As the nation tuned into this year’s State of the Union address, a special few Americans were invited to join First Lady Jill Biden in the audience. Second-generation steelworker and U.S. Army veteran Joseph “JoJo” Burgess was among those honored guests. But this wasn’t Burgess’s first time meeting President Biden.

Official White House Photo by Erin Scott

More than 5 million jobs were lost over the past two decades due to the impacts of globalization, and workers of color were hit the hardest, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). National Economic Association President Valerie Wilson, an author of the EPI report, joins the podcast to share how smart policy can increase valuable manufacturing jobs for all workers. And, United Steelworkers Local 9462 President Kameen Thompson offers how his factory job has contributed to his success.

Photo courtesy of Kameen Thompson

Ben Napier, who stars in HGTV's "Home Town" alongside his wife Erin, dreamed of opening his own factory since childhood. Now he’s opened a factory to make butcher blocks, creating the family-supporting manufacturing jobs that he hopes will be his legacy. Listen in for Ben’s plan for the Scotsman Manufacturing Company factory — and how the 1995 movie “Tommy Boy” inspired it.

Check out our past interviews with Ben: https://soundcloud.com/keep-it-made-in-america/hgtvs-ben-napier-shares-the-view-from-americas-favorite-small-town; soundcloud.com/keep-it-made-in-america/why-the-stars-of-hgtvs-home-town-keep-it-made-in-america

Photo courtesy of Scotsman Manufacturing Company

Bringing transparency to federal purchasing and an innovative approach to expanding the federal government’s reliance on domestic supply chains, the Made in America Office (MIAO) has been hard at work since its creation via President Biden's executive order one year ago. Celeste Drake, the office’s first director, joins the podcast to share what the MIAO has accomplished so far and the project that’s consuming most of her office’s time right now.

Photo courtesy of the Made in America Office

Amid a growing global outcry against rampant human rights abuses, China is set to host the Winter 2022 Olympics. In this episode, the Human Rights Watch’s Director of Global Initiatives, Minky Worden, explains why the International Olympics Committee and the Olympics corporate sponsors must prove that its supply chains are free of forced labor.

Photo by llee_wu via Flickr

Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Senior Vice President for Government Affairs and Policy Scott Boos, AAM Senior Vice President for Communications Elizabeth Brotherton-Bunch, host Scott Paul examine the top manufacturing news stories of 2021 and analyze what lies on the horizon of 2022.

Photo courtesy Kevin Dooley via Flickr

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach reflects on the 20th anniversary of China's entry into the World Trade Organization(WTO). Since its initiation into the trading system, hopes for the country's liberalization have not come to fruition, and America's working class has been hollowed out. In this episode, Wallach and Scott Paul discuss how the United States can mitigate the damage.

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Under President Biden’s Build Back Better plan, billions of federal dollars have been poured into clean energy deployment in the United States, with more possibly on the way. But achieving our climate goals depends on establishing a clean energy supply chain here at home. Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Mike Williams shares why building a robust clean energy supply chain in the U.S. matters so much.

Photo via Wikimedia Creative Commons by Z22

Made in America Store Owner and Founder Mark Andol rejoins the podcast to share why buying Made in America is the key to getting on the nice list this year. Listen in for the remarkable story behind the founding of the Made in America Store and why dreaded supply chain disruptions aren't keeping Andol up at night.

Photo courtesy of the Made in America Store

In her new book, "American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears", Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Farah Stockman follows the lives of workers left in the aftermath of an Indiana factory closure in 2017. Where are these workers now? What lessons can we learn from their stories?

Photo courtesy of Penguin Random House