Imagine living with the fear of catching a disease that could paralyze you for the rest of your life. Generations of people in the United States lived with the fear of polio, and worldwide people still contend with that fear today. The development of the polio vaccine is one of the most renowned achievements in modern medicine, and thanks to its development it is vanishingly rare to see someone in an iron lung in the United States today. Huge amounts of resources went into the defeat of the disease, but today it is making slight inroads back into public discourse as unvaccinated people contract the disease once more here in the United States. Join us as we explore the fascinating history of polio.

Imagine a world in which there were zero protections for you as a worker. If you got sick, you could be fired. If you grow too weak or old to work in the mines, you’re fired and there are other workers to take your place. While workers today frequently still find themselves in precarious positions, but many of the protections we can be thankful for today we can ascribe to unions. 

What is the history of labor unions in the U.S., how did they rise to power in the 20th century, and why have they waned since?

Imagine traveling before the wheel. Anywhere you wanted to go, you had to either walk, or be wealthy enough to afford an animal such as a horse that could take you there. Travel was slow, fraught with delay, and in the case of a horse, needed constant feeding. Living in a developed, wealthy country, it’s easy to forget that the car isn’t the only way to get around the world. The bicycle is a hidden workhorse of transportation worldwide, and its history is chock full of controversy, innovation, and some zany designs that may make you scratch your head. As recently as 2010 there were 2.5 bicycles made for every car manufactured worldwide… over 130M that year, alone. Out of all that chaos came the beautiful, efficient mode of transport that is the bike as we know it today.

Join us for a conversation with author and historian David Herlihy.

While we have an abundance of choice as consumers in the United States, in many realms there are increasingly few options in terms of what, and from where, we can buy. Monopolies have existed in North America since the colonial era and, though fought aggressively in the mid-20th century, have reared their head once more in recent decades.

In this episode we have a conversation with author and radio host Thom Hartmann and explore the United States' long history in contending with and regulating monopolies.

Part 2 of a conversation with Professor Louis Hyman of Cornell University.

How did consumer debt in the United States move from general acceptance (covered in part 1), into something that is omnipresent? Beyond that, how did it go from something that was an enabler of success in the mid-20th century to something that eroded wealth over people's lifetime?

Debt as we accept it today is a uniquely modern idea and has not always existed this way.

Consumer debt powers a huge swath of the US economy. The ease with which we are able to access and use debt today is a wholly modern invention. Even a couple hundred years ago, debt was something that could potentially land you in prison and was largely unavailable to the average consumer.

Join us as we explore the evolution of debt from something that was abhorred to something that is a normal part of the everyday consumer's life, with Professor Louis Hyman of Cornell.

Louis Hyman is a historian of work and business at the ILR School of Cornell University, where he also directs the Institute for Workplace Studies in New York City. He has published two books on the history of personal debt (Debtor Nation and Borrow) and a history of how American work became so insecure (Temp).

Originally from Baltimore, Hyman received a BA in history and mathematics from Columbia University. A former Fulbright scholar and McKinsey associate, he received his PhD in American history from Harvard University.

Imagine walking into an arena, sword in one hand and shield in the other. You are in a kill or be killed situation in which other people--and perhaps wild animals--attack you to the cheers of thousands of Romans. This our most common understanding of the Roman games, from both movies and other art, but is it a fiction?

Kathleen Coleman is one of the world's foremost experts on the Roman games, why they began, and what they were really like. Join us on a fascinating exploration of this important--and, to modern minds, strange--facet of Roman society. You will be surprised by some of the revelations and perhaps even learn something new about how the Roman games' impact echoes in present day.

Imagine killing a whale. The American whaling industry was one of the largest industries in early America and supported thousands of jobs while also being guilty of killing thousands--if not millions--of whales. We interview author Eric Jay Dolin and learn about how American whaling built fortunes and irrevocably changed the landscape of America's oceans.

Learn more about Eric's writing: https://www.ericjaydolin.com/