This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedant.

In 1906, the journalist Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a novel based on his undercover

reporting in Chicago's meatpacking plants. The book tells a story of a young couple,

Jorgis and Ona, who immigrate to the U.S. from Lithuania along with their relatives.

The optimism they feel about their new country is soon tested.

Family members find jobs at a meatpacking plant, but the work is dangerous and pays little.

The family suffers illness and injuries.

Work is tenuous with periodic wage cuts,

poor benefits, and seasonal layoffs.

The family is evicted from their home

and moves to a crowded, dirty boarding house.

Unable to afford a doctor,

Ona dies in childbirth, as does her baby.

When Jorgis and Ona's remaining son dies as well,

Jorgis slides into alcoholism.

Upton Sinclair wrote the Jungle with the aim of awakening the conscience of Americans to the desperate conditions of the working poor.

He hoped to spark a movement that would reform the nation's labor laws,

but the public did not respond the way he expected.

Readers did care about the quality of the meat they ate,

but seemed indifferent to the plight of exploited workers.

Journalists, activists, and leaders often get frustrated when their best effort to draw attention to a cause

does not prompt people to get off their couches and take action.

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