Bryant Simon on the Hamlet Fire and the Politics of Chicken

Bryant Simon on the Hamlet Fire and the Politics of Chicken

Consider the chicken nugget. Many of us can see its round shape in our minds, and recall its salty taste. But what is its history? And what does this history have to tell us about food and capitalism, and about one of the most devastating industrial accidents in recent U.S. history?

On today's show, we speak with Bryant Simon about the 1991 fire at a chicken processing factory in Hamlet, North Carolina. For Bryant, this tragic accident has political and economic causes. And it reveals a tremendous amount the last few decades of U.S. and global history.

Bryant Simon is a professor of history at Temple University. He is the author of The Hamlet Fire:

A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives.

Episoder(125)

Ben Waterhouse on the Dream and Reality of Self Employment

Ben Waterhouse on the Dream and Reality of Self Employment

One recent study found that 81% of businesses in the United States have zero employees. That is, they are run by sole proprietors, working for and by themselves, The ideal of self-employment has becom...

2 Apr 202439min

Brent Cebul on Business, Inequality, and American Liberalism

Brent Cebul on Business, Inequality, and American Liberalism

Most scholars would date the origins of neoliberalism to the 1970s, when a range of crises gave rise to new forms of market-oriented governance. But Brent Cebul, our guest on this month's episode, arg...

5 Mar 202445min

Tim Keogh on Suburban Poverty and the Roots of Postwar Inequality

Tim Keogh on Suburban Poverty and the Roots of Postwar Inequality

In 2022, roughly one in 10 suburban residents lived in poverty (9.6%), compared to about one in six in primary cities (16.2%), according to a recent study by the Brookings Institute. The issue of subu...

6 Feb 202446min

Premilla Nadasen on the Care Economy and the Potential for Radical Care

Premilla Nadasen on the Care Economy and the Potential for Radical Care

Today, discussions of care are ubiquitous. From employer-programs promoting self-care to the $800 billion healthcare industry, care forms a central part of our lives and the economy. But, are the syst...

8 Jan 202441min

Hannah Forsyth on the Rise and Fall of the Professional Class in the Anglophone World

Hannah Forsyth on the Rise and Fall of the Professional Class in the Anglophone World

Are you a professional living and working in an English-speaking country? If so, this episode is for you. Teachers, doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, lawyers, social workers, the list goes on...

7 Nov 202346min

Bart Elmore on Southern Companies Remaking our Economy and the Planet

Bart Elmore on Southern Companies Remaking our Economy and the Planet

An iced cold Coca-Cola. A cross-country flight on Delta to visit friends. A much-needed medication overnighted via Fed-Ex. Bulk toilet paper purchased at Wal-Mart. What do these items have in common? ...

4 Sep 202336min

Mark Erlich on the Way We Build and Restoring Dignity to Construction Work

Mark Erlich on the Way We Build and Restoring Dignity to Construction Work

This month's episode gives a nod to one of the figures in our logo: the construction worker. Our guest, Mark Erlich has worked in the construction industry as a carpenter and union leader for a half c...

2 Aug 202331min

Chelsea Schields on Oil, Intimacy, and the Offshore

Chelsea Schields on Oil, Intimacy, and the Offshore

In this month's episode, guest Chelsea Schields discusses oil refining and intimacy, illuminating the social ties and affective attachments engendered by oil in the Dutch islands of Aruba and Curaçao...

3 Jul 202349min

Populært innen Samfunn

rss-spartsklubben
giver-og-gjengen-vg
aftenpodden
aftenpodden-usa
konspirasjonspodden
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
rss-nesten-hele-uka-med-lepperod
popradet
rss-henlagt-andy-larsgaard
alt-fortalt
grenselos
wolfgang-wee-uncut
min-barneoppdragelse
synnve-og-vanessa
krisemoter
rss-dannet-uten-piano
fladseth
rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
frokostshowet-pa-p5
opptur-med-annette-og-ingeborg