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
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
