People of Agency

Everyone thinks 1918 was slow. Horse-and-buggy America, right? Wrong. The Post Office had built one of the most advanced communication networks on the planet, but it still took over a week to get mail coast-to-coast. So they looked at thousands of surplus WWI planes sitting idle and thought: what if we use flying death traps to move the mail? In Episode 5, Aileen and Maia trace the audacious, deadly birth of American aviation. When the first official airmail flight launched in 1918, President Woodrow Wilson watched the pilot forget to fuel his plane, take off in the wrong direction, and crash-land 25 miles south of where he started. But the Post Office didn't give up. They hired civilian pilots at rockstar salaries to fly open-cockpit planes through blizzards with no instruments except a compass and a ripped-up road map. Between 1919 and 1921, one in six airmail pilots died on the job. The mortality rate was staggering: one pilot dead for every 115,325 miles flown. Then, in February 1921, with Congress weeks away from defunding the entire program, a injured pilot named Jack Knight flew 830 miles through a blizzard at night, guided only by bonfires lit by farmers and postal clerks who believed in what he was doing. His flight saved airmail and forced the government to build the infrastructure that made commercial aviation possible: 616 beacon towers, 95 emergency landing fields, and concrete arrows across the American West that you can still see today. But once the Post Office proved it worked, private companies suddenly got very interested. This episode reveals how the government spent decades taking all the risk, buried 31 pilots, built every piece of infrastructure, subsidized airlines for 34 years, and then watched those companies erase the Post Office from the origin story of flight. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:03:33] Act I - The Audacious Gamble: The disastrous first airmail flight when the pilot forgot to fuel his plane, why Otto Praeger's "fly or you're fired" policy killed one in six pilots, and how the Post Office took full control after the Army proved unreliable [00:12:30] Act II - The Transcontinental Gauntlet: Why Congress threatened to defund airmail in 1921, how the awkward plane-train-plane relay system barely beat all-rail service, and Praeger's desperate decision to prove night flying with bonfires before funding disappeared [00:20:25] Act III - The Hero of the Sky: Jack Knight's legendary 830-mile night flight through a blizzard with a broken nose, a ripped-up road map, and bonfires lit by ordinary Americans who turned themselves into infrastructure [00:32:55] Act IV - The Handoff: How the Post Office built 616 beacon towers and 95 emergency fields from scratch, why the 1925 Kelly Act subsidized private airlines for 34 years, and how Postmaster General Brown's secret 1930 meeting created the Big Four airlines that dominated aviation for half a century [00:42:28] Act V - The Institutional Legacy: Why 85% of airline revenue came from mail contracts in 1930, how United and American Airlines are really just renamed Post Office contractors, and what it means when we erase public institutions from innovation stories 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: "The military built the planes for war, but it was the Post Office that turned them into a tool for progress." - Aileen "It's like pitching investors on a food delivery app, except your delivery drivers are using experimental jetpacks that explode half the time." - Aileen "Ohio: taking credit for thing

What if the most revolutionary force in American history wasn't a politician or an army, but mail carriers bringing letters to farmhouse doors? At the turn of the 20th century, rural Americans lived in profound isolation, cut off from news, markets, and opportunities that city dwellers took for granted. Predatory merchants and railroad companies exploited this information gap, charging whatever they wanted because farmers had no way to know if prices were fair. But then something radical happened: farmers organized. Through the Grange movement, they launched a decades-long grassroots campaign demanding Rural Free Delivery, arguing that if city folks got mail delivered to their homes, rural Americans deserved the same democratic right. In Episode 4, Aileen and Maia trace how this seemingly simple postal reform transformed the entire country, spurring the Good Roads Movement, fueling the mail-order catalog revolution, and creating the infrastructure for modern consumer culture. Along the way, they explore the 17-year battle for Parcel Post (blocked by private express companies protecting their profits), the absolutely unhinged things Americans immediately mailed once the weight limit increased (yes, including live babies tagged "fragile"), and the inspiring story of Minnie M. Cox, a Black postmaster in Jim Crow Mississippi who forced Theodore Roosevelt to choose between political expediency and federal principle. This episode reveals how public institutions become battlegrounds, how corporate interests exploit public infrastructure for private gain, and why the fight over who the Post Office serves is still happening right now, with billion-dollar companies cherry-picking profitable routes while demanding the Post Office deliver everywhere else at a loss. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:02:33] Act I - The Battle for the Public Good: How isolated farmers organized through the Grange to demand Rural Free Delivery, fought private express companies and local merchants for 17 years, and proved that grassroots advocacy could force the government to serve everyone equally [00:15:06] Act II - The Unseen Revolution: Rural Free Delivery sparks the Good Roads Movement, mail-order catalogs break local monopolies and create modern consumer culture, but a four-pound weight limit keeps the Post Office from competing with private express companies who free-ride on public infrastructure [00:24:07] Act III - The Human Cargo: The 1913 launch of Parcel Post finally allows package shipping, Americans immediately test the limits by mailing babies, alligators, and beehives, revealing extraordinary public trust in an institution that became the backbone of community life [00:34:34] Act IV - The Political Postmaster: Minnie M. Cox, a college-educated Black postmaster in Indianola, Mississippi, faces violent threats from white supremacists during Jim Crow, refuses to resign early, and forces President Theodore Roosevelt to shut down an entire town's post office rather than cave to racist demands [00:46:35] Act V - The Battle Continues: How the same exploitation pattern from 1900 plays out today with Amazon, FedEx, and UPS cherry-picking profitable routes while depending on USPS for expensive last-mile delivery, except now we've handcuffed the Post Office by denying it taxpayer funding while demanding universal service [00:56:15] Next Episode and Credits 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: "For most Americans living in the countryside, their world was just a few miles wide. The nearest town could

July 2, 1881. President James Garfield walks through a Washington train station. Charles Guiteau steps forward, raises a revolver, and fires twice. As Garfield falls, Guiteau shouts: "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! Arthur is president now!" In his mind, this isn't murder, it's a job application. In Episode 4, Aileen and Maia trace how a broken system that rewarded political loyalty over competence created the conditions for presidential assassination. The spoils system, also called patronage, meant the winning party could fire and replace up to 80% of the federal workforce, turning government jobs into political prizes. The Post Office, employing three-quarters of all federal workers, was the biggest prize of all. Every congressman controlled 200+ postmaster positions to hand out as rewards, creating a surveillance network that reported on communities, distributed campaign literature, and maintained party power. But the system was catastrophic: postmasters were drunk in saloons, mail sat undelivered in bags, and the Star Route scandal drained millions through fraud. When President Garfield tried to reform it, Charles Guiteau, a spectacular failure who'd been rejected for a diplomatic post, decided murder was patriotism. Garfield should have survived the gunshot, but doctors who didn't believe in germ theory probed his wound with unwashed hands for 79 days, creating a 20-inch infected gash that killed him. Then something unexpected happened: Chester Arthur, the ultimate machine politician who became president, faced his own mortality and championed the Pendleton Act, dismantling the very system that made his career. The reform worked: delivery errors dropped 22%, mail volume increased 14%, and merit-based hiring created the professional civil service that enabled Rural Free Delivery, Parcel Post, and modern government. But in 2025, we're watching it all unravel. Trump's Schedule F and DOGE have purged 211,000 federal workers, the largest peacetime attack on American civil service in history, replacing expertise with loyalty and turning government back into a weapon for the powerful. This episode reveals why that fight matters, what we lose when institutions serve machines instead of people, and why we need to remember that we've beaten the spoils system before, which means we can do it again. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:01:40 Act I - The System That Created a Killer: How the spoils system turned 50,000-70,000 Post Office jobs into political prizes, why every election meant mass firings and drunk postmasters, and how rewarding loyalty over competence created catastrophic incompetence, then and now with DOGE [00:19:49] Act II - The Turkey-Gobbler vs. The Dark Horse: The 1880 Republican Convention battle between machine politicians and reformers, how James Garfield accidentally became the nominee, and why his attacks on patronage made him a target [00:32:41] Act III - The Malpractice That Killed a President: Charles Guiteau's methodical assassination plan, why Garfield should have survived the gunshot, and how doctors who rejected germ theory turned a survivable wound into a 79-day death sentence [00:38:50] Act IV - Merit Proves Itself: How Chester Arthur, facing his own mortality, became an unlikely reform champion, what the Pendleton Act accomplished, and why merit-based hiring measurably improved postal service with 22% fewer errors [00:45:52] Act V - The Fight Happening Right Now: Why DOGE's purge of 211,000 federal workers is the largest peacetime attack on civil service in history, how replacing EPA scientists and air traffic controllers with Fox News personalities creates measurable harm, and why defending professional government is the fight of our time [00:58:03] Next Episode and Credits 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 instituti

October 6, 1866. Three men board a slow-moving train in Seymour, Indiana. They beat a messenger unconscious, steal $16,000, and throw a 300-pound safe off a moving train. It's the first peacetime train robbery in American history, and it accidentally invents federal law enforcement as we know it. In this action-packed episode, Aileen and Maia break from their usual format to deliver pure narrative chaos: train robberies, shootouts, vigilante lynchings, and the birth of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. From the Reno Brothers' brutal heist that ended in mob violence, to Jesse James wearing KKK hoods and building a mythology that protected him for nine years, to Butch Cassidy brought down by raspberry-stained bills and telephone coordination, this is the bloodiest chapter in postal history. But beneath the exciting outlaw tales lies a harder question: who do institutions serve? Aileen and Maia trace how corporate interests weaponized "protecting the mail" to get taxpayer-funded federal protection for their gold shipments, how Allan Pinkerton learned detective work as a postal inspector then became a union-busting corporate enforcer, and how brave postal inspectors like W.P. Houk risked their lives enforcing a system designed to serve the powerful. It's a story about mythology, violence, and the ongoing fight over whose interests our institutions protect.   Note: This episode contains discussions of violence, lynching, and white supremacy.  Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:04:46] Act I - The Reno Gang and the Birth of Federal Power: How the first peacetime train robbery exposed the gaps in federal law enforcement, why express companies got taxpayer-funded protection by putting their gold in mail cars, and how vigilante lynchings of the Reno Brothers created an international incident [00:26:42] Act II - Jesse James and the Mythology Machine: Confederate guerrilla turned train robber wears KKK hoods, gets protected by Lost Cause propaganda, and becomes a folk hero thanks to his publicist while postal inspectors spend nine years trying to catch a white supremacist murderer [00:37:26] Act III - When Too Much Dynamite Met Modern Investigation: The Wild Bunch accidentally stains stolen bills with raspberry juice, gets tracked by the first telephone-coordinated manhunt, and learns that forensic investigation beats faster guns [00:45:09] Act IV - The Christmas Eve Shootout: Inspector W.P. Houk walks ten miles in freezing darkness to ambush the Rodgers Gang, raising questions about whose courage serves whose interests [50:22] Act V - The Fight Over Who Institutions Serve: Why mythology erases workers and celebrates outlaws, how institutions become contested spaces, and why giving up on public services means letting corporate interests win by default 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: "They just accidentally invented federal law enforcement as we know it. They just created postal inspectors." - Maia "Express companies essentially outsourced their security costs to taxpayers." - Aileen "Get yourself a good publicist." - Aileen (on what Jesse James learned from the Reno Brothers) "He went from labor organizer to corporate enforcer." - Maia (on Allan Pinkerton) "When he wears a KKK hood while robbing a train in 1873, he's not just hiding his identity. He's signaling his allegiance." - Aileen "The mythology says he was robbing from the rich. But he wasn't. He robbed a mail train carrying letters from regular people." - Aileen "You can have all the federal authority in the world. If

Winter, 1895. Cascade, Montana. A nearly sixty-year-old Black woman who was born enslaved leans into a blizzard, driving a U.S. mail wagon through drifts that have turned men around. Her name is Mary Fields, and she will become a legend. But before we meet Stagecoach Mary, we need to understand the system she bent to her will. In Episode 2, Aileen and Maia trace how the Post Office expanded westward, not just following the frontier, but actively creating it. From the 1845 postal reforms that slashed rates and made long-distance communication affordable, to star routes that stitched remote cabins into the national fabric, to the mythologized Pony Express (which lasted only eighteen months and probably never employed Buffalo Bill), this episode reveals how mail delivery became the infrastructure that justified federal expansion into Indigenous territories. We meet railway mail clerks who memorized ten thousand post offices and sorted at breakneck speed in wooden cars that killed them in wrecks. We meet Owney, the beloved terrier who rode the rails and never saw a single train accident in nine years. And finally, we meet Mary Fields: cigar-smoking, gun-carrying, gender-nonconforming postal contractor who won a federal star route, walked through wolf packs to deliver the mail, and forced an entire Montana town to rewrite its rules to make room for her. This is a story about who gets to represent America at someone’s front door, and what it takes to change that answer.