What caused living
standards to dramatically rise in the nineteenth century, after thousands of
years of stagnant poverty? And is the world on track to continue this wealth
explosion, or are we abandoning course in the name of stability? On this
episode, Dr. Stephen Davies joins me to explore these questions.

Stephen Davies is the
Head of Education at the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, and was
previously a program officer at George Mason University’s Institute for Humane
Studies. He has also been a lecturer and a scholar at Manchester Metropolitan
University and at Ohio’s Bowling Green State University, where he taught both
economic history and social philosophy. He is the author of 2003’s Empiricism and History, as well as the
recently released The Wealth Explosion:
The Nature and Origins of Modernity.