Woocast's Politics & Polls

The U.S. postal or mail system, the purse strings of which are controlled by Congress, has been running at a deficit for years, calling into question its financial viability. Yet, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the system has taken on greater importance for Americans. In addition, as we look to the 2020 presidential election, its necessity for mail-in voting has erupted into a partisan battle.   Richard John, a historian at Columbia University’s School of Journalism, joins Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang to talk about the U.S. postal system’s role as a key part of America’s infrastructure and the new reality of the challenges it faces.  With expertise in the history of communications, John teaches and advises Ph.D. students and is a member of Columbia’s history department. He is the author of “Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse,” which received the Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians and the Herman E. Krooss Prize from the Business History, and “Ne