Narrator: What if the story we’ve been told about globalization is wrong? For decades, the narrative was simple: manufacturing jobs were leaving the West for the low-cost labor of emerging markets, and they were never coming back. But in 2012, a surprising conversation in Taiwan hinted at a different reality. Antoine van Agtmael, an investor who had famously coined the term "emerging markets," was meeting with the CFO of Mediatek, a giant in chipset design. When asked about his biggest competitive threat, the CFO didn't point to a rival in China or Korea. He pointed to America. He spoke of the US company Qualcomm, saying, "Their R&D is so advanced, so far ahead of ours. They can easily squeeze us."

This was a startling admission. It suggested that after years on the defensive, the developed world was regaining a powerful competitive edge, one not based on cheap labor, but on something far more valuable. This conversation sparked a journey that became the book The Smartest Places on Earth: Why Rustbelts Are Becoming the Innovation Hotspots of the 21st Century. Authors Antoine van Agtmael and Fred Bakker reveal a quiet revolution, arguing that the forgotten industrial heartlands of America and Europe are transforming into vibrant "brainbelts," the new epicenters of global innovation.

Narrator: The book’s central argument is that the global economic game has fundamentally changed. For years, the winning strategy was to find the cheapest place to make things. But that advantage is fading. The new key to competitiveness is not cheap labor, but smart innovation. This shift is driven by two powerful forces: "smart manufacturing" and "brainsharing."

Smart manufacturing isn't just about robots on an assembly line. It’s the deep integration of research and development with advanced technologies like 3D printing, data analytics, and the Internet of Things. It’s about creating highly complex, customized, and high-quality products that can’t be easily replicated in a low-skill factory.

This kind of advanced work is too complex and expensive for any single company to tackle alone. This is where brainsharing comes in. The old model of a lone genius in a lab is obsolete. Instead, innovation now happens in collaborative ecosystems where universities, large corporations, nimble startups, and government agencies work together, sharing knowledge, risk, and resources. This "sharing of brainpower" creates a powerful, localized advantage that is difficult to outsource. The story is no longer about making things cheaper; it's about making them smarter, and that requires a community of minds working in close proximity.

Narrator: Brainbelts don't just appear out of nowhere. They are often sparked by visionary leaders the authors call "connectors." These are individuals who build bridges between different worlds, persuading skeptical institutions to break out of their silos and collaborate.

A powerful example is the story of Alain Kaloyeros and the creation of the NanoTech Complex in Albany, New York. In the late 1980s, New York’s rustbelt was in decline. Kaloyeros, a physicist, was recruited to build a world-class research center. He envisioned a radical new model: an incubator where researchers from competing giants like IBM, Intel, and Samsung would work side-by-side with university faculty and students. He argued that by pooling their resources to solve pre-competitive problems, like developing the next generation of 450-millimeter silicon wafers, everyone would win.

It was a tough sell. Companies were used to guarding their secrets. But Kaloyeros was relentless. He secured state funding and built a massive, state-of-the-art physical campus that acted as a neutral ground and a powerful magnet for talent and investment. The NanoTech Complex became a thriving hub, transforming a struggling region into a global leader in semiconductor research. Kaloyeros’s role as a connector demonstrates that building a brainbelt requires a catalyst who can forge trust and create a physical space where collaboration can flourish.

Narrator: Many of the most successful brainbelts are not built on empty ground, but on the foundations of their industrial past. They leverage the legacy of knowledge, skills, and infrastructure left behind by declining industries. The city of Akron, Ohio, provides a perfect case study.

For most of the 20th century, Akron was the "Tire Capital of the World," home to giants like Goodyear and Firestone. When those companies moved production overseas, the city was devastated. But Akron didn't die; it reinvented itself. The region still had a deep, multigenerational expertise in one thing: polymers, the science behind rubber.

Luis Proenza, the president of the University of Akron, saw this legacy not as a relic of the past, but as a seed for the future. He championed what he called the "Akron Model," transforming the university into an engine for economic growth. He opened up the university's research, actively partnering with local companies to develop new polymer-based materials for everything from medical devices to advanced coatings. The university became a connector, fostering a new ecosystem of over 1,000 startups. Today, Akron is a global leader in polymer science, with more people employed in the industry than the big tire companies had at their peak. Akron’s story shows that a region's past can be its greatest asset in building an innovative future.

Narrator: The cultural shift from closed, secretive R&D to open, collaborative innovation is a critical ingredient for a brainbelt. No story illustrates this better than that of Philips in Eindhoven, Netherlands. For nearly a century, Eindhoven was a classic company town, dominated by the electronics giant Philips. Its legendary research lab, the NatLab, was a fortress of innovation, producing inventions like the cassette tape and the compact disc behind closed doors.

But by the 1990s, Philips was in crisis, and it began drastically cutting its local workforce. Facing economic collapse, the city and the company made a radical decision. Under CEO Gerard Kleisterlee, Philips transformed its once-secretive NatLab into the High Tech Campus Eindhoven, an open campus where anyone could rent space. They invited startups, competitors, and university researchers to work alongside Philips engineers.

This move from a closed fortress to an open ecosystem was transformative. The campus became a magnet for talent, with over 10,000 R&D professionals from more than 100 companies collaborating on new technologies. This culture of "open innovation" turned Eindhoven from a dying company town into a dynamic tech hub, which was named the "most intelligent region in the world" in 2011. It proves that in the modern economy, sharing knowledge is more powerful than hoarding it.

Narrator: The rise of brainbelts is not just a fascinating economic trend; it offers a practical blueprint for other regions hoping to revitalize their economies. However, this new model of manufacturing requires a new kind of worker and a new approach to education. The book highlights a critical challenge: the skills gap.

In the Hudson Tech Valley, the chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries faced this problem head-on. They were building a multi-billion dollar plant but found that new hires, even those with degrees, often lacked the practical skills needed to work in an advanced manufacturing environment. After a costly shutdown caused by an employee who didn't know how to operate a basic air system, the company knew it had to act.

Instead of just complaining about the workforce, GlobalFoundries partnered with a local community college to create TEC-SMART, a dedicated training center. The program provides a seven-week intensive course for new hires and a two-year degree for students, teaching the specific skills needed for semiconductor manufacturing. This work-study model, inspired by the German system, ensures that students graduate with both theoretical knowledge and practical, in-demand skills. This story shows that awakening these "sleeping beauty" regions requires more than just investment; it demands a fundamental rethinking of education to align it with the real-world needs of smart manufacturing.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from The Smartest Places on Earth is that the geography of innovation is shifting. The future of economic prosperity in the developed world will not be found by trying to compete on cost, but by fostering deep, collaborative ecosystems that connect universities, industries, and governments. The path forward lies in the forgotten industrial towns that are reinventing themselves by leveraging their unique legacies and embracing a culture of shared intelligence.

The book leaves us with a profound challenge to our conventional thinking. We are often mesmerized by the disruptive "lonely hero" innovators of Silicon Valley, but this book reveals a different, quieter, and perhaps more sustainable model of progress. It is a story of communal revival, not individual genius. It asks us to look past the headlines of decline and see the seeds of renewal in our own backyards, prompting the question: where are the sleeping beauties in our communities, and what will it take to awaken them?