60 Minutes 03/22/2026: Elemental Crisis, Turning the Ship Around, The Dog Aging Project
Mar 23, 2026
A report from a lone U.S. rare earth mine and the push to rebuild domestic magnet production. A look at foreign investment aiming to revive American shipbuilding and the hurdles of workforce, cost, and policy. A nationwide study using dogs to track aging, dementia markers, and drug trials that could inform human longevity research.
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American Shipbuilding Has Fallen Behind
- U.S. commercial shipbuilding has collapsed to a few ships per year while countries like China and Korea build hundreds, creating a national security vulnerability.
- The Philadelphia Shipyard symbolizes that decline, still using a 1942 crane and delivering ~1–1.5 ships a year.
South Korea's Hanwha Is Rebuilding Philly Yard
- Hanwha bought Philly Shipyard, invested $200 million, and sent 50 Korean trainers with plans to scale to 20 ships a year and add robots and automation.
- They expect to grow the workforce by 7,000–10,000 and modernize processes within years.
Labor Bottlenecks And Costs Block Ship Revival
- U.S. yards face a skilled labor shortage and slow training capacity (20 apprentices at a time vs Korea's 400), making scale-up slow and costly.
- Building in the U.S. can cost ~4x more than Asia due to lower scale and higher input prices.