In an age that encourages everything organic, fairly traded, and USA-made, it’s easy to overlook the less-celebrated (and often significantly more common) goods we use on a daily basis. Take the shirt on your back, for example — because NPR certainly did.
The new Planet Money instalment, commissioned by NPR, looks at the entire, remarkable process behind our decidedly unremarkable t-shirts, the likes of which we’ll often collect by the dozens without a second thought. In dividing the work into five sections (Cotton, Machines, People, Boxes, and You) nearly every aspect and issue is covered from the science behind the seed to the struggle for fair wages and safe working conditions.
The first video in the series is above, but you can check out the rest along with accompanying reading materials over at NPR. Trust us, it’s worth the trip. [NPR via Digg]