Caleb Watney (@calebwatney), Director of Innovation Policy at Progressive Policy Institute, joins Erik to discuss:

• How views have changed on whether we are in a great stagnation, and what someone from the 1970s who was brought to 2021 would think about the technological changes in the interim.

• Whether a technological slowdown is inevitable or a choice that a society makes.

• The fact that COVID drastically accelerated adoption of technology that was already in existence.

• Caleb’s view that there has been a slowdown in both the pace of scientific discoveries as well as the commercialization of those discoveries.

• The decline of the industrial research lab and the fact that there is more competition in technology today.

• Whether certain institutions need to be “retired” after a certain period of time.

• The incentives that distort immigration policy and the possibility of turning immigration officers into “talent scouts.”

• Why fertility rates are falling and how to allow people to have the number of kids that they say they want to have.

• The power of agglomeration clusters and what portion of work will revert back to in-person once the pandemic ends.