Speakeasies | Prohibition's Open Secret (TSB014)

There are lots of experiments that have come and gone. And not just experiments you’ll find in science laboratories or chemistry classes.

For example, if you were around for the early days of Facebook, back when it was known as “THE Facebook,” you might remember the slogan “a social experiment.” But it wasn’t the first social experiment, and it certain won’t be the last. Prohibition, otherwise known as a constitutional ban on the making and selling of alcoholic beverages, was known as the Noble Experiment from 1920-1933.

It’s safe to say the experiment failed, considering many lost their jobs, restaurants and clubs were put out of business, and prohibition gave way to corruption and an increase in underground crime, not to mention an exorbitant amount of power wielded to mobsters and bootleggers like Al Capone.

Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys once said, "For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground."

I’m your host, Emily Prokop, and this is The Story Behind Speakeasies.

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The role of Jello Biafra was played by Mark from the Unskippable podcast, and Eleanor Roosevelt was played by Tammy Terwelp, General Manager of 91.5 KRCC, Southern Colorado's NPR Station.

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Media:

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Sources:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jello_biafra.html

http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/prohibition-speakeasies-and-finger-foods

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-prohibitionspeakeasy.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2268971/Inside-speakeasies-1920s-The-hidden-drinking-spots-transformed-New-York-Citys-night-life-prohibition-era-beyond.html

http://www.blackpast.org/aah/cotton-club-harlem-1923

https://www.thrillist.com/drink/nation/secret-bars-hard-to-find-speakeasies

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/20th-gangsters.html

https://parachute.mapquest.com/2016/03/16/five-hardest-speakeasies-to-get-into/

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1085.html