Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain

Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain

From Planet Money by NPR

March 26, 2026 · 47 min

About this episode

This episode explores the complexities of book production and the global supply chain involved in publishing.

When you come across a book at a yard sale or a bookstore, you might pay more attention to the words between the covers than the physical form of the book itself. But content and the form are both crucial to a book’s success. Each book you pull off the shelf, is the product of thousands of decisions, big and small, tying together vast supply chains and armies of workers from around the world. On today’s episode, the second episode in our series : Planet Money sets out to actually write, design, and manufacture a book. We go spelunking deep inside the bowels of the publishing industrial complex. There will be trade wars, sunken cargo containers filled with lost cookbooks, deforestation regulations, and just a whiff of scratch and sniff. Related: - Watch our book being printed: TikTok , Instagram , Spotify - Episode 1: Inside a BOOK auction - Episode 3: BOOKstore Economics - The laws of the office revisited - Series: Planet Money makes a book Live event info and tickets here. Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift . / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts , Spotify , the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly…

People in this episode

Host: Alex Goldmark

Topics covered

  • publishing industry
  • supply chain
  • book production
  • trade wars
  • environmental regulations
  • economic impact

Keywords

  • book production
  • supply chain
  • publishing
  • trade wars
  • environmental regulations
  • yard sale
  • cookbooks
  • deforestation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NPR

Books & works: Planet Money

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