Podcast appearances and mentions of bryant simon

On episode 238 of the Atlantic City podcast, Kyle and Craig play Always/Once/Never with modes of transportation, Craig reviews the 2004 book Boardwalk of Dreams by Bryant Simon, then there’s... Read more »

On episode 238 of the Atlantic City podcast, Kyle and Craig play Always/Once/Never with modes of transportation, Craig reviews the 2004 book Boardwalk of Dreams by Bryant Simon, then there’s... Read more »

Everyone needs bathrooms, so why do they cause so many issues? Bryant Simon, professor of history at Temple University, looks to the past for a clue. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Bryant Simon is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of History at Temple University.  He is the author of four […]

Not only have public restrooms never been truly public, they've disappeared from America's major metro areas, says historian Bryant Simon. In this encore episode first shared in April, we explore the rise and fall of America's public restroom campaign and meet the woman behind the “Bathrooms In St. Louis” Instagram page.

Everyone needs bathrooms, so why do they cause so many issues? Bryant Simon, professor of history at Temple University, looks to the past for a clue. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Bryant Simon is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of History at Temple University.  He is the author of four […]

Not only have public restrooms never been truly public, they've disappeared from America's major metro areas, says historian Bryant Simon. We explore the rise and fall of America's public restroom campaign and meet the woman behind the “Bathrooms In St. Louis” Instagram page.

When you think Frank is going left, he goes right... or is it the other way around? Besides for magnets, there are a lot of things Frank doesn't really understand, but how many really make him say "hmmm? He asks callers for some instances. Frank's addiction to martinis and cottage cheese only pails in comparison to kids with social media, but you don't see him suing. Frank gets testy with the regents exam making a decision that has him angrier than when a caller leaves their radio on. Singer/songwriter, poet and essayist, who achieved international recognition with his multi-million-selling song, "Shaddap You Face", which reached number one in 15 countries, Joe Dolce, joins the program to talk about his famous song, career upbringing, and what he's been up to these days. In this week's edition of The AC Report, Frank is joined by professor of history and director of the American Studies program at Temple University and author of “Boardwalk Dreams,” Bryant Simon to talk about Atlantic City. Former vice president of the Cato Institute, Ilya Shapiro joins The Other Side of Midnight to talk about the notorious Roe v. Wade leak, and political correctness in academia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's edition of The AC Report, Frank is joined by professor of history and director of the American Studies program at Temple University and author of “Boardwalk Dreams,” Bryant Simon to talk about Atlantic City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Broadcast on February 24, 2022 Hosted by Chris Garlock & Ed Smith The American people don't want another war. The Ukrainian people don't want a war. The Russian people don't want war. We talk with longtime labor and antiwar activist Gene Bruskin about a working-class analysis of the crisis in Ukraine. Then, what can we learn about America from Starbucks and the current explosion of organizing by their baristas? We visit with Bryant Simon, author of Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks. Today's music: War (What is it good for) Edwin Starr. Plus labor news headlines: Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Michael Nassella. @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

(Thank you all for listening and make sure to click those hyperlinks!) For our last 2021 Ivory Tower Boiler Room interview, Andrew is joined by Dr. Bryant Simon, writer of Boardwalk of Dreams (2004) to talk all things nostalgic and historic about Atlantic City, New Jersey. The conversation ranges from Atlantic City's late-19th-century to its 21st-century history. A few topics include the history of the Miss America pageant, how Atlantic City became a middle-class resort city, its racially segregated history, its Jewish American history, its LGBTQ+ history, and how to categorize Atlantic City now? Dr. Simon even breaks down the Boardwalk Empire series! This is a must listen for all who want to learn more about the history of a city that Andrew holds near and dear, Atlantic City. To find out more about our guest, Dr. Bryant Simon, head on over to his Temple University page: https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/faculty/simon-bryant. Follow Dr. Bryant Simon on Twitter, @BryantSimon. To purchase Boardwalk of Dreams either click the title (remember it's a hyperlink) or head here: https://bookshop.org/books/boardwalk-of-dreams-atlantic-city-and-the-fate-of-urban-america/9780195308099 And while you're at it, make sure to order Dr. Simon's Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks (2011): https://bookshop.org/books/everything-but-the-coffee-learning-about-america-from-starbucks-9780520269927 Follow Ivory Tower Boiler Room on Twitter, @ivoryboilerroom, and Instagram, @ivorytowerboilerroom! Email us at ivorytowerboilerroom@gmail.com. We love hearing from you about the podcast and are always interested in interview suggestions. Many thanks to the Ivory Tower Boiler Room podcast team: Andrew Rimby, Executive Director Mary DiPipi, Chief Contributor Ceren Usta, Marketing Director Thanks to Anne Sophie Andersen and Meghan Ames for our theme song, "Loverman." --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/ivorytowerboilerroom/support

Fall in the U.S. means homecoming season. For colleges and small town high schools, it's a treasured event, activating people's nostalgia and bringing in a lot of money for schools. How did this tradition start? And how has the meaning and value of homecoming changed over the years? We caught up with Bryant Simon, the Laura H. Carnell Professor of History at Temple University, who takes us through the history of homecoming and how it follows the path of American history, from its creation in the early 20th century, to pushback against it in the 60s and 70s, to its heyday in the 80s. We also get into what a modern day homecoming looks like and what it could mean for alumni to reunite after a year separated by a pandemic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Featured Book: Louis Moore, I Fight for a Living: Boxing and the Battle for Black Manhood, 1880-1915. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois, 2017. (Purchase)Other Sources:Elsa Barkley Brown, “Negotiating and Transforming the Public Sphere: African American Political Life in the Transition from Slavery to Freedom,” in Jumpin' Jim Crow: Southern Politics from Civil War to Civil Rights, eds. Jane Dailey, Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, and Bryant Simon. Princeton University Press, 2000. Dennis Brailsford, Bareknuckes: A Social History of Prize-Fighting. Cambridge: Lutterworth, 1988.John Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2020. (Purchase)Luke G. Williams, Richmond Unchained: The Biography of the World's First Black Sporting Superstar. Gloucestershire: Amberely, 2015. (Purchase)

Karl Helicher, former director of the Upper Merion Library, sits down with Bryant Simon Pk.D. to discuss his book Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America.

Bryant Simon discusses his book “The Hamlet Fire”

Bryant Simon discusses his book “The Hamlet Fire”

Bryant Simon, Professor of History at Temple University, discusses his new book, The Hamlet Fire: A Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), and the tragic consequences of the ethos of "cheap" for workers, communities, and the nation. For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people—many of whom were black women with children, living on their own—perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bryant Simon, Professor of History at Temple University, discusses his new book, The Hamlet Fire: A Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), and the tragic consequences of the ethos of "cheap" for workers, communities, and the nation. For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people—many of whom were black women with children, living on their own—perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association.

Bryant Simon, Professor of History at Temple University, discusses his new book, The Hamlet Fire: A Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), and the tragic consequences of the ethos of "cheap" for workers, communities, and the nation. For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people—many of whom were black women with children, living on their own—perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bryant Simon, Professor of History at Temple University, discusses his new book, The Hamlet Fire: A Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), and the tragic consequences of the ethos of "cheap" for workers, communities, and the nation. For decades, the small, quiet town of Hamlet, North Carolina, thrived thanks to the railroad. But by the 1970s, it had become a postindustrial backwater, a magnet for businesses searching for cheap labor with little or almost no official oversight. One of these businesses was Imperial Food Products. The company paid its workers a dollar above the minimum wage to stand in pools of freezing water for hours on end, scraping gobs of fat off frozen chicken breasts before they got dipped in batter and fried into golden brown nuggets and tenders. If a worker complained about the heat or the cold or missed a shift to take care of their children or went to the bathroom too often they were fired. But they kept coming back to work because Hamlet was a place where jobs were scarce. Then, on the morning of September 3, 1991, the day after Labor Day, this factory that had never been inspected burst into flame. Twenty-five people—many of whom were black women with children, living on their own—perished that day behind the plant’s locked and bolted doors. Eighty years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, industrial disasters were supposed to have been a thing of the past. After spending several years talking to local residents, state officials, and survivors of the fire, award-winning historian Bryant Simon has written a vivid, potent, and disturbing social autopsy of this town, this factory, and this time that shows how cheap labor, cheap government, and cheap food came together in a way that was bound for tragedy. Beth A. English is director of the Liechtenstein Institute's Project on Gender in the Global Community at Princeton University. She also is a past president of the Southern Labor History Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Temple University professor and award-winning author Bryant Simon joins Mark to discuss the many ups and many downs of one of America's most fabled and fabulous cities - AC, baby! To learn more about Bryant Simon's book "Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America" Click it: https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167535.001.0001/acprof-9780195167535 Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter @historybuffspod Any questions or suggestions for future episodes? Email us! We want to hear from you (unless it's mean, keep that crap to yourself) historybuffspod@gmail.com Follow our amazingly talented friends who helped with our artwork and music on social media: Darien Shulman (composer) @dss_music John Nguyen (artwork) @viettriet

Consider the chicken nugget. Many of us can see its round shape in our minds, and recall its salty taste. But what is its history? And what does this history have to tell us about food and capitalism, and about one of the most devastating industrial accidents in recent U.S. history?   On today’s show, we speak with Bryant Simon about the 1991 fire at a chicken processing factory in Hamlet, North Carolina. For Bryant, this tragic accident has political and economic causes. And it reveals a tremendous amount the last few decades of U.S. and global history.   Bryant Simon is a professor of history at Temple University. He is the author of The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives.

In 1991, a fire at a chicken-processing factory in Hamlet, North Carolina killed 25 workers. While briefly a national-news story, it soon disappeared from the collective consciousness. Now, over 25 years later, Temple University historian Bryant Simon has written a book, The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives, that uses the story of the fire to illuminate the human (and animal) costs of the direction American society has taken since the 1970. It is a magisterial work that lives up to the challenge. To read Steven Sherman´s full book review go to http://bit.ly/2BkVMtO To support this podcast and our publication, it´s as easy as visiting our Patreon page and becoming a monthly subscriber. http://bit.ly/2xsDpRQ Photo credit: Zoltan Tasi

With the White House vowing to roll back government regulation of all sorts of industries, we take a look at how things can go terribly wrong when deregulation trumps worker and food safety. The U.S. poultry industry has been lobbying the Trump administration to allow for faster speeds for the processing of chicken, something the Obama administration’s agriculture department felt was needed to limit injuries to workers and the chances of food contamination. Today, a look back at a horrific industrial disaster in a chicken-processing plant in North Carolina in 1991 with Bryant Simon, a professor of history at Temple University and author of “The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives,” published by The New Press.Links:https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/another-obama-decision-reversed-now-it-s-about-food-safety-n810296http://thenewpress.com/books/hamlet-fire

On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted at the Imperial Foods factory in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people died behind the factory’s locked doors that morning. Most of the victims were women, and about half of them were black. In The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), Temple University history professor Bryant Simon lays out the structural failures in the American and global economic systems which killed those workers. As economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the 1970s, many Americans grew disillusioned with the New Deal era promise of high wages and a robust regulatory state. Instead, Simon argues, Americans began to embrace a culture of cheap, ready-made, products and government policies which benefitted business owners, rather than employees. Food sat high atop the list of cheap items Americans craved, particularly chicken which, just before the Hamlet fire, surpassed beef as the meat most commonly consumed by American diners. It was no coincidence that the Imperial plant in Hamlet processed chicken strips and tenders for sale at national chain grocery stores. Nor was it a coincidence that Imperial relocated to North Carolina in the 1980s, as the state defunded regulatory systems and opened its doors to businesses looking for any edge in a hyper competitive market. The Hamlet Fire is a remarkable and ultimately sad story about the hidden costs of American consumption and global systems of production at the end of the twentieth century. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted at the Imperial Foods factory in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people died behind the factory’s locked doors that morning. Most of the victims were women, and about half of them were black. In The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), Temple University history professor Bryant Simon lays out the structural failures in the American and global economic systems which killed those workers. As economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the 1970s, many Americans grew disillusioned with the New Deal era promise of high wages and a robust regulatory state. Instead, Simon argues, Americans began to embrace a culture of cheap, ready-made, products and government policies which benefitted business owners, rather than employees. Food sat high atop the list of cheap items Americans craved, particularly chicken which, just before the Hamlet fire, surpassed beef as the meat most commonly consumed by American diners. It was no coincidence that the Imperial plant in Hamlet processed chicken strips and tenders for sale at national chain grocery stores. Nor was it a coincidence that Imperial relocated to North Carolina in the 1980s, as the state defunded regulatory systems and opened its doors to businesses looking for any edge in a hyper competitive market. The Hamlet Fire is a remarkable and ultimately sad story about the hidden costs of American consumption and global systems of production at the end of the twentieth century. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted at the Imperial Foods factory in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people died behind the factory’s locked doors that morning. Most of the victims were women, and about half of them were black. In The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), Temple University history professor Bryant Simon lays out the structural failures in the American and global economic systems which killed those workers. As economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the 1970s, many Americans grew disillusioned with the New Deal era promise of high wages and a robust regulatory state. Instead, Simon argues, Americans began to embrace a culture of cheap, ready-made, products and government policies which benefitted business owners, rather than employees. Food sat high atop the list of cheap items Americans craved, particularly chicken which, just before the Hamlet fire, surpassed beef as the meat most commonly consumed by American diners. It was no coincidence that the Imperial plant in Hamlet processed chicken strips and tenders for sale at national chain grocery stores. Nor was it a coincidence that Imperial relocated to North Carolina in the 1980s, as the state defunded regulatory systems and opened its doors to businesses looking for any edge in a hyper competitive market. The Hamlet Fire is a remarkable and ultimately sad story about the hidden costs of American consumption and global systems of production at the end of the twentieth century. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted at the Imperial Foods factory in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people died behind the factory’s locked doors that morning. Most of the victims were women, and about half of them were black. In The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), Temple University history professor Bryant Simon lays out the structural failures in the American and global economic systems which killed those workers. As economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the 1970s, many Americans grew disillusioned with the New Deal era promise of high wages and a robust regulatory state. Instead, Simon argues, Americans began to embrace a culture of cheap, ready-made, products and government policies which benefitted business owners, rather than employees. Food sat high atop the list of cheap items Americans craved, particularly chicken which, just before the Hamlet fire, surpassed beef as the meat most commonly consumed by American diners. It was no coincidence that the Imperial plant in Hamlet processed chicken strips and tenders for sale at national chain grocery stores. Nor was it a coincidence that Imperial relocated to North Carolina in the 1980s, as the state defunded regulatory systems and opened its doors to businesses looking for any edge in a hyper competitive market. The Hamlet Fire is a remarkable and ultimately sad story about the hidden costs of American consumption and global systems of production at the end of the twentieth century. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted at the Imperial Foods factory in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people died behind the factory’s locked doors that morning. Most of the victims were women, and about half of them were black. In The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), Temple University history professor Bryant Simon lays out the structural failures in the American and global economic systems which killed those workers. As economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the 1970s, many Americans grew disillusioned with the New Deal era promise of high wages and a robust regulatory state. Instead, Simon argues, Americans began to embrace a culture of cheap, ready-made, products and government policies which benefitted business owners, rather than employees. Food sat high atop the list of cheap items Americans craved, particularly chicken which, just before the Hamlet fire, surpassed beef as the meat most commonly consumed by American diners. It was no coincidence that the Imperial plant in Hamlet processed chicken strips and tenders for sale at national chain grocery stores. Nor was it a coincidence that Imperial relocated to North Carolina in the 1980s, as the state defunded regulatory systems and opened its doors to businesses looking for any edge in a hyper competitive market. The Hamlet Fire is a remarkable and ultimately sad story about the hidden costs of American consumption and global systems of production at the end of the twentieth century. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On September 3, 1991, a fire erupted at the Imperial Foods factory in the small town of Hamlet, North Carolina. Twenty-five people died behind the factory’s locked doors that morning. Most of the victims were women, and about half of them were black. In The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (The New Press, 2017), Temple University history professor Bryant Simon lays out the structural failures in the American and global economic systems which killed those workers. As economic growth slowed and inflation rose in the 1970s, many Americans grew disillusioned with the New Deal era promise of high wages and a robust regulatory state. Instead, Simon argues, Americans began to embrace a culture of cheap, ready-made, products and government policies which benefitted business owners, rather than employees. Food sat high atop the list of cheap items Americans craved, particularly chicken which, just before the Hamlet fire, surpassed beef as the meat most commonly consumed by American diners. It was no coincidence that the Imperial plant in Hamlet processed chicken strips and tenders for sale at national chain grocery stores. Nor was it a coincidence that Imperial relocated to North Carolina in the 1980s, as the state defunded regulatory systems and opened its doors to businesses looking for any edge in a hyper competitive market. The Hamlet Fire is a remarkable and ultimately sad story about the hidden costs of American consumption and global systems of production at the end of the twentieth century. Stephen Hausmann is a doctoral candidate at Temple University and Visiting Instructor of history at the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently writing his dissertation, a history of race and the environment in the Black Hills and surrounding northern plains region of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The author of "The Hamlet Fire" discusses a deadly blaze at a chicken-processing facility and the logics of cheapness which provided the kindling. The post How’d We Get So Cheap? A Conversation with Bryant Simon appeared first on Edge Effects.

Bryant Simon, Professor of History at Temple University, discusses his new book, The Hamlet Fire: A Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives, and the tragic consequences of the ethos of "cheap" for workers, communities, and the nation.

Have you ever wondered how chicken nuggets are made? Or what propylene glycol monostearate, monocalcium phosphate, or other listed ingredients are doing in your favorite packaged snacks? Distillations hosts Michal Meyer and Robert Kenworthy certainly did, and they went to the corner deli to inspect some processed food themselves. They also spoke with experts Bryant Simon, a historian, and David Schleifer, a sociologist, about how trans fats and chicken nuggets arrived on the food scene as the healthier options, but have since turned into villains. Both Simon and Schleifer suggest that when it comes to deciding what we eat, we might have less choice than we think. Class, geography, and convenience (for both food makers and food eaters) all play a role. SHOW CLOCK: 00:03 Introduction 00:36 Michal Meyer tries her first Tastykake 03:39 Interview with Bryant Simon and David Schleifer LINKS TO CONTENT: "Afternoon Snack" - A video starring Michal Meyer and Bob Kenworthy.  CREDITS: Hosts: Michal Meyer and Robert Kenworthy Guests: David Schleifer and Bryant Simon Producer & Editor: Mariel Carr MUSIC: “Run Up”- Moby, mobygratis “Stabbings”- Moby, mobygratis “Christmas All Alone”- Candlegravity, Free Music Archive “Elsewhere”- Phonotrash, Free Music Archive “Tragic”- Semyon, Free Music Archive “Dragon’s Lair”- Thiaz Itch, Free Music Archive “The Spirit”- Waylon Thornton, Free Music Archive “Heroines”- Diablo Swing Orchestra, Free Music Archive   Check out Distillations magazine at distillations.org, where you'll find articles, videos, and our podcast.

Bryant Simon spoke on a panel titled “Beyond Woody” at the conference “This Great and Crowded City: Woody Guthrie’s Los Angeles,” held at the University of Southern California on April 14, 2012, in celebration of the centennial of Woody Guthrie’s birth. Simon is professor of history at Temple University.