How the US became a country for old men, plus the extraordinary encounters of a 1900s cattle station girl
About this episode
The episode discusses wealth hoarding by the elderly in the US and the historical experiences of a cattle station girl in Australia.
Yale Professor Samuel Moyn argues that the old in the United States have hoarded wealth and power, and that something needs to give. Plus, Australian historian Tom Griffiths corroborates the extraordinary encounters of a 1900s white cattle station girl, Alice Duncan-Kemp, who learned from Indigenous Mithaka people in outback Queensland. Guests: Samuel Moyn, Professor of Law and History at Yale University, author of 'Gerontocracy in America: how the old are hoarding wealth and power - and what to do about it' (2026) Tom Griffiths, historian and author of 'Alice's dreaming' (2026)
People in this episode
Guests: Samuel Moyn, Tom Griffiths
Topics covered
- wealth inequality
- historical encounters
- Indigenous culture
- cattle stations
- gerontocracy
- US politics
Keywords
- wealth
- power
- history
- Indigenous
- cattle station
- US
- Australia
- Samuel Moyn
- Tom Griffiths
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Yale University
Books & works: Gerontocracy in America: how the old are hoarding wealth and power - and what to do about it, Alice's dreaming
Places: Queensland, United States, Australia
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