Podcast Of The Week: Toilet Paper Shortages! 3 Fascinating Podcasts About Supply Chains

I’ve got a fascination with supply chains and how stuff actually gets made. Here are three entry points to help think through how COVID-19 is messing with how the world makes stuff (and therefore how we all buy stuff!) at three different levels. We’ll start with novice, move to tell-me-more, and end on excited-nerd level.

1. “Why you still can’t find toilet paper,” on The Journal Podcast. Here’s a look at the way toilet paper gets to your home and office, some insights into the incredible machines that are used, why “the good stuff” has seen production increased but not yet to satisfy consumer demands, and a look into what it’s like for the workers making the stuff.

2. “Your Crash Course on Supply Chains, Globalization, and COVID-19,” on Business Casual (Morning Brew). Wharton Dean Geoffrey Garrett has taught about supply chains and operations management for decades. He gives a high-level overview of the modern history of just in time manufacturing and discusses just how interconnected the world is.

3. “The Impact of COVID-19 on Global Supply Chains with ISM CEO Tom Derry,” on the Hidden Forces Podcast. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) publishes several surveys every month that are some of the most-watched by financial analysts and economists to gauge the health of the economy. Derry has had his finger on this data, really the pulse of the world, for decades and shares his insights into what is going on, what is going to change, and what it all means. Host Demetri Kofinas is the difference maker here, he asks excellent questions and they go fairly deep.