Episode Details

In this episode, we explore from horseback to the wall street crash. You know, it's incredibly easy to look back at history and just see it as this slow, dusty crawl of black and white photos. Right, like it's completely disconnected from us. Exactly. But I want you to imagine, just for a second, that you were born in the late 1800s. You grew up in a world where the speed limit of human existence is... Well, it's basically tied to biology. Yeah, a horse or a sailboat. Right. A message can only travel as fast as a horse can run or a ship can sail. There's no income tax, there are no airplanes, no such thing as national radio. And then in the span of just three decades, bam, you are completely thrust into the modern world. It's wild to think about the entire foundation of human life essentially flips upside down before you even hit middle age. Yes, suddenly you're Fire in New York. That event in particular really shocked the nation's conscience. It is so grim. From what I understand, the managers had literally locked the doors to the stairwells and exits. They did. They locked the doors to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks or stealing scraps of fabric. So when a fire broke out on the eighth floor, the workers, mostly young immigrant women, were trapped. Oh my god. 146 people died, many by jumping from the windows to the street below, simply to escape the flames. It's just horrific. And it brings to mind the way we struggle with technology and safety today. It's like the early days of social media or gig economy apps where the innovation moves so incredibly fast that lawmakers take a decade just to figure out how to write the rules. That's a great point. Except back then. The gap between