Made in America

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What people might picture when they think of "Made in America" ... might not look like the "Made in America" we have today.

The U.S. does have a domestic manufacturing industry, including a garment manufacturing industry.

In today's episode: We buy a garment made by factory workers in the U.S. – a basic purple sports bra – and learn how many people it took to make it, how much workers got paid to work on it ... and whether garment manufacturing is a job Americans want, or even know how, to do.

Plus: why domestic garment manufacturing exists at all in the U.S., and whether the industry can grow.

Other episodes:

- What "Made in China" actually means

This episode was reported and hosted by Sarah Gonzalez. It was produced by Willa Rubin with production help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Marianne McCune, and it was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez who also helped with research. It was engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.1	Maria doesn't speak any English.
0:08.4	No,
0:08.7	not a word, she says.
0:10.6	No, no, no, no,
0:11.4	nothing, nothing.
0:13.4	Mm-hmm.
0:14.0	But she does know some, like sizes.
0:17.0	She knows sizes.
0:18.5	Small, mediano, lash, extra lash. She knows label. Small, mediano, lash, extra lash.
0:22.2	She knows label, ticket, all words related to her job.
0:26.8	Manager.
0:27.6	The mister.
0:30.6	Okay, the boss.
0:31.7	You just call him Mr.
0:32.6	Hello, Mrs.
0:33.8	Missis.
0:34.6	The boss is a girl.
0:35.5	It's a Mrs.
0:36.7	Missis.
0:37.1	Misses.
0:37.2	Misses over here, Mrs. over there is a girl. It's a Mrs. Mrs. Missis, Mrs. Mrs.
	...

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