Avery Trufelman

Sarah Gonzalez usually covers economics.

I mean, I don't cover fashion.

She's a reporter and host of the NPR podcast Planet Money.

So Sarah found herself in a pickle that a lot of us might relate to, which is this eternal question.

How do we buy clothing ethically?

Is that even possible?

Not even if those clothes were made in the USA.

Made in the USA is not the bastion of virtue that Sarah imagined it was and that I imagined it was, honestly.

But I had no idea what the garment industry in the United States actually looks like.

But Sarah Gonzalez has pulled back the curtain on the U.S.

garment industry for an episode of Planet Money that I think is one of the best pieces of fashion journalism I have ever heard.

I couldn't not share it with you.

After the break.

After doing that story, it still sticks with Sarah.

To this day, she cannot look at a piece of clothing without imagining all the many hands that touched it.

Take it away with the credit, Sarah.

This episode, I added music by Lella Tone, Sasami Ashworth, and Ray Royal, but... I have not found a perfect, simple white t-shirt.

If you have any tips... Actually, if you want my humble suggestions for simple, relatively ethical, good white t-shirts, go to articlesofinterest.substack.com.

It's not in my nature.

I'm not an outdoorsy guy.