From pottery to space: The value of recreating the wheel : The Indicator from Planet Money "Don't reinvent the wheel" is a common phrase, but structural engineer Roma Agrawal doesn't buy it.

Roma has a new book out, Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way). And in it, she argues that the re-interpretation of the wheel has been critical to modernizing the economy from a pottery wheel in ancient Mesopotamia to the gyroscope on the International Space Station.

Today, how this constant reinvention fuels economic progress.

Related Episodes:
What nails can tell us about the economy

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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The wheel's many reinventions

The wheel's many reinventions

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Indian potter Darga Ashok throws a traditional earthenware pot in Hyderabad NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images

Indian potter Darga Ashok throws a traditional earthenware pot in Hyderabad

NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images

"Don't reinvent the wheel" is a common phrase, but structural engineer Roma Agrawal doesn't buy it.

Roma has a new book out, Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way). And in it, she argues that the re-interpretation of the wheel has been critical to modernizing the economy from a pottery wheel in ancient Mesopotamia to the gyroscope on the International Space Station.

Today, how this constant reinvention fuels economic progress.

Related Episode:

What nails can tell us about the economy

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.