We call them “Levis,” no matter what brand they are. But maybe we should call them “Jacobs.” Blue jeans weren’t invented by Levi Strauss, but by Jacob Davis, a fellow European immigrant and tailor. Was it a story of expropriation and exploitation? Thankfully, no, Buzzkillers. Both men worked together to bring “Jacobs” to the world, and we are all grateful.

We interview Professor Michael Rectenwald of NYU about his new book, Nineteenth-Century British Secularism (2016). We learn how diverse non-religious philosophies were and what the real meaning of secularism was in its early decades. Secularism sought to build a society were believers and non-believers could co-exist peacefully and equally before the law. It was not anti-religion. In fact, many secularists saw willful atheism as harmful to society. One of our most thought-provoking shows, Buzzkillers!

This episode looks at the dramatic combination of advancing industrialization, and the dirty business of coal mining both from the miners’ side and from the operators’ side. Specifically we’re going to talk about what happened when poor industrial relations, bigoted immigrant relations, and distrust between workers and bosses ignited violence, murder, undercover police work, and crime and punishment in the late 19th century coal fields of industrial America. In short, the Molly Maguires!