What should the future look like? That’s the question posed by ambitious, sometimes delusional Americans in the early 1800s who dedicated themselves to creating new ways of living. You had Mother Ann Lee’s Shakers; the Oneida community in New York; New Harmony, Indiana; intentional communities inspired by French socialist Charles Fourier; and the roots of a communist paradise in Texas. Friday, the writer Chris Jennings joins us to explore the idealism and the lasting impact of these five utopian movements.

Chris Jennings is the author of the book Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism [Amazon|Indiebound].