A trucker, a farmer, and an entrepreneur walk into a global supply shock

🎙️ The Speakers & Context

• The Format: Host-led interviews with on-the-ground experts.
• The Key Players:
  • Hosts: Darian Woods and Ricky Mulvey (NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money), economists framing global supply shocks through everyday U.S. business lenses.
  • Guests: Forrest Atkinson (long-haul truck driver, diesel cost expert); Mark Mueller (Iowa corn farmer and president of Iowa Corn Growers Association, fertilizer market insider); Albert Dewar (Chairman/CEO of UBQ Materials, plastic alternative innovator).
• The Vibe: Ground-level, pragmatic—mix of anxiety over immediate costs and optimism in adaptive ingenuity.

🎣 The Executive Hook

• The "One Big Idea": Geopolitical supply shocks like the U.S.-Israel-Iran war propagate through energy inputs (diesel, natural gas, oil), squeezing margins for incumbents while creating tailwinds for substitution plays in trucking, farming, and manufacturing. Businesses face captive demand with few short-term escapes, but prolonged disruption accelerates pivots to alternatives like waste-derived plastics or low-input crops. Human ingenuity—via substitution—mitigates the worst economic damage over months.
• Why It Matters: In a world of fragile global trade (20% LNG from Persian Gulf), this tests supply chain resilience amid Fed rate hikes; winners emerge from pre-factored high-energy models,