Over the past couple of weeks, Chicago endured plenty of sweltering days. Many Chicagoans count on air conditioning at work to offer a small reprieve. But what about those who pay their electricity bills by working outside? Eight Forty-Eight asked people who work outside how they beat the heat on the job.

Then Eight Forty-Eight revisited a conversation with Eric Klinenberg, author of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, examining the 1995 Chicago heat wave, when tempuratures soared to 106 and left over 700 people dead. The book conducts a “social autopsy,” to examine how and why so many died in the city.

Music Button: The Mercury Program, “Egypt” from the release A Data Learn the Language (Tiger Style)