About this episode
At one point in history, <em>one</em> U.S. company monopolized the rare earths industry. Then China took over the industry. Can the U.S. bring it back?<br/><br/>Rare earths are critical to making, like, everything. From smart phones to electric vehicles to microwaves. They’ve also become a powerful political weapon for China, which controls the majority of mining and processing of rare earths. <br/><br/>Today, we have the story of the rise and fall of America’s rare earth industry told through that single company. It’s a corporate saga made for prestige television about the elements that literally, once, made prestige televisions. <br/><br/><a href="https://tix.to/pm-book-tour"target="_blank" >Live event info and tickets here.</a> <br/><br/><a href="https://www.planetmoneybook.com/"target="_blank" ><em>Pre-order the Planet Money book and get a free gift</em></a><em>. / </em><a href="https://n.pr/3HlREPz"target="_blank" ><em>Subscribe to Planet Money+</em></a><br/><br/><em>Listen free: </em><a href="http://n.pr/PM-digital"target="_blank" ><em>Apple Podcasts</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://n.pr/3gTkQlR"target="_blank" ><em>Spotify</em></a><em>, </em><a href="https://n.pr/3Bkb17W"target="_blank" ><em>the NPR app</em></a><em> or anywhere you get podcasts.</em><br/><br/><a href="https://n.pr/3h92GwS"target="_blank" ><em>Facebook</em></a><em> / </em><a href="https://n.pr/3FqLuws"target="_blank" ><em>Instagram</em></a><em> / </em><a href="https://n.pr/3sGZdrq"target="_blank" ><em>TikTok</em></a><em> / Our weekly </em><a href="https://n.pr/3zrFvUB"target="_blank" ><em>Newsletter</em></a><em>.</em><br/><br/><em>This episode was produced by Emma Peaslee and edited by Marianne McCune. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo and Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money’s executive producer.</em><br/><br/>See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>