[This episode was originally released on October 31st, 2019. We're re-releasing it as an end-of-summer extra for new listeners and will be back with new episodes in September.] For a century, the automobile has been sold to Americans as the ultimate freedom machine. In her groundbreaking new book, “Policing the Open Road,” historian and legal scholar Sarah Seo explodes that myth. Seo shows how modern policing evolved in lockstep with the development of the car. And that rather than giving Americans greater freedom, the massive body of traffic law required to facilitate mass motoring helped to establish a kind of automotive police state. Is a car a private, personal space deserving Fourth Amendment protection from “unreasonable searches and seizures?” Or is a car something else entirely? It’s a question that courts have struggled with for decades, ultimately leaving it up to the police to use their own discretion, often with horrifying results, especially for minorities. In this revelatory conversation with TWOC co-host Aaron Naparstek, Seo offers an entirely new way of looking at the impact of the automobile on American life, law and culture. Support the podcast on . Rate and review us on . Buy an official War on Cars t-shirt at . Buy books from all the authors featured on the podcast at . SHOW NOTES: Buy Sarah Seo’s book, “.” Follow and visit her Was the Automotive Era a Terrible Mistake? By Nathan Heller. () How Cars Transformed Policing () On the Road Police Power Has Few Limits () Stopped, Ticketed, Fined: The Pitfalls of Driving While Black in Ferguson () Why we can — and must — create a fairer system of traffic enforcement. Its discretionary nature has left it ripe for abuse () Driving (and walking) While Black: , , Michael Brown and . This episode was edited by Jaime Kaiser and recorded at Great City Post and the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio. Find us on Twitter: @, Aaron Naparstek @, Doug Gordon @, Sarah Goodyear @ Drop us a line:
