The Postal Service

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The US Postal Service has played a role throughout American history - from the Declaration of Independence to today's mail-in voting. It was conceived of by the founders as the way to create a united, informed and effective American democracy. But today, the postal service's future is in danger. How the postal service created the United States and the case for this pivotal institution.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, so a few months ago, one of our producers came in and was super excited to talk about something.
0:06.0	The Postal Service. To be honest, we really weren't that excited or interested in talking about
0:13.2	the Postal Service. It's something that like neither of us really thought about, right? Who spends
0:18.6	time doing that? And I mean, not me. But we started reading up on the history and we were like,
0:26.3	you know what? There's something here. So we decided to talk to someone who has thought a lot
0:32.4	about the Postal Service. I am Winifred Gallagher. I am a journalist. My book is called How the Post
0:39.3	Office Created America. The interview was super interesting. But, you know, we didn't really do
0:45.6	anything with it. But then this happened. New policies that the U.S. Postal Service are causing
0:51.6	backlogs and workers worn mail-in ballots for November's election could be impact.
0:57.0	It hundreds of postboxes taken off the streets, mail sorting machines taken offline,
1:02.2	overflowing mail bins and reports that worker overtime has been cut.
1:06.1	Postmaster General Lewis DeJoy defended his moves to remove mail sorting machines and cut over time
1:12.5	as cost-cutting measures and claims his decisions have nothing to do with voting.
1:18.3	The Democrat led House of Representatives approved sending $25 billion to the U.S. Postal Service
1:25.1	and block any operational changes that could delay mail this November. President Trump says he will
1:31.5	veto the legislation if the bill passes in the Republican-led Senate.
1:35.8	The reality is this controversy didn't start a month ago. It's been building for decades.
1:42.0	And despite that, the Postal Service processes and delivers 181.9 million pieces of mail every day
1:49.7	across the U.S. And, fun fact, the Postal Service has a 91 percent approval rating. That's the
1:56.8	highest of any government agency. A spot it consistently holds. And it's probably because the
2:02.5	Postal Service has been a consistent part of American life since even before the United States was
2:08.5	founded. When we come back, Winifred Gallagher is going to tell us the story of the Postal Service
	...

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