Episode Details

Edward Glaeser is Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He is perhaps the world's leading expert on cities. He recently authored, along with David Cutler, Survival of the City – Living and Thriving in the Age of Isolation. Edward leads the Urban Economics Working Group at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and co-leads the Cities Programme at the International Growth Center. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Public Administration. In this podcast we discuss:

1. What defines a city?
2. How have pandemics impacted cities across history?
3. Why are people healthier in cities than in rural areas?
4. Why is there large inequality within cities?
5. Importance of education
6. What led to the urban renaissance of the 1990s
7. Why didn't tech revolution end cities?
8. Will Zoom revolution change cities?
9. What lead to growth of Silicon Valley
10. Factors that drive gentrification
11. Three recommendations for helping cities.
12. Edward's book recommendations: The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Jacobs), Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (Cronon), Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 (Saxenian), Framing the Early Middle Ages (Wickham) and Origins of the European Economy (McCormick)