Spencer Wise: There’s No Business Like Shoe Business

Take a look at the shoes you’re wearing right now. You’ve probably logged more than a few miles in them already. But what kind of journey did they take before they ended up on your feet? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Spencer Wise, an author whose debut novel, The Emperor of Shoes, is set in an international shoe-manufacturing enterprise. We discuss the labor conditions of the Chinese shoe factories Wise visited, explore the environmentally treacherous practices of leather tanning, and talk about how over generations a small family business moved into the modern global economy.