This episode is sponsored by ErisX, The Stellar Development Foundation and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Investment Fund.Twenty-one different people can reasonably claim to have invented the light bulb, but Thomas Edison is the one we know about. Was it just good PR? According to Matt Ridley, it was because Edison was the progenitor of an “innovation factory” that didn’t just create things but brought them to market in a way no one else did. Innovation is one of the most important forces in the economy, and arguably the most important driver of human prosperity over the last century. Yet, for most of its life, it has been viewed as some strange exogenous force, rather than as a discipline that could be understood. In this conversation with NLW and Ridley discuss:Why it took so long for economists to take the study of innovation seriouslyWhy invention is different from innovationWhy innovation has tended to concentrate in geographically proximate areasWhy free societies produce more innovation than closed societies (including empires)Why China’s innovation production over the last decade may be an exception that proves the rule of innovation thriving in freedomWhy government winner picking is a terrible way to inspire innovationWhy innovation policy led Matt to support BrexitThe rational, optimistic take on the futureSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.