Sitdown Sunday: Could 3D-printing homes solve a housing crisis? Probably not

Sitdown Sunday surveys ambitious reports that probe a housing‑tech frontier and its limits. In 2024 a company pledged to build and donate a 3D‑printed home to Cairo, Illinois, after a $1.1 million investment, but the project soon cracked and Cairo has yet to see new housing. ProPublica’s breakdown notes an FBI investigation into Prestige, the involved firm, and recounts a former employee who became a whistleblower, claiming he was sent to Cairo to hawk a hollow promise, with encrypted emails accusing Prestige of fraud circulating afterward. The package also touches on pardon brokers who help people obtain presidential pardons for large fees and profiles Mako Nishimura, reportedly the only woman to enter Japan's yakuza, who describes decades in crime and addiction.