Hello and welcome to this day an esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avrikan.

This day, March 1938, two precocious young boys from Cleveland, Ohio, Jerome Siegel, and

Joe Schuster have a check burning a hole in their pocket.

That check is for $130, which is is almost three grand in today's money, which is not that bad.

And the check is from DC Comics for the rights to a comic book character that they had created, Superman.

Whoops, I don't have to tell you that giving away the rights to Superman for $130 ended up being a bit of a mistake.

One incredible fact in this whole story the check itself like the paper check the

thing that was written $130 on it that piece of paper sold for a hundred sixty thousand

dollars in 2012 just my favorite tidbit from this whole story.

But let's talk about this great moment in intellectual property negotiations and even beyond IP,

or maybe related to it, this larger question of what Superman represented in 1938, what he represents now,

and how he's reflected our culture and politics in the many decades in between.

There is no better person to do that with than today's special guest, Glenn Weldon, author of Superman,

the unauthorized biography, and you may know him as one of the hosts of NPR's pop culture,

happy hour podcast, and many other great things on NPR and beyond, so Glenn. PR and

happy hour podcast and many other great things on NPR and beyond so Glenn Welcome to the show that's a real honor to have you on.

Oh heck it's an honor to be on thanks Judy and of course with us as always

Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley. Hello Jody.

Hey there.

So Glenn, let's go to that moment 1938, but actually I should say you wrote your book 10 years ago does it feel like 10 years ago

You wrote your book 10 years ago on the 75th anniversary. So here we are on the 85th anniversary

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