Randa Abdel-Fattah

And so in 1901, he founded a political party, the Socialist Party of America, uniting all the socialist groups that already existed under one banner.

Over the next 20 years, Eugene Debs and the Socialist Party ran multiple campaigns for presidency.

In 1912, Eugene Debs got the closest he would ever get to the presidency, winning 6% of the popular vote, which was a staggering number at that time.

The Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, won the election.

But over time, many of the ideas Debs and the American socialists fought for were adopted by mainstream politicians.

That's it for this week's episode of America in Pursuit.

If you want to hear the full-length episode, check out American Socialist.

And be sure to join us next week as we learn about one of the worst economic disasters in history from people who experienced it firsthand.

Stories from the Great Depression.

That's next week.

Don't miss it.

This episode was produced by Kiana Moghadam and edited by Christina Kim with help from the ThruLine production team.

Music by Ramtin Adabluwi and his band, Drop Electric.

Special thanks to Julie Kane, Irene Noguchi, Beth Donovan, Casey Miner, and Lindsay McKenna.

I'm your host, Rand Abdel-Fattah.

Thanks for listening.

It's the year 1516.

We're inside the pages of a book called Utopia, breathing the fictional air of Antwerp, Belgium.

An old, sunburned, long-bearded traveler named Rafael Haithalade has just returned to Europe after spending five years on an island called Utopia.

And he's seeing the world with new eyes, ranting to anyone who will listen.