Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast
1) Leigh Claire La Berge on Why Capitalism Might Be A Joke
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 ver...Show More
2) Bench Ansfield on Arson-for-Profit, Insurance Brownlining, and the Bronx
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 busin...Show More
3) Kendra Boyd on Black Business and Racial Capitalism during the Great Migration
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 searc...Show More
4) Trish Kahle on Energy Citizenship and Coal-Fired Democracy in the 20th Century U.S.
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 ...Show More
5) Ian Kumekawa on Globalization As Told Through One Ship
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 i...Show More
6) Koji Hirata on Steel, Industrialization, and Chinese Socialism
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...Show More
7) LIVE! @ BHC 2025
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...Show More
8) Justene Hill Edwards on the Rise and Betrayal of the Freedman's Bank
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 expl...Show More
9) Erik Baker on the Entrepreneurial Century
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 goo...Show More
10) Mary Bridges on Bankers and the Dawn of American Empire
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 finan...Show More