Episode Details

Bryant Simon’s new book "For Customers Only" explores the history of public bathrooms in the U.S. It’s a story marked by inequality — with several St. Louis ties throughout the centuries. Simon talks about past and present bathroom discrimination, the golden age of public restrooms in the late 1800s, and how those facilities declined in quality, or outright disappeared, during a wave of disinvestment in public amenities in the latter half of the 20th century.