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The trades need more gender diversity. One woman is training the next generation

Part 3 of the TED Radio Hour episode DIY

Men dominate trade work. But Emily Pilloton-Lam says it's time to put the power (and power tools) into the hands of young women and gender-expansive youth.

About Emily Pilloton-Lam

Emily Pilloton-Lam is a builder, educator and lifelong lover of power tools. With a background in architecture, she founded Girls Garage, a nonprofit design and construction school, to equip the next generation of girls and gender-expansive youth with the personal power and technical tools to build the world they want to see. She teaches carpentry, welding, architecture and activist art to cohorts of young people who put these skills to work on pro bono construction projects for their community. Pilloton-Lam is a lecturer in the College of Environmental Design at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of three books including Design Revolution and Girls Garage.

About Erica Chu

Erica Chu is a college student studying civil and environmental engineering with a focus on construction management. She is an alum of Girls Garage.

This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Andrea Gutierrez and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHourand email us at [email protected].

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Manoush Zomorodi
Manoush Zomorodi is the host of TED Radio Hour. She is a journalist, podcaster and media entrepreneur, and her work reflects her passion for investigating how technology and business are transforming humanity.
Andrea Gutierrez
Andrea Gutierrez (she/her) is a producer on NPR podcast TED Radio Hour. She's drawn to stories at the intersections of identity in arts and culture.
Sanaz Meshkinpour
[Copyright 2024 NPR]