Episode Details

When you call a plumber and a lawyer, you're interacting with two very different social categories — but that wasn't always the case. This episode traces the bizarre history of how we divided work into "professions" and "trades," from medieval guilds where master masons outranked notaries, to Adam Smith's class-based philosophy, to the Flexner Report that shut down half America's medical schools. We explore how the AMA and ABA deliberately restricted entry to raise incomes, why electricians now train as long as CPAs but get treated differently at dinner parties, and whether AI is about to shred the whole distinction for good.