{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Libertarian Christian Podcast","title":"Grim Old Days, with Chelsea Follett","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2551,"description":"Life before the Industrial Revolution was not simpler, slower, or more humane. It was short, violent, filthy, and saturated with grief, and almost nobody alive today can picture it accurately. That gap is not harmless. It shapes how people respond to economic growth, to AI, and to every technology that promises to change how we live.\nChelsea Follett, research fellow at the Cato Institute and the mind behind HumanProgress.org, returns to the show with a new book, The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past. The argument is blunt: we have not only solved many of the problems our ancestors faced, we have erased the memory of them. Nostalgia fills the vacuum, and nostalgia is a terrible guide to policy. What follows takes the romantic version of the past apart and argues that gratitude for what we have is the first step toward keeping it.\nChapters:\n0:22 Introduction to the Grim Old Days\n1:56 Why Progress Matters\n5:40 Why We Romanticize the Past\n8:45 Harsh Realities of Family Life\n13:54 Child Labor and Daily Work\n16:24 Violence and Social Progress\n20:55 Defining the Pre-Industrial Era\n25:12 Fragile Paths to Progress\n29:06 Sources and Historical Skepticism\n32:13 The Darkest Anecdotes\n34:07 Child Loss and Modern Medicine\n38:27 Debunking Medieval Myths\n40:46 Why the Past Still Matters\nAudio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/_xYS0SShA1KrKcrVFqXWyj90yhkxE6xSYO7xJUc6g9c/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzQ5Mjc2LzE3MDY3/MjA4ODgtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}