This is an IHeart podcast.

Welcome back to a numbers game podcast with Ryan Grodowski.

Thank you all for being here again.

We are less than two weeks away from the election.

Make a plan to vote.

Local elections matter.

I guarantee you there's a local election that you might not even know about coming

up. So figure out who's running, who you're going to support and get it and vote, make your voice

be heard. I have a few stories that I want to cover today. First, this story flew under the radar

from the mainstream media. I actually didn't see almost anyone cover it. And it's not super important,

but it flies in the face of an old narrative

that is very commonly regurgitated without any thought,

without anyone even thinking about it,

and that it's slavery made America wealthy.

Now, first and foremost, you know, everything I think, I don't think I need to say this,

but I'm going to say this. First of all, I'm not praising or condoning or belittling the experience of

slavery. You know, I wish we'd never had slaves in this country. However, that statement that

slavery made America rich simply isn't true. And not only did it not make America rich, but it kept the South poor.

That's according to a new study from researchers from Columbia, Dartmouth, and Yale

universities. Their names are Treb Allen, Winston Chen, and Suresh Nidu. I guarantee you I

mispronounce the last name, but I tried Suresh. Their study explored what the

antebellum American economy would have looked like without slavery. It says, quote, combining

...