The Scopes Trial

I so badly want to love this podcast more, but I do find it hard sometimes. Not this episode (or the one about George Wallace, either). The Scopes Trial, though it happened in 1925, is still so fantastically culturally relevant, and they do such a wonderful job of explaining it.

The trial -- and long before and after -- had everything: a left/right debate about evolution and creationism; what we can teach children (and, therefore, what different doctrines we can put in textbooks); a deep-dive into small-town America; high-profile attorneys making theatrical arguments; the ACLU; and an early example of the style of journalism we see on television today -- reporters from around the country flocking to a high-buzz story and telling it how they like, themselves as the center-piece, attention, praise, and theater being the highest aim. What's fascinating about it is how present each of these things still are today.