The Unseen Work: Stewart Brand on Maintenance and Civilization
4/6/20261 hr 27 min
What does a lone sailor circling the globe have to do with the fall of empires, the Model T, and the rise of AI? Everything--because maintenance, the quiet act of keeping things going, turns out to be the hidden force behind success and failure in nearly every domain of human endeavor. EconTalk's Russ Roberts speaks with Stewart Brand --creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, founder of the Long Now Foundation, and one of the great connective thinkers of the last half-century--to explore why some people and civilizations thrive while others collapse. From the 1968 Golden Globe Race, where three sailors' radically different attitudes toward maintenance determined their fates, to the M-16's deadly design flaws in Vietnam, to the cultural reasons Israel excels at crisis response but struggles with prevention, Brand ranges across history, warfare, technology, and philosophy. Along the way, they discuss John Deere's war against its own farmers, the Model T as democratic revolution, and what AI might mean for human vigilance and connection. A wide-ranging, endlessly surprising conversation about the unglamorous work that holds everything together.
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First 90 secondsRuss Roberts· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome to EconTalk conversations for the curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty. I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode, and find links and other information related to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done going back to two thousand and six. Our email address is mail@econtalk.org. We'd love to hear from you. [upbeat music] Today is February twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-six, and my guest is Stewart Brand. He was the co-founder and editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded The Well, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation. His latest book, and the subject of today's conversation, is Maintenance of Everything, Part One. Stewart, welcome to EconTalk.
Stewart Brand· Guest0:57
Well, thank you. Nice to be here.
Russ Roberts· Host1:00
Now, I have to confess, I loved your book. It's, um, it's incredibly wide-ranging and fascinating. It's-- every page has something interesting on it. But the subject matter of maintenance is something I have to confess, I have little in my life. Uh, I live in Jerusalem. Uh, we don't own a car, which used to be a part of my American maintenance life.
Stewart Brand· Guest1:21
Right.
Russ Roberts· Host1:21
I brush my, I brush my teeth in the morning and in the evening, and I recently started going to the gym, and I work out three times a week,