Odd Lots: How a US City Can Become a Manufacturing Hub (Podcast)

The residents of Allentown are still sore about that Billy Joel song. While it’s true the Pennsylvania city became synonymous with deindustrialization after the US steel industry began its decline in the 1970s, Allentown should be known for more: In the 1950s, for instance, some of the first mass-produced transistors were made in the city, which were the precursor of today’s semiconductors. The city is also a unique logistics and e-commerce hub — it’s a day’s drive from nearly 40 percent of the