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Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

“This Day” takes you beyond the head-spinning headlines of today and into the unexpected historical moments that have shaped American politics. Hosted by Jody Avirgan (538), and historians Nicole Hemmer (Vanderbilt), and Kellie Carter Jackson (Wellesley), each episode explores a moment from that day in U.S. political history to uncover its lasting impact. 

On Sunday episodes, Jody, Niki and Kellie react to current news with their usual mix of humor, analysis, and historical perspective.

New episodes released Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Lots more on our Instagram page, YouTube, and newsletter. Find it all at thisdaypod.com.

This Day is a proud member of the Radiotopia podcast network from PRX.

This Day in Esoteric Political History

It's November 11th. This day in 1969, a new show for children is on the airwaves -- Sesame Street.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie dive into a two-part look at the birth of this new show, from the big ideas about television and children's psychology, to the set design and use of puppets.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Birth of Sesame Street (1969)

It's November 6th. This day in 1868, Martha Hughes Cannon becomes the first female state senator in US history, when she beats her husband in a Utah election.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Cannon's career as a doctor, her move into women's rights and then politics -- and how the question of polygamy hovered over the entire political landscape of Utah in that era.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Utah's Revolutionary Senator (1868)

It's Election Day in many parts of the country, including in New York City, which may elect a Democratic Socialist mayor. 100 years ago, many cities in the US had socialist mayors, who came to be known as "sewer socialists" for their relentless focus on city services.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss Milwaukee's history of electing socialist mayors, how they found a foothold in day-to-day issues -- and what Zohran Mamdani's rise says about the revival of this brand of socialism.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Sewer Socialist Mayor (1916)

It's October 30th. This day (technically November 2nd) in 1982, a Honda Accord rolls off the assembly line at a new plant in Marysville, Ohio -- the first Japanese car made by American workers.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the rise of Japanese auto manufacturing throuhgout the 1970s, the arguments over protectionism and American manufacturing that arose as a result -- and the compomise during the Reagan era to have the automakers build plants in the United States.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Japanese Cars, Made In America (1982)

It's October 28th. This day in 1964, the presidential election is in the home stretch, with candidates like Lyndon B Johnson, Barry Goldwater -- and Dizzy Gillespie?

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss the only-half-joking candidacy of the legendary jazz trumpeter, and the intersection of entertainment and politics in that era. Plus: the power of great merch.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Dizzy Gillespie For President (1964)

This Sunday, we are convening a teach-in in Washington DC with our friend Nate DiMeo of The Memory Palace. Here is Nate's latest episode, where he discusses the path to this event and the need to defend the work of history and museums.

Find out more information about the teach in here.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Memory Palace: This Weekend's Teach-In

It's October 22nd. This day in 1999, in Annapolis, MD, the last of the so-called "Liberty Trees" was cut down.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the original liberty trees that served as gathering spots for political ideas to be shared -- and political violence to play out -- during the American revolution. And they make the case for bringing back gatherings-under-trees as a political act.

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The (Actual) Tree Of Liberty

It's October 21st. This day in 1982, residents of Warren County, NC are fighting back against plans to dump tons of PCB-laden dirt in their local landfill.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Warren County came to be a target of this environmental disaster, how residents banded together, and the legacy of "environmental racism."

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A Toxic Town Fights Back (1982)

It's 1903. This day, Teddy Roosevelt is visiting Ellis Island amid a fierce conversation about American immigration policy.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by Andrew Porwancher of Arizona State to discuss how Roosevelt's views on immigration were always shifting, from a humanitarian instinct to electoral concerns to scientific ideas about racial superiority. They also discuss the blunt language used around race and immigration at the time, including Roosevelt's fears that the "right" kind of immigrants were commiting "race suicide."

Andrew's new book is "American Macabee: Theodore Roosevelt and The Jews." It's available now!

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Teddy Roosevelt's "Race Suicide" Fears (1903) w/ Andrew Porwancher

It's October 13th. This day in 2013, the healthcare.gov website is a total fiasco. It had launched a couple weeks earlier and was immediately unusable, with only six people being able to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges on the first day.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss why the website was so broken, the blame game that ensued, and the lessons about implementation found in the website's sordid tale. You can create great policy, but if people can't feel it in their day to day lives, does it matter?

Sign up for our America250 Watch newsletter, where you'll also get links and lots more historical tidbits.

https://thisdaypod.substack.com/

Find out more about the show 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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The Obamacare Website Crashes On Day One (2013)

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

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When "Primary" Became A Verb (2004)

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