Grifty Side Hustle: We Lost Our Mind 160 Years Ago, Failing the Test of Reconstruction

# Grifty Side Hustle # How America Lost Its Mind, and Do We Even Want It Back? # We Lost Our Mind 160 Years Ago When We Failed the Test of Reconstruction ## Show Notes Welcome to Grifty Side Hustle. Between regular Grifty episodes, one or two of us take a closer look at something we're really into. Each episode stands on its own, whether we're following someone's career, revisiting a period in history, or examining an idea or institution that gets us asking bigger questions. Sometimes it's an obvious grift. Sometimes it's a political promise or a national myth that refuses to stay in the past. The cast may be smaller, but the suspicion is fully staffed. We're looking at who gets power, who lives with the consequences, and how old ideas keep being repackaged as common sense. Did America lose its mind? And if it did, what if it actually happened 160 years ago? Grifty Pod co-host Aaron McCall launches the series' first-ever Grifty Side Hustle to dig deeper into that question by looking to the Civil War and the Reconstruction period. Senator Hiram R. Revels was the first African American senator elected during the Reconstruction era. But was the Civil War exclusively about slavery, or was it also about the tensions behind the promise of a nation where "we are all created equal with inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? The more we dig into Senator Hiram Revels's career and the society around him, the more we see that the Reconstruction period and the present day share many of the same conflicts, struggles, and political tensions. Aaron ends the episode by asking what we can learn from the past in order to understand our present-day struggles. Subscribe to Grifty Pod and follow the show @GriftyPod on Instagram, and find each of the hosts individually. Azi is @The.Wellness.Therapist, Aaron is @mrneuropolitan, Inna is @\dr\inna, and Julian is @realityandmeaning. ## THE THREE GRIFTY QUESTIONS Who's making money? Who's gaining power? Who benefits if I stay angry? They do not explain everything. They explain an alarming amount. ## FURTHER READING Want more Grifty between episodes? Subscribe to our Substack for show notes, sources, writing, and bonus material. Subscribe free, or go paid if you'd like to support the research and production behind the show. We spend a lot of time asking who's making money, so eventually we had to admit we'd like some too. Subscribe to Grifty on Substack ### POLARIZATION, DEMOCRACY & THE OTHER TEAM - The Cherry Tree Myth - Hiram Rhodes Revels - The First Black Man Elected to Congress Was Nearly Blocked From Taking His Seat - Black Leaders During Reconstruction - The Dred Scott Case - Timeline of Labour Issues and Events - An African Carpetbagger Was First Black Man Elected to Congress in 1868 ## ABOUT GRIFTY POD **About Grifty** Grifty is a late-stage capitalism podcast by and about false idols. Hosted by Azadeh Ghafari, Aaron McCall, Dr. Inna Kanevsky, and Julian Walker, Grifty dives into the strange, seductive overlap of politics, media, pop psychology, conspiracy culture, technology, celebrity, branding, and disinformation. We unpack how charismatic personalities, political movements, corporations, influencers, and institutions hijack the language of truth, freedom, justice, identity, and community to build audiences, sell certainty, and gain power. What starts as culture becomes content. What starts as belonging becomes a business model. And eventually, everything becomes something to monetize. Welcome to Grifty: a little snarky, a little scholarly, deeply historical, definitely political, and always asking the bigger questions. ## Come find us Find us at grifty.org and follow @griftypod on Instagram. We're also @griftypod on Threads and @GriftyPodcast on Twitter. If you'd like to keep up with the people having these arguments, follow us individually on Instagram: Azi Ghafari at @the.wellness.therapist, Aaron McCall at @mrneuropolitan, Inna Kanevsky at @\dr\inna, and Julian Walker at @realityandmeaning. Want more Grifty between episodes? Subscribe to Grifty on Substack for show notes, sources, writing, and bonus material. Subscribe free, or go paid if you'd like to support the research and production behind the show. We spend a lot of time asking who's making money, so eventually we had to admit we'd like some too.