The 2025 World Expo opened in Osaka in April with a $66 billion price tag, featuring pavilions from 158 countries. The event isn't generating the same buzz as the first world's fair held in the Japanese city in 1970, which featured a bold, futuristic theme and lots of wild architecture. And to many, these international spectacles are viewed as relics of the past.

But historian Charles Pappas argues that world’s fairs are still worth having in an ever-more-fractious world. In a conversation with contributor Mark Byrnes, he discusses his new book Nobody Sits Like The French, which makes his case by tracing how the historic fairs of Paris (the city hosted seven since 1855) helped shape the infrastructure that transformed life in the French capital. They also discuss how the current expo stacks up to its more recent predecessors, many of which have been held in non-Western cities. Today on CityLab: Do World’s Fairs Still Matter?

— Rthvika Suvarna 

More on CityLab

Shuttered NY College Has Alumni Fighting Over Its Future
Two competing groups of alumni have launched bids to buy back their shuttered college.

From the Archive: World’s Fairs and the Death of Optimism
The innocence one might think World’s Fairs have lost in recent years depends on how much one believes they had to begin with.

Over 200 Dead After London-Bound Boeing Jet Crashes in India
The crash took place in a residential neighborhood, and the death toll may yet increase as emergency crews comb through the wreckage. 

• With World Cup looming, these scientists are trying to create the perfect grass (NBC News)

• The real reason Trump is suddenly ordering immigration raids (Vox)

• In Seattle, preserving trees while increasing housing supply is a climate solution (NPR) 

• An Indigenous nation in Canada hails historic constitution: ‘We’re now the architects of certainty for ourselves’ (Guardian) 

• Tourists on the tram? Roosevelt islanders are fed up (New York Times)

• Economics Daily for what the changing landscape means for policymakers, investors and you
• Green Daily for the latest in climate news, zero-emission tech and green finance
• Hyperdrive for expert insight into the future of cars
• Design Edition for CityLab’s newsletter on design and architecture — and the people who make buildings happen
• Working Capital for making sense of the evolving workplace

Explore all Bloomberg newsletters.