People and Ideas: Populations as Infrastructure

In this wrap-up episode, host Tamara Winter and producer Everett Katigbak reflect on the first season of Beneath the Surface, featuring highlights from our favorite episodes, and musings about future areas of exploration.For a transcript for this episode, visit press.stripe.com/farewell-for-now-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

In this conversation, Shruti Rajagopalan, Head of India Policy Research at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and host Tamara Winter discuss Shruti's research on how population growth can accelerate economic development, the unintended consequences of fertility policy, and why 1991 was a pivotal year for India.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/shruti-rajagopalan-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

Up to now, we’ve explored physical infrastructure: supply chains, housing, transportation, and more. But the ultimate resource for any country is its people.For most of human history, populations were fairly stable. Then, in the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution precipitated an exponential increase in population, which reached a peak in the mid-20th century. Today, however, the demographic outlook in many developed countries is the opposite: birth rates around the world have fallen below the replacement rate.In this episode, we explore the effects of declining birth rates and what, if anything, could be done to reverse them. Along the way, we’ll dig into one of the thorniest questions about population growth: what happens when governments try to influence it through policy?Special thanks to Clara Piano, Shruti Rajagopalan, Matt Yglesias, Vimala Alexander, and Titus Alexander.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/population-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

In this conversation, host Tamara Winter and Alex Forrest, transit planner for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in Springfield, Massachusetts, discuss the history of transit in the US, the relationship between transit and housing prices, and the formative years Forrest spent in Japan—and how they’ve shaped his current work in Springfield.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/alex-forrest-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

In 2016, the much-anticipated Second Avenue Subway line opened in Manhattan, New York. It took nearly a century to finish, and it was the most expensive per-mile subway project… ever — a rare new addition to one of the largest and the oldest subway systems in the world.By contrast, half a world away, Tokyo has a sprawling web of commuter trains—boasting the 50 busiest train stations in the world. Yet today, even the busiest lines in Tokyo only experience a yearly average delay of 20 seconds — and minimal incidents.How did Tokyo manage to avoid the friction common in the transit systems of other megacities? In this episode, we examine how officials in post WWII-Japan created one of the most efficient examples of scaled infrastructure in the modern world — and what cities around the world can learn from them.Special thanks to Alon Levy, Sarah Kaufman, Alex Forrest, and Junichi Sugiyama.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/public-transit-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

In this conversation, host Tamara Winter and Ronan Lyons, Associate Professor in Economics at Trinity College Dublin, discuss Ireland’s economic development, the current challenges facing would-be homeowners and renters in Dublin, and the time the biggest concern in the Irish housing market was too much supply.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/ronan-lyons-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

The price of housing in major cities has, over the past few decades, far outpaced the cost of construction. The immediate effects of the housing crunch are generally well-understood: productivity suffers when people aren’t able to live near the jobs they want.But there are other, less-explored effects of the crunch: an increase in obesity (as folks become more sedentary due to longer commutes and a lack of walkable suburbs), a decrease in birth rates (as housing is often the biggest expense for families, making it difficult to realize their ideal family size), climate change, and inequity. Still, there are reasons to be optimistic. Advocates of building more housing are gaining important victories all around the world—but it remains to be seen whether or not these victories will prove to be lasting. For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/housing-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

Thanks to the global supply chain crisis, millions of consumer goods, from computer chips to couches to cell phones are in high demand but short supply. It would be tempting to think that the pandemic is the main culprit for the backup of global trade flows—but COVID merely exposed existing fault lines in our infrastructure. The advent of just-in-time manufacturing and a relentless focus on short-term earnings have left companies with little inventory in case of emergencies, making our supply chains less resilient. Ryan Petersen—CEO of Flexport, which manages global trade and logistics for some of the largest companies in the world—has some thoughts about how we can fix that.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/ryan-petersen-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

Audrey Carleton, environmental journalist for VICE, discusses the potential for lithium extraction at the Salton Sea to catalyze the burgeoning electric vehicle industry, the parallels to the oil and gas industries, and what it all means for the area's residents.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/audrey-carleton-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress

In 1905, Colorado River floodwaters created one of the largest lakes in the United States: the Salton Sea.Now, more than 100 years later, the lake is shrinking, and has become one of the most polluted bodies of water in the US. But the area is also poised to become the largest lithium mine in the country—to be used by GM, Tesla, and Ford to manufacture their electric vehicles. Still, there’s an inherent tension between mining heavy metals—often a dirty, high-pollution process, for environmentally beneficial purposes. In this episode, we explore the future of energy production, how boom and bust cycles affect cities and communities, and the often overlooked environmental considerations that roil the development of green infrastructure.Special thanks to Donna Burns Kennedy, Audrey Carleton, Michael McKibben, and Roy Durantes.For a transcript of this episode, visit press.stripe.com/salton-sea-transcriptFor more on Beneath the Surface, visit press.stripe.com/beneath-the-surfaceFollow Stripe Press on Twitter @stripepress