#61 Malcom McLean: The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger

On April twenty-sixth, nineteen fifty-six, a crane lifted fifty-eight aluminum truck bod an aging tanker ship. More in Newark, New Jersey. Five days later. The ideal X Sailed into Houston.

Where fifty eight trucks waited to take on the metal boxes and haul them to their destinations. Such was the beginning of a revolution. Decades later, when enormous trailer trucks rule the highways, and trains hauling nothing but stacks of boxes rumble through the night. It is hard to fathom the Just how much the container has changed the world.

In nineteen fifty six, China was not the world's workshop. It was not routine for shoppers to find Brazilian shoes and Mexican vacuum cleaners in stores in the middle of Kansas. Japanese families did not eat beef from cattle raised in Wyoming. And French clothing designers did not have their exclusive apparel cut and sewn in Turkey or Vietnam. Before the container.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript, segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.