The Hidden Cause of the Industrial Revolution (with Ben Southwood)

Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem, and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to econalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econalk.org. We'd love to hear from you. Today is July first, twenty twenty six, and my guest is Ben Southwood. Ben is a founding editor of Works in Progress and has been head of research at Create Streets and head of housing and policy exchange. Our topic for today is a recent essay you wrote for the Works in Progress newsletter.

Which I saw on Substack, which um which I recommend your site. And you also have a a print edition in the newsletter was your essay was called Secret cause of the industrial revolution. Cue the exciting music. Um Ben welcome to con talk.

Thanks for having me on. Before we get to your essay, uh tell listeners what Works in Progress is. A few of my friends and I decided in twenty twenty when I didn't have any children, so I had a lot more time. And I had a lot more time because I was stuck in my house. We decided

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