Riches and Power: Recent Episodes
Alex Doubet
Listen in on interviews with world-renowned experts exploring the forces in history that shaped the world both then, and now. The topics we explore vary from whaling, to the Roman games, but they always touch on the intersection between riches and power, particularly in business and economic history.
Imagine a world in which you can’t lie because, if you do, you will be found out 100% of the time. We obviously don’t live in this world, but we’ve built machines in an attempt to get closer to that reality. So-called lie detectors—a staple of police procedural dramas—are an attempt to suss out the truth of a testimony using science. But is that science real, or is it more of a reflection of a moment in time in history? Join us as we explore the history of lie detectors.
Imagine a world in which you love skiing, but the only way to shush down the mountain is to trudge to the top of the mountain with the skis strapped to your back. There are no lift lines, sure, but each run requires an arduous effort to make happen. Conversely, imagine a world in which ski lifts are abundant, but a lift ticket doesn’t cost north of $200 per day at the window. Why and how did the ski business in North America get so expensive and how did it become what some might describe as a duopoly? Join us as we explore the world of the ski business.
Why did the Cold War end? Every high schooler in the country would likely answer that with some reference to the steely-eyed resolve of John F. Kennedy, or America's overwhelming economic power. But Professor Fritz Bartel of Texas A&M University has a compelling--and very surprising--new theory he put forth in his recent book The Triumph of Broken Promises.
The two largest ride share providers in the United States, Uber and Lyft, have recently said that they will be exiting Minneapolis in May. Minneapolis' city council has passed into law a requirement that the ride share providers pay a (in the companies' view) high minimum hourly wage to their riders. The companies say the wage is unsustainable. The city council says it is necessary to ensure a living wage. Join us as we explore this timely debate with Dave Orrick of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Imagine a war ravaging your home and everything you know. But this isn’t a normal war, it is, in the eyes of the aggressor, a “small war.” The aggressor perhaps calls it a “peacekeeping mission.” From your perspective, this doesn’t matter one bit. Death is death and violence is violence. Throughout modern history, imperial powers have waged so-called small wars across the globe while resisting calls to define these conflicts as wars. Why are small wars so integral to understanding imperial powers in the modern world, and why is it that these conflicts so frequently garner little notice? Join us as we learn about imperial small wars and Lauren Benton's recent book They Called it Peace.
Imagine a world in which your elected leaders may not be removed from office. You go to the polls, you vote, and for whichever leader wins the election, they are handed a mandate and a golden ticket to pilfer the country in whatever way they see fit. In the United States and many other democracies around the globe, even the holder of the highest elected office in the land is still subject to removal via an impeachment process. This final check on power is the last resort when things go wrong.
Imagine a world in which time is not kept by a single authority. If you drive from your hometown to one a few hours away, noon is slightly different and tied to the local experience of when the sun peaks. Time would be less precise, and more driven by the moon, the stars, the sun, and even the behavior of animals. We all live in a world in which time is centrally determined and incredibly accurate and precise. But time was not always that way. Join us as we explore the history of time and its evolution into the thing we know today.
Join us for a discussion with a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. Imagine living in a country riven by political discord and strife. One party works to steal the election from the other. Politicians who are, in the eyes of their opposition, wholly unfit for office are running for and winning some of the highest elected positions in the country. This may sound familiar, but it is actually a tale of some of the earliest days of the United States. The characters are not Trump, Biden, or Obama, but rather Adams, Jefferson, and Hamilton. Join us as we explore some of the earliest, most contentious days of our country in the recently-released book Founding Partisans.
Imagine a world in which your life is turned upside down by war…. Not just war, but total war. The very land on which you live is destroyed and you are forced to flee, leaving everything behind. Beyond that, the very place you live in is destroyed. Food is scarce, shelter is difficult to find, and fear pervades your life. Though total war is most associated with modern conflicts, its roots go back much further than you may have thought. Join us as we explore environmental warfare.
Imagine living in a country without a written constitution. A country in which laws are subject to whimsy or a powerful person’s interpretation and there is no recourse for an individual who does not like or agree with the outcome of various legal decisions. In the United States, we live in a system subject to a written constitution. The document is—from a historical perspective—unique, and also outlines particular ways in which the highest-level laws of our country can and do function. Today, a near-constant debate rages surrounding whether that document is frozen in time or subject to constant reinterpretation and revision. Join us as we learn about the history of the Constitution and the ongoing debate around its proper place in the country’s legal system.
Imagine traveling across the world. But not on an airplane, not by car, but on your own two feet and on the backs of animals. Now, imagine doing that for two decades. Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant whose travels gained notoriety in his time and whose name survives across the millennia. There is far, far more to the man than just his name. He traveled across the known world and served the Great Khan. Join us as we explore the life and impact of this fascinating man.
Imagine, or perhaps think back, to a Europe in which each country had a different currency. In Germany you bought things with the Deutschmark, but cross the border into France and you’d have to use the French franc, and further still in Spain you’d be buying things with Spanish peseta. Currencies are omnipresent in the modern day and permeate commerce, government, and psychology in equal measures. We value things in a currency with which we have the most familiarity, and gigantic infrastructures have been built up to ensure that currencies are valued and exchanged in real time throughout the world. Join us as we explore the creation of the euro and learn about the history of the second-largest reserve currency on earth.
Imagine a world in which there are no machines. If you need to move something heavy, get from place to place, or pump water, you have limited options including: human power, animal power, and (if you are close to a suitable river) river power. Thanks in large part to Scottish inventor James Watt, the Industrial Revolution was a time of unprecedented technological change in which his Watt steam engine contributed to a blossoming of machine-produced power unlike anything the world had ever seen. Join us as we explore this fascinating man and his life.
A patent grants its owner “the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, or selling” an invention for a specified period of time in return for disclosing the invention to the public. Patents are a foundational piece of intellectual property rights both in the United States and worldwide, and they are both celebrated and criticized for variously enabling or preventing innovation. Join us as we explore patents with Naomi Lamoreaux is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Economics and History at Yale University.
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.
Imagine only having one choice. If you want to buy a product or service, there is only one store, one website from which you can make your purchase. That might seem like a completely alien thing, given that there are seem to be hundreds, if not thousands of choices whenever you go to buy a product or service.
But looked at differently, we actually have increasingly few places from where to buy those products and services. In this episode we explore the United States' long history in contending with and regulating monopolies with author and radio host Thom Hartmann.
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 https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/people/louis-hyman (ILR School of Cornell University), where he also directs the https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/institute-workplace-studies (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/