Every single one of us needs air, water, food, shelter, and energy. So why are the infrastructure that provides them, the systems we are most reliant on hidden in plain sight?

How can we reconnect with them, appreciate them, rebuild them, reinforce the ones we already have, and build new ones that actually benefit everyone?

Those are today's big questions, and my guest is Deb Chachra.

Deb is a material scientist and professor of engineering at Olin College of Engineering. She has studied bones, and heart valves, and infrastructure. Wired said reading her newsletter, Metafoundry, was like being plugged Oculus-style into her brain while she meditates on science and culture. Deb also writes a recurring column, Reinvention, in the American Society for Engineering Education's PRISM magazine.

Deb's wonderful new book, How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World is out on October 17th in the U.S.

And it couldn't be more timely as the truly incredible infrastructure of the 20th century, and the centuries before that, are coming under threat now from climate change and negligence and the awareness of the inequities behind them.

It's more vital than ever that we develop a personal appreciation and a collective appreciation for how we got here.

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INI Book Club:

• Games: Agency as Art by C.T. Nguyen
• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club

Links:

• Get your copy of How Infrastructure Works
• Follow more of Deb's work here
• Subscribe to Deb's newsletter
• Go deeper and read about how infrastructure will be impacted by climate change

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• Edited by Anthony Luciani
• Produced by Willow Beck
• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com

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