Best BHC Podcasts (2026)

1
Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs 42:54

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16d ago42:54

42:54

Few historical tableaus are more iconic than the midcentury suburbs of Long Island. I can see it now: rows of identical houses, subsidized by federal spending, inhabited by white middle-class heteronormative families 2.3 children, attending well-funded schools. If there's a stereotypical image of the "American Dream," this is it. But after reading …

1
Rudi Batzell on Racialized Working-Class Politics in the U.S. and British Empires 49:02

2M ago49:02

49:02

This month's episode offers a fresh perspective on an old debate. Jettisoning outdated modes of analysis that emphasize race vs. class, guest Rudi Batzell illuminates the materialist underpinnings of racialized working-class politics in the U.S. and British empires. Employing a transnational approach, Batzell shows, for example, how land reform in …

1
Leigh Claire La Berge on Why Capitalism Might Be A Joke 36:28

3M ago36:28

36:28

If you work at a so-called laptop job, there are moments every day when your work feels silly, pointless, absurd, even fake. What if you wrote an entire book that tried to inhabit and analyze that very feeling? Leigh Claire LaBerge's new book—which is part memoir, part history, with a heavy dash of dark comedy and a sprinkling of Marx—attempts to d…

1
Bench Ansfield on Arson-for-Profit, Insurance Brownlining, and the Bronx 39:34

4M ago39:34

39:34

Arson - which frequently involves the destruction of property - and business are not typically thought to be compatible. Indeed, there is a whole industry - the insurance industry - whose stated business is the mitigation of risk, including the risk of fire. Over the course of the late 1960s and early 1970s, however, fire insurance and fire prevent…

1
Kendra Boyd on Black Business and Racial Capitalism during the Great Migration 31:46

5M ago31:46

31:46

Take a moment and picture the average person who came North during the Great Migration. Chances are good that you conjured someone who was African-American and working-class, bound for a city in search of a job, say, in a factory or in domestic service. But as Kendra Boyd's new book, Freedom Enterprise, reveals, the Great Migration also saw entrepr…

1
Trish Kahle on Energy Citizenship and Coal-Fired Democracy in the 20th Century U.S. 45:23

6M ago45:23

45:23

What do energy consumers owe energy producers? What does it mean to be a citizen in a coal-fired democracy? In this month's episode, guest Trish Kahle reckons with the costs and benefits of coal from the perspective of American coal miners in Appalachia. Starting at the turn of the 20th century, Kahle outlines miners efforts to articulate and, late…

1
Ian Kumekawa on Globalization As Told Through One Ship 31:43

7M ago31:43

31:43

How do you write the history of something as abstract, as placeless, and as vast as the globalization that has remade our world over the past several decades? If you're Ian Kumekawa, you make those immaterial forces concrete by telling the story of one object: a hulking 94-meter-long steel barge he calls "The Vessel." From housing for oil roughneck…

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Koji Hirata on Steel, Industrialization, and Chinese Socialism 33:01

8M ago33:01

33:01

This month's episode looks at the history of Chinese industrialization by focusing on Anshan Iron and Steel Works or Angang, located in Manchuria. Long portrayed as the quintessential model of Mao-era socialist industrialization, Angang, as Koji Hirata shows, was, in many ways, built on the material and ideological foundations laid by imperial Japa…

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LIVE! @ BHC 2025 21:55

9M ago21:55

21:55

It's now been over a decade since the New York Times declared that the history of capitalism was in full swing at American universities. This podcast also just celebrated its 10 year anniversary. With those milestones in mind, we wanted to take the temperature of the very folks driving the field forward into new and exciting directions. To do that,…

1
Justene Hill Edwards on the Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank 41:45

10M ago41:45

41:45

In this month's episode Justene Hill Edwards leads listeners on a deep dive into the rise and fall of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, also known as the Freedman's Bank. Among the topics explored are the bank's relationship to the similarly named Freedman's Bureau, the ways the bank's administrators worked to gain African Americans' trust,…

1
Erik Baker on the Entrepreneurial Century 39:12

11M ago39:12

39:12

Back in high school, my social studies teacher—who was, of course, also the football coach—told my class that entrepreneurs were the heroes of American history. If we enjoyed a dynamic economy and good jobs, it was all thanks to their genius for innovation and risk-taking. And if we wanted to get ahead, he said, we'd need to foster the same sort of…

1
Mary Bridges on Bankers and the Dawn of American Empire 36:04

12M ago36:04

36:04

Looking back from our contemporary vantage point, the United States' global capitalist empire looks both omnipresent and inevitable. Much of the world's trade is denominated in dollars. American financial institutions are at the helm of international investment and capital transfers. And US military might enforces this order, either implicitly—or s…

1
Seth Rockman on Slavery's Material History 52:04

1y ago52:04

52:04

A simple leather shoe. A scratchy shirt made of cotton or wool. A roughly-hewn axe. A leather whip, braided in New Jersey. Southern slavery did not just depend on an extractive economic system, or a highly-unequal racial and social order, or a brutal regime of labor exploitation—even though it needed all of those things. It also required a vast arr…

1
Andrew Kahrl on Inequality, Theft, and Taxation in Modern America 51:01

1y ago51:01

51:01

Taxes. Is there anything Americans like to complain about more? This episode takes a deep dive into the U.S. tax system, paying particular attention to the property tax. Exploding a popular myth that purports Black Americans pay little to no taxes, historian Andrew Kahrl reveals how Black Americans have long paid more than their fair share of prope…

1
Andrew McKevitt on Gun Capitalism 48:50

1+ y ago48:50

48:50

450 million. According to our best estimates, that's how many guns there are in the United States. To put that in perspective: if you gave a firearm to every single person in the nation—including babies and young children—you'd still have at least 100 million guns left over. Why did we amass such a large stockpile of guns? How did the US become an …

1
Rachel Gross on How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America 41:54

1+ y ago41:54

41:54

In 2022 and 2023, an estimated 50 million Americans went camping. Many others participated in outdoor recreation activities ranging from mountain-climbing to sailing. According to the U.S. Department of Congress, in 2022, the outdoor recreation economy was worth $563.7 billion or 2.2 percent of GDP. In this episode, historian Rachel Gross takes us …

1
Margot Canaday on Queer Workers in Modern America 51:20

1+ y ago51:20

51:20

In today's episode, Margot Canaday reveals the not-so-hidden history of LGBT workers in modern America. In the absence of state protections, she finds, some employers actually appreciated queer workers precisely because they were contingent, unattached, and exploitable. In many ways, that employment relationship augured the way all workers would co…

1
Elizabeth Ingleson on the Past and Present of Made in China 49:45

1+ y ago49:45

49:45

Today, China is the U.S. third largest trading partner and second-largest source of imports. This wasn't always the case. Indeed, in the 1970s, when the United States first began trading with communist China after several decades, few could have foreseen such a scenario. In this episode, guest Elizbeth Ingleson reveals the surprising story of how t…

1
Teresa Ghilarducci on the Past and Future of Retirement 44:12

1+ y ago44:12

44:12

When we study capitalism, we usually focus on the active time in people's lives: the moments where things like work, consumption, production, trade, accumulation, and exchange all happen. But Teresa Ghilarducci, the guest on this week's episode, argues that capitalism also shapes what happens next, in that period after people's working lives have c…

1
Cheryl Narumi Naruse on Singapore, Postcolonial Capitalism, and Becoming Global Asia 31:28

1+ y ago31:28

31:28

In this month's episode, co-host Jessica Levy and guest Cheryl Narumi Naruse examine popular narratives surrounding Singapore's "miraculous" journey from Third to First world nation, currently ranked third in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita. The episode takes a particular look at the period leading up to and following the 19…

1
Ben Waterhouse on the Dream and Reality of Self Employment 39:50

2y ago39:50

39:50

One recent study found that 81% of businesses in the United States have zero employees. That is, they are run by sole proprietors, working for and by themselves, The ideal of self-employment has become dominant in our culture, too. More Americans than ever dream of becoming an entrepreneur, an independent owner, a founder. But for all of its preval…

1
Brent Cebul on Business, Inequality, and American Liberalism 45:06

2y ago45:06

45:06

Most scholars would date the origins of neoliberalism to the 1970s, when a range of crises gave rise to new forms of market-oriented governance. But Brent Cebul, our guest on this month's episode, argues that liberalism's sharp turn towards neoliberalism wasn't so sharp after all. In fact, as early as the New Deal, liberals tried to realize their p…

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BHC Newsflyer: March 2, 2024 16:21

2y ago16:21

16:21

Headlines: Aetnaville Bridge in Wheeling, WV to be Torn Down- Demolition Set for July 2025 Link: https://abandonedonline.net/demolition-of-aetnaville-bridge-proposed/ North Dakota Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Demolishing Bismarck-Mandan Railroad Bridge Link: https://www.inforum.com/news/north-dakota/citizens-effort-to-save-historic-bismarck-mand…

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BHC Newsflyer: 11 February 2024 14:43

2y ago14:43

14:43

Headlines: Green Bridge in Christian Co. Missouri closes- replacement expected. Salina Bridge Replacement in Pennsylvania underway. 15th Century Bridge in Worcester, England Collapses Officials look for ways to reopen Bigfork Truss Bridge in Montana Historic Wohler Bridge in Sonoma Co., CA to receive a seismic retrofit Rehabilitation of a historic …

1
Tim Keogh on Suburban Poverty and the Roots of Postwar Inequality 46:00

2y ago46:00

46:00

In 2022, roughly one in 10 suburban residents lived in poverty (9.6%), compared to about one in six in primary cities (16.2%), according to a recent study by the Brookings Institute. The issue of suburban poverty has garnered significant attention, prompting more than a bit of nostalgia for the good ole days of when suburbs were prosperous, living …

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BHC Newsflyer: February 1, 2024 14:29

2y ago14:29

14:29

Stories in this Podcast: Restoration of the Bastrop Truss Bridge in Texas to Begin The Fall of the Bonnie and Clyde Bridge in Conroe, Texas MaClay Bridge in Missoula, Montana Closed Indefinitely Farewell to the Leverkusen Cable-Stayed Bridge designed by Homberg Hastened Attempt to Demolish and Replace the Alexandra Bridge in Ottawa, Canada Stopped …

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BHC Newsflyer: 23 January 2024 22:59

2y ago22:59

22:59

Special Edition: We have the results of the 2023 Bridgehunter Awards all here in this podcast. Plus: Pony Truss Spans Being Reinstalled on the Route 66 Bridgeport Bridge Clean-up Efforts on the Marlow Suspension Bridge New Danube River Crossing in Hungary (Its 20th) New Bridge for the Croatian Island of Krk End of the Line for the Bridge of Solidai…