A look at the human toll of the construction of the Panama Canal

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Panama Canal's impact on the geopolitical stage far outreaches its roughly 51-mile stretch of land and water. This week, we're trying to understand the canal's murky future - from climate change to President Trump's threat to take it for the U.S. - by looking at its turbulent, cataclysmic birth.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This message comes from Wondery. At 24 years old, Monica Lewinsky was in a scandal that defined
0:06.5	who she was for the entire world. And now, she's ready to draw from her own experience on what it
0:12.8	means to redefine yourself on her new podcast, reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky. Listen wherever you
0:19.5	get your podcasts.
0:21.5	What's good, y'all?
0:24.7	You're listening to Code Switch, the show about race and identity from NPR.
0:25.5	I'm Gene Demby.
0:26.7	And I'm B.A. Parker.
0:31.3	As part of the second Trump administration's everything, everywhere, all at once approached to governing, the president has leaned in a good old-fashioned territorial expansion.
0:36.4	He's floated the idea of turning Canada
0:38.2	into the 51st state and to their east, he's talked about annexing the vast, mostly empty
0:44.9	country of Greenland. But to our south, the president has said he wants to take back the Panama
0:51.8	canal, which makes so much global trade possible.
0:56.4	And he signaled he's willing to use the military to do that.
1:00.0	Can you assure the world that as you try to get control of these areas, you are not going to use military or economic coercion?
1:10.8	No. And can you tell us what is the strategy or economic coercion. No.
1:11.0	And can you tell us what is the strategy?
1:13.3	I can't assure you, you're talking about Panama and Greenland.
1:16.8	No, I can't assure you on either of those two.
1:19.2	The Panama Canal was over 100 years old, but what it took to build it and the human toll of its construction is still reverberating through the life and culture of that tiny Central American country to this day.
1:34.4	The story of the canal is the intersection of so many different forces, right?
1:38.9	It's technology. It's engineering. It's medicine. It's politics. It's all of these things.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.