American Compassion

The relationship we have with our society - how we bank, where and how we receive and pay for healthcare, even our workday - is structured by no accident. It’s all a part of the American safety net, a system in desperate need of repair. But how can we rebuild our systems if we don’t know who first dreamed of a safety net, and why they fought tooth-and-nail to make that vision a reality?

Season 2, Ep 4: The Legacy of The War on Poverty 01/29/2024

Season 2, Ep 3: The Road to Realization for Medicare and Medicaid 01/22/2024

Season 2, Ep 2: The (Revolutionary) Economic Opportunity Act 01/15/2024

Season 2, Ep 2: The (Revolutionary) Economic Opportunity Act It’s the summer of 1964 and Lyndon Johnson has just signed the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It was a continuation of the proposal of John F. Kennedy and LBJ found a way to make it happen, but when it came to the safety net Johnson’s vision encompassed far greater legislation. From healthcare to education, unemployment to the media, the arts, and beyond; and much of that work, as we touched on in the last episode, he began under FDR. By this time LBJ had been a part of the US government for over 25 years with one goal, to become president of the United States. So 1964 after he’s become president following the assassination of John Kennedy, he now had to run for office on his own, and everything he’d worked for was on the line. President Johnson needed to make his mark and form a foundation that was truly his. Although, as we’ll explore in later episodes, he is remembered for another war, it was the War on Poverty that he was willing to wager his presidency on. One of the most unique pieces of the war on poverty was Community Action. Community Action Programs or CAPS turned out to be one of the most controversial parts of the war on poverty and simultaneously one of the most revolutionary. The programs were controlled at the local level and the power was in the hands of the people who needed the resources. In this episode, we will pull apart the fine details of the Economic Opportunity Act, and hear some conversations that illustrate the tension and the steaks of creating some of the most revolutionary safety net programs of the 20th century. We’ll talk about why the war on poverty and programs like Community Action, Job Corps, and Head Start were so important to LBJ as a person and as president, we’ll talk about the compromises it took to create and pass this legislation, and we’ll explore the impact of programs like the Job Corps had on people like heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman. Special thanks to our guests for this episode, , , , , and . And thank you as well to , and for their consultation and use of archived materials. arranged and composed the music for this show, and played guitar, with on drums, on bass, and on keyboards. Executive Producer, . Advising Editor, Intern, Frances Cutter /episode/index/show/f19c9566-f443-4906-a34f-1268b7ce402a/id/29362613

Season 2, Ep 1: Taking The Reins and Passage of The Civil Rights Act 01/08/2024

Season 2, Ep 1: Taking The Reins and Passage of The Civil Rights Act When we left off last season FDR’s New Deal and the end of WWII meant America was out of the Great Depression. But in 1960 people were waking from dreams of Earth Angels and Chantilly Lace to times that were changing. The Civil Rights movement, The Women's Movement, and Anti-war protests were drawing attention and building momentum. Longer nightly news broadcasts meant Americans were seeing more and gaining consciousness of what life was like not only overseas, but right in their own backyards. People were seeing what it meant to be black in America and to be poor in America. Popular culture, especially music, reflected this, in folk music and protest songs like Odetta’s Oh Freedom, in Bob Dylan’s “Oxford Town” Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddam,” and in jazz like John Coltrane’s “Alabama.” These recordings brought the injustices of American life into the public consciousness in a new way. So on November 22, 1963, when the 35th president of the United States John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson assumed the role of president of the United States and wasted no time getting to work on continuing the legacy of not only Kennedy but of FDR. And creating a series of programs that he hoped would define his legacy as well. In May of 1964, 6 months before he would be elected president of the US in a landslide victory. President Johnson laid out his vision for The Great Society in a speech at the University of Michigan. And this was no pie-in-the-sky hyperbole. Johnson was the architect of the continuation of the safety net through the great society and that meant. Passing the civil rights bill was crucial for Johnson, not only because he was continuing Kennedy’s legacy, but because it was a foundational piece of his Great Society and the American Safety Net. But who was LBJ? What motivated his keen focus on domestic policy, poverty, civil rights, healthcare, and education, especially at a time when the Cold War was heating up and the war in Vietnam was on everyone’s hearts, minds, and TVs? In this episode we explore Lyndon Baines Johnson the man and the president with Pulitzer Prizing-winning biographer , we hear conversations between LBJ with Martin Luther King Jr. and we get a better understanding of the context and the consequences of this monumental moment in American history. Special thanks to our other guests for this episode , , and , and to , and for their consultation and use of archived materials. arranged and composed the music for this show, and played guitar, with on drums, on bass, and on keyboards. Executive Producer, . Advising Editor, Intern, Frances Cutter /episode/index/show/f19c9566-f443-4906-a34f-1268b7ce402a/id/29362593

Season 2: Promo 05/29/2023

Season 2: Promo In season 1 of American Compassion we went back to the turn of the last century to explore poverty and wealth, philanthropy and charity, work, health and politics, and policy at a time when the idea of a safety net was just a dream, and we dove deep into what and who it took to make those dreams a reality. From Workplace safety to fair labor standards and child labor laws, to the New Deal, and with all that we merely scratched the surface of the complex history of the American safety net. In season 2 we continue in our exploration of the safety net from The New Deal to The Great Society. When President Lydon Baines Johnson laid out his vision for the Great Society at The University of Michigan on May 22, 1964, he said, “Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time, we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society but upward to the Great Society.” But what does it mean to be a Great Society? For Johnson, it meant elevating the quality of life for all Americans by not only continuing the work of Franklin Roosevelt on the American Safety Net but also expanding the idea of the safety net itself. Even before Johnson was elected to office in 1964 he passed the Civil Rights bill after assuming the office of president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and during his first year in office, he shepherded through the Economic Opportunity Act and Medicare and Medicaid. In Season 2 of American Compassion, we explore not only what programs and legislation Johnson created to build the safety net we have today, but we delve into why LBJ was so committed to civil rights, education, economic opportunity, and so much more through archived recordings, speeches, and through Johnson’s biography with Pulitzer Prize-winning author known for his biographies of Lyndon B. Johnson, . Other guests include biographers, economists, policy advisors, and historians, , , , , , , , and . /episode/index/show/f19c9566-f443-4906-a34f-1268b7ce402a/id/24496398

Season 1, Ep 4: Compromise and Concessions 07/31/2022

Season 1, Ep 4: Compromise and Concessions Compromise is at the heart of almost every aspect of life. From what our family wants for dinner, to what subjects are taught in our schools, to what is included in, and left out of, congressional legislation. Yet, sometimes it seems like a “winner takes all” mentality is taking over. Many social media feeds, television shows, and podcasts glorify the winners and prompt accomplishment over compromise, and overwhelmingly our legislative process reflects this as well. In this atmosphere, it’s hard to make progress toward a more comprehensive and effective safety net. So far in our series on the American Safety Net, we’ve examined wealth and poverty at the turn of the last century. We talked about what it meant to be poor without a safety net, and where those in need found housing, food, work, and a sense of safety and well-being. We talked about the role of government, philanthropy, and charity and we met Frances Perkins, and Franklin Roosevelt, two people who were integral in the shaping of the first American safety net--The New Deal. In our final episode of season 1, we explore what compromises were made in order to get the New Deal through. We talk about how a grand vision for universal healthcare was scrapped, how cradle-to-grave social security was whittled down, and how bending on certain elements of the safety net created generational loss that is felt to this day. Yet, we also discuss how monumental the New Deal was to America. It stabilized an American economic system that was in freefall during the Great Depression; it put people back to work; it instilled faith in the American government, and it restored hope in a people who had been crushed by poor working conditions, poverty, starvation, and insecurity. And still, Frances Perkins glumly appraised the accomplishments as but a few, “practical, flat-footed first steps.” Join hosts and and guests, , , , , , , , , and , as we explore this complicated and rich history and what it can teach us today. /episode/index/show/f19c9566-f443-4906-a34f-1268b7ce402a/id/23910882

Season 1, Ep 3: FDR and The New Deal 04/20/2022

Season 1, Ep 2: The Woman Behind The New Deal 04/01/2022

Season 1, Ep 1: Imagining a Safety Net 03/18/2022

Season 1, Ep 1: Imagining a Safety Net In 1929, the booming prosperity of the flapper era vanished in the wake of a catastrophic stock market crash. Banks failed, and millions of people lost their life’s savings. Poverty rates soared, and a ten-year depression crippled towns across the globe, setting the stage for the second world war. But what if poverty wasn’t just a result of sudden economic upheaval? Before the Great Depression, many Americans, including children, labored under grueling conditions for 12-15 hours a day. Work came with risks—threatening workers’ safety, and even their lives. At a time when debt could lead to a prison sentence, most people had little choice but to work to survive. What if the tale of poverty devouring Americans’ wealth overnight is a myth—or only half the story? In the first episode of the American Compassion podcast, we uncover the lives of the many Americans who never lived in avant-garde mansions or purchased opulent yachts. Most Americans didn’t lose the American dream in the Depression era, since it had always failed to catch them when they fell deeper into poverty. Our story begins with inspiration to rebuild the American Safety Net. We’ll start in the early 2000s, before turning back the clock to the early 20th-century to explore how profound changes in technology, communication, farming, and industrialization reshaped the ways that people thought about wealth, poverty, and how to catch Americans in freefall. Brief Backstory Americans born in the 1840s and 1850s would experience rapid changes in the course of their lives. During their lifetime, kerosene lamps replaced candles; and electric light bulbs replaced kerosene. Steam-powered locomotives, electric trolleys, and gasoline-powered automobiles replaced horsepower. And the Wright Brothers were hard at work on a flying machine. By 1900 cities became lit up with bright lights, films, and radio. Even time itself was changing. Americans were disengaging from seasonal work rhythms, exchanging nature’s cycles for factory schedules. As the Industrial Revolution grew, the telephone and telegraph revolutionized communication, and high-speed transit revolutionized Americans’ sense of geography. Both required a reevaluation of time in order to synchronize an increasingly connected world of industrial trade and transportation. In 1865, the US train system had 75 different time zones; by 1918, the government reduced American mainland time zones to four. All along, the rich were getting a lot richer. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust dominated the world's petroleum markets and soon controlled more than 90 percent of the nation's refinery capacity. And Andrew Carnegie’s steel mills earned him millions. But desperation belied the affluence of the Gilded Age. While Rockefeller and Carnegie’s fortunes grew, a new definition of poverty was emerging. Workers were tied to their labor, including children as young as 8 years old. For some of the 15 million people who immigrated to America between 1910-1915, coming to the United States meant being able to determine their own destiny. Yet for others, like many who were born in America, it meant being shackled to life-threatening labor. Join executive producer Rebecca McInroy, historian , historian, and journalist , and farmer, journalist, and agricultural writer as we begin the story of the American Safety Net. Resources by H.W. Brands by H.W. Brands by Tom Philpott by Marvin Olasky by Vanessa Ogle /episode/index/show/f19c9566-f443-4906-a34f-1268b7ce402a/id/22492259

Season 1: Promo 03/15/2022

American Compassion

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