Zócalo Public Square

Roads bind our world. The dense patchwork of an urban grid, looping and soaring city highways, long and straight country trails and narrow, curving mountain passes connect people everywhere with goods, knowledge, disease, and each other. Roads define the way we speak — our careers run in the fast lane; our integrity takes us on the high road; our fates follow paths less traveled — and underpin our stories. What tales do roads tell? Ted Conover, author of The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, visited Zócalo after traveling through Peru, India, China, Africa, and the Middle East to explain how roads shape our cultures and our lives.