In this week\u2019s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Isaac Opper, an economist at the Rand Corporation and professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School, about how natural disasters can affect education outcomes for students and the resulting stock of skills in the US labor force. Opper discusses the relationship between education and skills in the US labor force, which is known as human capital; how natural disasters can disrupt education for students; and how school administrators and policymakers could mitigate learning losses that result from natural disasters.\n\nReferences and recommendations:\n\n\u201cThe effect of natural disasters on human capital in the United States\u201d by Isaac M. Opper, R. Jisung Park, and Lucas Husted; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01610-z\n\n\u201cThe Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt\u2019s New World\u201d by Andrea Wulf; https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780345806291