On Friday, the U.S. Postal Service instituted a new policy that will mean slower deliveries and higher costs for certain packages and letters. It’s part of U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s ten-year plan for the USPS, and it’s brought the mail back into the public conversation.

To understand DeJoy’s ten-year plan and what it could mean for the future of the U.S. Postal Service, WORT news producer Jonah Chester speaks with Christopher W. Shaw, author of the forthcoming book First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat.

They talk about the history of the U.S. Postal Service and its role in shaping American democracy, the controversial tenure of Louis DeJoy, the possibilities of postal banking, and what the future holds for the USPS.

Christopher W. Shaw is a historian and policy analyst. He is the author of Preserving the People’s Post Office (Essential Books, 2006), Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic (University of Chicago Press, 2019), and the forthcoming First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat (City Lights Books, 2021).

Cover photo: USA First-Class Forever stamp with image of the Liberty Bell

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