Matt Ridley, Part 1: Freedom, Innovation, and Human Progress

Why has extreme poverty fallen from half of the world’s population to under ten percent within a single lifetime, even as the dominant narrative remains one of doom and gloom?

British biologist and author Matt Ridley, best known for The Rational Optimist and a recipient of the Julian Simon Award, joins host Dennis McCuistion for part one of a three-part conversation recorded during Adam Smith Week at the College of Charleston.

Ridley revisits the famous wager between economist Julian Simon and biologist Paul Ehrlich over resource scarcity, a decade-long bet based on the price of five metals. He also explores how Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, published 250 years ago this year, helped lay the foundation for understanding freedom and exchange as powerful engines of prosperity.

The conversation also looks at how exchange drives innovation itself. Ridley compares the way ideas combine and recombine to the mechanics of evolution, connecting economic freedom, human creativity, and technological progress while setting the stage for a broader discussion about the forces behind human advancement.