Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Travels of a T-Shirt

Never underestimate the power of a reader. Or a book group. Or a librarian. I'll stop now, but you get my point, people read books - they talk about it to others - they get together to discuss - and it makes a difference. Reading, participating in something, it is important. We start thinking about topics we had never entertained before. We ask questions. And maybe we read the tag on that t-shirt we bought, wondering how it got into our hands.

Yes, I'm a word nerd who values reading, but more on that some other time....

Jeff Wartchow from the Grand Rapids Men's Reading Group joined me in KAXE's studios today to tape an interview with Georgetown University professor and author Pietra Rivoli about her book "The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy - An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade" (that fuzzy book I'm holding). You can hear it tonight on Realgoodwords as well as Sunday morning or in the archive.

Pietra's book encompasses the global economy but it also gets to the fundamental questions of where do we spend our money? Does it matter if we buy clothes at Wal-Mart or buy food from the farmer's markets? How does it all affect the global economy?

Do these questions interest you? What questions do you have? What is your bookclub reading?

The KAXE Bookclub is getting together next Wednesday May 7th at 4pm to talk about Pietra's book, everyone is invited. If you want, bring a snack to share!

National Public Radio's Adam Davidson followed Pietra on her travels and you can read about and hear the series here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Heidi- Great book, excellent discussion (Jeff was impressed by FOOD at the meeting- he want's the Men's Reading Group to adopt the same philosophy).We missed you!