“In interviews with both Claude Lois (Mount Pleasant’s project manager) and Dave DeGroot and Todd Taves (a financial consultant working with the village), there were specific instances where I would ask a question related to the basic details of the project (for instance, what will be made in this factory, or how many workers will be coming from Foxconn HQ), and the responses were basically, ‘We don’t know but it’s a smart company and they will figure it out,’” Pinnamanani said via email.

The producers have made one change since the initial release of the podcast, to clarify that no one they had spoken to had seen the agreement between Mount Pleasant and Foxconn before it was signed in December. A draft was released in October.

Pinnamaneni said out that the central question of the podcast — whether or not the village got a good deal — is still to be determined.

“I am not a skeptic when it comes to bringing manufacturing jobs and as I mentioned in the story, everyone I spoke to said the area needs development,” Pinnamaneni. “The question is whether the state and the village did the due diligence one would generally expect with a project as large as this, especially when the incentive package (which state officials said could amount to nearly $3 billion) is as substantial as this one.”