Pop Trends Price Culture Robert Folsom

Jane Jacobs saw a solution when nobody else even saw a problem. The problem she saw was, planners and architects and master builders of her day held fatally flawed assumptions about human behavior -- that the way people in cities live is perfectly rational and efficient and chaos-free. And that is why their urban renewal projects were destructive. Their model was all wrong. Does this sound familiar?
It should for anyone who took economics 101...

One of the greatest and most influential "David vs. Goliath" stories in 20th century America is all but unknown these days. An obscure, apparently ill-equipped female went up against the man who may be history's most prolific developer. This is episode one of a two-episode story about their decade-long battle.

We are watching the past become the present right before our eyes. It may not LOOK that way, but make no mistake: It's happening. Pop Trends, Price Culture shows three ways Donald Trump is upholding presidential tradition, abnormally.

What was the most successful medical program in human history? Here's a hint: It began with a counterintuitive, non-linear solution. Yet, social mood at present suggests that counterintuitive thinking is short supply, in helping to solve a current, huge health crisis.

This past week in the news has been like 40 gallons of crazy compressed into a 20-gallon tank. It's too much to keep up with. It's like you want to slap the next person who says "I've never seen this before," except … you keep hearing yourself say that. Consider the role of social mood, and the idea that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

The public loves portrayals of vigilante justice. Memorable vigilantes are sometimes a ‘good guy,’ other times they are … something else. Why? Where did those characters come from? Are there ever ‘good guy’ vigilantes in the real world? These great questions get great answers in this episode of Pop Trends, Prices Culture.