N.C. Town Reinvents Itself As Biotech Hub

On our show, we often cover American towns and cities whose heydays seem to have passed: Detroit, Michigan; Stockton, California; Camden, New Jersey. All struggling after the collapse of an industry, looking for something else.

One city that is trying to keep itself off that list is Kannapolis, North Carolina. Ten years ago, Kannapolis saw the largest single layoff in North Carolina history. More than 4,000 people, a tenth of the city's population, lost their jobs when a textile mill in town closed. But Kannapolis did not go the way of Detroit or Camden.

North Carolina native Amanda Wilson wrote about Kannapolis in Pacific Standard. She joins Here & Now's Meghna Chakrabarti to explain its forays into a new industry.