# Brian Potter - How to Fix America's Building Problem

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/infinite-loops-259760/brian-potter-how-to-fix-america-s-building-problem
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/infinite-loops-259760/brian-potter-how-to-fix-america-s-building-problem.md
Podcast: [Infinite Loops](https://stenobird.com/podcast/infinite-loops-259760)
Published: 2026-04-23T12:15:00+00:00
Episode link: https://infiniteloopspodcast.com/311
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/infiniteloops/OSV_POTTER_Episode_AUDIO.mp3?dest-id=1666472
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/infinite-loops-259760/episodes/brian-potter-how-to-fix-america-s-building-problem
Duration seconds: 4380

## Resource

Why has America become so bad at building housing, infrastructure, and major projects? Brian Potter, author of The Origins of Efficiency and writer of Construction Physics, explains why prefab housing keeps failing and why there are no easy fixes to America's building problem. We discuss Katerra, California's anti-growth turn, and the deeper logic behind local opposition to growth: concentrated harms and diffuse benefits. Important Links: Read Brian's newsletter Construction Physics here: https://www.construction-physics.com/ Read Brian's book The Origins of Efficiency here: https://press.stripe.com/origins-of-efficiency Learn more about Brian here: https://ifp.org/author/brian-potter

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## Transcript

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