How the development of the autorack rail car from the 1950s to the 1980s might have contributed to the relocation of US auto industry factories inside the US. (Bill and Rachel.)
Links and notes for ep. 448 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AFD-Ep-448-Links-and-Notes-The-Autorack.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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Bill and Rachel look at the arc of office document management technology from the 1886 filing cabinet to the 1959 Xerox machine and the required underlying developments that made them possible.
Links and notes for ep. 447 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AFD-Ep-447-Links-and-Notes-From-Filing-Cabinets-to-Xerox.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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Bill and Rachel review Ben Tarnoff’s intriguing materialist history/policy book “Internet for the People” (Verso Books, 2022), which offers a critique of anti-monopoly reformism in favor of de-privatization.
Notes for ep. 443 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Book-Review-Notes-on-_Internet-for-the-People_-by-Ben-Tarnoff-2022-Verso.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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60 years ago this week, on July 23, 1962, President Kennedy addressed the US and Europe simultaneously by video via a Telstar satellite link. As with the transatlantic telegraph cable about a century before, it was a major development. (Bill and Rachel.)
Links and notes for ep. 435 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/AFD-Ep-435-Links-and-Notes-Telstar.pdf
Intro music by Stunt Bird.
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Bill and Rachel explore how Western Union went from the first nationwide US telegraph monopoly to putting the first US commercial communication satellite into space and becoming the global remittance leader.
Links and notes for ep. 434 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/AFD-Ep-434-Links-and-Notes-Western-Union.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird. Special outro cited in notes.
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Bill and Rachel managed to add a third fascinating hour-plus of material on containerization, looking at present-day supply chain vulnerabilities, the rise of container freeports, product waste, and Soviet container history.
Links and notes for ep. 428 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/AFD-Ep-428-Links-and-Notes-Containerization-Part-3-Bonus-on-Shipping-Containers.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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Bill and Rachel continue the history of containerization with a look at the mature industry that emerged out of the 1970s and soon revolutionized global manufacturing supply chains, with sweeping and ruinous effects.
Links and notes for ep. 427 (PDF): http://arsenalfordemocracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AFD-Ep-427-Links-and-Notes-Containerization-Part-2-Shipping-Containers.pdf
Theme music by Stunt Bird.
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