People of Agency

Season 1 told the 250-year history of the U.S. Postal Service, but we weren’t really talking about mail. We were talking about how ordinary people build public institutions, and how power tries to take them back. Season 2 is about journalism. The free press and the postal service grew up together. In 1792, the Post Office Act subsidized newspaper delivery at rates way below cost. Not because it was profitable. Because democracy requires informed citizens. That subsidy created an explosion of diverse media: abolitionist papers, labor papers, Black newspapers, immigrant language papers, alt-weeklies, news that served communities, not shareholders. What We’ll Cover: How news distribution was treated as democracy infrastructure for 200 years The shift to the 24-hour news cycle and clickbait economics Corporate consolidation and the death of local journalism How we’re told there’s ”no business model” for news, when we had one for two centuries The pattern: defund public infrastructure, let it fail, claim it’s obsolete, privatize what’s left We subsidized news distribution as public infrastructure. Then we stopped, called it ”letting the free market work,” and now journalism serves shareholders instead of citizens. Just like Season 1 showed with the postal service, the history isn’t just loss, it’s also resistance. Muckrakers, underground papers during McCarthyism, the alternative press movement, community radio. Ordinary people fighting to keep news serving communities instead of profits. Season 2 will show how we built a free press, how it’s been contested and controlled throughout history, and what it would take to make it serve democracy again. The fight over who controls information? That’s never been more urgent than right now. Season 2 coming: Summer of 2026

In August 2020, three months before a presidential election, during a pandemic, postal workers watch perfectly working mail sorting machines being dismantled, some cut with blowtorches, some thrown in dumpsters. 711 post office machines removed in a few months (double normal rate), 10% of national sorting capacity gone. When union leaders ask why, management says they're "no longer needed" while mail volume surges.  Episode 14 of our postal history tail, the season finale, covers the last five years of postal crisis and resistance. Louis DeJoy becomes Post Office Postmaster General with zero postal experience, $1.2M in Trump donations, and $30-75M in XPO Logistics stock (a USPS contractor) the Board hired him without official candidate search. He bans overtime, machines get dismantled, mail slows dramatically. Federal judge rules in September 2020 that DeJoy's actions were "voter disenfranchisement." But postal workers delivered anyway: 99.89% of 2020 ballots within 7 days, 900 million COVID tests (average 1.2 days delivery), 91% public approval rating.  The organizing worked. Grand Alliance coordinated 80+ organizations, demonstrations at 300 post offices, and April 2022's Postal Service Reform Act eliminated the prefunding mandate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Then July 2025: the Post Office turns 250 while privatization forces circle. DeJoy resigns March 2025 after fighting off DOGE's merger attempts. David Steiner (former FedEx board member) becomes the 76th Postmaster General. Amazon contract expires October 2026 ($6B revenue loss), USPS launches reverse auction platform diversifying beyond one customer. Wells Fargo publishes actual privatization roadmap recommending 30-140% rate increases. DOGE, Koch network, Heritage Foundation all pushing dismantlement. But 102 million Americans would face higher prices under privatization, 16 Republicans cosponsored anti-privatization resolutions, rural senators defending universal service.  The lesson after 250 years: institutions serve whoever fights for them. The 2022 Reform Act proved organizing works. Public support exists (91% approval). The infrastructure exists (Grand Alliance, 500,000 union members, bipartisan rural defenders). The choice is whether we organize or surrender by default. Key takeaways to listen for [00:03:00] Act I - The DeJoy Era & COVID: Louis DeJoy appointed with zero postal experience, $1.2M Trump donations, $30-75M XPO stock (didn't divest until 2022), no official candidate search; 711 machines removed (double normal rate), overtime banned, mail leaves unloaded; 83 postal workers dead by Sept 2020, 18,000 out sick daily at peak, but 900M COVID tests delivered averaging 1.2 days, 91% approval rating (highest federal agency, bipartisan) [00:19:45] Act II - When the Post Office Shows Up: August 2020 warnings to 46 states about ballot deadlines, Trump openly linking USPS defunding to blocking mail voting, federal judge ruling DeJoy's actions were "voter disenfranchisement"; 99.89% of 2020 ballots delivered within 7 days (1.6 day average), 99% within 3 days in 2022 midterms, 94% on-time in North Carolina despite Hurricane Helene devastation; contrast with UPS suspending 1,000 Florida ZIP codes during Hurricane Ian while USPS legally required to serve everywhere [00:37:57] Act III - The Reform Act, Birthday, and Threats: April 2022 Reform Act eliminating prefunding mandate, wiping $57B accumulated debt, codifying 6-day delivery, passing with overwhelming bipartisan support from COVID organizing; July 2025 250th birthday while privatization threats circle; DeJoy resignation March 2025 after fighting DOGE merger attempts; David Steiner (FedEx board) as 76th Postmaster General; Amazon contract expiring Oct 2026 ($6B loss), reverse auction platform diversifying customers; Wells Fargo publishing privatization roadmap with 30-140% rate increases [00:51:50] Act IV - What We've Learned + How We Get There: Pattern across 250 years: every time USP

Episode 13 of our postal history tail reveals what happened globally while USPS fought for survival in the 2010s. The UK privatized Royal Mail in 2013, shares jumped 38% first day (taxpayers lost £750 million), service collapsed to 76.5% on-time delivery, stamp prices rose 183% (60p to £1.70), and 68% now want renationalization. Netherlands’ PostNL fully privatized then begged for €68 million in subsidies (rejected).

Episode 12 of our postal history tail reveals how the 1990s and 2000s became decades of systematic strangulation. Marvin Runyon arrived in 1992 with the nickname ”Carvin’ Marvin” (earned by laying off 7,000 TVA employees in one day) and eliminated 48,000 postal jobs through early retirement while overtime doubled to 140 million hours. The toxic management culture created the phrase ”going postal” after workplace shootings between 1986-1999, but postal workers were actually three times LESS likely to be murdered at work (0.22 per 100,000) than the national average (0.77 per 100,000), the phrase stigmatized 800,000 workers for systemic failures. Automation eliminated 300,000 jobs while GAO reports showed savings were ”taking longer and producing less than expected.”

pisode 11 of our Postal History tail reveals how the 1980s became a decade of corporate strangulation: INTELPOST failed even worse (under $60,000 revenue on $6 million investment), creating institutional trauma that scared postal leadership away from electronic services right when the internet emerged. Meanwhile, Postmaster General Bolger rolled out presorted mail discounts that spawned the modern junk mail industry, bulk mail jumped 41% in one year, creating a $135 billion direct mail industry by 1986 while stamp prices rose 67%.