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
Mid-Term Favorites: The Murkowski Write-In (2010)
Mid-Term Favorites: Paul Wellstone Plane Crash (2002)
Mid-Term Favorites: Contract with America (1994) w/ Kirsten Soltis Anderson
The Whiskey Rebellion and the Fear Of The Tax Collector (1794)
Franklin in France (1776) w/ Mike Duncan
Rudy vs Brooklyn Museum (1999) w/ Harry Siegel
Rural Free Delivery (1896)
No Crime Day (1986) w/ Josh Levin
Pauli Murray Shoots Her Shot (1971)
Dogs as Deflection: Fala and Checkers (1944/1952)
The Cleveland BalloonFest Fiasco (1986) w/ Clare Malone
Romney's Secret 47% Tape (2012) w/ David Corn
The Christiana Resistance (1851)
The Basket Of Deplorables (2016)
Partisans Week: Clinton Chronicles VHS (1994)
Partisans Week: Buchanan at Smuggler's Gulch (1992)
Partisans Week: Black Helicopters (1995)
The Mystery of LBJ's "Box 13" (1948) w/ Mark Lawrence
Brownie, Heckuva Job (2005)
Lincoln's Avenger (1894)
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