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St. Paul, Minn.

Aspen Ideas Festival: How the sharing economy is redefining community

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Kitchen in one of the Penfield apartments
The kitchen in a second floor, one bedroom, one bathroom apartment in the new Penfield Apartments in downtown St. Paul.
Tim Nelson / MPR News

Brian Chesky is the co-founder and CEO of Airbnb and he thinks more people can participate in the economy and become micro-entrepeneurs, if we rebuild our sense of trust and become less cynical and isolated.

Chesky believes the more the world lives with each other, the more the world understands each other.

And beyond housing, Chesky thinks the "sharing economy" can completely redesign the world we live in — transportation, education, home repairs, food and more.

Jennifer Bradley, co-author of "The Metropolitan Revolution," interviewed industrial designer Brian Chesky before a packed house at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Chesky started out by telling the audience that when he and his roommate couldn't make the rent, they put out some air beds and turned their house into a "B and B" for people attending a design conference in San Francisco.