It’s August 24th. This day in 1921, tensions are mounting in southwestern West Virginia, where some 10-15,000 miners are going on strike to protest working and economic conditions. Eventually, this would lead to a violent showdown with the mining companies, local police, and federal forces — including bombs dropped from airplanes on the protesters.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Anna Sale, West Virginia native and host of the podcast “Death, Sex & Money” to discuss the Battle of Blair Mountain.

Find DSM wherever you get your podcasts — and check out Anna’s book “Let’s Talk About Hard Things.”

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer at Radiotopia