Selects: Frances Perkins: Influential and Unk...

Pretty much everyone agrees that English is a chaotic language. There are nutso rules of grammar and spelling other languages don’t have. More than once, movements have emerged to simplify English and each time they were beaten back with a vengeance. See omnystudio.com/listener f ...  Show more

Lots of nations gauge the health of their country by how the middle class is doing. There’s just one issue with that – no one can say exactly what defines the middle class. But even when you take a guess, it seems like the health isn’t so good these days.See omnystudio.com/listen ...  Show more

From Social Security and the minimum wage to exit signs and fire escapes, Frances Perkins transformed how people in the U.S. lived and worked. Today on the show: how a middle class do-gooder became one of the savviest and most powerful people in American politics — and built the ...  Show more

Rachel's been MIA-- well actually more like a 30th birthday trip for the books! Rachel reveals details on the adventure that launched her new decade, and why she kept it hidden from social media.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Robert tells Jack about the 'rescue' of Eliza Fraser and how her lies about what happened on K'gari Island helped to fuel decades of colonial war and genocide.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Many Titanic passengers were known for setting the styles. In this episode we will profile the two Luciles: famed fashionistas Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon and Lucile Polk Carter. We will also look at John Jacob Astor IV, perhaps the world’s richest man at the time. He founded hotels th ...  Show more