49:50 minutes
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October 12, 2026
#47 The Box
The Story of the Shipping Container
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About The Speaker
Marc Levinson is an economist, historian, and journalist with a long track record of writing and speaking about economic and business issues. His book The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, which explains how a seemingly simple innovation made globalization possible, has received many awards.
His most recent project, The UPS Man, is the first-ever biography of James E. Casey, who co-founded a bicycle messenger service in 1907, at age nineteen, and built it into United Parcel Service. It was shortlisted for the Financial Times/Standard Chartered Business Book of the Year Award in August 2026.
Episode Description
What does a shipping container have to do with the global economy? Almost everything. In this episode, we sit down with economist and historian Marc Levinson to explore how a simple metal box revolutionized the way goods move across the world—and, by extension, how supply chains are organized, where manufacturing happens, and even which communities thrive or struggle. Marc walks us through the unlikely origins of containerization, from Malcolm McLean’s 1956 voyage to the painstaking international negotiations that created industry standards. We discuss how containers made globalization possible by collapsing transportation costs from 15–20% of goods’ value to mere cents, the profound impact on dock workers and manufacturing communities, and why today’s supply chain disruptions are forcing businesses to rethink the just-in-time model. Along the way, Marc reminds us that the most transformative changes in how we do business often come from the most unexpected places—and that understanding this history is essential to navigating our present.
Additional inspirations from Marc Levinson
Link to Marc’s website: https://marclevinson.net/
