607 Upton Sinclair and the Muckraking Novelist (with Adelle Waldman) | My Last Book with Edward Chamberlin

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

Arts, History, Books

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Can novelists make a difference in the world? Of course we know they can - we've seen plenty of examples. But how does it happen? And what are the challenges a twenty-first century novelist might face when hoping to bring about social change? In this episode, Jacke looks at the example of Upton Sinclair, whose famous novel The Jungle shone a spotlight on the immigrants working in Chicago's meatpacking plants and led to key social reforms. Then Jacke talks to Adelle Waldman (The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.), whose new novel Help Wanted is set in the world of workers at a big box store. And finally, Professor Edward Chamberlin (Storylines: How Words Shape Our World) returns to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglamorate Network and LIT Hub Radio.
0:07.0	Hello, indulge me for a moment. I'm starting a news organization. It will be called the
0:15.9	median news. Every employee at my organization will earn the same starting salary,
0:21.5	the same bonus, and receive the same
0:23.6	starting salary, the same bonus and receive the same health benefits.
0:25.3	They'll all receive the same number of vacation days.
0:30.0	Oh, we'll have a few performance enhancers, and they'll get the same cost of living salary increase and maybe a few more perks as well
0:37.7	But this is the key. This is how the reporters and editors and publishers and everyone else will be compensated.
0:44.4	When I say the same, I mean the same as each other, but even more than that I mean the same as the
0:51.5	median wage earners in their location.
0:55.0	If the median wage is $80,000 a year, then that's what they'll earn.
1:00.0	If the median wage earner gets health care, then that's what they'll get.
1:04.1	If not, they won't.
1:06.6	Their economic fate will be tied to the fate of the median earners living among them.
1:12.3	If those people get to retire early, then wonderful.
1:15.8	So will my employees. If their retirement age ticks up, well that's too bad.
1:22.3	And if at the end of life the median person in this area is reduced to poverty,
1:29.4	then sadly my employees might be too.
1:33.6	Hopefully you can see where I'm going with this.
1:35.4	We have a disconnect between the news we tend to receive
1:38.4	and the people who dish it out to us.
1:40.8	They select what's important, what gets the oxygen, what to cover and how to cover it.
	...

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