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Earlier this month, somebody in Florida won a $1.58 billion lottery jackpot. It was the largest Mega Millions jackpot to date, although four other Mega Millions prizes over $1 billion have been won in the past five years. This hour, we’re talking about lotteries. How did this massive money redistribution game come to be? And we know that lotteries can randomly allocate cash prizes to ticket buyers – but could they also pick our political officials? Or the victims of our human sacrifice rituals to ensure that “corn be heavy soon”?

GUESTS:
Jonathan D. Cohen: Historian and author of “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America”
Alex Guerrero: Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of the forthcoming book, “Lottocracy: The Case for Democracy without Elections”
Ruth Franklin: Book critic and biography of Shirley Jackson

Join the conversation onFacebook and Twitter.

Earlier this month, somebody in Florida won a $1.58 billion lottery jackpot. It was the largest Mega Millions jackpot to date, although four other Mega Millions prizes over $1 billion have been won in the past five years. This hour, we’re talking about lotteries. How did this massive money redistribution game come to be? And we know that lotteries can randomly allocate cash prizes to ticket buyers – but could they also pick our political officials? Or the victims of our human sacrifice rituals to ensure that “corn be heavy soon”?
GUESTS:
<ul>
<li>Jonathan D. Cohen: Historian and author of <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/for-a-dollar-and-a-dream-9780197604885">“For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America”</a></li>
<li>Alex Guerrero: Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of the forthcoming book, “Lottocracy: The Case for Democracy without Elections”</li>
<li>Ruth Franklin: Book critic and biography of Shirley Jackson</li>
</ul>
Join the conversation on<a href="https://facebook.com/ColinMcShow"></a><a href="https://facebook.com/ColinMcShow">Facebook</a> and<a href="https://twitter.com/colinmcshow"> Twitter</a>.

The Colin McEnroe Show is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called The Nose for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/show/the-colin-mcenroe-show/about">The Colin McEnroe Show</a> is public radio’s most eclectic, eccentric weekday program. The best way to understand us is through the subjects we tackle: Neanderthals, tambourines, handshakes, the Iliad, snacks, ringtones, punk rock, Occam’s razor, Rasputin, houseflies, zippers. Are you sensing a pattern? If so, you should probably be in treatment. On Fridays, we try to stop thinking about what kind of ringtones Neanderthals would want to have and convene a panel called <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/tags/the-nose">The Nose</a> for an informal roundtable about the week in culture.

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