Virginia Postrel is a California-based journalist who has written four books, including her most recent one, The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made The World, (which I highly recommend.) In this episode, Virginia talks about why the history of fabric and civilization is a “story of innovation,” the mechanized Italian silk mills that predated the Industrial Revolution by two centuries, cotton’s history and dominance in today’s clothing, advances in synthetic fabrics, and the tragic life of Wallace Carothers, the almost-unknown inventor of nylon. (Recorded September 23, 2022.)