19. Pizza Boxes

March 4, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

🎙️ The Voices & The Context

The Format: Narrative-driven podcast episode blending storytelling, expert interviews, and historical deep dives into an everyday object.
The Key Players:
- Scott Wiener: Guinness World Record holder for largest pizza box collection (1,800+ boxes); pizza historian who runs Scott's Pizza Tours in NYC—obsessive, witty expert who started collecting after a "pizza box awakening."
- Zachary Crockett: Host of The Economics of Everyday Things, guiding the quirky economic exploration with dry humor.
- Supporting voices from Westrock (packaging giant), Eric Nelson (recycling expert), and historical nods to Domino's founder Tom Monahan.
The Vibe: Fun, geeky, and educational—like a trivia night on takeout containers, blending obsession, engineering nerdery, and light-hearted pizza love.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:00) **Edible & Sylvania Sponsorships** - Advertisements for Edible arrangements and Sylvania automotive lights.
2 (01:08) **Scott Wiener's Pizza Box Awakening** - Scott Wiener's first encounter with a unique pizza box in Israel sparked his collection.
3 (01:52) **The World's Largest Pizza Box Collection** - Scott Wiener now holds a Guinness World Record for over 1,800 pizza boxes.
4 (02:34) **The Ubiquity and Engineering of Pizza Boxes** - Americans consume billions of pizzas annually, requiring carefully engineered boxes for transport.
5 (03:19) **The Modern Pizza Box's Invention** - The pizza box is a relatively modern invention, evolving from copper containers and paper bags.
6 (04:27) **Domino's and the Michigan Style Box** - Tom Monahan of Domino's worked with a manufacturer to create a sturdier corrugated cardboard box.
7 (05:21) **Westrock: A Major Pizza Box Manufacturer** - Most pizza shops buy their boxes from large packaging conglomerates like Westrock.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

There’s more than meets the eye to the box that stores the pie. Zachary Crockett cracks the lid. This episode was originally published on October 1st, 2023.

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