Learn · TED

Talk8 min

A bold idea to rebuild the working class

Molly Hemstreet · TED

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About

Struggling communities don’t need handouts — they need bold new ways to root wealth. Meet Molly Hemstreet — a TED Fellow, Southern Appalachia native and cofounder of worker support network the Industrial Commons — who’s flipping the script on generational poverty by turning textile waste into $9-per-pound yarn and factory workers into business owners. Discover how her long-haul approach is rebuilding rural economies stitch by stitch, proving that opportunity grows when we stop extracting and start empowering.

The talk

  1. A bold idea to rebuild the working class 8 min · TED's player

Credits and licence

Institution
TED
Department
TED Fellows Films 2025
Speaker
Molly Hemstreet
Year
2025
Level
For everyone
Language
English
Subjects
Economics, Business and management
Source
TED
Licence
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, as TED states it. Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions. TED's terms
Attribution
TED Talks are licensed by TED under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International and are shown here in TED's own player, as TED's usage policy asks.
Who can watch
TED gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Tweens profiles and older, judged from what the source says about it. How courses are placed