People of Agency

People of Agency Podcast
  • 4.7 (15)
  • HISTORY

The Post Office is older than the United States, and that's not a coincidence. From the American Revolution to Rural Free Delivery, the Post Office has been a silent, foundational institution that literally built the roads and airways of modern America. Join Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn as they dig up the receipts and reveal the untold, radical history of this essential public good. This is a story about the unseen power that truly holds the country together, and why we all need to understand what's at stake when public institutions are under attack. New episode every Monday. 

  1. TRAILER

    SEASON 2 TRAILER: The Fourth Estate

    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: Spring of 2026

    2 min

  2. FEB 9

    Ep. 14 - The Postal Service We Choose

    People of Agency Episode 14: Show Notes Episode 14: The Postal Service We Choose Explicit: No Summary 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 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, the season finale, covers the last five years of postal crisis and resistance. Louis DeJoy becomes 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 USPS proves it works, someone tries to kill it (COVID tests→remove machines, postal savings→50 years lobbying to destroy, E-COM→Congress kills it); spoils system never died (DeJoy appointment); 1970 "run like a business" restructuring planted seeds of crisis; 2006 prefunding manufactured 87% of losses; organizing during COVID (Grand Alliance, 300 post office demonstrations, 91% approval) created political pressure for 2022 Reform Act [01:03:36] Act V - The Tug-of-War & The Choice: Wells Fargo publishing step-by-step privatization guide, James Comer saying private companies "interested" in mail processing, Koch network/Heritage/Cato pushing dismantlement; but 102M Americans would face higher prices (Institute for Policy Studies), 16 Republicans cosponsoring anti-privatization resolutions, rural senators defending universal service; proposals exist (Postal Banking Act, expanded government services, pension reform, $6-10B annual appropriations); 2022 Reform Act proves organizing works, infrastructure exists (Grand Alliance, 500K union members, bipartisan support), choice is whether we fight or surrender by default Get Involved: Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service American Postal Workers Union (APWU) National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) Contact your representatives about the Postal Banking Act Organize across partisan divides, rural Republicans need USPS as much as urban Democrats Quotes: "When union leaders ask management why they're dismantling machines right before an election during a pandemic, they're told the machines are 'no longer needed.' You can't reassemble a mail sorting machine you threw in a dumpster three weeks ago." - Aileen "Federal judge Stanley Bastian ruled in September 2020: 'At the heart of DeJoy's and the Postal Service's actions is voter disenfranchisement.' A federal judge said that. Out loud. In a legal ruling." - Maia "COVID did something no legislation could have done. It showed Americans in the most visceral way that the Post Office is essential. And that public support? It's going to matter." - Maia "The 2022 Reform Act happened because people organized during COVID. Demonstrated at 300 post offices. The Grand Alliance coordinated 80 organizations. Congress was watching, and Congress acted. Collective action actually worked." - Aileen "Wells Fargo published an actual step-by-step guide to privatizing the Post Office. Not just a think piece, a literal roadmap. They're shopping the Post Office to investors." - Maia "Institutions serve whoever fights for them. The Post Office isn't going to save itself. People do. Or people don't, and we lose them. The postal service we get is the postal service we fight for." - Aileen Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #LouisDeJoy #DavidSteiner #COVID19 #MailInVoting #2020Election #PostalReformAct #GrandAlliance #APWU #NALC #VoterDisenfranchisement #Privatization #DOGE #WellsFargo #PostalBanking #UniversalService #OrganizingWorks #CollectivePower #250Years #SaveThePostOffice #PublicInstitutions #LaborOrganizing #CallToAction #HistoryPodcast 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! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources  Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.

    1h 19m

  3. FEB 2

    Ep. 13 - Insufficient Postage: How Other Countries Adapted While We Waited

    People of Agency Episode 13: Show Notes Episode 13: Insufficient Postage: How Other Countries Adapted While We Waited Explicit: No Summary December 30, 2025. A Danish postal worker delivers the last letter Denmark will ever send. After 401 years, postal service ends entirely. The 1,000 iconic red mailboxes get auctioned off, nostalgic Danes crash the website buying them as souvenirs. Starting January 1, 2026, mailing a letter costs $4.55 with no street mailboxes, only kiosks run by a private newspaper company. Denmark spent 25 years building e-Boks (mandatory digital mailbox system) before making this choice, but still left 271,000 digitally-exempt people behind.  Episode 13 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).  Argentina privatized in 1997, went bankrupt in four years with $900 million debt, returned to profitable public ownership. Meanwhile, Switzerland stayed 100% public, diversified into logistics/banking/buses/digital services, ranks #1 in world for eight consecutive years with zero subsidies and 324 million franc profit. Germany privatized strategically (government kept 20.5% stake), bought DHL to become world's largest logistics company, built 42,000 electric vehicles in-house. France stayed 100% public, La Banque Postale serves 10.8 million including 3 million vulnerable households, 40,000 carriers do elder check-ins. Japan Post runs a $2.2 trillion bank serving nearly every adult.  But USPS? Section 102 made all of it illegal. Fiscal 2012 loss of $15.9 billion (87% from prefunding mandate), 88,000 jobs cut, two-tier wages for 120,000 workers, Board of Governors vacant for 5 years, Amazon partnership with questionable subsidies, but Informed Delivery got 50 million subscribers. Workers won the Staples fight, 3-year campaign with AFL-CIO boycott, 1.6 million teachers boycotting, international solidarity from 26 countries, forcing termination in 2017. The lesson: diversification, innovation, proper funding, and labor protections matter more than ownership structure. But USPS was legally prohibited from trying any of it. Key takeaways to listen for [00:05:18] Act I - When Privatization Goes Wrong: UK's Royal Mail privatized 2013 with 38% first-day share jump (£750M taxpayer loss), service dropping to 76.5% on-time with £37M in fines, stamp prices up 183% while 68% want renationalization; Netherlands' PostNL begging for €68M subsidies after privatization; New Zealand cutting urban delivery to 3 days/week while private DX Mail cherry-picks routes; Argentina's 1997 privatization going bankrupt in 4 years before profitable return to public ownership [00:18:05] Act II - When Public Ownership Works: Switzerland 100% public ranking #1 globally for 8 years with 324M franc profit, PostFinance holding 100B+ francs, PostBus carrying 183M passengers, ePost digital mailbox, SwissID with 3.4M users; Germany's strategic privatization keeping 20.5% government stake, acquiring DHL for 94.4B euro revenue, building 42,000 electric vehicles in-house; France's La Banque Postale serving 10.8M customers (3M vulnerable), 40,000 carriers doing elder check-ins; Japan Post's $2.2 trillion bank serving 115M adults [00:34:56] Act III - What America Was Doing (and Not Doing): Fiscal 2012 loss of $15.9B (87% from prefunding of $54.8B in losses 2007-2016), Patrick Donahoe cutting 88,000 jobs and 141 facilities while Congress blocks Saturday delivery elimination, Board of Governors vacant 2014-2019 (5 years without quorum), first-class mail dropping from 52% to 33% revenue while packages grow 170%, two-tier wage systems affecting 120,000 workers, Postal Pulse ranking 1st percentile with only 17% engagement, Trump pressuring Brennan to double Amazon rates [00:50:07] Act IV - The Staples Fight (When Workers Said No to Privatization): 2013 partnership putting mini post offices in 82 Staples with $9/hour employees (vs $25 postal workers) and 4 hours training, internal documents revealing plans for 1,500+ stores, APWU's 3-year Stop Staples campaign with April 2014 National Day of Action at 50+ stores in 27 states, AFL-CIO adding Staples to boycott list, 1.6 million AFT teachers boycotting during back-to-school season, UNI Global endorsing boycotts in 26 countries, November 2016 NLRB ruling against USPS for incomplete/misleading information, January 2017 partnership termination victory [00:56:26] Act V - The Roads Not Taken (And What Comes Next): Universal email at mail.us with sealed-mail privacy (vs Gmail surveillance), postal banking for 24.6M unbanked/underbanked spending $9B annually on 400% payday lenders (vs France's 10.8M customers, Japan's $2.2T bank), digital trust services 13 years before blockchain (vs DocuSign billions), elder check-ins using daily delivery infrastructure (vs France's 9,000 clients), in-house electric vehicle development (vs Germany's 42,000 EVs built while USPS took 14 years), and why Section 102 made all innovation illegal to protect corporate interests Quotes: "Denmark built digital infrastructure for 25 years before making this decision. They invested heavily, got public buy-in, created alternatives. But they still couldn't figure out how to serve everyone, 271,000 people were left behind." - Aileen "So the private company is saying, we can't make money delivering mail, either pay us or we're going to stop. And their stock collapsed 75% while they were still paying dividends to shareholders." - Maia (on PostNL) "Switzerland stayed 100% public, diversified into logistics, banking, buses, and digital services. Profitable, no subsidies, ranked number one in the world. And the United States? Section 102 made all of that illegal." - Aileen "Deutsche Post said we need electric vehicles, nobody makes them, we'll build 42,000 ourselves. And the Post Office said we need electric vehicles, started procurement in 2015, and nine years later we're still waiting." - Maia "Postal banking can work at massive scale. 2.2 trillion dollars in assets proves it's viable. We're just not allowed to try it." - Maia "The lesson isn't public good, private bad. The lesson is that diversification, innovation investment, proper funding, and labor protections matter more than ownership structure." - Maia Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #InternationalPostal #Denmark #RoyalMail #Privatization #SwissPost #DeutschePost #LaPoste #JapanPost #PostalBanking #StaplesBoycott #APWU #MarkDimondstein #Section102 #PrefundingMandate #MeganBrennan #InformedDelivery #AmazonSunday #UnbankedAmerica #PaydayLenders #ElderCare #DigitalDivide #PublicOwnership #LaborVictory #USPSHistory #PostalReform #UniversalService #HistoryPodcast 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! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com

    1h 12m

  4. JAN 26

    Ep. 12 - Going Postal

    (Content warning: Episode contains discussion of gun violence, workplace violence and toxic work environments) Summary Postmaster General William Henderson proposes giving every American a free government email address with the suffix ".us", with privacy protections like sealed mail, where the government can't read your correspondence without a warrant. Congress and customers reject it. Instead we got Gmail, where you're the product and corporations scan your messages to sell advertising.  Episode 12 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." Meanwhile, the Post Office tried repeatedly to innovate: Electronic Postmark (1996) doing blockchain-style digital authentication 13 years before Bitcoin, PosteCS (2000) doing secure document delivery 3 years before DocuSign, eBillPay (2000) before online payment became standard, and Henderson's partnership discussions with Jeff Bezos before UPS grabbed the deal. All canceled or blocked. Then came the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, creating the prefunding mandate we covered in Episode 7, but also Section 102: legally prohibiting the Post Office from offering "nonpostal services" that might compete with private firms. No email, no digital notarization, no postal banking.  The law passed by voice vote with no recorded opposition, locking the Post Office into physical mail delivery just as mail collapsed. FedEx spent $12 million lobbying in 2012 alone while the Post Office was legally prohibited from lobbying Congress. Corporate capture became law, and every digital service Americans need, email, banking, document authentication, stayed private and profitable while the Post Office was prevented from adapting. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction [00:06:20] Act I - Carvin' Marvin: The Restructuring Pressure Cooker: How Marvin Runyon eliminated 48,000 jobs through early retirement and 23,000 management positions while overtime doubled from 69 million to 140 million hours, why the GAO found 49% of workers weren't treated with dignity and 52,000 grievances backlogged for up to 696 days, and how "running like a business" meant treating workers as costs to minimize [00:16:24] Act II - Going Postal: When Institutions Break People: The 1986-1999 workplace shootings (34 postal employees killed in 29 incidents) that created the phrase, why postal workers were actually 0.22 per 100,000 murdered at work versus 0.77 national average (three times SAFER), how toxic management culture with arbitrary discipline (suspended for saying "damn" to yourself) and collapsed grievance systems broke workers, and why 800,000 postal workers got stigmatized for systemic failures [00:31:14] Act III - Automation: Who Pays for Efficiency?: DBCS machines processing 40,000 letters/hour with 2 operators versus 30,000/hour with 17 operators, how 300,000 career jobs were eliminated (clerks down 45.9% from 1990-2010), why GAO found automation was "taking longer and producing less than expected" with $761 million in exceeded work hour costs, and how the no-layoff clause couldn't protect against jobs being automated out of existence [00:39:44] Act IV - The Digital Future They Tried to Build: Electronic Postmark (1996) doing blockchain-style authentication 13 years before Bitcoin, PosteCS (2000) secure document delivery 3 years before DocuSign became worth billions, eBillPay (2000) before online bill payment became standard, Henderson's Amazon partnership discussions before UPS grabbed the site, and why institutional trauma from E-COM made leadership scared to invest long-term [00:49:15] Act V - The 2006 Legislative Capture: Section 102 of PAEA legally prohibiting "nonpostal services" to protect private firms, rate caps tied to CPI preventing the Post Office from covering costs, expanded Postal Rate Commission authority, FedEx spending $12 million on lobbying in 2012 while the Post Office was legally barred from lobbying, and how the law passed by voice vote during December 2006 lame-duck session with zero recorded opposition [01:03:00] Act VI - What We Lost and Why It Still Matters: Universal ".us" email addresses with sealed-mail privacy protections, digital trust services for authentication and notarization, postal banking for 40 million unbanked/underbanked Americans spending $173 billion annually on payday lenders, and why corporate capture became law, preventing public alternatives to private services while leaving people who can't afford private options behind 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! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com Quotes: "A government email service could have operated under the same legal framework as sealed mail, where the government can't read your correspondence without a warrant. Instead we got Gmail, where you're the product." - Aileen "When your coworkers hear about a mass shooting and their reaction is 'yeah, that tracks,' that's when you know something is deeply broken about a workplace." - Maia "The Post Office wasn't obsolete because email replaced letters. The Post Office was made obsolete by being legally prohibited from offering email or anything else digital." - Maia "Section 102 is corporate interests writing their preferences into legislation. 'The Post Office cannot compete with us' became legally binding." - Aileen "The Post Office didn't fail to adapt. It was prevented from adapting. The fight isn't about efficiency or modernization, it's about who gets to profit from services people need." - Maia "Defense isn't enough. We need to move forward. Repeal Section 102. Let the Post Office offer digital services. These aren't nostalgic dreams, these are urgent needs that aren't being met because corporations wrote a law preventing it." - Aileen Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #GoingPostal #MarvinRunyon #PAEA #Section102 #WorkplaceViolence #PostalBanking #ElectronicPostmark #UniversalEmail #DigitalPrivacy #Automation #CorporateCapture #Lobbying #FedEx #UPS #2006PostalAct #RegulatoryCapture #PublicInstitutions #WorkerRights #ToxicWorkplace #USPSHistory #PostalService #DigitalInfrastructure #PaydayLenders #Unbanked #PostalReform #LegislativeCapture #HistoryPodcast Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.

    1h 14m

  5. JAN 19

    Ep. 11 - Death by a Thousand Cuts

    January 4, 1982. Postmaster General William Bolger sends the first official E-COM message, Electronic Computer-Originated Mail, a brilliant hybrid system where businesses transmit messages electronically to the Post Office, which prints and delivers them. The concept could have made the Post Office your internet provider. Instead, AT&T used the Postal Rate Commission to kill it. They forced the Post Office to use outside telecommunications companies (meaning AT&T profits), jacked the price from 15 cents to 26 cents (60% increase), and designed restrictions guaranteeing failure. E-COM lost $5.25 on every letter and hemorrhaged $40 million before shutting down in 1985. Fourteen years later, the guy who designed E-COM started his own company doing the exact same thing, UPS bought it for $100 million. Episode 11 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%. Reagan's Grace Commission pushed privatization with 2,478 recommendations, but postal workers and rural voters had enough political power to stop it. The Heritage Foundation's plan to contract out 7,000 rural routes died instantly from constituent backlash. Private carriers got to cream-skim profitable routes after 1979 regulatory changes while the Post Office kept universal service obligations. The Post Office survived the decade but emerged traumatized, dependent on junk mail, and unable to compete in electronic services, exactly what corporations wanted. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction  [00:05:33] Act I - The Electronic Mail Service AT&T Had to Kill: How Gene Johnson designed E-COM to intercept electronic messaging before it bypassed physical mail, why AT&T complained about competing with "a government agency with its own police force," how the Postal Rate Commission forced 26-cent pricing and outside telecom use that destroyed the business model, and why UPS paid $100 million for Mail2000 doing the exact same thing [00:15:52] Act II - INTELPOST and the Trauma That Lasted Decades: The "fastest mail on earth" satellite fax service that required post office visits on both ends, how it transmitted under 12,000 pages in three years while FedEx's ZapMail lost $300 million on the same concept, and why institutional trauma from failures made leadership avoid electronic services when the internet emerged [00:24:38] Act III - How Junk Mail Became the Business Model: Bolger's presorted mail discounts making bulk mail jump 41% in 1981, how the $135 billion direct mail industry emerged while stamp prices rose 67% (15 cents to 25 cents), and why worksharing discounts often exceeded actual cost savings, meaning the Post Office subsidized corporate mailers [00:33:37] Act IV - The Privatization That Almost Happened: Reagan's Grace Commission with 2,478 recommendations claiming $298 billion in savings (CBO said actually $98 billion), how the Heritage Foundation's rural route contracting proposal died from immediate backlash, cream-skimming after 1979 Private Express Statute suspension, and why annual Congressional appropriation riders protected six-day delivery and rural service levels [00:49:51] Act V - What the 1980s Teach Us About Defending Public Institutions: How 800,000 postal workers in every congressional district plus rural voters created political power corporations couldn't overcome, why regulatory capture (AT&T controlling the Postal Rate Commission) defeated unions that could stop direct privatization, and the lesson that defense isn't the same as thriving, the Post Office survived but emerged weaker 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! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com Quotes: "The concept was brilliant. But AT&T and the telecommunications industry used the Postal Rate Commission to kill E-COM before it could succeed. And then UPS bought the same concept for one hundred million dollars." - Aileen "The idea was always viable. The technology worked. But when it was a public service that could benefit all Americans, corporations killed it through regulatory capture. When it became a private company making shareholders rich, suddenly it's worth a fortune." - Maia "The Grace Commission is DOGE's grandfather. Same playbook. Bring in corporate executives who've already decided government is wasteful, let them examine federal agencies, present predetermined conclusions as objective findings." - Aileen "The question isn't why do postal workers have good pensions, it's why don't Amazon workers have pensions." - Maia "Defense isn't the same as thriving. The Post Office survived the 1980s but emerged weaker. More dependent on junk mail, more scared of innovation, more vulnerable to cream-skimming." - Aileen "People power worked then. It can work now. But only if we fight like hell." - Maia Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #ECOM #INTELPOST #RonaldReagan #GraceCommission #Privatization #RegulatoryCapture #JunkMail #BulkMail #PresortedDiscounts #ATT #UPS #FedEx #CreamSkimming #PostalHistory #USPSHistory #PublicInstitutions #UnionPower #RuralVoters #WorksharingDiscounts #PrivateExpressStatutes #UniversalService #InstitutionalTrauma #ElectronicMail #1980s #HistoryPodcast Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.

    59 min

  6. JAN 12

    Ep. 10 - POSTAL POWER! - The 1970 Strike

    In 1970 at the Hotel Statler, Manhattan 2,600 postal workers are packed into a ballroom at 6 PM to vote on something incredibly illegal: striking against the federal government. Twenty percent have second jobs. Sixteen percent qualify for food stamps. These are full-time federal employees who cannot afford to live on what the government pays them. Two weeks ago, Congress voted itself a 41% raise while offering postal workers 5.4%, which with inflation running at 6-7%, is actually a pay cut. Union leadership stalls all night with procedural delays, but at 10:30 PM, Vincent Sombrotto, a letter carrier with no union office and six kids to feed, grabs the microphone and forces the vote. 1,555 yes, 1,055 no. At 12:01 AM, picket lines go up. Within eight days, 200,000 workers in 30 cities join them. Nixon sends in 24,000 National Guard troops to deliver mail, they can't do it. The work requires specialized knowledge that takes a year to learn. Episode 10 reveals how this strike, the largest wildcat strike in American history, didn't just happen. In cities where it succeeded (Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York), 50-70% of postal workers were Black, and they'd been building infrastructure for this fight since 1913 when NAPFE formed after white unions excluded Black Railway Mail Service clerks. For 57 years, Black postal workers fused civil rights organizing with labor tactics: fighting Jim Crow inside segregated union branches, leading NAACP chapters while organizing workplace grievances, transferring boycott tactics to rank-and-file caucuses. The Memphis sanitation strike and MLK's assassination in 1968 radicalized them further. When the moment came, they were ready. They won: 14% wage increase, time to top pay dropped from 21 years to 8 years, full collective bargaining rights, complete amnesty with not a single prosecution. But the victory came with a cost: the Postal Reorganization Act restructured the Post Office to "operate like a business," planting seeds for 50 years of attacks. And in 1981, when air traffic controllers tried the same thing, Reagan fired all 11,345 of them. The lesson: you can win the immediate fight and still lose the long-term battle if you're not watching what the victory costs you. Key takeaways to listen for [00:00:00] Introduction  [00:03:54] Act I - There's Always Work at the Post Office: How Black Railway Mail Service clerks formed NAPFE in 1913 after white unions excluded them, why postal jobs provided security that made civil rights organizing possible when teachers and sharecroppers faced economic retaliation, and how postal workers became NAACP chapter presidents across the South while fighting dual charter Jim Crow union branches [00:14:58] Act II - Building the Rank-and-File: How Black postal workers transferred civil rights tactics (documentation, grievance procedures, coalition building) to workplace organizing, why the Memphis sanitation strike and MLK's assassination in 1968 radicalized postal workers, and how Vietnam veterans brought anti-authority militancy while three major unions removed "no strike" clauses from their constitutions [00:27:10] Act III - Collective Begging: Why starting salary of $6,176 ($50,000 today) in NYC left workers on food stamps, how it took 21 years to reach top pay of $8,442 for a $2,200 total increase, the July 1969 Kingsbridge sick-out "dress rehearsal," and how Vincent Sombrotto grabbed the mic at 10:30 PM on March 17, 1970 forcing the vote that union leadership tried to delay [00:37:47] Act IV - "They Haven't Got a Jail Big Enough": Nixon's Operation Graphic Hand deploying 24,000 troops who couldn't sort mail because specialized knowledge takes a year to learn, how postal workers in the National Guard sabotaged operations from inside, George Boyles saying "they haven't got a jail big enough to put all of us in," and the victory: 14% raise, collective bargaining, full amnesty [00:47:49] Act V - What Changed (And What Didn't): Why Southern cities didn't strike (Jim Crow lack of solidarity, right-to-work laws, lower cost of living), how the Postal Reorganization Act gave workers collective bargaining but restructured the Post Office to "operate like a business" enabling 50 years of attacks, and why Reagan firing 11,345 PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981 became the template for breaking strikes for 40 years 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! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com Quotes: "Federal employees who cannot afford to live on what the government pays them. That's not a career ladder, that's a trap." - Aileen "Having a federal job gave you something that almost no other Black workers had at that time: security. You couldn't get fired just because some white business owner didn't like you organizing." - Aileen "We had a secret weapon. A lot of postal workers were veterans. They would go through the people who came in, and they would tell them how to screw up the mail." - Tara Lee, strike leader (quoted by Maia) "I don't care if it's against the law. If they want to put me in jail, put me in jail. But they haven't got a jail big enough to put all of us in." - George Boyles, Chicago letter carrier (quoted by Aileen) "There's only one thing worse than a wildcat strike. A wildcat that succeeds." - George Shultz, Secretary of Labor (quoted by Maia) "The 1970 postal strike only worked because 57 years of organizing made it possible. NAPFE building infrastructure since 1913. Black workers transferring civil rights tactics to the workplace." - Maia Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #1970PostalStrike #WildcatStrike #VincentSombrotto #NAPFE #PostalWorkers #LaborHistory #CivilRightsUnionism #RankAndFile #CollectiveBargaining #NixonAdministration #OperationGraphicHand #NationalGuard #PATCO #RonaldReagan #APWU #NALC #BlackLaborHistory #UnionOrganizing #FederalWorkers #PostalReorganizationAct #MemphisSanitationStrike #MLK #PublicSectorStrikes #WorkersRights #LaborMovement #HistoryPodcast Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.

    59 min

  7. JAN 5

    Ep. 9 - Numbering the Nation: Dear Zippy, With Love

    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 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! peopleofagencypod@gmail.com Quotes: "ZIP codes weren't really about making mail faster, they were about making workers replaceable." - Aileen "Bottlenecks reveal where power lives in a system. The bottleneck here was worker expertise. And management had to choose: invest in workers, or make that expertise obsolete." - Aileen "Nobody designed ZIP codes to be discriminatory. But once you create a sorting system, people will use it to sort in all kinds of ways." - Aileen "When racial redlining became illegal, insurance companies found a workaround. If ZIP codes correlate with race, you've just laundered discrimination through location data." - Maia "Automation isn't inherently bad. The problem is who controls it and what they optimize for." - Maia "The pattern is: introduce AI, cut workers, profits go up. But efficiency for whom? That's always the question." - Aileen Hashtags #PeopleOfAgency #AileenDay #MaiaWarner #ZIPCodes #MrZIP #PostalHistory #USPSHistory #RobertMoon #Automation #WorkerPower #RailwayMailService #Redlining #PRIZM #AlgorithmicDiscrimination #AI #AmazonWorkers #UnionOrganizing #SchemeKnowledge #CharlesSchulz #Peanuts #SmokeyBear #DirectMarketing #Insurance #Segregation #FairHousing #LaborHistory #WorkerSurveillance #TechCritique #HistoryPodcast Credits  People of Agency is created and written by Aileen Day, with additional writing by Maia Warner-Langenbahn. It is hosted by Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn. This episode was edited by the amazing Kelsi Rupersburg-Day. Our beautiful cover art is by Sam Woodring.  Sources Here are some of our other sources (use the tab function to review different episodes). How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher, served as a significant guiding light for this project. Many of our sources were pulled from online Smithsonian resources and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. Thank you to our anonymous Historian fact checker who reviewed many of our scripts and provided invaluable feedback.

    54 min

  8. JAN 1 · BONUS

    Breaking News: Postmark Changes and Amazon Contract Update

    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.

    10 min
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About

The Post Office is older than the United States, and that's not a coincidence. From the American Revolution to Rural Free Delivery, the Post Office has been a silent, foundational institution that literally built the roads and airways of modern America. Join Aileen Day and Maia Warner-Langenbahn as they dig up the receipts and reveal the untold, radical history of this essential public good. This is a story about the unseen power that truly holds the country together, and why we all need to understand what's at stake when public institutions are under attack. New episode every Monday. 

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  • Creator
    People of Agency Podcast
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    18
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    People of Agency

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