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Before we get to this week's episode, I wanted to let you know that this podcast mini series is a companion to my new book, The Queen, The Forgotten Life behind an American Myth.

It's available wherever you buy books. And now on to the show.

Previously on The Queen. The Chicago Tribune was the first paper to report on Linda Taylor, whom the newspaper called The Welfare Queen.

I was excited because it was a big story, the kind of story that most any reporter would want to get.

I mean, it was not just welfare fraud.

It was bizarre fraud.

Taylor's story was picked up by Ronald Reagan,

who used it to advocate for shrinking the welfare system.

She has three new cars, a full-length mint coat,

and her take is estimated at a million dollars.

Reagan exaggerated how much Linda Taylor stole,

but that didn't matter very much. The Welfare Queen stereotype took hold,

while Taylor herself was quickly forgotten. As far as I know, Linda Taylor talked on camera just one time.

...