Erie

Who's inheriting America's infrastructure, and how? In Erie, Pennsylvania, I spent three days inside METAL for America, a metalcasting bootcamp run through Penn State Behrend, alongside a fourth-generation manufacturer, a tech entrepreneur, and others who'd never set foot in a foundry, to see what it actually takes.

Trailer: coming soon

Full episode: coming soon

Four men talking in a machine shop, one in a red shirt holding papers
A worker in protective gear crossing a dim foundry floor past racks of castings
Two men talking on the Penn State Behrend campus beside a map sign, bare winter trees behind
A hand resting on a steering wheel, wristwatch visible
Three men in safety glasses talking in a workshop lined with parts bins
An industrial building with a large American flag painted across its facade
Molten metal glowing orange as it pours from a ladle in a foundry
Two men looking at a screen together at a workbench
Bootcamp attendees reading manuals in a workshop classroom, one crouched taking notes
A worker in aluminised heat gear tipping molten metal into a mould
Two men standing and talking on a shop floor, one with arms crossed
A worker leaning over a mould box on a foundry floor