Episode 156: Segregation Academies, the Death of an American Missionary, and Victoria's Secret

In this episode, Neil, Natalia, and Niki discuss segregation academies, the death of an American missionary, and the declining market share of lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret.

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Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: 

• Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is in a runoff contest to hold on to her Senate seat, sparked backlash when she made an offhand comment about a “public hanging” that many perceived as racist. The fact that Hyde-Smith attended a “segregation academy,” as reported by this Jackson Free Press article Natalia recommended, shed important light on how she developed such a worldview.
• Last week, American missionary John Allen Chau was killed when he traveled to the remote island of North Sentinel. Niki recommended this viral thread by Twitter user @RespectableLaw on the historical context for the hostility of the Sentinelese to outsiders. Neil discussed the case of evangelical Jim Elliot, who was killed on a mission in Ecuador. Natalia recommended Sadatru Sen’s book, Disciplining Punishment: Colonialism and Convict Society in the Andaman Islands and Jonathan Zimmerman’s Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century.
• Lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret is losing market share, and CMO Ed Razek hasn’t been shy about disdaining new upstarts like Third Love. Natalia cited this Slate article about the founding of Victoria’s Secret to cater to men’s shopping needs. Natalia also recommended Elizabeth Matelski’s Reducing Bodies: Mass Culture and the Female Figure in Postwar America and this episode of the Sexing History podcast about “sweater girls.”

In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:

• Natalia discussed the new movie Ralph Breaks the Internet.
• Neil recommended Natalie Escobar’s Atlantic article, “The Changing Ways Parents React to Their Kids Coming Out of the Closet.”
• Niki shared Joe Pinsker’s Atlantic article, “The 30-Year Reign of Lunchables.”