Podcast of the Week: Rethinking Community’s Importance in Creating Opportunity

Historically, economists have studied economic mobility by focusing on things like housing and job access, while leaving community and intra-personal relationships to the sociologists. Raghuram Rajan And Ashley Putnam are two of the cutting edge thinkers who are blending the sociological and economic literature together to show how our communities may have more to do with where we end up in life than things like access to jobs in the specific place we are from.

When you listen to this Alphachat podcast, think beyond the way communities are defined for what they’re studying and think also in terms of work groups and cultures, or any other organization you are a part of where there is the ability to move up or down some hierarchy. There’s a lot to learn here literally and metaphorically.

As a bonus, Felix Salmon is in the audience with a bell that he rings every time someone uses a piece of jargon, forcing the speaker to define the term. The bell rings often, which is funny, and also really helpful.

The official FT link isn’t up yet, but here it is on Apple:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ft-alphachat/id448302257?i=1000436538837