical companies, and even Enron. His production company, founded in 1982 in Dallas, was Visions West.

In 2005 Dave began focusing his camera on our modern culture and what drives us to worship everlasting growth in the face of overwhelming evidence that we’ve hit the limit. He gave up his film/video business, the country club membership and his quest for the traditional “American Dream” in order to produce the 2011 documentary, GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth.

In the midst of producing the film, Dave ran for Colorado Springs City Council – on the platform that growth won’t solve the problems it created. He got 43% of the vote against a well-funded incumbent. The film premiered in Washington DC to a packed house, and was honored by over a dozen film festivals around the world.

Since finishing GrowthBusters, Dave continued running the non-profit GrowthBusters public education project, with Dave writing, producing short films, and speaking to groups, college classes and the media – in an effort to guarantee his kids and future generations a decent life. He wrote a regular column for SHIFT magazine 2013 to 2015, and now edits and writes for the Ending Overshoot publication at Medium. From 2015 to 2021 Dave also served as executive director of World Population Balance, during which time he launched and co-hosted The Overpopulation Podcast.

Gardner managed the launch of Colorado Springs’ community radio station, KCMJ, 2014 to 2016, and produced the Conversation Earth syndicated radio series/podcast 2015 to 2017. He also founded and manages a local community podcast collective, Studio 809 Podcasts. He did a brief stint as executive producer, podcasts for The Colorado Springs Independent. He produces and co-hosts the GrowthBusters podcast about sustainable living, and he produces the Planet in Crisis podcast for Scientists Warning Europe.

Dave is a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he lives today. He was born in 1955. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast-Film Arts at Southern Methodist University. He brought two children into this world with his first wife. He is married to his second wife, who had four children prior to this marriage.