Post Carbon Fellow Richard Heinberg was quoted in this article on the science behind S-Town.

From the article:

This aside, the facts are there; climate change is real. But why does the prospect of it affect McLemore more than most?

“I sometimes call it toxic knowledge,” says Richard Heinberg, senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, on which McLemore was a regular commenter. “Once you know about overpopulation, overshoot, depletion, climate change, and the dynamics of societal collapse, you can’t unknow it, and your every subsequent thought is tinted.”

McLemore felt the situation was so bad there was nothing he could do about it. We might not all be as doomed as he says. “In John’s case, hopes for enhanced survival prospects failed to bear fruit,” says Heinberg, “though his story may perhaps inspire some podcast listeners to explore his sources of information and respond in a more pro-social fashion.”