People of Agency

December 1966. Chicago's main post office. Ten million pieces of mail sit backlogged, and officials are reportedly discussing whether to just burn it all. The problem? The postal system that worked for a century was collapsing under its own success. Railway Mail Service clerks had to memorize up to 30,000 addresses, knowledge that took years to build and lived entirely in workers' heads. When someone retired, that expertise walked out the door. Three years earlier, the Post Office had rolled out a solution: ZIP codes. Five digits that promised to make everything faster and more efficient. But it wasn't really about speed, it was about making workers replaceable. In Episode 9, Aileen and Maia trace how a Philadelphia postal inspector named Robert Moon spent 19 years getting rejected before his three-digit regional system was finally adopted, how H. Bentley Hahn designed the brilliant fourth and fifth digits that nobody remembers, and how J. Edward Day swooped in to take credit before resigning one month later. They explore the bonkers marketing campaign, Mr. ZIP (a hand-me-down AT&T mascot), a musical with cavemen, Ethel Merman singing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," and 90-minute plywood cutout speeches. Americans resisted for 15 years, convinced it was Orwellian and dehumanizing. Charles Schulz created a Peanuts character literally named "555 95472" in protest. But eventually adoption hit 83%, the mail crisis resolved, and the system scaled. Then something darker happened: marketers discovered ZIP codes could predict income, race, and buying habits. Insurance companies used them to continue redlining after it became illegal. The PRIZM system sorted Americans into 62 "lifestyle clusters" like "Shotguns & Pickups" and "Blue Blood Estates." What started as mail routing became a tool for discrimination, surveillance, and algorithmic sorting, the exact pattern playing out with AI today. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:03:10] Act I - The Memory Palace: How Railway Mail Service clerks memorized 30,000 addresses and took scheme examinations every six months with 97% accuracy requirements, why the Bureau of Hards spent entire days deciphering illegible handwriting, and how worker expertise created leverage that management wanted to eliminate [00:11:16] Act II - The Forgotten Inventors: Robert Moon's 19 years of rejected proposals for regional numbering, H. Bentley Hahn's brilliant incorporation of existing postal zones into digits four and five, how ZIP codes followed railroad routes rather than state lines, and why J. Edward Day got all the credit before resigning one month after launch [00:20:13] Act III - Mr. ZIP and the Numbers Racket: The aggressive marketing campaign with Disney's "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," cavemen explaining ZIP codes in a 15-minute musical, Smokey Bear getting his own ZIP code (20252), Charles Schulz's 20-year protest through Peanuts character "555 95472," and why it took 15 years to reach near-universal adoption [00:30:28] Act IV - Your ZIP Code Knows Too Much: How PRIZM's 62 "lifestyle clusters" turned ZIP codes into predictive tools, why insurance companies charge people in minority ZIP codes 77% more for identical coverage, how ZIP codes became discrimination laundering after redlining was outlawed, and why 65% of 1930s "D-grade" neighborhoods remain low-income today [00:42:17] Act V - The Same Fight, Different Decade: How Amazon's AI surveillance cameras flag drivers for "scratching their face," why warehouse injury rates are 31% higher than industry average during productivity tracking, how 1,100 Salt Lake City workers still manually process mail machines can't read while being monitored from "air-traffic control," and why the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA won AI protections that postal workers have been fighting for 50 years Follow Us On Social Media Instagram @Peopleof_Agency TikTok @Peopleof_Agency YouTube @Peopleof_Agency   Connect with Us Ready to explore how ordinary peop

Chipping away at Trust  Two stories just broke that show exactly how you destroy the most trusted institution in America. Amazon's $6 billion contract with USPS expires in October 2026, and after nearly a year of negotiations, there's no deal, just as Amazon finishes building a $4 billion rural delivery network on routes they learned while relying on the Postal Service. Meanwhile, a rule change that took effect December 24th means postmarks no longer prove when you mailed something, threatening to invalidate ballots, trigger IRS penalties, and disqualify time-sensitive documents, especially in rural communities. Both stories reveal the same pattern: what happens when a public institution built to serve everyone gets financially strangled, becomes dependent on corporate revenue, and then watches those corporations walk away. This is about trust, rural America, and who public services actually work for.  

Episode 8: From Savings to Surveillance: How Trust Was Weaponized Explicit: No Summary December 1930. The Bronx. Thousands of people stand outside the collapsed Bank of United States, their life savings vanished overnight. But a few blocks north at the post office, there's a different kind of line: quiet, orderly people depositing what's left into the Postal Savings System, backed by the federal government and guaranteed not to disappear. Between 1930 and 1933, as 9,000 banks failed, deposits in postal savings exploded from $175 million to over $1.2 billion, proving public banking works when private banking destroys everything. But fifty-five years later, the banking industry killed it and erased it from history so completely that most Americans have never heard of it. In Episode 8, Aileen and Maia trace three decades where the Post Office was simultaneously a refuge and a weapon. FDR's New Deal built 361 beautiful post offices with WPA murals while using those jobs as political patronage. WWII brought V-Mail innovation and the 6888th Battalion, 855 Black women who cleared 17 million pieces of backlogged mail in three months while fighting segregation. Then the Cold War turned that trusted institution into surveillance: FBI loyalty investigations purged 2,700 federal workers and forced 12,000 more to resign, targeting civil rights activists like NAACP leaders and destroying 5,000-10,000 queer federal employees during the "Lavender Scare." The same Post Office that saved people during the Depression investigated, surveilled, and fired them twenty years later for being Black and demanding equality, for being gay, for organizing unions. This episode reveals why institutions aren't inherently good or evil, they're contested spaces that serve whoever has the power to control them. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:04:40] Act I - The Great Depression: When Mail Wasn't Enough: How the Postal Savings System proved public banking works for 55 years, why immigrants held 75% of deposits despite being 15% of the population, and how FDR chose to save private banking with FDIC insurance rather than expand the public alternative that had just rescued millions [00:23:51] Act II - World War II: The Mail Must Go Through: V-Mail's 98% cargo space reduction that saved room for 2.3 million field rations, the 6888th Battalion of 855 Black women who cleared 17 million pieces in 3 months after white male officers failed, and Major Charity Adams telling a general "over my dead body" when he threatened to replace her with a white officer [00:36:39] Act III - The Cold War: When Loyalty Mattered More Than Mail: How Truman's 1947 Executive Order screened 5 million federal workers and dismissed 2,700 for "disloyalty," why Black postal workers advocating for civil rights were fired as "communist agitators," and how 5,000-10,000 queer federal employees lost everything during the Lavender Scare [00:58:40] Act IV - Contested Spaces: Who Does an Institution Serve?: Why the same institution that saved millions in 1933 destroyed careers in 1953, how the erasure of postal banking history prevents us from proposing it today, and why understanding institutions as tools (not heroes or villains) is essential for reform Follow Us On Social Media Instagram @Peopleof_Agency TikTok @Peopleof_Agency YouTube @Peopleof_Agency   Connect with Us Ready to explore how ordinary people built extraordinary public institutions? Subscribe to People of Agency wherever you listen to podcasts. Find us on social media @Peopleof_Agency. Have stories about how the mail shaped your community, or thoughts on protecting public services? We'd love to hear from you! [email protected] Quotes: "If this history were widely known, every time someone proposes postal banking today, the response couldn't be 'that's a crazy socialist idea.' It would have to be 'we already did this for fifty-five years and it worked.'" - Aileen "Private industry fails catas

Aileen, Maia and special guest Grant introduce Well, I Laughed (Maia’s other podcast *gasp*). Tune in for a dive into the history of America’s political parties and how that relates to our current federal landscape.    From the Well, I Laughed Podcast:  Has American politics always been so divided? Our current political system seems broken beyond repair, but where did it all start? This week Grant tells Maia about the history of the American political system and the political parties that have defined the eras. We discuss winning strategies, coalition building, and add some important framing and context to the current state of politics in America. In this country, we’re all Party Animals - out now!   Chapters 00:00:00 Introducing: Well, I Laughed 00:07:31 Party Animals 00:16:55 The First Party System 00:44:23 The Second Party System 01:02:17 The Third Party System 01:19:25 The Fourth Party System 01:59:08 The Fifth Party System 02:19:35 The Sixth Party System 02:23:39 The Future & Final Thoughts   Connect with Well, I Laughed Love a good laugh? Stay in the loop with the Well, I Laughed Podcast! Hit up wellilaughed.com for all the fun, throw some love our way on Patreon at https://patreon.com/WellILaughedPodcast, and send us your wildest listener stories at [email protected]—because let’s be real, we know you’ve got some!   Listener stories, topic ideas, or anything else you think belongs on the show—drop it all at wellilaughed.com/contact. We’re all ears—and laughs!   Follow Us On Social Media Instagram: @wellilaughed Tiktok: @wellilaughed Facebook: Well, I Laughed Podcast YouTube: Well, I laughed   Sources How the Republican Party went from Lincoln to Trump - Vox via YouTube Political Parties: Crash Course Government and Politics #40 - CrashCourse via YouTube Timeline of US Political Parties - Useful Charts via YouTube Rutherford B. Hayes - National Parks Service Are Southern Summers Becoming Truly Unbearable? What "Wet Bulb Temperature" Can Tell Us - Garden and Gun Gilded Age (Immigration) - Wikipedia George Washington > Quotes - Goodreads

"Okay, I get the history is interesting, but do we really need the Post Office anymore?" After their first episodes dropped, Aileen and Maia kept hearing this question. So they moved this episode up to address it head-on because this isn't about nostalgia, it's about showing what we'd actually lose. They reveal the manufactured financial crisis: between 2007 and 2016, 87-92% of the Post Office's reported $62 billion in losses came from a single 2006 law requiring them to pre-fund retiree healthcare 75 years into the future for workers not yet born. No other entity in America faces this requirement. When Congress repealed it in 2022, $57 billion magically reappeared. The crisis existed only on paper, but created 16 years of headlines that built support for privatization. Then they explore what we'd actually lose: the neuroscience of why physical mail creates deeper connections than digital messages, the $1.9 trillion mailing industry, the 70% of small businesses who can't afford private carriers, the 120 million veteran prescriptions delivered annually (with delays causing withdrawal and deaths), the 1 in 3 Americans who vote by mail, and mail carriers who save lives by checking on elderly neighbors. If Blockbuster was genuinely obsolete, it just died, Netflix was better. But the Post Office isn't fading naturally; someone's actively dismantling it. And when you follow the money, you see who profits: private carriers lobbying to weaken USPS while depending on it for last-mile delivery, media companies eyeing advertising budgets, and real estate interests targeting $50-100 billion in public buildings. This episode asks whether we're okay with veterans waiting for heart medication, rural communities losing their only federal service, and democracy becoming inaccessible to those who can't reach a polling place. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:03:17] Act I - Obsolete or Targeted?: How the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act required pre-funding retiree healthcare 75 years into the future (a requirement imposed on no other entity in America), why 87-92% of reported losses were manufactured by this mandate, and how $57 billion magically reappeared when Congress repealed it in 2022 [00:13:15] Act II - The Mail You Can Hold: The neuroscience behind why physical mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process, creates 20% higher motivation response, and produces 70% higher brand recall than digital messages, plus how letter-writing during COVID became therapeutic intervention against isolation [00:24:36] Act III - The Economic Engine: Why 70% of businesses with fewer than 10 employees depend on USPS rates that are 50-68% cheaper than private carriers, how the $1.9 trillion mailing industry employs millions across printing/manufacturing/fulfillment, and why "junk mail" subsidizes universal service while keeping democracy affordable for small campaigns [00:35:00] Act IV - Who Gets Left Behind: The 187-mile daily rural routes and 300-mile Alaska deliveries that no private company would touch, the 120 million veteran prescriptions shipped annually (with delays causing withdrawal and deaths), the 1 in 3 Americans who vote by mail, and the mail carriers who save lives by checking on elderly neighbors [00:48:36] Act V - Why Now Matters: Who actually profits from dismantling the Post Office (private carriers depending on USPS while lobbying against it, media companies capturing ad budgets, real estate interests eyeing $50-100 billion in public buildings), and why the pattern of starve-then-privatize is the same playbook used on prisons and schools [00:52:37] Next Episode: From Savings to Surveillance: How Trust Was Weaponized Follow Us On Social Media Instagram @Peopleof_Agency TikTok @Peopleof_Agency YouTube @Peopleof_Agency   Connect with Us Ready to explore how ordinary people built extraordinary public institutions? Subscribe to People of Agency wherever you listen to podcasts. Find us o