American Compassion - Promo

With historian H.W. Brands, author Kirstin Downey, and Erine Gray as our guides - and with Archival Audio of Frances Perkins herself - we go back to the fateful day in March 1911 when thirty-one-year-old Frances Perkins happened to witness the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Just as Erine Gray’s conversion experience in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, inspired him to focus on public policy, Frances Perkins’s experience on that day inspired her to work toward prototypical safety net elements like workplace safety codes and fire regulations.

From there, considering the complex context of life in America in the early 20th Century, we follow Frances Perkins’ life and work all the way through her transformational success in building compassionate structures into the American system. To name a few things for which we have Frances Perkins to thank, consider Social Security, unemployment insurance, the 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, overtime pay, Federal Housing assistance which helps people buy houses with low down payments, the National Labor Relations Act which gave workers the right to organize, oh and also public works projects like the Lincoln Tunnel, the highway through the Florida Keys, and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Woman Behind The New Deal

The third episode of American Compassion dives into the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, exploring who he was and focusing on how FDR, born to wealth and privilege, arrived at the empathetic outlook that guided and in many ways defined his presidency.

We investigate how small events allowed FDR to avoid dictatorship at a time when dictatorship was seen as a viable, even desirable response to the economic crises. And we tell the story of how by chance, by character, and by will, FDR and his administration, in their response to The Great Depression, also saved Democracy itself.

Through the incredible story of FDR’s first 100 days in office, we show how the ideas of the New Deal and how the ideals of a collective social democracy were laced throughout all the New Deal programs, creating a new vision of America and its compassionate structures.

To tell these stories, we are joined by: Erine Gray, CEO of Findhelp.org; Jonathan Alter, author of, "The Defining Moment FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope;" historian and biographer H.W. Brands, author of "American Colossus: the triumph of capitalism;" scholar Dana Cloud, author of "Reality Bites: Rhetoric and the Circulation of Truth Claims in U.S. Political Culture ;" and historical geographer and author Gray Brechin, founder project scholar of The Living New Deal at UC Berkeley.

Compromise is at the heart of almost every aspect of life. From what our family wants for dinner, to what subjects are taught in our schools, to what is included in, and left out of, congressional legislation. Yet, sometimes it seems like a “winner takes all” mentality is taking over. Many social media feeds, television shows, and podcasts glorify the winners and prompt accomplishment over compromise, and overwhelmingly our legislative process reflects this as well. In this atmosphere, it’s hard to make progress toward a more comprehensive and effective safety net.

So far in our series on the American Safety Net, we’ve examined wealth and poverty at the turn of the last century. We talked about what it meant to be poor without a safety net, and where those in need found housing, food, work, and a sense of safety and well-being. We talked about the role of government, philanthropy, and charity and we met Frances Perkins, and Franklin Roosevelt, two people who were integral in the shaping of the first American safety net--The New Deal.

In our final episode of season 1, we explore what compromises were made in order to get the New Deal through. We talk about how a grand vision for universal healthcare was scrapped, how cradle-to-grave social security was whittled down, and how bending on certain elements of the safety net created generational loss that is felt to this day.

Yet, we also discuss how monumental the New Deal was to America. It stabilized an American economic system that was in freefall during the Great Depression; it put people back to work; it instilled faith in the American government, and it restored hope in a people who had been crushed by poor working conditions, poverty, starvation, and insecurity. And still, Frances Perkins glumly appraised the accomplishments as but a few, “practical, flat-footed first steps.”

Join hosts Rebecca McInroy and Michael Zapruder and guests, Erine Gray, H.W. Brands, Robin D.G. Kelley, Tom Philpott, Mike Konzcle, Willow Lung-Amam, Marshall Auerbach, Penny Coleman, and David Kennedy, as we explore this complicated and rich history and what it can teach us today.

In season 1 of American Compassion we went back to the turn of the last century to explore poverty and wealth, philanthropy and charity, work, health and politics, and policy at a time when the idea of a safety net was just a dream, and we dove deep into what and who it took to make those dreams a reality. From Workplace safety to fair labor standards and child labor laws, to the New Deal, and with all that we merely scratched the surface of the complex history of the American safety net.

In season 2 we continue in our exploration of the safety net from The New Deal to The Great Society.

When President Lydon Baines Johnson laid out his vision for the Great Society at The University of Michigan on May 22, 1964, he said, “Your imagination, your initiative, and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For in your time, we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society but upward to the Great Society.”

But what does it mean to be a Great Society? For Johnson, it meant elevating the quality of life for all Americans by not only continuing the work of Franklin Roosevelt on the American Safety Net but also expanding the idea of the safety net itself. Even before Johnson was elected to office in 1964 he passed the Civil Rights bill after assuming the office of president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and during his first year in office, he shepherded through the Economic Opportunity Act and Medicare and Medicaid.

In Season 2 of American Compassion, we explore not only what programs and legislation Johnson created to build the safety net we have today, but we delve into why LBJ was so committed to civil rights, education, economic opportunity, and so much more through archived recordings, speeches, and through Johnson’s biography with Pulitzer Prize-winning author known for his biographies of Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert Caro.

Other guests include biographers, economists, policy advisors, and historians, H.W. Brands, Julian Zelizer, Guian Mckee, Mark Updegrove, Martha Baily, Andrew R. Smith, Melody Barnes, and Erine Gray.

It’s the summer of 1964 and Lyndon Johnson has just signed the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. It was a continuation of the proposal of John F. Kennedy and LBJ found a way to make it happen, but when it came to the safety net Johnson’s vision encompassed far greater legislation.

From healthcare to education, unemployment to the media, the arts, and beyond; and much of that work, as we touched on in the last episode, he began under FDR.

By this time LBJ had been a part of the US government for over 25 years with one goal, to become president of the United States. So 1964 after he’s become president following the assassination of John Kennedy, he now had to run for office on his own, and everything he’d worked for was on the line.

President Johnson needed to make his mark and form a foundation that was truly his. Although, as we’ll explore in later episodes, he is remembered for another war, it was the War on Poverty that he was willing to wager his presidency on.

One of the most unique pieces of the war on poverty was Community Action. Community Action Programs or CAPS turned out to be one of the most controversial parts of the war on poverty and simultaneously one of the most revolutionary. The programs were controlled at the local level and the power was in the hands of the people who needed the resources.

In this episode, we will pull apart the fine details of the Economic Opportunity Act, and hear some conversations that illustrate the tension and the steaks of creating some of the most revolutionary safety net programs of the 20th century. We’ll talk about why the war on poverty and programs like Community Action, Job Corps, and Head Start were so important to LBJ as a person and as president, we’ll talk about the compromises it took to create and pass this legislation, and we’ll explore the impact of programs like the Job Corps had on people like heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman.

Special thanks to our guests for this episode, Erine Gray, Guian McKee, Andrew R. Smith, Melody Barnes, and Robert Caro. And thank you as well to The Miller Center at the University of Virginia, The American Presidency Project at The University of California Santa Barbara, and The LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin Texas for their consultation and use of archived materials.

Michael Zapruder arranged and composed the music for this show, and played guitar, with Jeff Olsen on drums, Mike St. Clair on bass, and Sam Lipman on keyboards.

Executive Producer, Rebecca McInroy.

Advising Editor, Jim Tuttle

Intern, Frances Cutter