This is season four of senon radio. We're dipping back into the constitutional convention of 17 87. The authors believed that in order to make america safe for investment, they had to make America less democratic. They really believed that there 's tinuum or spectrum between if you move the needle towards more democracy, you're going to get less investment capital. And if you move it towards towards less democracy, you's going to get more investment capital. This episode includes depictions of torture and human degradation that some people will find hard to listen to. A line from alangston hugh's poem "The Land That never has been" serves as our opening theme.
In the decades after America’s founding and the establishment of the Constitution, did the nation get better, more just, more democratic? Or did it double down on violent conquest and exploitation?
Reported, produced, written, and mixed by John Biewen, with series collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika. The series editor is Loretta Williams. Interviews with Robin Alario, Edward Baptist, Kidada Williams, and Keri Leigh Merritt.
Music by Algiers, John Erik Kaada, Eric Neveux, and Lucas Biewen. Music consulting and production help from Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.