Dylan Gottlieb on Yuppies, Financialization, and the New Inequality
The year was 1984, "The Year of the Yuppie," according to Newsweek magazine. Yuppies may have been a classic 1980s stereotype, but they were...
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Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast
Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast is a monthly program devoted to bringing you quality, engaging stories that explain how capitalism has changed over time. We interview histo...
Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast Podcast Guide
Listen to Who Makes Cents?: A History of Capitalism Podcast, a Society & Culture podcast by Jessica Levy. Stream 127 episodes in English, follow new audio stories, and play episodes online on Radio and Podcast.
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Justin Leroy on the Lowest Freedom, Racial Capitalism, and Abolition Democracy
The very dregs. Of the very lowest kind. This is how radical abolitionist David Walker described the freedom accorded Black people in the 19...
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff on Muskism
For those in the Global North, the twentieth century was the Fordist century—an era of mass production and mass consumption. But as Quinn Sl...
Jessica Levy on the Strange Career of Black Empowerment
Today, we welcome Jessica Levy, co-host of Who Makes Cents , onto the program—not as an interviewer, but as a guest. She's here to talk abou...
Sean Vanatta Joins for a Banking Mega-Pod
To many, banking remains largely invisible—a hidden circulatory system that allocates capital and credit throughout the economy. If it's wor...
Sven Beckert on a Global History of Capitalism
Popular histories tend to locate capitalism's origins in Europe, only later moving outward to other parts of the globe. Not so says historia...
Mike Glass on the Surprisingly Precarious Postwar Suburbs
Few historical tableaus are more iconic than the midcentury suburbs of Long Island. I can see it now: rows of identical houses, subsidized b...
Rudi Batzell on Racialized Working-Class Politics in the U.S. and British Empires
This month's episode offers a fresh perspective on an old debate. Jettisoning outdated modes of analysis that emphasize race vs. class, gues...
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 wro...
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...
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 A...
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 T...
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 pas...
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 Manc...
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. Thi...
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 Compa...
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...
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...
Seth Rockman on Slavery's Material History
A simple leather shoe. A scratchy shirt made of cotton or wool. A roughly-hewn axe. A leather whip, braided in New Jersey. Southern slavery...
Andrew Kahrl on Inequality, Theft, and Taxation in Modern America
Taxes. Is there anything Americans like to complain about more? This episode takes a deep dive into the U.S. tax system, paying particular a...