They’re called priority technologies. And yes, Artificial Intelligence is one of them, but it’s not the only one. And it seems like almost every day a new US vulnerability in these strategically critical products and commodities is exposed. The Iran War is laying bare the American military’s lack of drone technology and a comprehensive anti-drone strategy. China’s dominance in controlling critical minerals threatens everything from national defense systems to global supply chains to the clean energy transition. American advantages in areas like quantum computing and biotech are under threat too. Meanwhile, the US continues its decades-long trend of bleeding manufacturing jobs. But thank goodness for positive thinkers like MIT Professor Elisabeth Reynolds, who can look into that mess and see a win-win situation. Reynolds is a former Special Assistant to President Joe Biden on manufacturing and economic development as a member of his National Economic Council, and has worked on rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capabilities at the federal and state level, including for three Massachusetts governors. At MIT, she’s been the director of the Institute’s Industrial Performance Center, a co-director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, and edited a new book called “Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity.” She says the U.S. needs to go beyond “reshoring” manufacturing to what she calls “reindustrializing” — creating a new ecosystem connecting the successful U.S. innovation economy to new, advanced domestic manufacturing capabilities. That could both shore up American national security and economic resiliency and create new good jobs of the kind the country sorely needs.
About our Guest:
Elisabeth Reynolds is a professor of the practice focused on systems of innovation, manufacturing and industrial competitiveness, in the context of national and regional economic development. Her recent research and policy work has focused on growing innovative companies to scale, digital technology adoption and industrial decarbonization. Since the fall of 2023, She has co-led, with Professor Simon Johnson of Sloan, the Priority Technologies seminar, which focuses on key areas of interest to U.S. national and economic security at the intersection of technology, innovation and policy. The seminar led to a new book which she edited: “Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity.” Reynolds was Special Assistant to President Biden for Manufacturing and Economic Development at the National Economic Council (NEC, 2021/2022) where she helped lead the Administration's work on national manufacturing strategy, supply chain resilience and industrial strategy. Prior to her work at the White House, she was Principal Research Scientist and executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center (2010-2021), an interdisciplinary research center focused on systems of innovation and industrial transformation. She also co-led, with Professors David Autor and David Mindell, the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future (2018-2021) which examined the relationship between emerging technologies, the nature of work, and U.S. institutions. In 2022, Autor, Mindell and Reynolds published Work of the Future: Building Better Jobs in an Age of Intelligent Machines. She has worked on rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capabilities at the federal and state level, including for three Massachusetts governors. She represents MIT on the board of the Manufacturing USA Institute, Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), is a board member of the Advanced Regenerative Medicine Institute/BioFab USA, and is also an advisor to the Special Competitive Studies Project, a Washington think tank focused on U.S. national security and critical technologies. She holds a B.A. in government from Harvard. She was the Fiske Scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge and holds a Master’s in Economics from the University of Montreal and a Ph.D. from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
“Industrial Decarbonization: Pathways for Productivity and Growth” (white paper)
“Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity.” (book)
Economics for Inclusive Prosperity (EfIP) is a network of academic economists from Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and other leading universities who are committed to an inclusive economy and society. EfIP members are working to transform their field around a new vision of prosperity—a vision that includes traditional economic metrics, but also expanded measures of wellbeing including access to health, to democratic participation, and to a livable planet. They’re also highlighting the important changes in economics that are already underway.
Host Ralph Ranalli is a longtime Harvard podcaster, an entrepreneur, and former journalist. He previously hosted “HKS PolicyCast,” the award-winning flagship podcast of the Harvard Kennedy School. He holds a BA in political science from UCLA and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University.
The Economics for Inclusive Prosperity Podcast is recorded at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The co-directors of Economics for Inclusive Prosperity are Dani Rodrik, Stefanie Stantcheva, Suresh Naidu, Atif Mian, and Ilyana Kuziemko. The show is produced by Ralph Ranalli. The executive producer is Rohan Sandu.
