Working People

Latest Episodes:

BONUS EPISODE #3B - Alex Andrews Nov 09, 2018

Show notes

In Part II of our bonus episode in this special Working People series on sex work, we chat to the amazing Alex Andrews, an organizer, former sex worker, and co-founder of SWOP Behind Bars, part of the Sex Workers Outreach Project. SWOP Behind Bars "is a national social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of people who face discrimination from the criminal justice system due to the stigma associated with the sex trade." We talk to Alex about what led her to get involved with SWOP Behind Bars and about the vital work they and other sex worker rights groups are doing to protect and advocate for sex workers around the country. And we talk about what allies can do to support sex workers in the era of SESTA-FOSTA.

Additional links/info below...

SWOP Behind Bars website and Twitter account
Caty Simon & Alex Andrews, Tits and Ass, "Activist Spotlight: Alex Andrews on SWOP Behind Bars and Service Work"
Aja Romano, Vox, "A New Law Intended to Curb Sex Trafficking Threatens the Future of the Internet as We Know It"
Emily McCombs, HuffPost, "'This Bill Is Killing Us': 9 Sex Workers on Their Lives in the wake of FOSTA"
Kitty Stryker, Teen Vogue, "What the FOSTA/SESTA Anti-Sex-Trafficking Bill Means"
Fabian Luis Fernandez, Yale University EliScholar, "Hands Up: A Systematized Review of Policing Sex Workers in the U.S."
Sirin Kale, Broadly-VICE, "Police Are Allegedly Sleeping with Sex Workers Before Arresting Them"
STOP SESTA-FOSTA: stopsesta.org

More Sex Worker Groups/Organizations…

GLITS (Gays & Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society)
SWOP USA (Sex Workers Outreach Project)
Sex Workers Project
Desiree Alliance
SOAR Institute (Sharmus Outlaw Advocacy & Rights)
DECRIMNOW (A Campaign to Decriminalize Sex Work in DC)
Students 4 Decrim
Respect Sex Workers
Red Light Legal

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Coolzey, "Terrorist"
The Womb, "You'll Never Work in this Town Again"
The Gays, "The Community"
Brakhag, "The Strike"

BONUS EPISODE #3A - Kaytlin Bailey Nov 04, 2018

Show notes

In Part I of our two-part bonus episode on sex work, we chat to the wonderful Kaytlin Bailey, comedian, writer, activist, sex worker, and host of The Oldest Profession, a fantastic, funny, and unapologetic podcast about the lives of sex workers throughout history. Ever since she was in elementary school, Kaytlin has spoken her mind and questioned the validity of social norms, and we talk about how that has shaped her politics, her career in comedy, and her entry into sex work. We talk about Kaytlin's life, her work, the misconceptions people have about sex work, and about fighting back against misogyny.

Additional links/info below...

Kaytlin's Twitter page
The Oldest Profession podcast website and Twitter page

Information about Sound Education conference (Harvard, Nov 1-3)…

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Coolzey, "Terrorist"
Ludwigs Steirische Gaudi, "Flower Polka"
Thorn & Shout, "Name & Noise"
Whore Paint, "This Body"

Ceyenne Doroshow Oct 30, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we begin our special two-week series on sex work by talking to the fabulous Ceyenne Doroshow. No description can really do Ceyenne justice, but she is, among other things, a performer, an activist and organizer, a community-based researcher, and a powerful public figure in the trans and sex workers rights' movements. She is the author of the book Cooking in Heels, and the Founder and Executive Director of G.L.I.T.S. (Gays & Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society). We talk about Ceyenne's life, about growing up as a trans woman in a world that was so often unwilling to accept or nurture her. We talk about finding mentors and community in New York City, and about eventually becoming a mentor for others. We talk about the first job where Ceyenne could finally be herself. We talk about being arrested for sex work, and we talk about the countless obstacles that black trans women and trans sex workers face today. And we talk about fighting back against systems of oppression and about the need to build communities out of love and humanity.

Additional links/info below...

G.L.I.T.S. (Gays & Lesbians Living in a Transgender Society) website
Ceyenne's book, Cooking in Heels: A Memoir Cookbook
Amy Zimmerman, The Daily Beast, "The New Law that Puts Transgender Sex Workers in Danger"
StopTransMurders.org
Serena Sonoma, Bustle, "5 Black Trans Women in History Who Paved the Way for Me"

Information about Sound Education conference (Harvard, Nov 1-3)…

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Handmade Moments, "Fighting a Mountain"
The Relatives, "What's Wrong with America?"
Mindseye & Dr. Rinkel, "Ignorance Is Bliss"
Miami Slice, "Solid Gold"

BONUS EPISODE #2A - Trevor Griffey Oct 18, 2018

Show notes

In Part I of our special two-part BONUS EPISODE on labor, class, and higher education, we chat to Trevor Griffey, writer, historian, and Labor Studies lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles and California State University, Dominguez Hills. Trevor breaks down the insidious, decades-long effort to devalue academic labor at the administrative, legislative, and cultural level, and we talk about the resulting crisis academic workers are facing today and what to do about it.

Additional links/info below...

Link to Trevor's author page at the Labor and Working-Class History Association
Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "Contingent No More"
Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "Laboring Academia"
Eric Anthony Grollman, Conditionally Accepted, "Invisible Labor: Exploitation of Scholars of Color in Academia"
Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, "Dancing Backwards in High Heels"
Marc Bousquet, How the University Works
Louise Morley, Times Higher Education, "Working-Class Academics Still Face Discrimination"
Kevin Birmingham, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Great Shame of Our Profession"
Alison Mountz, Anne Bonds, Becky Mansfield, Jenna Loyd, Jennifer Hyndman, Margaret Walton-Roberts, Ranu Basu, Risa Whitson, Roberta Hawkins, Trina Hamilton, Winifred Curran, ACME, "For Slow Scholarship: A Feminist Politics of Resistance through Collective Action in the Neoliberal University"
Christopher Newfield, American Association of University Professors, "Avoiding the Coming Higher Ed Wars"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Coolzey, "Terrorist"
Phillip Gross, "Cámping"
The Gays, "Funk Friend"

John Buckley Oct 18, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we talk to John Buckley, a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Michigan. John is a member of the lecturer's union at U of M, the Lecturers' Employee Organization (LEO), and was on the bargaining team throughout the effort to negotiate a better contract with the University in 2017/18. We talk about the precarious situation of so many academic workers and what it tells us about the state of higher education today. We also talk about John's family history and about growing up in Michigan always feeling, as he puts it, "on the bubble." We talk about our religious upbringings and we talk about being a theater geek and almost joining the military. We also talk about the winding road that took him to the West coast, teaching in different kinds of schools and programs, and that eventually led him back to his alma mater in Michigan.

Additional links/info below...

University of Michigan Lecturers' Union website
Phil Christman, Inside Higher Ed, "A Season of Strikes"
Heather Ann Thompson, Detroit Free Press, "A Sad State of Affairs for Lecturers at the University of Michigan"
Grace Kay, Michigan Daily, "LEO Members Ratify New Contract after Months of Bargaining"

Working People goes to Harvard…

Sound Education conference website (https://www.soundeducation.fm/)
Ministry of Ideas podcast (https://www.ministryofideas.org/)

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" The Prefab Messiahs, "College Radio"
Snake Oil Salesmen, "Sierra Nevada Torpedo"
The Mint Chicks, "Life Will Get Better Someday"

Vickie Shannon Allen Oct 09, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, which is a little longer than our typical episodes, we talk to Vickie Shannon Allen, a native Texan and a warehouse worker at an Amazon fulfillment center, where she sustained an injury on the job. Vickie's struggle with Amazon to get the medical treatment she deserves is ongoing. As we discuss in the interview, it has been hell for her, and we are asking listeners to help us share her story and hold Amazon accountable. We talk with Vickie about her experience working for Amazon, but we talk about a lot more, too. We talk about growing up working class in Texas, about going to school hungry, and about the horrific, dehumanizing treatment she and her siblings got from their stepmother. We talk about falling in love for the first time, and we talk about heartbreak. We talk about working as a single mother and raising two boys. We talk about what it really means to fight for your future.

Additional links/info below...

Link to Vickie's GoFundMe fundraiser
Link to Vickie's YouTube channel
International Amazon Workers Voice Facebook page
Michael Sainato, The Guardian, "Accidents at Amazon: Workers Left to Suffer after Warehouse Injuries"
Alex Press, Medium, "$15 Isn't Enough to Empower Amazon's Workers"
Louise Matsakis, WIRED, "Why Amazon Really Raised Its Minimum Wage to $15"
Bryan Menegus, Gizmodo, "Amazon's Aggressive Anti-Union Tactics Revealed in Leaked 45-Minute Video"
Russell Brandom, The Verge, "Amazon Is Selling Police Departments a Real-Time Facial Recognition System"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Les Hayden, "Need"
Brother Timothy Clark, "Are You Ready?"
Silicon Transmitter, "Downfall"
Thorn & Shout, "Farewell"

BONUS EPISODE - Rob Larson Sep 21, 2018

Show notes

In our first BONUS EPISODE of the season, we chat to Rob Larson, writer and professor of economics at Tacoma Community College, and take a deep dive into his new book, Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom. We also talk about Eugene Debs and the "Real America," Jeff Bezos's twitchy eye, pick-up basketball, and how workers can pull together to fight off and fight back against the depressing, daily realities of our un-free lives in this rigged system.

Additional links/info below...

Link to Rob's new book, Capitalism vs. Freedom: The Toll Road to Serfdom
AFT Washington homepage
Along Came Polly basketball scene

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
Coolzey, "Terrorist"
Coolzey, "Fed Up"
Jimmie Oder, "My Soul Is Sold"
Six Time Users, "Divide"

Sara Sep 10, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we chat with Sara, a DACA recipient and telemarketer in Las Vegas. Sara is not the kind of person you can put labels on—you definitely can't put her in any one box. And that seems to have been written into her life story from the beginning. We talk about what it was like growing up in Southern California, moving between cities with different demographics, different cultures—cities where she had different types of friend groups and where she explored different parts of herself. We talk about how Sara and her brother had to stick together, especially since their mom had to be out working most of the day. We talk about working in fast food and running a cleaning service, and we talk about the leap of faith Sara and her girlfriend made moving to Las Vegas.

We also talk about what it's been like for Sara to grow up undocumented in the United States. We talk about all the little things Sara and other undocumented folks just can't do in their daily lives, from boarding an airplane to driving too close to the border. And, of course, we talk about what it's been like to be a DACA recipient in our uncertain political moment, when anti-immigrant sentiments and policies tear lives and families apart. Like other working folks, Sara's been through a lot in her life, but it is truly amazing how she doesn't let anything keep her down, and you can hear in her voice how much she loves and appreciates the people and places close to her.

Additional links/info below (more links coming soon)...

Paul Fleming & William Lopez, Huffington Post, "Ending DACA Has Created a Looming Public Health Crisis"
Ariel Ron & Dael Norwood, The Atlantic, "America's Long History of Exploiting Migrant Workers"
Sebastián González De León, In These Times, "For Many Undocumented Workers, There's No Such Thing As a Minimum Wage"
Joe McCarthy & Phineas Rueckert, Global Citizen, "7 Ways You Can Help Undocumented Immigrants Right Now"

For more info about hotel worker actions…

Follow hashtags: #OneJobShouldBeEnough & #ChicagoHotelStrike
Katie Johnston, Boston Globe, "Union Workers to Picket at Seven Marriott-Run Hotels"
Dave Jamieson, Huffington Post, "Thousands of Marriott Workers to Vote on Multi-City Strike"
Mitchell Armentrout & David Struett, Chicago Sun Times, "Thousands of Hotel Workers Go on Strike in Downtown Chicago"

For more info on Disney Resort workers…

See our show notes to Episode #2 (Glynndana Shevlin)
Rebekah Pederson & Glynndana Shevlin, The New York Times, "I Work at the Happiest Place on Earth. Why Can't I Pay My Rent?"
Gabriel San Roman, OC Weekly, "Principal Author of Anaheim's Living Wage Law Says Disney's Not Exempt"
Gabriel San Roman, OC Weekly, "Anaheim Dissolves Disney Subsidies, Declares Peace on Backs of Resort Workers"
Andrew Gumbel, The Guardian, "'Pay a Living Wage': Bernie Sanders Accuses Disney of Dodging Fair Pay"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

- Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" - Chad Crouch, "Wide Eyes"

- Cambriana, "Vegas"

- David Hilowitz, "Scattered Light"

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard Sep 03, 2018

Show notes

In this special Labor Day episode, we talk to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota, and one of the founders of the resistance camps where the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (#NoDAPL) took place from the spring of 2016 to the winter of 2017. LaDonna is a Native historian who was thrust by history into the role of an activist—her work and bravery have brought hope and courage to people all around the globe. She's an incredible human being and a masterful storyteller. We talk about LaDonna's life, about the struggles of Native tribes, and about the ongoing, violent erasure of the lives and history of Native people in this country, on this continent, and around the world. We talk about the care and wisdom and protection LaDonna always got from her grandmother, and we talk about LaDonna's memories of being torn away from her family and put in foster care as a child. We talk about how she was always made to feel different, an outsider on land that was stolen from her and her ancestors. And we talk about returning home to the Reservation, about learning how to live with the land, and about being a survivor.

Additional links/info below...

**Sacred Stone Village Facebook page
**Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page
Wisdom of the Elders, "Turtle Island Storyteller, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard"
Democracy Now!, "Standing Rock Sioux Historian: Dakota Access Co. Attack Comes on Anniversary of Whitestone Massacre"
Democracy Now!, "'Is This America?' Co-Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Recalls Dog Attack on Native Americans"
Water Protector Legal Collective
#NoDAPL Archive
Standing Rock Syllabus

For more info about the nationwide Prison Strike...

incarceratedworkers.org
Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, "Prison Strike Organizer Warns: Brutal Prison Conditions Risk 'Another Attica'"
Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, "US Inmates Stage Nationwide Prison Labor Strike Over 'Modern Slavery'"

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive)

- Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" - King Kong Ding Dong, "Distant Drums"

Tom Madden Aug 27, 2018

Show notes

In this episode, we talk to Tom Madden, a native Missourian, a professional plumber, and member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 562. We talk about what it was like for Tom and his brothers to grow up in a strict household, and we also talk about some of his wilder days at high school parties. We talk about Tom's father, a professional journalist and labor reporter in St. Louis, and about the huge impression it left on Tom to hear his dad talk about unions and take him and his brothers to worker demonstrations around the city. And we talk about the complex and absolutely vital work plumbers like him do to keep our homes, buildings, and cities functioning.

We also talk about the historic "Vote No on Proposition A" campaign to defeat so-called "right-to-work" legislation in Missouri this month, and about all the work it took from union and non-union workers across the state. We discuss what the threat of right-to-work has meant for workers around Missouri and elsewhere, and what it took for campaigners to reach voters around the state to work around decades of built-up misconceptions about what right-to-work actually is.

Additional links/info below...