Technology

Containers

by Fusion

Share this ranking Is this your show? Claim it

Listen on Apple Podcasts Pocket Casts RSS feed

Chart positions today · Philippines

Not on the Philippines charts we track today.

If you like Containers, try…

Know No Coast Sailors

Also in Technology

Stories for Robots

Also in Technology

Researcher's Guide to Physical AI

Also in Technology

Wrenches n Robots

Also in Technology

Against the Stream

Also in Technology

Predictive History, Professor Jiang, No Ads

Also in Technology

Latest episodes

Episode 8: Robots, Piers Full of Robots

April 19, 2017 · 31 min

In the conclusion of this series, we peer into the future of human-robot combinations on the waterfront and in the rest of the supply chain. We’ll hear about the strange future of cyborg trucking and meet the friendly little helper bots in…
Episode 7: The Lost Docks

April 12, 2017 · 40 min

It’s 1979 and containerization is sweeping through the San Francisco waterfront, leaving the old docks in ruins. As global trade explodes, a group of longshoremen band together to try to preserve the culture of work that they knew. They…
Episode 6: And They Won, They Won Big

April 5, 2017 · 31 min

It started with a puzzle: why were people in West Oakland dying 12-15 years earlier than their counterparts in the wealthier hills? The people in the flatlands were dying of the same things as the people in the hills, just much younger…
Episode 5: The America-First Ships

March 28, 2017 · 28 min

American companies pioneered container shipping, but now the ocean freight business is dominated by foreign firms. Thanks to the Jones Act, a 1920 law, all cargo between American ports must be carried on American-made ships, so we do still…
Episode 4: The Hidden Side of Coffee

March 21, 2017 · 35 min

The coffee world has changed since Starbucks rose to prominence. Not only has the sourcing of beans acquired wine-like precision, but now there are many small, local roasters. How'd this all happen? Episode 4 brings you into the…

Show 4 more episodesShow fewer episodes

Episode 3: The Ships, The Tugs, and the Port

March 14, 2017 · 31 min

You know you’ve always wanted to ride in a tugboat as it pushes around a huge cargo ship, right? Well, that’s what we do in Episode 3. We go inside working life on the San Francisco Bay to see how brutal competition among shipping…
Episode 2: Meet the Sailors

March 7, 2017 · 27 min

What is life like as a modern sailor, a tiny person on a huge ship in a vast ocean? Here is your answer. Episode 2 brings you a rare look into the lives of two Filipino sailors, fresh off a trip across the Pacific Ocean. These are regular…
Episode 1: Welcome to Global Capitalism

February 28, 2017 · 41 min

Alexis Madrigal brings you the gripping story of how a new way of shipping stuff across the ocean fed the Vietnam War, destroyed America's great port cities, and created global trade as we know it…
Introducing Containers

February 24, 2017 · 4 min

Containers provides an illuminating, deep, and weird look at how capitalism works now. It's about huge ships and global trade and the work people do to bring you the stuff you buy from all over the world…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Containers is an 8-part audio documentary about how global trade has transformed the economy and ourselves. Host and correspondent Alexis Madrigal leads you through the world of ships and sailors, technology and tugboats, warehouses and cranes. At a time when Donald Trump is threatening to toss out the global economic order, Containers provides an illuminating, deep, and weird look at how capitalism actually works now.