Seth Rockman on Slavery's Material History
A simple leather shoe. A scratchy shirt made of cotton or wool. A roughly-hewn axe. A leather whip, braided in New Jersey. Southern slavery did not just depend on an extractive economic system, or a h...
2 Des 202452min
Andrew Kahrl on Inequality, Theft, and Taxation in Modern America
Taxes. Is there anything Americans like to complain about more? This episode takes a deep dive into the U.S. tax system, paying particular attention to the property tax. Exploding a popular myth that ...
5 Nov 202451min
Andrew McKevitt on Gun Capitalism
450 million. According to our best estimates, that's how many guns there are in the United States. To put that in perspective: if you gave a firearm to every single person in the nation—including babi...
1 Okt 202448min
Rachel Gross on How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America
In 2022 and 2023, an estimated 50 million Americans went camping. Many others participated in outdoor recreation activities ranging from mountain-climbing to sailing. According to the U.S. Department ...
2 Sep 202441min
Margot Canaday on Queer Workers in Modern America
In today's episode, Margot Canaday reveals the not-so-hidden history of LGBT workers in modern America. In the absence of state protections, she finds, some employers actually appreciated queer worker...
1 Aug 202451min
Elizabeth Ingleson on the Past and Present of Made in China
Today, China is the U.S. third largest trading partner and second-largest source of imports. This wasn't always the case. Indeed, in the 1970s, when the United States first began trading with communi...
1 Jul 202449min
Teresa Ghilarducci on the Past and Future of Retirement
When we study capitalism, we usually focus on the active time in people's lives: the moments where things like work, consumption, production, trade, accumulation, and exchange all happen. But Teresa G...
3 Jun 202444min
Cheryl Narumi Naruse on Singapore, Postcolonial Capitalism, and Becoming Global Asia
In this month's episode, co-host Jessica Levy and guest Cheryl Narumi Naruse examine popular narratives surrounding Singapore's "miraculous" journey from Third to First world nation, currently ranked ...
5 Mai 202431min
