Accessibility links
Patent Racism : Planet Money Violence, including racist attacks, stifles innovation and the economy. Dr. Lisa Cook proved how. It took 10 years to be heard. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money

Patent Racism

Patent Racism

Listen · 25:50
  • Download
  • <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/876097416/881867318" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player">
  • Transcript
Enlarge this image

In the lab with George Washington Carver, a prominent soil scientist and inventor of the early 20th Century Bettmann/Bettmann Archive hide caption

toggle caption
Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

In the lab with George Washington Carver, a prominent soil scientist and inventor of the early 20th Century

Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Dr. Lisa Cook found a blindspot in a big theory on innovation: the idea that if we just make strong patent laws, innovation will come. True for some, not true for others.

Her research has huge implications for Black Americans — and for the wealth of entire countries. But convincing her colleagues took a lot more than data.

Music: "Cold Heart" and "Seismic Encounter."

Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and NPR One.

For weekly economic insights, subscribe to our Newsletter

Correction June 22, 2020

A previous version of this story cited the wrong economist calling Dr. Cook's work an original idea that should be published. It was Milton Friedman, not Martin Feldstein.