This Day in Esoteric Political History

Come to our first ever live show! In Boston, on Friday, September 13th. Tickets are available now!

It's August 13th. This day in 1846, Henry David Thoreau is thrown in jail -- for one night -- for refusing to pay his back taxes.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Thoreau objected to the poll tax, and how his political stances intersected with the more personal work that emerged from his two years living on Walden Pond.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Come to our first ever live show! In Boston, on Friday, September 13th. Tickets are available now!

It's August 11th. This day in 1965, six days of civil unrest erupts in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why the violence was sparked -- and how the reaction to it prefigured much of the conversation that would dominate the rest of the decade around protest, deprivation, backlash, and more.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Come to our first ever live show! In Boston, on Friday, September 13th. Tickets are available now!

It's August 8th. This day in 1990, George HW Bush addressed the country about Iraq's recent invasion of Kuwait. In it, Bush evoked WWII and made a comparison between Sadaam Hussein and Adolph Hitler.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Bush framed the conflict that way and how it shifted a new era for global politics. Plus, Jody shares his personal family connection to this moment.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Come to our first ever live show! In Boston, on Friday, September 13th. Tickets are available now!

It's August 5th. This day in 1841, a new statue is unveiled in the Capitol rotunda, to commemorate the 100th birthday of George Washington. One notable element: he's shirtless.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why the statue of Washington arrived bare-chested and, let's be honest, kinda ripped.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Here in 2024, there is a lot of speculation about who Kamala Harris will select as her running mate. And the Veepstakes almost feel kind of...normal? So, today, Jody shares some thoughts about the nature of the VP pick, and we re-run our episode from "Veepstakes Week" about notable picks throughout history.

Also -- we just announced our first ever live show! In Boston, on Friday, September 13th. Tickets are available now!

For other episodes in the Veepstakes series, check out our conversation about Sarah Palin, and LBJ.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's August 1st. This day in 2002, Congressman James Traficant of Ohio has been expelled from Congress for bribery and corruption, only the second member ever kicked out of the institution.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Traficant's bombastic reputation, corrupt dealings -- and how his shifting politics represented the way political fault lines were moving in places like Youngstown, Ohio.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's July 28th. This day in 1896, residents vote to incorporate the city of Miami, Florida.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the birth of Miami was in large part due to a woman named Julia Tuttle and the arrival of the railroad to the Florida "frontier."

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's July 27th. Today we mark the start of the Olympics by looking at one of the most famous -- and perhaps apocryphal -- moments in Olympics history, when American Jesse Owens won four gold medals in front of Adolf Hitler.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the legend is a little more complicated than we may know, from the controversy over whether to boycott the games to Owens's remarks about his treatment on U.S. soil.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's the middle of July. In 1936, much of the country -- especially the Midwest -- is experiencing record heat.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why the heat was so deadly, how it created economic and social ripple effects, and why FDR was able to rally the country to talk about government solutions to some of the problems the heat exacerbated.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's July 22nd. This day in 1934, FDR has signed the "Indian Reorganization Act," which provided economic relief to many tribes, but also came with provisions to reorganize the way in which Native Americans self-governed, and self-identified. This opened up a vacuum for fundamental questions of identity and community which reverberate today.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Angel Ellis and Robert Jago, the hosts of a new series called "Pretendians," which looks at the history of non-native people claiming native ancestry -- and what that says about our political and cultural relationship with American Indians.

You can listen to the entire Pretendians series right now, from CANADALAND!

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

In 1971, a massive explosion at the Thiokol plant in Woodbine, Georgia shook the small town and killed 29 workers, injuring dozens of others.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by director Patrick Longstreth to talk about how the plant provided good jobs for the rural community, but lax safety standards ultimately led to one of the worst industrial disasters in U.S. history.

Patrick's new short film is called "The Day That Shook Georgia," you can watch it online now!

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's July 18th. This day in 1980, Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican nomination for president. His speech included the phrase "let's make American great again."

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the long history of that phrase, why it is so appealing, the power of nostalgia in American politics -- and of course how Trump made MAGA into a movement.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's July 15th. This day in 1863, photographer Timothy O'Sullivan has taken a photo of dead soldiers at Gettysburg called "A Harvest of Death." It would become one of the most famous photos in American history -- and O'Sullivan would soon be contracted to travel west and photograph the American frontier.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by writer Robert Sullivan to talk about "A Harvest Of Death" and why Sullivan is so drawn to the work of Timoth O'Sullivan.

Robert Sullivan's new book is available now -- it's called "Double Exposure: Resurveying the West with Timothy O'Sullivan, America's Most Mysterious War Photographer"

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

[[It's the heart of the summer, which means that our crew is taking some breaks here and there. In the meantime, we'll bring you some favorite episodes from the vaults -- and we'll be back with new episodes very soon!]]

It’s October 12th. This day in 1863, fighting is breaking out in Jones County, Mississippi, as a group of southern farmers starts to rebel against the Confederacy.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why this group felt compelled to rebel, what their fight was really about — and what the 2016 movie starring Matthew McConoughey got right and wrong about the incident.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

[[It's the heart of the summer, which means that our crew is taking some breaks here and there. In the meantime, we'll bring you some favorite episodes from the vaults -- and we'll be back with new episodes very soon!]]

It’s December 29th. This day in 1975, a bomb, planted in a luggage locker, exploded at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 and injuring 74. If it had gone off just minutes earlier, it would have killed hundreds more.

Jody and Niki discuss who was responsible for the bombing, the prevalence of scattered violence in the 1970s, and why New York City was often the place in which conflicts from around the world would play out.

Here’s our holiday book gift guide!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

[[It's the heart of the summer, which means that our crew is taking some breaks here and there. In the meantime, we'll bring you some favorite episodes from the vaults -- and we'll be back with new episodes very soon!]]

It’s September 26th. This day in 1983, Massachusetts Senator Michael Dukakis held a press conference to announce an enormous and ambitious infrastructure project to take a roadway that cut through the center of Boston and move it underground.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by reporter Ian Coss to discuss the initial plans for what would come to be known as “The Big Dig,” and why the project ended up taking decades, and billions of dollars, more than expected — and what it says about ambitious infrastructure projects in America.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's July 2nd. This day in 1864, President Lincoln signed a law declaring the chamber previously used as the House of Representatives to be a statuary hall, featuring two statues submitted by each state.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the kinds of statues that got submitted, what kind of story of American history it told, and how that has started to shift in recent years.

Want to test your knowledge of who is in the statuary hall? Check out the quiz put together by researcher Jacob Feldman! It's in our newsletter, which you can sign up for at thisdaypod.com

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

It's June 30th. This day in 1982, Ronald Reagan signed a bill re-authorizing the Voting Rights Act, among a lot of pressure to pass the civil rights legislation -- but also a growing legal strategy to undermine the enforcement of the provisions.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Reagan ultimately supported the act, and how legal advisors - including future Supreme Court Justice John Roberts - planted the seeds for taking the teeth out of the act.

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

Ahead of this week's very weird debate, we take a look at the weird history of how political debates have been structured in the U.S. -- from format, to audience, to the role of the moderators.

If you want to watch this episode, the full video is up on our YouTube page!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Ahead of this week's very weird debate, we take a look at the weird history of how political debates have been structured in the U.S. -- from format, to audience, to the role of the moderators.

If you want to watch this episode, the full video is up on our YouTube page!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Third Party Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at third parties: who runs for a third party bid, who votes for a third party, and how much do third party candidates really matter?

Today, we bring you an episode we did in the fall of 2021 about Ross Perot. His presence looms large over the story of the 1992 election, but he'd actually dropped out for much of that race. In this episode, Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at the moment he worked his way back onto the stage - literally, at a memorable three-way debate.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Third Party Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at third parties: who runs for a third party bid, who votes for a third party, and how much do third party candidates really matter?

Today: The 1980 election is remembered for Jimmy Carter's "malaise" and the fresh face of Ronald Reagan reviving the Republican party. But there was a third party candidate, John Anderson, trying to provide a sensible, middle-path, alternative to what he saw as Carter and Reagan's extremism.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Third Party Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at third parties: who runs for a third party bid, who votes for a third party, and how much do third party candidates really matter?

Today: Ralph Nader's 2000 run as a Green Party candidate is largely remembered for the question of whether he drew votes away from Al Gore and "spoiled" the election. This episode, we look at why Nader was running to begin with, and what the discourse around his run was like before the Florida recount.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Third Party Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at third parties: who runs for a third party bid, who votes for a third party, and how much do third party candidates really matter?

Today: Semafor's Dave Weigel joins us to break down the basics of third party bids, from the candidates who are running to shape policy, to those who are running to boost their ego. Later this week we'll dive into a few specific third party candidates through history.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Today we're reprising an episode we did for Juneteenth last year, as we get ready for this year's holiday!

It’s June 18th. Today, for Juneteenth, we look at the history of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” aka the Black National Anthem.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the song’s history and the various ways in which it’s been presented as a song of resistance, militancy, and empowerment through the decades.

If you want to hear our Juneteenth history episode, find it here! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juneteenth-1865/id1502728938?i=1000519244206

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's June 11th. This day (actually June 18th) in 1953, Coretta Scott married Martin Luther King, Jr. on the front lawn of her childhood home in Alabama.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie talk about how Scott and King started their relationship, the compromises -- personal and political -- that Scott had to make in their marriage, and how history has begun to reassess her legacy.

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

It's June 9th. This day in 1953, police in Washington, DC have arrested Lester "Buddy" Hunt, Jr on charges of soliciting sex from a male undercover officer.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Hunt's arrest led to a tragic and twisted series of events involving his father, a prominent senator, and the parts of the government going after homosexuality during the so-called "lavender scare."

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

Our very own Kellie Carter Jackson has a brand new book! You can get "We Refuse" now wherever you get your books, and all this week we'll be looking at some of the most interesting stories she covers in the work.

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

Our very own Kellie Carter Jackson has a brand new book! You can get "We Refuse" now wherever you get your books, and all this week we'll be looking at some of the most interesting stories she covers in the work.

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

Our very own Kellie Carter Jackson has a brand new book! You can get "We Refuse" now wherever you get your books, and all this week we'll be looking at some of the most interesting stories she covers in the work.

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. Follow us on social @thisdaypod and check out our YouTube page!

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

It's May 7th. This day in 1787, the writers of the constitution are debating a central question -- how many presidents should the United States have?

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by author A.J. Jacobs, whose new book "The Year of Living Constitutionally" dives into the weird world of our founding document. They discuss why the founders were concerned with the imperial presidency, and how the system we have was finally agreed on.

AJ's new book is out now! And be sure to check out The Puzzler too!

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's May 28th. This day in 1892, the newspaper offices of Ida B. Wells are ransacked by a white mob in Memphis, TN.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the incident that led up to the attack on Wells's office, why her journalism on lynching in the South was such a threat to white supremacy, and why she ultimately decided to leave Memphis and eventually land in Chicago.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

In the runup to Memorial Day, we're bringing you some stories from the archives about war and the cost of war. We'll be back with new episodes next week!

It’s March 27th. This day in 1863, Jefferson Davis declared a “day of fasting and prayer” to support the Confederate cause in the Civil War.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the role of days like this — the fasting was as much about food shortages as anything — and how religion and the cause of the war mixed for both north and south.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

In the runup to Memorial Day, we're bringing you some stories from the archives about war and the cost of war. We'll be back with new episodes next week!

It’s August 25th. In 1944, a group of sailors at Port Chicago in California are facing mutiny charges, after refusing to work under dangerous conditions. Just under a month earlier, there had been a massive explosion at the same location, killing hundreds.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the sailors refused to work, the impact of the Port Chicago explosion, and the way in which the mostly-Black sailors were mistreated by the Navy and the U.S. government.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

In the runup to Memorial Day, we're bringing you some stories from the archives about war and the cost of war. We'll be back with new episodes next week!

It’s September 2nd. This day in 2005, Cindy Sheehan embarks on a tour around the country to protest the Iraq War, where her son Casey had died the prior year.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Sheehan’s protests, the “Camp Casey” encampment she established outside of George W. Bush’s Texas ranch, and how public opinion around a number of issues was starting to shift in late 2005.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

In the runup to Memorial Day, we're bringing you some stories from the archives about war and the cost of war. We'll be back with new episodes next week!

It’s January 7th. In 1970, the New York Times published an article with the headline “Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random.”

Jody and Niki are joined by data reporter Walt Hickey to talk about how statistical analysis exposed that people born in December were more likely to be selected for the Vietnam War draft than those born in January, and what that tells us about randomness, trust, and more.

Walt’s most recent book is “You Are What You Watch” — check it out now!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

It's May 16th. This day in 1964, the FBI drops its years-long investigation into the pop song "Louie Louie."

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why there was a moral and political panic over the song and its indecipherable lyrics -- and look into what the song is actually about.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's May 14th. This day in 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon is on a goodwill tour of South America when his motorcade is attacked by a violent mob in Venezuela.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the incident reflected the larger tensions between the United States and the region -- and how the U.S. saw Latin America as a key pawn in the growing Cold War showdown with Communism.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's May 12th. This day in 1867, Jefferson Davis, the former President of the Confederacy, left a courthouse in Richmond after waiting in jail on treason charges for two years. His trial would never take place.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Davis was brought up on charges in the first place, and the way in which his trial got delayed and eventually cancelled mirrored the overall progress of Reconstruction throughout the South.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by author A.J. Jacobs, whose new book "The Year of Living Constitutionally" dives into the weird world of our founding document. They discuss the debate over what to call the new leader of the executive branch, and what that signaled about the direction of the new country.

A.J.'s new book is out now! And be sure to check out The Puzzler too!

The book A.J. mentioned is called "For Fear Of An Elective King"

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's May7th. This day in 1882, Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, aimed at curbing Chinese immigration as fears about Asian immigrants threatening White American jobs is on the rise.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the American economy relied on Chinese labor at the same time that policy sought to exclude Chinese immigrants -- and how the decades after the Civil War applied new pressures on race-based legislation around the country.

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's May 5th. This day in 1960, a British theater critic named Kenneth Tynan is hauled before a Senate sub-committee to answer questions about what is seen as his anti-American work.

It's a moment that captures the cultural and political swirl of the late 50s, which is the subject of Benjamen Walker's new audio series "Not All Propaganda Is Art," out now as part of the Radiotopia show "Theory of Everything." Check it out!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's May 2nd. This day in 1989, Pepsi cuts a trade deal with the USSR in which it receives 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why exactly Pepsi is amassing a small naval fleet, and how the company found a market behind the Iron Curtain going back decades.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's April 30th. This day in 1968, Columbia University asks the NYPD to intervene and break up campus protests. Sound familiar?

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what the protests in '68 were about, how they married campus politics with national politics -- and why so many of the lessons of that year have still not been learned.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Veepstakes Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at the process of speculating, vetting, and selecting a Vice Presidential pick.

Today: How JFK ended up picking Lyndon Johnson as his VP nominee. Its was an incredibly fraught and personal process, which of course had massive implications after JFK's assasination.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Veepstakes Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at the process of speculating, vetting, and selecting a Vice Presidential pick.

Today: We go to Juneau, Alaska, in the spring of 2007 to discuss the conservative-magazine-sponsored cruise rides where Governor Sarah Palin wined-and-dined the Washington cognoscenti. A year later, she would be picked to be John McCain's Vice Presidential pick.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Welcome to Veepstakes Week! From time to time this election year, we're going to do some special series that highlight the rhythm of an election cycle. This week, we are looking at the process of speculating, vetting, and selecting a Vice Presidential pick.

Today: What are the main considerations that go into a VP pick? What does a good, and not so good, vetting process look like?

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's April 18th. This day in 1906, a massive earthquake devastates San Francisco.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the political impact of the quake -- from how it reshaped housing policy, shifted the demographics of the city, and provided a model for disaster response for years to come.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's April 16th. This day in 1962, Walter Cronkite takes over as the anchor of CBS's evening news program.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Cronkite quickly became America's most trusted voice -- not just because he played it straight, but because he was willing to show some emotion. They also look at why there may never be a single voice as trusted as his again.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It's April 14th. This day in 2000, GOP candidate for president George W. Bush meets with a group of "Log Cabin" Republicans to discuss how the GOP can better do outreach to gay conservatives.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Neil J. Young to talk about the "Austin Twelve" meeting, the big tent approach of the early 2000s, and how gay conservatives have tried to find a political home over the decades.

Neil's new book is "Coming Out Republican: A History Of The Gay Right" and you can also catch him on the podcast Past Present.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 11th. This day in 1877, Democrat Wade Hampton finally becomes the sole Governor of South Carolina after months of in-fighting and maneuvering following the previous fall's election.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how former confederate Democrats were able to regain political power in the aftermath of the Civil War, through the ballot and through mob violence -- marking an end to reconstruction and undermining democracy in the south for decades to come.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 9th. This day in 1939, singer Marian Anderson performs for 75,000 people outdoors on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial -- after being denied the chance to perform in every indoor venue in Washington, DC.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the concert came together, what Anderson meant to the civil rights movement at the time, and the mix of racial and cultural politics of the era.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 7th. This day in 2012, there is an effort underway to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the recall effort gained momentum, why this race became a national cause, and why the effort ultimately failed.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 4th. This day in 1841, President William Henry Harrison died, just 30 days after his inauguration.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the myth about how Harrison died -- he gave a speech in awful weather - what we really know about his illness; and what kind of president he might have been.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 2nd. This day in 1863, a riot breaks out in the Confederate capitol of Richmond, due to deepening hunger and frustration among residents as the Civil War dragged on.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the war was so brutal for the residents of Richmond, and how the riots revealed the class dynamic within the city as the confederacy waged their war with the north.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 31st. This day (actually March 29th) President Harry Truman announces that he won’t be seeking the Democratic re-nomination for the election that fall.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Truman was bowing out in this moment, what that meant for his party’s chances in the fall — and how the story does and doesn’t mirror some of the conversations today about Joe Biden’s candidacy.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 27th This day in 1839, a North Carolina man by the name of John Hoover is found guilty and sentenced to be executed for killing a woman he’d enslaved named Mira.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why it was so rare to see slave-owners held accountable in this way, and why the laws around killing enslaved people cut right to the illogic at the heart of slavery.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 26th. This day in 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft planted two cherry trees in Washington, DC. The trees were a gift from Japan, and have become a staple of spring in the nation’s capital.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the arrival of the trees was the result of a long lobbying campaign, what the trees came to symbolize — and they go through some of the other gifts that countries have given us.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Today we’re bringing you a favorite recent episode, in part because there’s a new series on Apple TV about the aftermath of the Lincoln Assassination. Enjoy!

///

It’s August 30th. This day in 1894, a man by the name of Thomas H “Boston” Corbett is presumed dead in a fire in Minnesota. Boston Corbett led a troubled life, particularly over the previous thirty years, during which he was best known as the man who killed John Wilkes Booth — the man who killed Abraham Lincoln.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the circumstances under which Corbett killed Booth, the way in which he was treated as a hero, and the spiral Corbett’s life took as he embraced the role of “Lincoln’s Avenger.”

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 21st. This day in 1972, a group of 100 regular citizens are meeting to re-write Montana’s constitution. Among other provisions, the new document enshrines a “right of privacy.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why this right worked its way into the new document — and why the constitutional convention should take place in more states more often.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 19th. This day in 1879, a small group of Southern Democrats is holding up budget appropriations bills in order to force a fight over federal troops in the South.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how, for the first time, a government shutdown became a proxy war for a bigger political battle — and how it mirrors the many shutdown battles we see today.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! It’s March 16th. This day in 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney met for what came to be known as “The Shamrock Summit,” which started to repair frayed relations between the two countries.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why a shared Irish heritage became the focal point for the meeting, and how a little singing and drinking probably helped as well.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 14th. This day in 1933, just over a week after taking office, President Frankin Roosevelt announces that a top priority is legalizing 3.2% alcohol beer.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why FDR was so keen on legalizing beer sales, how it fit into his economic recovery program, and how Americans rejoiced at the return of their low-ABV suds.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 12th. This day in 1961, President John F Kennedy is hosting a couple hundred Latin American diplomats to lay out his vision for the “Alliance for Progress,” an ambitious plan to support democracy and economic development throughout the region.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how this effort mirrored some of the elements of The Marshall Plan in Europe — and why US attempts to support Latin America generally fell short.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 10th. This day in 1951, the owners of Major League Baseball are looking for a new commissioner, and a surprising name appears on the list — FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Hoover was a candidate, and what these two institutions — the FBI and MLB — meant in the post-war era.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 4th. This day in 2004, Pat Toomey is challenging Republican Senator Arlen Specter in the Pennsylvania senate race — trying to outflank him from the right in the state’s primary.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie look back at the moment where “to primary someone” became a political phenomenon, and talk to Nick Troiano of Unite America about why the primary system has been weaponized.

Nick’s new book is “The Primary Solution” — it’s out now!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s March 5th. This day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter and CBS’s Walter Cronkite took phone calls, unfiltered, from Americans all over the country who had dialed into 1-900-242-9611.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what happened during the Dial-A-President experiment, the logistics of how it all came together, and how it serves as a perfect snapshot of the era.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For our final episode of Hangers On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at Al Smith, who ran for president in 1924 and 1928, at a time when the Democratic party was building a new religious, racial, and demographic coalition. He may not have won, but he set the stage for FDR.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For the third episode of Hangers On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie look at Jesse Jackson, who ran in 1984 and 1988, evolving from civil rights activism to electoral politics, and trying to push his message towards larger economic justice issues.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For the second episode of Hangers On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report to talk about a few failed candidates who layed the groundwork for Trump’s eventual win.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Throughout this election year, we’re going to be doing a few special series tied to the notable stretches in an election cycle, from primaries to conventions and October surprises and more. This is “Hangers-On Week” our look at the point in the primary calendar where candidates are, for one reason or another, still hanging around.

For the first episode of Hangers-On Week, Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report to lay out the basic categories of the candidates who stick around a little too long: from those who want to shape policy, to those who become punchlines, and those with a different agenda in mind.

Who else deserves to be on our list of hangers-ons? What other categories would you slot candidates into? Let us know!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 22nd. This day (February 21st, in fact) in 1965, Malcolm X is assassinated as he’s giving a speech at a Harlem ballroom.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why X felt as if his killing was almost an inevitability, why the details of that day remain murky — and how two of the accused were exonerated decades later.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 20th. This day in 2006, the news — and the jokes — are swirling about the incident that took place earlier in the month, when Vice President Dick Cheney shot his hunting partner Harry Whittington on a Texas ranch.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why it took so long for the news of the incident to come out, why Whittington apologized to Cheney at a press conference — and why it took so long for this podcast to talk about this moment.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 18th. This day in 1804, the Northern state of New Jersey passed a law that included a call for a “gradual emancipation of slaves.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the laws around abolition and the reality on the ground often differed considerably — but how in cases like this, you also had the law codifying the slow transition away from slavery.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 15th. This day in 1933, in Miami, Giuseppe Zangara pulled out a pistol and, while yelling “too many people are starving!” fired at President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Zangara was trying to kill FDR, the others who were hurt in the incident — and the true “what if” in American history had Zangara succeeded.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 13th. This day — actually, February 11th — in 1990, South African leader Nelson Mandela emerges from prison after 27 years.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how attempts to keep Mandela out of the limelight backfired during his imprisonment, and how he once again picked up the freedom cause.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 11th. This day in 1924, the State of Nevada executed a man named Gee Jon, using the gas chamber for the first time as capital punishment.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the adoption of gas reflected the Progressive Era, and how the way we kill people often tells us a lot about the time we’re living in.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 8th. This day in 1976, officials for defense and airline manufacturer Lockheed Martin admit to spending millions of dollars to bribe Japanese government officials.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the Lockheed bribes were exposed, and how they were part of a larger era of multinational corporate meddling and corruption — as companies began to get more and more entangled in U.S. foreign interests.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 6th. This day in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt announces a plan to reforming the judiciary, most notably forcing older members of the Supreme Court to retire, and expand the number of justices.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why FDR felt that he had a mandate after the previous fall’s election, and why he felt that expanding the court was a key step to passing many of his reforms. Ultimately, the plan backfired and helped close the window for FDR’s reform efforts.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 4th. This day in 1877, a hastily assembled commission is meeting to try and sort out the very messy aftermath of the previous fall’s election between Samuel Tilden and Rutherford B. Hayes. Hayes won the popular vote, but in the end, they would hand the election to Hayes after a bargain with southerners that effectively ended reconstruction.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the 1876 election was so close, how a few rogue states were able to hold the process hostage — and what the bargain meant for the promise of reconstruction in the South.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s February 1st. This day in 1877, the first Groundhog Day ceremony is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — in which a small rodent’s shadow determines long-term meteorological forces.

Jody, Niki and Kellie discuss how this ceremony came to be, and some of the very weird elements, from elixirs of everlasting life to secret societies pulling the strings.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 30th. This day in 1798, representatives Roger Lyon and Matthew Griswold get into a fight on the house floor — with spitting, wrestling, and even a caning.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Yale history professor Joanne Freeman to talk about why Lyon and Griswold came to blows and what the incident says about the moments of extreme partisanship and violence in American politics.

Be sure to check out Joanne’s Friday morning series “History Matters and So Does Coffee.”

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 28th. This day in 1967, the U.S., U.K., and Russia sign a treaty that, among other things, says that outer space should be off-limits for the testing and deployment of weapons of mass destruction.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why there was a need for the Outer Space Treaty, and how — despite its important language about nuclear weapons — it left a lot of grey area and confusion about how different countries would take on space exploration.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 25th. This day in 1845, Congress passed a law designating that Americans would henceforth vote on “the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why that day was designated, and the many pitfalls that now exist around the fact that Election Day is only one day, and on a Tuesday.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 23rd, happy Ed Roberts Day! This day in 2010, the State of California proclaimed this day to commemorate the life and work of the pioneering disability rights activist.

Niki, Jody, and Kellie discuss how Roberts got his start in activism when he was denied entry to the University of California in the early 60s, and how his worked continued all the way through the passage of the ADA and beyond.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This day, January 19th, 1990, at the end of a joint sting operation by FBI agents and District of Columbia Police, DC Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession for the use of crack cocaine.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the video of the incident went viral, led to an onslaught of scandal and punchlines about Barry — but never fully eroded DC resident’s support for their beloved mayor.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 17th. This day in 1943, the U.S. military has a shiny - and massive - new home.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the design of the building came into place, and how construction went into overdrive with U.S. involvement in World War II.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 16th. This day in 1811, the aftermath of what came to be known as the “German Coast” uprising in the Orleans territory.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Charles Deslondes led a slave revolt that became the biggest in US history, and how it was inspired by the Hatian revolution, French ideas of freedom, and more.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 14th. This day in 1986, Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation that January 15th would be a federal holiday recognizing the contributions of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why it took 20 years since King’s assassination for there to be a federal holiday, and how there was active resistance and subversion among many states even after the federal mandate.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s January 11th. In 1888, a massive and quick-moving storm swept across the American Midwest, trapping hundreds of school-children in their schoolhouses.

Jody and Niki discuss why the storm was so severe, and deadly — and how the poor preparation for the storm led to a change in weather forecasting.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

It’s January 9th. In 1802, Thomas Jefferson penned a letter in which he referred to a “wall of separation between church and state.

Jody and Niki discuss how this phrase became wedded to the first amendment and a foundational political and legal idea for centuries — and how Jefferson’s intent has been contested at various points over the years.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

It’s January 7th. In 1970, the New York Times published an article with the headline “Statisticians Charge Draft Lottery Was Not Random.”

Jody and Niki are joined by data reporter Walt Hickey to talk about how statistical analysis exposed that people born in December were more likely to be selected for the Vietnam War draft than those born in January, and what that tells us about randomness, trust, and more.

Walt’s most recent book is “You Are What You Watch” — check it out now!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

**We’ll be back on Sunday with our first new epsiode of 2024. In the meantime, here’s a treat from the archives!**

It’s March 13th. This day in 1955, news breaks that the White House is engaged in a full-on battle against the squirrels that have invaded the grounds.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why President Eisenhower is so determined to get rid of the squirrels, and how he tried everything from relocating them to shooting them to — really — deploying psychological torture to solve the problem.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the final day of the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 31st. Today we wrap up the year by talking about — what else — the time that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game relocated 76 beavers by parachuting them out of airplanes.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by our Radiotopia pal Ian Chillag to discuss the story. Ian recently encountered it while doing an episode of his “Animals” series on beavers. You can listen to that here.

Happy New Year everyone!

Here’s our holiday book gift guide!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 29th. This day in 1975, a bomb, planted in a luggage locker, exploded at NYC’s LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 and injuring 74. If it had gone off just minutes earlier, it would have killed hundreds more.

Jody and Niki discuss who was responsible for the bombing, the prevalence of scattered violence in the 1970s, and why New York City was often the place in which conflicts from around the world would play out.

Here’s our holiday book gift guide!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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. 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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

This Day In Esoteric Political History is produced by Jody Avirgan’s Roulette Productions.

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 26th. This day in 1951 — actually on Christmas Day — Florida activists Harry and Harriette Moore are killed by a bomb planted under their home.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie look at the life and activism of the Moore’s, why they became targets for assassination and Florida’s place in the early civil rights movement.

Here’s our holiday book gift guide!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 24th. Today, we look at a number of puzzle-related stories from the WWII era. This is when the New York Times finally got in the crossword game, codebreakers used puzzles to recruit great minds, and more.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by author and podcast host A.J. Jacobs to discuss what that first crossword looked like, why it was such a hit, and how puzzling can help explain the world.

A.J. is the author of “The Puzzler” and also host of the new daily puzzle podcast of the same name — which is produced by our own Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown! Learn more at thepuzzler.com

Here’s our holiday book gift guide!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 21st. This day in 1913, the New York World published the very first crossword puzzle — originally called a “word cross.” Soon, a bona fide puzzle craze was sweeping the country.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by author and podcast host A.J. Jacobs to discuss what that first crossword looked like, why it was such a hit, and how puzzling can help explain the world.

A.J. is the author of “The Puzzler” and also host of the new daily puzzle podcast of the same name — which is produced by Jody and Brittani Brown! Learn more at thepuzzler.com

Here’s our holiday book gift guide!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 19th. This day in 1732, Benjamin Franklin first published “Poor Richard’s Almanack” — his book of weather forecast, practical advice, and all sorts of aphorisms about living your best life.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why the Almanack became such a sensation in Colonial America, and why his advice still feels like it could find an audience today.

Here’s our holiday book gift guide! https://thisdaypod.substack.com/p/a-this-day-books-and-merch-gift-guide

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 17th. This day in 1978, holiday travelers are flying around the country under a regulatory system that was about to come to an end. The next year, the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 would kick in.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Ganesh Sitaraman of Vanderbilt to discuss how the act changed the competitive structure for airlines — and in turn led to a degradation of service, reliability, and the glamour of flying.

Ganesh’s new book is “Why Flying is Miserable… And How To Fix It.”

Here’s our holiday book gift guide! https://thisdaypod.substack.com/p/a-this-day-books-and-merch-gift-guide

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 16th. This day in 1971, Richard Nixon signed the Alaska Natives Settlement Act, which established a new set of treaties and financial structures for Alaskan tribes — unlike any other arrangement in the so-called “lower 48.”

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the structure of the act meant that tribes would now be embracing, and contending with, American-style capitalism.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 12th. This day in 1909, garment industry workers in New York and Philadelphia are on a massive strike, protesting working conditions and beginning to unionize in favor of better working conditions. This was a couple years before the more infamous fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how these earlier protests and victories re-cast our understanding of Shirtwaist, and the labor activism of the time.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 10th. This day in 1875, the Canadian Metis leader Louis Riel is in Washington, DC to ask US President Grant for assistance in his battle against the Canadian government.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the Metis fight, violence along the western parts of the US-Canadian border, and Riel’s subsequent religious “epiphany.”

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

Today we’re looking at Hawaiian Independence Day, marked on November 28th.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what exactly “independence” meant for the islands, which were shifting from colonial rule to monarchical rule and, eventually, American annexation.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 5th. In 196, W.E.B. Du Bois announces that he’s joining the Communist Party — at the age of 93.

Jody, Niki and Kellie discuss why Du Bois found an ideological home in the Party, his lifelong ideological seeking, and what it meant to join the Communist Party in this particular moment.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s December 3rd. In 1878, the White House got a phone line for the first time.

Jody, Niki and Kellie discuss why President Rutherford B Hayes was so embracing of new technology — and how the phone got other presidents into hot water over the years.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

[[This episode is from the This Day archives]]

It’s November 24th. On this day in 1969, Native American activists have staged an occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay.

Jody and Niki are joined by Julian Brave Noisecat to discuss the 19-month occupation, often considered the birth of the modern Indigenous rights movement — and how exactly the protesters managed to pull off the occupation of the island.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 27th. In 1894, a group of 19 Hopi men are arrested in Arizona and brought to Alcatraz Island in California, imprisoned for their resistance to the US government’s re-education efforts.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the group of Hopi’s were arrested, what Hopi resistance looked like in this era, and what happened to the men after their imprisonment.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! For today, a special historical potluck. Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss some of their favorite historical stories related to food, drink, and dessert.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 21st. Tomorrow is the 60th anniversary of the JFK assassination, so we’re bringing you an episode from last year about the time someone made an attempt on the newly-elected president’s life, 3 years before the events in Dallas. We’ll be back with a new episode on Thursday for Thanksgiving!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 19th. This day in 1915, IWW activist and songwriter Joe Hill is executed by the state of Utah.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Hill’s songs were so powerful, how they posed a threat to big business at the time — and Jody finally gets to talk about his undergraduate thesis!

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 16th. This day in 2016, Vice President-elect Mike Pence attends a performance of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton,” where he is booed by the audience before the show; and after the show the cast reads him a statement of protest.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how this story played out in 2016, what we make of it now — and why Pence was at “Hamilton” to begin with.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 14th. This day in 1918, famed industrialist Henry Ford starts to raise questions about the result of the Michigan Senate election, in which he lost by a narrow margin.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Ford is contesting the vote, how it ties into his growing conspiratorial and anti-Semitic mindset — and how the worlds of business and politics began to meld in this era.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 12th. This day in 1970, a small town in Oregon decides that the best way to get rid of a massive whale that has washed up on its shores is by… dynamiting it into oblivion.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the plan went so awry, pay tribute to the one local who was trying to warn everyone — and discuss how footage of the incident became one of the first viral videos.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

** It’s the Radiotopia fundraiser! Support the show using this link and you’ll get a 20% discount to our new merch store! https://on.prx.org/46XCf1R **

It’s November 9th. This day in 1865, Confederate commander Henry Wirz is executed for war crimes — the only Confederate commanding officer to face such justice.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the Andersonville prison camp that Wirz oversaw, and why his particular crimes were seen as out of bounds during the brutal aftermath of the Civil War.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s November 7th. This day in 1983, a bomb placed under a bench on the second floor of the Capitol building’s North Wing goes off, minutes after the Senate switchboard received a cryptic message claiming credit.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the little-known group that carried out the bombing, why they turned to violence in this moment — and what exactly they were protesting.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s November 5th. This day in 1980, voters in the Maryland 5th Congressional District have just re-elected Gladys Noon Spellman — despite the fact that she is in a coma from which she would never recover.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the twists and turns of the election, how Congress reacted, and how this moment led to the political career of one of the most prominent Democrats in the House.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s November 2nd. This day in 2019, New York City began a process of opening up Hart Island to the public, after centuries of using the space to bury its unnamed dead.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Joe Richman of “Radio Diaries” to discuss the history of Hart Island and the ongoing tension between public space and private cemetery. Radio Diaries has a new series called “The Unmarked Grave: Stories from Hart Island.” Listen to it now!

Check out the Radio Diaries live event on November 9th in NYC - it’s also being livestreamed.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 31st. This day in 1938, hundreds of thousands gather in Barcelona, Spain, to say thanks and bid farewell to the thousands of foreign volunteers who had come to join the fight in the Spanish Civil War.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by author Adam Hochschild to discuss why so many Americans were drawn to the battle in Spain, and how the anti-fascist fight there set the stage for WWII.

Adam is the author of many brilliant books, including “American Midnight,” “King Leopold’s Ghost” and “Spain In Our Hearts.”

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 29th. This day in 1948, a heavy, pollutant-laden fog is sitting over the Pennsylvania town of Donora. Over the course of five days, dozens of people would die and half the town’s population would get sick.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the town of Donora was so vulnerable to the US Steel plant’s pollution, and how the company fought back against regulation over the course of decades.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 25th. This day in 1966, a group gathers for the first conference of the National Organization for Women, aka NOW.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why the group felt the need for a new activist organization — and how NOW navigated both the political and social spheres of the feminist movement.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 24th. This day in 2008, former secretary of state Colin Powell goes on Meet the Press and endorses Barack Obama for president — over his longtime friend, and fellow Republican, John McCain.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Leah Wrigth Rigueur to talk about why Colin rebuked his own party, what Obama represented, and what it says about the crossroads he found himself in that moment.

Leah is a professor at Johns Hopkins and the author of The Loneliness of the Black Republican — she’s also co-host with Kellie of You Get A Podcast!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 22nd. This day in 1927, Americans are flocking to the theaters to watch “The Jazz Singer,” the first major “talkie” film.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Walt Hickey to discuss how Hollywood became a major economic and political force in the aftermath of WWI, and how it the soft power of American entertainment started to shape the world.

Walt’s new book is “You Are What You Watch” — preorder it now and get a free poster!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 19th. This day in 1987, real estate mogul Donald Trump was invited to New Hampshire to give a speech to a local GOP group. He bragged about his accomplishments, drew a big crowd and — of course — teased a possible presidential run.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Robert Fleegler of the University Of Mississippi to discuss why Trump showed up in the early stages of the 1988 primary, and how his message then was almost exactly the same as his message now.

Robert’s latest book is “Brutal Campaign How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for Twenty-First-Century American Politics.”

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 17th. This day in 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a resolution that passed Congress to restore the citizenship of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why there was a push to re-imagine Davis’s legacy — and whether Jefferson Davis would have even wanted this.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 15th. This day in 2004, voters in the swing region of Clark County, Ohio are receiving letters encouraging them to vote for John Kerry — letters written by readers of the left-leaning British newspaper “The Guardian.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why “The Guardian” had launched their letter writing campaign, what it says about the gamification of politics — and how the folks who got the letters responded.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 12th. This day in 1863, fighting is breaking out in Jones County, Mississippi, as a group of southern farmers starts to rebel against the Confederacy.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why this group felt compelled to rebel, what their fight was really about — and what the 2016 movie starring Matthew McConoughey got right and wrong about the incident.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 9th. In 1919, the US Department of Agriculture began a nationwide campaign to promote better breeding among livestock — and stamp out so-called “scrub bulls.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how this effort took on absurd dimensions, but also reflected a deeper and darker cultural obsession with breeding and fitness.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 5th. This day in 1982, a massive recall is underway for Tylenol, in the wake of a series of random poisonings and deaths in the Chicago era.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the crisis, Johnson & Johnson’s relatively effective response — and the very strange ransom letter sent in the middle of it all.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 3rd. This day in 1935, Italian leader Benito Mussolini invades Ethiopia, one of the only independent Black states in the world.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by MSNBC’s Isaac-Davy Aronson to discuss what Italy’s aggression did to the very fragile world order — and how the move reverberated around the Black diaspora.

Be sure to check out “Deja News,” which did an episode about this moment.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 3rd. This day in 1956, a group of 25 Japanese women are heading back to Japan after spending a year in the United States receiving medical and cosmetic surgery.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Slate’s Josh Levin to talk about the “Hiroshima Maidens,” who came to this country and showed Americans the horrific consequences of nuclear attack.

Josh tells the story of the maidens in a new episode of his series “One Year: 1955.” Check it out now wherever you get your podcasts.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s October 1st. In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin is set to stop off for a diplomatic visit in Ireland. But when his plane lands on the tarmac at Shannon Airport, Yeltsin refuses to get off.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Yeltsin’s reputation for heavy drinking and boorish behavior, how that played into this incident, and what may have really happened on that plane.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 30th. This day in 2004, George W. Bush and John Kerry take the stage for the first presidential debate of the 2004 election. In response to Kerry saying that very few countries supported the United State’s invasion of Iraq, Bush responded that. “actually, you forgot Poland.”

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss what that comeback landed so poorly, and became an early internet meme — and the larger context of the “coalition of the willing” the Bush administration was using to justify the Iraq war.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 26th. This day in 1983, Massachusetts Senator Michael Dukakis held a press conference to announce an enormous and ambitious infrastructure project to take a roadway that cut through the center of Boston and move it underground.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by reporter Ian Coss to discuss the initial plans for what would come to be known as “The Big Dig,” and why the project ended up taking decades, and billions of dollars, more than expected — and what it says about ambitious infrastructure projects in America.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 26th. This day in 1983, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces determined that an alert about an incoming nuclear attack was, in fact, a computer glitch, likely preventing a series of retaliations by the USSR and the USA.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Petrov made his decision, what could have gone wrong, and why the policy of “mutually assured destruction” invited such perilous scenarios.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 22nd. This day in 1999, Aaron Sorkin’s podcast “The West Wing” premiered on NBC.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by fellow Radiotopian Hrishikesh Hirway to talk about the political influence and legacy of the show.

Check out The West Wing Weekly and all of Hrishi’s podcasts on his website!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 19th. This day, in 1664, Marlyand passed the first “anti-amalgamation” law in the colonies, outlawing the marriage between Black men and English women.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how these anti-miscegenation laws were first written, and how they were altered, evolved, and tested over the course of two centuries.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

A few episodes ago, we discussed what we’d learned on our summer travels, and asked for your stories. Today, we go through some tidbits, stories, and fascinating facts. Thanks to everyone who wrote it!

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 14th. This day in 1970, economist Milton Friedman pens an op-ed in The New York Times making the case that a corporation’s primary goal is to increase shareholder value and profits.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Noel King of “Today, Explained” to discuss how Friedman’s “shareholder theory” pushed back against existing ideas of corporate responsibility, and signaled a new vision for capitalism — and how the last forty years have reflected those values.

Noel is the host of a new series running in the “Today, Explained” feed called BLAME CAPITALISM. Check out the first episode now!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 14th. This day in 1986, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan gave a prime-time television address about drugs, drug policy, and crack cocaine.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by journalist Donovan X Ramsey to talk about why both Reagans took part in the address, the media-savvy narratives that emerged in the “Just Say No” era, and the real victims of drug abuse who were left behind.

Donovan’s new book is When Crack Was King — buy it now, or check out the audio book!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s September 8th. This day in 1971, a consumer advocate Esther Peterson worked with the supermarket chain GIANT to come up with the first nutrition labels.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Auburn professor Xaq Frolich to talk about Peterson’s advocacy, what labels looked like before this initiative — and whether labels do actually help empower consumers to make better choices.

Frolich’s forthcoming book is “From Label to Table” — pre-order it now!

It’s September 7th. This day in 1933, journalist Upton Sinclair launches a campaign for California governor.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Sinclair turned to politics after enormous success and influence as a muckraking journalist — and how his radical progressive campaign found a large audience.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s the end of summer, and today we’re doing a special episode where we talk about some of the most interesting stories from history we discovered on our various summer travels.

And we want to hear from you! If there was something you learned that has stuck with you, let us know and we’ll do a follow-up episode shortly. Email [email protected] or find us on twitter or instagram.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As we wrap up summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll see you after Labor Day!

///

It’s July 28th. This day in 1992, “Morris The Cat,” the feline spokesperson for Nine Lives cat food, is in the heart of a stunt presidential campaign.

Jody and Niki are joined by director and writer Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up, Vice, Anchorman) to talk about the campaign and how Adam’s career changed as a result.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As we wrap up summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll see you after Labor Day!

///

It’s August 30th. This day in 1894, a man by the name of Thomas H “Boston” Corbett is presumed dead in a fire in Minnesota. Boston Corbett led a troubled life, particularly over the previous thirty years, during which he was best known as the man who killed John Wilkes Booth — the man who killed Abraham Lincoln.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the circumstances under which Corbett killed Booth, the way in which he was treated as a hero, and the spiral Corbett’s life took as he embraced the role of “Lincoln’s Avenger.”

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s August 31st. This day in 1942, a judge upholds the arrest of a Japanese-American man named Fred Korematsu.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Korematsu tried to resist the detention of Japanese-Americans in the wake of Pearl Harbor, and the legal battles that broke out after the Roosevelt administration moved hundreds of thousands of people to concentration camps along the west coast.

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

It’s August 24th. This day in 1861, a Union general in Missouri issued an edict freeing all enslaved people in the territory — this some sixteen months before Lincoln would issue the formal Emancipation Proclamation.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Missouri went rogue, the way in which frontier and border states lived in a sort of limbo during the Civil War — and what kind of fallout there was from the edict.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s August 22nd. In the summer of 2005, a proposed bridge in rural Alaska was becoming a hot-button controversy, as conservatives assailed its half-billion dollar price tag as emblematic of government overspending and pork-barrel politics.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie look back at the “Bridget to Nowhere” controversy, what it says about how local and national politics intersect — and whether the bridge really was way too expensive after all.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s August 22nd. This day in 1831, Nathaniel “Nat” Turner is leading a rebellion in Southampton, Virginia — what would become perhaps the most famous slave revolt in the Antebellum South. But there’s a hidden story.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Vanessa Holden of the University of Kentucky to discuss how it was the larger community in Southampton, particularly women, who made the rebellion possible.

Vanessa is the author of Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner's Community — find it wherever you get your books!

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

It’s August 17th. This day in 1979, a young college student by the name of James Dallas Egber III disappeared into a steam tunnel below his university, intending to commit suicide. But the story of his disappearance became a media - and moral - panic because of his affinity for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what we know and don’t know about Egber’s troubled life, and why the D&D narrative was so pervasive.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s August 15th. This day (actually Aug 10th) in 1846, President Polk signed into law a bill establishing the Smithsonian Institution, after almost a decade of squabbling about how the United States would use the money donated to it by Englishman James Smithson.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the various ways in which the Smithsonian money could have been spent, why it was used the way it was — and whether the currrent institution honors Smithson’s original vision.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s August 10th. This day in 2006, Virginia Senator George Allen is caught on tape referring to S.R. Sidarth, a young man filming his event, as “macaca.” This video became an early viral moment and helped lead to Allen’s defeat later that fall — showing how viral video could transform politics.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Peter Hamby of Snapchat and Puck News to discuss the incident, how the internet was changing politics in the mid-2000s, and whether Allen’s comments would have been so controversial today.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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

It’s August 10th. In 1984, at the LA Olympics, South African Zola Budd and American Mary Decker are facing off in the incredibly hyped-up 3000m final. But neither would finish, as Budd tripped Decker with just a couple laps to go.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why this was such a dramatic moment — not just on the track, but geopolitically.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s August 8th. This day in 1996, President Bill Clinton gives a startling announcement about a rock — ALH84001 — that seems to indicate the presence of life on Mars.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the larger political and cultural context for why Clinton made this big announcement, and what we really know about the rock’s origins.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s August 18th. This day in 1976, Alex Haley’s sprawling epic Roots hits the bookshelves. It quickly caused a sensation — and controversy.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Haley’s work came together, the enormous impact it had, and the mix of fact and fiction that somewhat clouded the work.

Check out Reconsidering Roots, the book Kellie edited about Haley and the Roots television miniseries.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s August 3rd. This day in 1978, dog owners in NYC are dealing with a whole new reality — they are now responsible for cleaning up after their pet’s waste.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss what life was like on NYC’s streets before the so-called “pooper scooper” law, and how these sorts of laws are more about shifting norms than actual enforcement.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s August 1st. This day in 1996, a judge ruled that Bernie Goetz still owed his victims millions of dollars in damages as a result of the “Subway Vigilante” incident some twelve years earlier.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Leon Neyfakh to discuss the subway shooting, the media frenzy surrounding Goetz, and the long legal fallout that resulted from the incident.

Leon’s latest season of FIASCO on the vigilante story is available now on Audible and you can find information on how to listen to previous seasons here.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s August 11th. This day in 1973, a group of Irish-Americans known as “The Fort Worth Five” are caught up in the court system, accused of running guns to Ireland to aid the independence movement.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Nate Lavey to discuss how regular Irish-Americans got involved in the freedom fight, and the long political and financial nexus between groups like NORAID in the United States and the IRA in Ireland.

Nate is the host of the excellent new podcast “Foreign Agent,” which traces the roots of NORAID and Irish-American activism.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s July 27th. This day in 1904, Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon (IL) goes to the Capitol dining room expecting to have a nice hot cup of his favorite, bean soup, and is met with an unfortunate surprise.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Cannon was so upset at not being served bean soup, and why the Senate has featured it on the menu every single day since — except for one.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s July 24th. This day in 1942, a trial is wrapping up in New York City centered on a Nazi plot to target a number of significant US economic sites, from factories to dams and bridges.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by podcast producer Rebecca Seidel to discuss what came to be known as Operation Pastorius.

Be sure to check out Becca’s latest podcast series — Abridged!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s July 25th. This day (July 24th in fact) in 2009, President Obama extended an invitation to Henry Louis Gates, Jr and Sgt James Crowley to discuss an incident in which Crowley arrested Gates on his own doorstep.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the incident that sparked this attempt at reconciliation, and how Obama’s handling of the moment was a turning point for many white Americans in how they viewed his presidency.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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

It’s July 20th. This day in 1945, a petition signed by 70 scientists working on the development of nuclear weapons is circulating in Washington — a petition arguing against the plans to drop weapons on Japan.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the Szilard Petition, how it reflected the deep moral wrestling taking place among the scientific community, and why it ultimately did not make it to President Truman’s desk.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s July 18th. This day in 1944, a group of almost one thousand refugees are headed to the United States, where they would eventually be housed at Ft Ontario, in New York. This was the only large group of Holocaust refugees permitted to enter the United States during World War II.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by filmmaker Sarah Botstein to discuss the Ft Ontario group and how the US thought about refugees in this era.

Sarah was a co-director and producer, alongside Ken Burns and Lynn Novak, of the documentary series “The U.S. And The Holocaust.”

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s July 22nd. This day in 1975, Congress voted to restore citizenship to Robert E. Lee, more than a hundred years after his death.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by author John Reeves to talk about why this vote took place, how it tied into a false theory about a missing citizenship oath, and what the myth of Lee says about how the Confederacy has been restored in the public imagination.

John Reeve’s book is “The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case against an American Icon”

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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

It’s July 13th. Only July 14th, 1948, at the Democratic National Convention, a young Hubert Humphrey took the stage and implored his party to embrace the cause of civil rights.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Samuel G Freedman of Columbia University to discuss why Humphrey’s speech sent such a shockwave through the party — and ultimately convinced it to adopt a pro-civil rights plank heading into that election.

Freedman’s new book about Humphrey is called Into The Bright Sunshine.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s July 11th. This day in 1979, Americans and others around the world are watching the skies as the first space station, Skylab, comes hurtling back down to earth.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss why Skylab crashed, how people in the US and Australia reacted — and what the incident indicated about a time of national distrust and malaise.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

///

It’s July 10th. This day in 1844, riots and violence are breaking out in Philadelphia as nativist groups coalesce around anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how the riots wrapped up fears about schooling, economic competition, religion — and marked a moment in which Nativism started to wield political power.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s July 6th. Today we revisit our conversation about how Washington DC came to be the nations capitol, with a look at Pierre Charles L'Enfant and how he originally conceived of the city’s layout.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by George Mason professor Scott W Berg to discuss the European inspiration for L’Enfant’s layout, and how he hoped to inspire drama and wonder through the city’s streets and circles.

Scott’s book on L’Enfant is called Grand Avenues: The Story of Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s July 4th. This day in 1942, researchers at Harvard conducted the first ever napalm test — right in the middle of Harvard’s soccer field.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how napalm was developed on campus, and why people thought it was a good idea to test a weapon of mass destruction in such a prominent location.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

On Sundays this summer, we’re bringing you some of our favorite episodes from the archives. We’ll continue to do new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Happy summer!

////

It’s July 3rd. This day in 1956, President Eisenhower signed the National Highway Act, the largest infrastructure project in American history.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Eddie Alterman, longtime editor of Car & Driver magazine, to discuss how the highway network reshaped the country and changed car culture.

Be sure to check out Eddie’s podcast Car Show! from our friends at Pushkin Industries.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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 and Audrey Mardavich, Executive Producers at Radiotopia

It’s July 1st. This day in 1992, two abortion rights activist traveled to the United States carrying abortion pills, in order to get arrested and spark a legal case around the legality of the pill.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by podcast host TJ Raphael to discuss what happened after the two people were arrested, and the new podcast series that looks at the fight over the abortion pill that exploded in the early 1990s.

Be sure to listen to TJ’s series “Cover Up: The Pill Plot,” wherever you get your podcasts!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 26th. In 1868, throughout the summer, there is a process underway to bring seven Southern US states back into the United States.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the logistics of re-admittance, and how different states took very different approaches to the process.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 21st. This day in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled that the burning of the American flag was allowed as free expression under the first amendment.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Michael Liroff of the 5-4 Podcast to discuss the free speech precedent, the history of laws regarding “desecrating” the flag, and why the defendant, Gregory Lee Johnson, burned the flag in the first place.

Check out Five-Four wherever you get your podcasts! fivefourpod.com

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 21st. This day in 1946, an epic battle is playing out across the radio waves, as The Adventures of Superman takes on a multi-part series in which the man of steel confront “The Clan of the Fiery Cross,” a loose stand-in for the KKK.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Superman was confronting the Klan in this moment, and what it signaled about the KKK’s diminishing role in American life.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 20th. Tonight, it will be dark — and maybe you will go for a walk?

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Bianca Giaever, host of the podcast series “Constellation Prize,” to talk about her forays into walking at night, and her correspondence with the writer Terry Tempest Williams. They also discuss the rich social and political history of walking at night.

Be sure to check out Constellation Prize, from the Believer, wherever you get your podcasts!

https://www.thebeliever.net/constellation-prize/

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 18th. Today, for Juneteenth, we look at the history of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” aka the Black National Anthem.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the song’s history and the various ways in which it’s been presented as a song of resistance, militancy, and empowerment through the decades.

If you want to hear our Juneteenth history episode, find it here! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juneteenth-1865/id1502728938?i=1000519244206

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 15th. This day in 1877, a prominent Jewish businessman by the name of Joseph Seligman is turned away from staying at the Grand Union Hotel, with the hotel claiming a new policy “no Israelites shall be permitted in the future to stop at this hotel.”

Jody, Niki and Kellie are joined by Zev Eleff, president of Gratz College in Pennsylvania, to discuss what came to be known as the Seligman Affair, perhaps the most high-profile case of antisemitism in the United States up to that point. It revealed a lot about shifting class, race, and religious lines in post-Civil-War America.

Zev wrote an article for Sources, from the Shalom Hartman Institute, check it out here: https://www.sourcesjournal.org/articles/tag/Zev+Eleff

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s June 13th. This day in 1986, the Rogers Commission has issued a report and is conducting a series of hearings on the causes of the Challenger space shuttle disaster earlier that year.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the report revealed not just technical failures, but deep bureaucratic dysfunction and lack of communication that ultimately led to warning about the shuttle’s safety not being heeded.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As it happens, the This Day team has a bunch of cool new projects coming out over the next week or two. So, we’re going to feature them here.

Today: Jody is the executive producer of a new series called Death On The Lot, a look at how changes and tragedy in Hollywood reflected larger shifts in American culture and politics in the 1940s and 50s.

The two writers for the series, Brian Steele and Hadley Meares, discuss our look a the life of Hattie McDaniel, who was the first Black actress to win an Oscar, but was soon shut out of Hollywood, and became the target of the burgeoning modern civil rights movement.

Be sure to listen to Death On The Lot wherever you get your podcasts!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As it happens, the This Day team has a bunch of cool new projects coming out over the next week or two. So, we’re going to feature them here.

Today: Jody is the executive producer of a new series called Death On The Lot, a look at how changes and tragedy in Hollywood reflected larger shifts in American culture and politics in the 1940s and 50s.

The two writers for the series, Brian Steele and Hadley Meares, discuss Hollywood’s labor history, and how in the post-war era unions were corrupted by organized crime; and red-baited by politicians and the media.

Be sure to listen to Death On The Lot wherever you get your podcasts!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As it happens, the This Day team has a bunch of cool new projects coming out over the next week or two. So, we’re going to feature them here.

Today: Our very own Nicole Hemmer has been part of the years-in-the-making Obama Oral History Project, which talked to members of the administration and people affected by Obama’s policy about key moments in his presidency. Today, we talk about the project’s launch and the first batch of interviews about environmental policy within the administration.

Subscribe to the SLR and check out the podcast series here: https://sundaylongread.com/

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As it happens, the This Day team has a bunch of cool new projects coming out over the next week or two. So, we’re going to feature them here.

Today: Our producer and researcher Jacob Feldman is also one of the co-writers of the excellent Sunday Long Reads newsletter. They just launched a podcast series about the art of the obituary. Jacob is joined by Don Van Natta to talk about Ronald Reagan’s obit and what they learned about the artform.

Subscribe to the SLR and check out the podcast series here: https://sundaylongread.com/

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

As it happens, the This Day team has a bunch of cool new projects coming out over the next week or two. So, we’re going to feature them here.

Today: Kellie’s other podcast is back! You Get A Podcast looks at the rich and wild history of the Oprah Winfrey Show, and the Queen of Talk’s influence on our culture and politics. Be sure to check it out wherever you get your podcasts or at YouGetAPodcast.com

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 30th. This day in 1979, a Manhattan 6-year-old by the name of Etan Patz goes missing on his two-block walk to the bus stop.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the Patz case became such a media sensation, and contributed to the rise of the “stranger danger” era, with kids being warned about abductions, faces plastered on the side of milk cartons, and more.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s Memorial Day — today we’re bringing you an episode from the archives to mark the weekend. We’ll be back with new episodes next week.

It’s November 12th. On this day in 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened in Washington, DC.

Jody and Niki discuss the controversy over the memorial’s design, the additions over the years, and how we memorialize forever wars.

Find a transcript of this episode at: https://tinyurl.com/esoterichistory

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

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

We’re doing a special two-part series on the American Girl Doll line of historical dolls! This is part two.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Aisha Harris of NPR to look at Addy, the first Black American Girl Doll. Turns out, there was a lot of research done into developing the character — as unsettling as her backstory may be.

Be sure to check out Aisha’s work on Pop Culture Happy Hour, and pre-order her new book Wannabe: Reckonings With The Pop Culture That Shaped Me

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

We’re doing a special two-part series on the American Girl Doll line of historical dolls!

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Aisha Harris of NPR to look at the origins of the American Girl Doll, the various periods of American history represented by the series — and how they served as an entry point to history for many people.

Be sure to check out Aisha’s work on Pop Culture Happy Hour, and pre-order her new book Wannabe: Reckonings With The Pop Culture That Shaped Me

Next episode: a deep dive into Addy, the American Girl Doll’s first Black character.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 21st. This day in 1934, William Burns resigns from the Bureau of Investigations in scandal, replaced by J Edgar Hoover.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Burns had gained the reputation as “America’s Sherlock Holmes” as an independent investigator, then eventually was brought in to run the BOI — before eventually getting enveloped in various corruption scandals.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 18th. This day in 1927, a man detonated bombs at a school in Bath, Michigan, killing dozens of children, then killing himself.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how Andrew Kehoe was motivated, in part, by anti-tax and anti-government animus, and how this school tragedy resonates with more modern violence at schools.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 16th. This day in 1973, a 70-day standoff at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation comes to an end.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Native activists occupied the town, how it tied into the larger Civil Rights movement, and why celebrities were so drawn to the standoff.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s the second of two episodes we’re doing with Paul Kix about the critical weeks in Birmingham, Alabama in May 1963.

This day, in New York City, a group of civil rights leaders meets with Attorney General Robert F Kennedy to talk about the incidents in Birmingham and the state of the movement. The meeting is contentious, but it pushes RFK to ultimately support significant legislation.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Paul Kick to discuss the meeting, and the critical role that Harry Belafonte played in the movement.

Paul’s new book is You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America — it’s available everywhere now!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 11th. This day in 1963, a series of bombs explode in Birmingham, Alabama — one at the hotel in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was staying, and one at his brother’s house.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by journalist Paul Kix to discuss the bombings, and how they fit in to a momentous stretch of time for the Civil Rights movement, centered in Birmingham.

Paul’s new book is You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America — it’s available everywhere now!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 9th. This day in 2012, President Obama gives an interview in which he expresses his support for gay marriage, a stance that he’d been reluctant to take up until that point. His hand was forced, in part, because a few days earlier Vice President Biden had said he supported gay marriage in another interview — which. was largely seen as a “gaffe” on Biden’s part.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Sasha Issenberg to discuss how Biden spoiled the administration’s stance — and where this moment fits into the long battle for marriage equality in the coutry.

Be sure to check out Sasha’s book “The Engagement!”

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 7th. This day in 1994, during a town hall airing on MTV, President Bill Clinton is asked whether he wears “boxers or briefs.”

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined once again by the hosts of Normal Gossip to discuss why MTV was hosting a town hall with the president, why Clinton even bothered to answer — and what we make of the more gossipy political interview approach.

Be sure to check out Normal Gossip wherever you get your podcasts!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

We’re doing a couple episodes on moments of historical gossip with our new Radiotopia pals from the show Normal Gossip.

Today, we discuss Anne Royall, who in 1826 began publishing books and articles based on her travels around the country talking to everyday folks about their everyday lives. She was able to gather stories and map society in a new way — and also recieved a lot of pushback for it.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie are joined by Kelsey McKinney and Alex Sujong Laughlin of Normal Gossip to discuss Royall’s work and legacy.

Be sure to check out Normal Gossip wherever you get your podcasts!

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s May 2nd. In 1847, a US military ship, the USS Jamestown, was loaded up with food and other relief to sail to Ireland and help with the famine in that country.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how disparate communities in the US rallied around the cause, and how the Jamestown represented one of the first moments of international camaraderie for a new country.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 30th. This day in 1994, an 18-year-old American named Michael Fay is awaiting his punishment in Singapore for acts of vandalism. That punishment included caning, which caused a media and diplomatic firestorm in the United States.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the details of Faye’s crime and punishment — and the way in which the incident revealed American’s appetite for corporal punishment.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 27th. In 2004, a report aired on 60 Minutes II featuring reports and photos of abuse by American troops at the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the photos caused such a scandal, and how the torture at the prison was largely within the framework of how the Bush administration conducted the war in Iraq.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

It’s April 25th. In 1777, a 16-year-old by the name of Sybil Luddington went on a 40-mile nighttime ride to warn Colonial troops and citizens of an impending British invasion.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why Luddington’s midnight ride isn’t nearly as famous as Paul Revere’s — and how we can ever know if the details of her story are actually true.

Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

We’re re-running some favorite recent episodes this week, and will be back with brand new episodes very soon!

It’s December 4th. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the Colored Conventions movement, which provided and intellectual and political space for Black leaders in the years before, during, and after the Civil War.

Check out the Colored Conventions database at coloredconventions.org

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

We’re re-running some favorite recent episodes this week, and will be back with brand new episodes very soon!

It’s October 4th. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin is headed to France as the Continental Congress’s first diplomat, looking to secure support for the American independence movement.

Jody and Kellie are joined by Mike Duncan, history podcaster behind series such as “Revolutions” and “The Fall of Rome.” They discuss Franklin’s diplomatic goal, his taste for the Parisian nightlife — and why the values of the Founding Fathers continue to be contested and politicized.

Check out Mike’s book “Hero of Two Worlds.”

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

We’re re-running some favorite recent episodes this week, and will be back with brand new episodes very soon!

It’s December 15th. In 1960, a New Hampshire man lined his car with dynamite and planned to ram in to the limousine in which President-Elect John F Kennedy was riding. He ditched his plan at the last second, and was arrested shortly after. Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the plot, the incredible way it was uncovered, and why Kennedy was the target of such hatred even before he took office.

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

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; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia