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GUEST: Mike Davis, Professor of History at the University of California at Irvine

According to the United Nations, more than one billion people live in slums in the cities of the Global south. Instead of the so-called Cities of Light as once imagined by urban futurists, much of the 21st century urban world sits in squalor, surrounded by pollution, excrement, and decay. In October 2003, the United Nations Human Settlements Program published a report called The Challenge of Slums. According to this report, the world’s highest percentages of slum dwellers are in Ethiopia and Chad at 99.4%, followed by Afghanistan at 98.5%. The fastest growing slums are in the former Soviet republics, while the largest slums are largely in Latin American cities like Mexico City, Caracas, Bogota, and Lima. Prolific author and urban analyst Mike Davis, has a new book out, Planet of Slums, in which he explores the increasing problem of slums and some of the underlying reasons why slums are so prevalent and growing. Mike Davis has written many books including “Prisoners of the American Dream,” “City of Quartz,” “Ecology of Fear,” “Magical Urbanism,” “Late Victorian Holocausts,” “Dead Cities,” and “Monster at our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu,” which we had covered last year. Today we air part 1 of our interview.

Click here for more information on the book.