Site Selectors Are People, Too
The podcast that explores the human side of economic development and site selection. Raw, unfiltered conversations about the profession — from mental health and resilience to the mechanics of high-stakes location decisions.
Hosted by Devin Hillsdon-Smith. Now in Season 3.
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What to Expect
Candid conversations with practitioners, not polished corporate interviews.
Latest Episodes
Community Champions: Jim Plump on Long-Term Economic Development
In the Season 3 finale of Site Selectors are People Too, host Devin Hillsdon-Smith sits down with a true titan of the economic development industry: Jim Plump. Having served as the Executive Director of the Jackson County Industrial Development Corporation since its inception in 1984, Jim brings 40 years of unparalleled wisdom to this special Stories from the Road installment. Tune in as Jim details the incredible transformation of rural Jackson County, Indiana, into a booming global manufacturing hub. He shares the fascinating behind-the-scenes story of how a seamless, team-first effort helped Seymour land tier-one Toyota supplier Aisin in 1986, paving the way for dozens of international investments in the region. Devin and Jim also explore how the role of a "Community Champion" has drastically evolved over the decades. Moving beyond the old days of "chasing smokestacks," modern economic development now requires navigating AI, championing local housing, and building robust, innovative workforce pipelines.
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The Architects of Prosperity: The Groundwork for Modern Development
In Part 10, the grand finale of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we pull the camera all the way back to look at the entire 300-year tapestry of global economic development. The genesis of modern economic growth is not a clean, straight line from the steam engine to the smartphone—it is a messy, violent, and deeply contingent evolution of statecraft, ideas, and institutions. This episode explores how the grand macroeconomic strategies of warring empires were eventually downloaded directly to the local zip code. We unpack how early state-building, catastrophic financial bubbles, and the clash between free trade and nationalist survival birthed the exact toolkit used by modern site selectors today, proving that modern development economics is just the academic rediscovery of what 19th-century architects learned the hard way.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The Intellectual Reckoning
In Part 9 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we look at what happens when the unprecedented wealth of the Industrial Revolution collides with staggering, crushing poverty. By the late 1800s, the global capitalist machine was running at maximum capacity, but the internal contradictions of the 19th-century economic model were tearing society apart at the seams. This episode explores the intellectual reckoning that followed. We unpack how three brilliant, radically different thinkers—a radical philosopher, a fiercely conservative Chancellor, and an economic heretic—diagnosed the structural diseases of global capitalism and wrote the foundational DNA for the entire 20th century.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The Colonial Model
In Part 8 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we look at what happens when fully industrialized nations run out of room to grow at home. Once the factories are built, the railroads are laid, and the workforces are trained, the great industrial machines of the 19th century needed two things to survive: an endless supply of cheap raw materials, and massive new markets to buy their surplus goods. This episode explores the dark, outward turn of economic development: The Colonial Model. We unpack how the newly industrialized, hyper-connected powers looked across the oceans and collided on the global stage, using their state power to carve up the world into extractive resource hubs and captive consumer markets.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The Unseen Foundations
In Part 7 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we strip away the grand economic theories to look at the raw, physical reality of building a nation. You can pass all the protective tariffs you want and steal the best blueprints in the world, but if your raw materials can't reach the factory — and your workers can't read the operating manual — your economic revolution is dead on arrival. This episode explores the "enabling state": how governments laid the tracks and trained the minds that made the modern industrial world possible. We dive into the massive, capital-intensive public goods that private markets simply couldn't build on their own.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The Challengers
In Part 6 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we explore how the rest of the world looked at Britain’s gospel of free trade and called their bluff. While the British preached laissez-faire economics, developing nations viewed it as a rigged "winner's doctrine" designed to keep them in second place. This episode unpacks how three major challengers — the United States, Germany, and Japan — completely rejected the invisible hand and instead used the heavy, muscular power of the state to rewrite the global economic map. Discover how modern economic development tools like corporate subsidies, state-backed infrastructure, and regional logistics corridors were born from 19th-century protectionism.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The British Model
In Part 5 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we confront the great contradiction of the Industrial Revolution: the simultaneous worship of the free market and the reluctant birth of the modern regulatory state. While 19th-century British politicians preached the pristine gospel of laissez-faire economics from comfortable London clubs, the horrifying realities of the textile mills forced them to intervene. This episode dives into the dark side of early industrialization to explore how the government built a massive administrative bureaucracy to save capitalism from itself — while enthusiastically using that very same system to discipline its poorest citizens.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The Classical Revolution
In Part 4 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we explore the intellectual revolution that killed the ultimate zero-sum game: mercantilism. For centuries, nations believed wealth was finite, fighting endless trade wars to hoard gold. This episode unpacks how a quiet Scottish philosopher and a ruthless London stockbroker completely rewired the global economy. Discover how the concepts of the "invisible hand" and comparative advantage dismantled state-sponsored monopolies, birthed modern free trade, and created the intellectual blueprint for globalization.
Listen →The Architects of Prosperity: The Price of Innovation
In Part 3 of our special mini-series, The Architects of Prosperity, we explore the dangerous genesis of the narrative economy and the world's first great financial panics. Drowning in war debt, 18th-century France and Britain turned to professional gamblers to securitize their liabilities. This episode unpacks how desperate governments learned to manipulate market psychology — from the debunked myth of the Dutch Tulip Mania to the Scottish fugitive who temporarily bought the French economy.
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The Architects of Prosperity: The King's Site Selector
In Part 2 of our 10-part series on the history of modern economic development, we leave the modern boardroom behind and travel back to 1660s France. Before RFPs and zoning laws, there was Jean-Baptiste Colbert — a cold, workaholic French bureaucrat known as the "Man of Marble."
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The Architects of Prosperity: Defining the Quest
In the debut of our special 10-part miniseries, "The Architects of Prosperity," Devin steps back from the spreadsheets to explore the theoretical and historical roots of the economic development profession — from growth vs. development to the long arc of policy, place, and prosperity.
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The Future of Economic Development: John Launius on Leading Through Industry Challenges
In this installment of our "Stories from the Road" mini-series, Devin sits down with John Launius, Senior Vice President and Chief Economic Development Officer at One Southern Indiana, and the newly appointed Board Chair of the Indiana Economic Development Association (IEDA). They cover John's journey from a small Missouri town to leading major economic development initiatives in the greater Louisville MSA, the shifting landscape of economic development, Business Retention & Expansion, data centers, utility infrastructure, NIMBYism, and the erosion of public trust in economic development work.
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Networking & Associations for Economic Developers: Jeremy Sowders on the Way of Hoosier Energy
In this installment of our "Stories from the Road" mini-series, Devin packs up the mic and heads to Bloomington, Indiana, to sit down in person with Jeremy Sowders, Economic Development Leader at Hoosier Energy and recent Board Chair of the Indiana Economic Development Association (IEDA). In a candid, laugh-out-loud conversation, Devin and Jeremy cut through the corporate jargon to discuss what networking actually looks like when you refuse to be fake.
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An Outsider's Take on Site Selection: Tianya Pinkham on Breaking Into Economic Development from Luxury Sales
Tianya Pinkham, the newly minted Vice President of Business Development at Hyphen Strategies, brings a fresh Gen Z perspective from luxury auto sales to the site selection industry. Together, Devin and Tianya break down the outsider's lens, translating ED jargon, the art of the pushback, and why authenticity always wins the deal.
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Supply Chain Resilience After a Global Shock: What Site Selectors Need to Know Right Now
A somber departure addressing the immediate business fallout from Operation Epic Fury. Devin breaks down the conflict through the lens of site selection, economic development, and corporate real estate — covering the death of just-in-time supply chains, the energy fortress, the cyber surcharge, and warflation labor crisis.
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Podcast Production for Professionals: The Audio Setup Behind a Site Selection Podcast
Devin peels back the curtain on the brand-new audio engine powering Season 3. A full technical breakdown of the professional-grade rig designed to strip away the 'corporate distance' of tinny laptop mics and echoey boardrooms.
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Pets, Remote Work, and Talent Attraction: The Unexpected Overlap Between Home Offices and Economic Development
Stepping away from the RFIs to talk about the actual MVPs of our home offices: our pets. How the creatures living under our desks force us to set boundaries, step away from spreadsheets, and combat career-identity enmeshment.
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Burnout, Identity, and Coming Back: A Site Selector's Mental Health Story
After a year of significant professional and personal shifts, Devin returns for Season 3 with a raw, unfiltered look at burnout, depression, anxiety, and an identity crisis — and the steps he took to climb out of rock bottom.
Listen →Real Estate Activation for Economic Development: How to Turn Land Into a Competitive Site Selection Asset
Activating your real estate for economic development purposes. A community's land is one of its most precious assets — we explore how to break down the steps to real estate activation through a simple process.
Listen →How to Host a FAM Tour That Actually Impresses Site Selectors: Keith Gillenwater on the Jackson, Michigan Playbook
Keith Gillenwater, president & CEO of The Enterprise Group of Jackson, joins to discuss what it's like to land in a new community and how to host a top-tier familiarization tour for site selectors.
Listen →How to Market a Community: Jonathan Sackett on Economic Development Branding in Northeast Indiana
Jonathan Sackett of the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership joins to discuss how economic development professionals market their communities and create compelling community brands.
Listen →Work-Life Balance in Site Selection and Economic Development: Strategies for a High-Pressure Profession
Tackling work-life balance in a highly competitive environment. A look at the unique demands and challenges of site selection and economic development, with strategies for finding balance.
Listen →Electric Cooperatives and Rural Economic Development: Matthew Marshall on Power, Sites, and the Upper Midwest
Matthew Marshall of Minnkota Power Cooperative joins to discuss the role of electric cooperatives in rural economic development across North Dakota and Minnesota.
Listen →Regional Economic Development Done Right: Keith Lambert on the Lansing, Michigan Model
Keith Lambert, COO of the Lansing Economic Area Partnership, joins to discuss regionalism and collaborative economic development in Michigan.
Listen →Confidentiality vs. Community: How Economic Developers Balance Transparency in Site Selection Projects
How do we balance critical project confidentiality with the community's right to know what's coming next? A response to a listener question about public engagement in economic development.
Listen →Want to Be a Guest?
We're always looking for practitioners with real stories to tell. If you've got a perspective the industry needs to hear, let's talk.
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