This one is about the heroes...well, two at least. Both of them would say PHOOEY, I'm no hero... So, let's just say it’s about how people are getting by. Specifically, it's about the small business owners, faced with the gut wrenching decisions they have to make when faced with going out of business, laying off employees...survival.
This Heroes of the Quarantine Culture on Baker Street with Thom Pollard welcomes two incredible individuals on the front line of the economy. Peter Dunn is President of Topdrawer, a Japanese-American company with over a dozens stores in the US and Japan which sells “tools for nomads,” including minimalist canvas backpacks and carry bags, portable speakers, eyeglasses, Bento boxes; anything and everything you might need while traveling. Please visit https://topdrawershop.com/
Peter had to make some gut-wrenching decisions when the COVID-19 stay at home orders swept across the land. When he made the decision to temporarily close the stories, he shut down 90% of their business. Peter shares how he mobilized quickly so that Topdrawer can survive.
David Brancaccio, our second guest, needs little introduction. I mean, the guy has a page in Wikipedia! David and I traveled to India a little over a decade ago to document the dramatic changes taking place on the Ganges River. We trekked to the source of the Ganges, to the mouth of the Gangotri Glacier, to learn that climatologists estimate the glacier will disappear in 50 years (that was ten years ago). David, as many of you know, is host and senior editor of Marketplace Morning Report. He keeps the pulse on business innovation and the economy, politics, human rights, national security, the environment, health care, and science policy. In 2007, David won a national Emmy for coverage of a public health story in Kenya. In 2009, he won a Walter Cronkite Award for excellence in television political coverage.
The music for this episode was found on the Free Music Archive, including the Blue Dot Sessions with Fjell: https://www.sessions.blue/ and also the music of Miller and Sasser
