Manufacturing an American Century

Happy Independence Day! This is the finale of our three-episode special edition of Manufacturing an American Century , produced in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. On the Fourth itself, we close the series featuring the Southern states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.  As in the first two episodes, our guests lead their states' NIST M...

Happy Fourth of July week! This is part two of our three-episode special edition of Manufacturing an American Century, marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. As in each episode, I sit down with manufacturing leaders from the original states of 1776 to talk about manufacturing's place in their state's history and its importance today. Once again, our guests are the state...

Happy Fourth of July week! This is the first of a three-episode special edition of Manufacturing an American Century , produced in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence that went on to form this nation. Across the three episodes, we interview manufacturing leaders from the original American states of 1776 about the role manufacturing played in their state's past, and ho...

I had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Edwards, Senior Advisor on Materials and Manufacturing at 47G, Utah's Aerospace and Defense Association, and one of the original regional leaders behind what became AMCC. Jeff and I go back more than a decade to the early days of the EDA Investing in Manufacturing Communities Partnership (IMCP) program, where he was doing the hard, unglamorous work of or...

It was a real pleasure to sit down with Dennis Alvord, a nearly 30-year veteran of the federal civil service whose career at the Economic Development Administration and the OECD's Regional Development Policy Committee has made him one of the most experienced economic development practitioners in the country. Dennis and I first crossed paths about 15 years ago working to bring forward evidence on m...

It was a pleasure to welcome Alison Peoples from Argonne National Laboratory to the podcast. Alison is a statistician and economic development researcher whose career has taken her from the municipal bond trading desks of Boston to the Economic Development Districts of New Mexico — and ultimately to one of America's premier federal research institutions, where she  We talk about the big chall...

Matt had the pleasure of sitting down with Kenan Fikri, Senior Fellow at the Economic Innovation Group, an economic think tank dedicated to tackling the deep, longstanding challenges facing the American economy. Kenan got into some of the core ideas driving EIG's work, starting with economic dynamism: the health, vitality, and innovative intensity of an economy. We unpacked what that really means...

It was a pleasure to welcome Chris Luecke to the podcast. Chris is a podcast himself, as founder and host of the Manufacturing Happy Hour podcast, one of the most recognizable shows in the industry, with nearly 300 episodes exploring the people, ideas, and leadership shaping modern manufacturing. With a background at Rockwell Automation and experience spanning industries from oil and gas to semico...

It was a real pleasure to welcome Dr. Nikhil Kalathil to the Manufacturing in the American Century podcast. Nikhil earned his PhD from Carnegie Mellon in Engineering and Public Policy, and serves as a Senior Advisor of Ecosystem Assessment to AMCC. He brings a rare combination of engineering background and policy focus to the challenge of rebuilding U.S. manufacturing capacity. His work focuses on...

In this episode, I’m joined by Shana Peschek, Executive Director of the Machinists Institute, for a timely conversation about what it really takes to build a manufacturing workforce that can meet the moment. Workforce is one of the AMCC “Big Six” pillars of a functioning regional manufacturing ecosystem, and across the country, we’re falling short. Shana brings a practitioner’s lens to this challe...

On this edition of Manufacturing an American Century, I sat down with Daniel Wierman, founder of CNC Career Network, to discuss His work builds bridges between workforce developers, manufacturers, and local nonprofits to strengthen the talent pipeline in advanced manufacturing. Daniel brings a powerful mix of industry insight, leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit to the conversation, matched onl...

It was a real pleasure to welcome Kathleen Kosmoski, Director of Workforce Development at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), to Manufacturing an American Century . Kathleen leads national efforts to strengthen the engineering talent pipeline and is helping connect community colleges, manufacturers, and engineering societies in new ways to close the skills gap. Kathleen shares how...

It was an absolute pleasure to welcome James Duncan, President of Connex Marketplace, and Alan Davis, President and CEO of i5 Services, to Manufacturing an American Century . Jim and Alan are two private-sector leaders who’ve rolled up their sleeves to tackle two of the biggest challenges facing small and midsize manufacturers today: access to capital and supply chain visibility. They describe how...

In this episode of  Manufacturing in the American Century , we’re joined by Ivan Rosenberg. Ivan’s had a long career as an engineer and as a management consultant for aerospace and defense manufacturers. In this new chapter of his leadership and discussed in this episode, Ivan is the founder of the Uniquely Abled Project, an initiative that connects and trains people with autism and other “un...

It was a real privilege to welcome my longtime collaborator and friend, Dr. Susan Helper, to the Manufacturing in the American Century podcast. Sue is not only a Harvard-trained PhD economist and professor at Case Western Reserve University, but also a seasoned federal leader who's served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Commerce and on the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She...

In this episode, I sit down with Melissa MacGregor from Jobs for the Future (JFF) to talk about something that keeps coming up in our conversations with regional manufacturing leaders: how do we actually build stronger apprenticeship pathways that meet both worker and industry needs? Melissa brings deep experience and a practical perspective to the table. We get into the nuts and bolts of what mak...

In this episode, I sit down with my old friend and longtime collaborator Chuck Shoopman, president of Growth Innovations Group and a leader in Tennessee. We take a trip down memory lane back to our days with E3 and the early IMCP initiatives and talk about how those early bottom-up, place-based strategies have now become central to national economic revitalization efforts. Chuck shares relevant st...

I had the chance to sit down with Bert Feuss, a longtime leader in mission-driven capital deployment, to unpack what capital access actually means for regional manufacturing communities. Bert helped us understand how philanthropic dollars can go far beyond traditional grants. We explored how the other 95% of these funds (what Bert calls the “corpus”) can be aligned with community impact, including...

In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with my friend Andrew Hoffman, professor at the University of Michigan and author of 19 books, to talk about his latest, Business School and the Noble Purpose of the Market. Andy’s journey is remarkable, from his early days as a carpenter to becoming one of the most respected voices calling for a rethinking of social benefit enterprises and busin...

This week, I’m joined by two powerhouse leaders doing the heavy lifting to strengthen our country’s innovation economy— Shalin Jyotishi from New America and Deb Volzer from SME . These folks aren’t just talking about change—they’re out there building the systems to make it happen. Shalin walks us through how New America’s Future of Work and Innovation Economy initiative is working to ensure that t...

Welcome back to Manufacturing an American Century! Today, I had the pleasure of talking with Laura Teicher, the president and executive director of FORGE, a nonprofit that's laser-focused on helping hard tech entrepreneurs turn their prototypes into real-world solutions. FORGE is filling a crucial gap in the manufacturing ecosystem, making sure that companies working on physical products—whether i...

Hey everyone, Matt Bogoshian here! On this episode of Manufacturing an American Century , I sit down with Mark Hedstrom, CEO of the Skilled Careers Coalition, to discuss the big-picture challenge of getting more young people into skilled careers. We dig into why these careers—especially in manufacturing—are essential for America's future and why we need to shake the outdated stigma around them. Ma...

In this episode, I chat with Sanjiv Malhotra, Founder and CEO of Sparkz, and a true force in clean tech manufacturing. Sanjiv takes us through his fascinating journey of battery innovation and the gap he saw in the national supply chain manufacturing cathode materials here in the United States. This guy is all about bringing battery production back to America, ensuring sustainability, and building...

In this episode of Manufacturing an American Century, Matt Bogoshian gets to sit down with two brilliant minds from the U.S. Small Business Administration—Brittany Sickler, Director of Ecosystem Development, and Jennifer Shieh, Chief Scientist and Program Manager. We dive into how the SBA is doing more than just helping small businesses thrive—they’re pioneering a whole new way to think about entr...

In this episode, Nathan Ole, President and CEO of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC), shares insights into the council's historic journey, its comprehensive strategic plan, and the impact of its certification programs. Nathan discusses IEDC's initiatives like the Economic Recovery Corps, which focuses on capacity building in under-resourced places through long-term fellowships....