Henry Petroski on The State of American Infrastructure

The Politics Guys

Michael Baranowski

Politics, News

4.5 • 772 Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2017

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike talks with Henry Petroski, a Professor of Civil Engineering and History at Duke University. Dr. Petroski is a prolific scholar and public intellectual - in addition to publishing nineteen books and hundreds of articles in newspapers, magazines, and trade publications, he’s authored over seventy-five academic journal articles. His many books include: The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance, The Evolution of Useful Things, The House with Sixteen Handmade Doors, and The Road Taken: The History and Future of America’s Infrastructure. In this episode, Mike and Dr. Petroski discuss learning from failure, how bad US infrastructure really is, why so many big projects seem take longer and cost more than projected, what a good infrastructure bill would look like, and lots more. Dr. Petroski's Recommendations: American Society of Civil Engineers Smart Brief | http://bit.ly/2iRsDSD US Department of Transportation | http://bit.ly/2iRRc1J American Infrastructure Weekly | http://bit.ly/2iRpfHu Trump Administration Infrastructure Initiative | http://bit.ly/2iPSbzA Dr. Petroski's Duke University Page | http://bit.ly/2iQf7i6 We hope you'll consider checking out the sponsors of today's show: Davinci. Book your meeting space at http://www.davincimeeting.com/TPG and the first hour is on them! SeatGeek. Politics Guys listeners get $20 dollars off their first SeatGeek purchase. Just download the SeatGeek app or go to https://www.seatgeek.com and enter promo code POLITICSGUY Listener support helps make The Politics Guys possible. If you’re interested in supporting the show, go to http://www.politicsguys.com and click on the Patreon link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-politics-guys/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to the politics guys. I'm Michael Baranowski, a political scientist at Northern Kentucky University.
0:29.7	My guest today is Henry Petroski, a professor of civil engineering and history at Duke University.
0:33.4	Dr. Petrosky is a prolific scholar and public intellectual. In addition to publishing 19 books and hundreds of articles and newspapers, magazines, and
0:38.9	trade publications, he's authored over 75 academic journal articles. His many books include
0:45.3	The Pencil, A History of Design and Circumstance, the Evolution of Useful Things,
0:50.3	the House with 16 handmade doors, and The Road Tak taken, the history and future of America's
0:55.7	infrastructure.
0:56.9	Dr. Petrusky, welcome to the show.
1:00.0	Well, thank you.
1:01.0	I'm glad to be with you.
1:02.3	Now, I just thought I'd start by asking you how you got interested in design as an area
1:07.5	study in the first place.
1:08.8	What drew you to the field?
1:12.5	Well, that's an interesting question. Like a lot of young engineering academics, design was
1:19.7	almost a bad word. You know, we were interested in theory, not in design.
1:34.1	So my graduate study involved a lot of mathematics and theoretical mechanics.
1:45.0	But then I found myself in a position a few years after getting my PhD, where I was teaching engineering. I was registered as a professional engineer.
1:50.0	I had a title of professor of engineering.
1:55.0	And when my neighbors, my lay people living in the neighborhood, would ask me questions about engineering,
2:04.8	some which basically boiled down to, you know, why is it, can't you engineers do things right the first time?
2:13.4	I began to think about engineering, and that's when I decided I wanted to write a book
2:18.2	that would be accessible to the non-engineer as well as to engineers.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Baranowski, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Baranowski and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.