Scott Barrett of Johns Hopkins University talks to Romesh Vaitilingam about his research programme on disease eradication and other global public goods. He discusses the enormous benefits from the eradication of smallpox in 1977 and the constraints on current efforts to eradicate polio; as well as the economics of global public goods more generally, including protecting the Earth from asteroids and climate change. The interview was recorded at the American Economic Association meetings in New Orleans in January 2008.