Rivaling even the death toll of COVID-19, opioid abuse has wreaked havoc in countless American communities. Some have suggested that these deaths are the result of an economy that left Americans behind and feeling trapped. In their desperation, they reached to oxycontin and fentanyl to cope with the insecurity of a global economy. But is this the full story? My guest today is Ed Glaeser, whose analysis offers a different account.

Ed is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard University and co-author with David Cutler of "When Innovation Goes Wrong: Technological Regress and the Opioid Epidemic."