Capitalism: What Is It?

People used to say "believe your eyes." But these days that's not so easy to do. What we scroll through every day blurs the line between entertainment and fact. And nowhere is that phenomenon more evident than in reality television. Today on the show, we tackle the genre that tak ...  Show more

Jack Johnson was the first world Black heavyweight champion, but winning the title was only part of the battle. Every time Johnson stepped into a boxing ring, he struck a blow to white supremacy. In this week’s episode, the story of Jack Johnson and the legacy of Black athletes p ...  Show more

Capitalism is the system that has helped the world become infinitely more wealthy than it has ever been in human history, but there are problems. A disregard for the drawbacks of production like waste, pollution and inequality are often cited by people who want capitalism to be r ...  Show more

Is capitalism a good thing? Journalist Katherine Mangu-Ward makes the case that “weirdos” left alone to innovate and explore far-out ideas in a free market system are our best hope for the future. She asks us to reconsider our qualms about capitalism, failure and corporate death, ...  Show more

Histories are often relegated to the sidelines of economic study. But what do we lose in our theories when we only focus on the math and models? In his new book, “Ages of American Capitalism”, University of Chicago historian Jonathan Levy looks at the turning points in the histor ...  Show more

Elements of capitalism have existed throughout history — in institutions like markets, class relations, ownership laws, credit systems, etc. But they were never dominant until they came together, escaping the isolated, laboratory conditions in which they once ...