Prompt Cast
Surviving the Great Depression: Stories of Unemployment, Hunger, and Perseverance
TLDR This episode of "Throughline" explores the lives of people who survived the Great Depression, highlighting their experiences of unemployment, hunger, and the general sense of peril that marked the era. Through personal accounts, listeners gain insight into the struggles faced by individuals from various backgrounds and their resilience in the face of extreme poverty and scarce resources.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
This episode of "Throughline" explores the lives of people who survived the Great Depression, highlighting their experiences of unemployment, hunger, and the general sense of peril that marked the era.
05:11
This section introduces Maradelle Lesour, Fong, and Dorothy Height, who share their experiences of living through the Great Depression and provide a unique perspective on the era.
11:31
Fong, a man from San Francisco's Chinatown, shares his experiences of living through the Great Depression, including the struggle to find work and the cheap food options available to him.
17:08
By the beginning of the 1930s, it was clear that the economic crash was no temporary thing, with thousands of banks closed and close to 13 million Americans unemployed, and everyone feeling a sense of common suffering and competing for scarce resources.
23:11
During the Great Depression, many people lived in extreme poverty, relying on charities for help and struggling to find work, while others organized movements to take control of their own conditions and find employment.
28:56
During the Great Depression, many people worked in low-paying jobs and struggled to find security, while others resorted to unconventional methods to make a living, such as bumping into wealthy financiers on Wall Street, and the return to work in the mid-1930s did not necessarily improve their lives.
34:54
During the Great Depression, there were significant changes in Chinatown, including the renaming of bars and the emergence of new restaurants and dance halls.
41:23
During the Great Depression, Henry Wright found work and a sense of family in Bangor, Maine, Dorothy Hyte became a prominent civil rights activist, and Meredith Lusser continued to write about the experiences of working women.
46:41
Meredith L continued to write until her death in 1996, and Fong, one of the old bachelors who gathered every day on Portsmouth Square, was interviewed in 1970 but was never seen again after that.
Categories:
History
Society & Culture
