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.
Sign up for our newsletter! We’ll be sending out links to all the stuff we recommended later this week.
Find out more at thisdaypod.com
This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.
Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.
If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com
Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod
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
Jews To Alaska (1938)
401 Episodes! w/ Jacob Feldman
400 Episodes! (pt 1) w/ Jacob Feldman
The Jekyll Island Secret Meeting (1910) w/ Jacob Goldstein
Jaywalking (1923) w/ Doug Gordon
Trotter Confronts Wilson (1914)
Denver Rejects The Olympics (1972)
The GOP Reckoning Report (2012)
The Colored Conventions Movement (1830)
Election Day Special: Reporting The Results w/ Jad Abumrad
Mid-Terms Week: NJ Voter Intimidation (1981)
Mid-Terms Week: The First Blue Wave (1826)
Mid-Terms Week: 1946 Changes Everything (1946)
Mid-Terms Week: I'm Not A Witch (2010)
Polling Week: Let's Get Thermostatic w/ Harry Enten
Polling Week: The Red Wave (1994) w/ Harry Enten
Polling Week: Harry Reid's Upset (2010) w/ Harry Enten
Referendum Week: Prop 13 (1978)
Referendum Week: The Badass Grandmas of North Dakota (2018) w/ Joshua Graham Lynn
Referendum Week: Direct Democracy In Action (1778) w/ Joshua Graham Lynn
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Criminal
Ear Hustle
Song Exploder
The Truth
the memory palace