How Infrastructure Expresses Society’s Values

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KQED

News Commentary, News, Politics

4.2 • 727 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When infrastructure works, it’s a marvel. A soaring bridge. A sewer system that spirits away waste. Underground pipes that bring water, electricity and the internet to wherever we want it.. As engineering professor Debbie Chachra argues in her new book, infrastructure is an expression of our society’s values and our ability to work together. But we often take infrastructure for granted and we aren’t doing enough to care for it and build more of it. She’ll join us to help us pay attention to the things that undergird our world. Guests: Debbie Chachra, author, "How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems that Shape Our World"; professor of engineering, Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:51.4	When we think about infrastructure, if we think about infrastructure,
0:55.0	it's often as the stuff itself, a soaring bridge, a sewer system that spirits away waste,
1:01.0	the electrical grid. But in a new book, Engineering Professor Deb Chatra argues that these hard
1:07.0	systems are actually a manifestation of collective cooperation and of care. By freeing us from
1:13.2	survival tasks, infrastructure makes those who can access it more free. But our infrastructure
1:19.3	can also displace pollution and pain to places we don't see. Our dams and pipes are crumbling
1:25.6	all over this country, too. How do we renew and rebuild for the next century?
1:30.3	That's all coming up next after this news.
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