# Innovation Isn’t Guaranteed **URL:** **By** Trevor Burrus, Aaron Ross Powell, Matt Ridley, Paul Matzko **Published:** April 16, 2020 --- What do cowpox pus, the radio, and coffee have in common? More than you might think. Matt Ridley joins the show today to talk about his new book, _How Innovation Works_. He argues that innovation is the defining feature of the modern age, but it is still very hard for us as a society to wrap our heads around that fact. Ridley argues that we need to see innovation as an incremental, bottom-up, fortuitous process that happens to society as a direct result of the human habit of exchange. How has innovation transformed public health? What is the difference between an invention and an innovation? Is innovation slowing down? ## Further Reading: [How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom](https://www.amazon.com/How-Innovation-Works-Flourishes-Freedom/dp/0062916599), written by Matt Ridley [Permissionless Innovation](https://permissionlessinnovation.org/book/), written by Adam Thierer [The Economic Consequences of the Virus?](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/the-economic-consequences-of-the-virus.html), written by Alex Tabarrok ## Related Content: [On Innovation: Don’t Ask for Permission](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/building-tomorrow/on-innovation-dont-ask-for-permission), Building Tomorrow Podcast [Innovation and Creative Destruction (With Arthur Diamond)](https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/free-thoughts/innovation-and-creative-destruction), Free Thoughts Podcast [Rational Optimism about Planet Earth](https://www.libertarianism.org/videos/rational-optimism-about-planet-earth-matt-ridley), featuring Matt Ridley [Visions of Liberty](https://www.libertarianism.org/books/visions-liberty), edited by Aaron Ross Powell \& Paul Matzko