TED Fellow Molly Hemstreet innovates in rural Appalachia

When the textile industry left Southern Appalachia in the 1990s and 2000s, it didn’t just take jobs — it stripped away opportunity, identity and the sense of agency from the entire community. That's why Molly Hemstreet co-founded The Industrial Commons, a network that’s rebuilding the working class through community-owned manufacturing. This economic model keeps profits in local hands, converts businesses to employee ownership, and turns textile waste into new products — literally weaving value back into discarded materials, and opportunity back into the towns that lost it. Watch the first of our 2025 TED Fellows Films: https://bit.ly/4lleDL8 #TEDFellows #TEDTalks The Textile Innovation Engine of North Carolina