It’s February 3rd. This day, 1986, the town of Austin, Minnesota is being torn apart by an ongoing strike at the Hormel meat-packing plant. Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by podcast host Julia Longoria to talk about the strike and her larger reporting on the way in which SPAM can explain many of the larger forces in American history. Julia is the host of “The Experiment” from WNYC and The Atlantic — they have a three-part series on SPAM out now! This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX. Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories. If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Julie Shapiro and Audrey Mardavich, Executive Producers at Radiotopia Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices