Monica L Smith on Life Elsewhere 88.5 WMNF

Today, more than half the world’s population lives in cities, and it’s predicted that by 2030, 60% of the population of China, 87% of Americans, and 92% in the United Kingdom will be city dwellers. Yet urban inhabitation is a relatively new phenomenon in the timeline of human history. The first cities came into being about 6,000 years ago. Yet. The creation of cities was not an inevitability, so why did it happen? Monica L. Smith, professor of anthropology at UCLA, discusses her new, fascinating book.