Episode 12: The Growth of Modern Cities

Kathakar

Over the past few centuries, urbanization has rapidly accelerated, creating the largest clusters of humans the planet has ever seen. Clustering is nothing new, however, as early humans banded together to form nomadic tribes, civilizations, and even city-states. Yet, the formation of large-scale cities has brought its own complexity, and thus the conception of a collective settlement, or city, has changed. Our guest today, Dr. Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist as well as Shannan Distinguished Professor and Former President of the Santa Fe Institute, uses mathematical modeling and data on innovation and wealth creation to understand the scaling and growth of modern-day cities. A Fellow of the American Physical Society and named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World" in 2006, Dr. West has dramatically influenced the study of urban development with detailed research and model development of city structure, complexity, and evolution. In this episode, he joins us to discuss his impactful research along with potential possibilities and studies for understanding the growth of cities from the past and cities in the future.