Urban life has become so ubiquitous around the world that we may take for granted just how much is has shaped and continues to shape our lives from day-to-day travails to the increasingly fraught nature of politics to eroding social cohesion. Fortunately, two experts on urban life and the politics of cities drop by The Caves of Altamira to help us better understand the effects of living around a bunch of people. Hear our guest Dr. Joshua K. Leon make the case that it was perhaps around 3,200 BCE when humanity took a significant wrong turn. Listen to Dr. Jeffrey Carroll struggle to understand our arrival at a place where we have not only built a twenty-lane highway but that said highway is still unable to handle traffic flows. All this and more as we retreat to the caves and explore the modalities and discontents of urban existence.
Link to Lewis Mumford’s classic work on cities that both Josh and Jeff refer to: https://www.amazon.com/Lewis-Mumford-History-Transformations-Prospects/dp/B00HTJW2E2
A City Way to Live: Digging into Humanity’s Urbanization (TCOA 3)