It’s January 16th. This day in 1903, film of the electrocution of an elephant, Topsy, is being viewed in kinetoscopes across the country. Topsy was executed on Coney Island a few weeks earlier.
Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss how the story of Topsy’s death lands at a moment when there are lots of changes in the way Americans thought about electricity, corporal punishment, animal rights — and how the death evokes the spectacle and bloodlust of the lynching era.
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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia
The Slaveowner Executed for Killing His Slave (1839)
DC Plants The Cherry Blossoms (1912)
Lincoln's Avenger And The Aftermath Of Assassination (1894) [[Archive Episode]]
Montana Enshrines a Right To Privacy (1972)
The First Government Shutdown Fight (1879)
The Shamrock Summit (1985)
FDR Says Bottoms Up (1933)
Kennedy's Latin American Marshall Plan (1964)
Hoover Almost Takes Over Baseball (1951)
When "Primary" Became A Verb (2004)
The Ask President Carter 1-900 Number (1977)
Hangers On Week: Al Smith and Remakes The Democratic Party
Hangers On Week: Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition
Hangers On Week: Sowing The Seeds of Trump
Hangers On Week: Why Candidates Stick Around w/ Amy Walter
Malcolm X Is Assassinated (1965)
Dick Cheney Shoots His Friend In The Face (2006)
NJ Law Calls For "Gradual Emancipation Of Slaves" (1804)
The FDR Assassination Attempt (1933)
Mandela Released From Prison (1990)
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