This hour, we’re talking about lotteries. How did this massive money redistribution game come to be? And we know that lotteries can randomly allocate cash prizes to ticket buyers – but could they also pick our political officials? Or the victims of our human sacrifice rituals to ensure that “corn be heavy soon”?

GUESTS:

• Jonathan D. Cohen: Historian and author of For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America

• Alex Guerrero: Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of the forthcoming book, “Lottocracy: The Case for Democracy without Elections”

• Ruth Franklin: Book critic and author of the award-winning biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life

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Colin McEnroe, Stacey Addo, Lily Tyson, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired on August 23, 2023.

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