Working Life

In case you hadn’t heard…Bernie Sanders has entered the race for the 2020 presidential Democratic nomination. I devote the entire podcast this week to a re-airing of my in-depth conversation with Bernie just before the 2016 general election—what he had to say then is still quite relevant today. Enjoy!

Read the full story

Thousands of drivers in the app-driven ride service business, principally those who work for Uber and Lyft, just can’t make ends meet—and the whole scramble has created a race-to-the-bottom in which companies impoverish the very people who bring in the cash (sound familiar?). To get an insight into the plight of such drivers, I speak […]

Read the full story

Yesterday was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, the day that signifies how long it would take for an African American woman to work in 2018 to equal the *2017* pay of a white male counterpart. I noted this day a year ago in Episode 41—and come back to it today in conversation with Valerie Wilson […]

Read the full story

Anyone remember the talk show “Firing Line” with arch-conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., which ended its run in 1999? Well, it’s baaaaack…with a new host, my conservative friend Margaret Hoover, who visits with me to talk about reviving the iconic show, as well as the state of conservatism and the Republican Party. I, then, welcome […]

Read the full story

Today, the inevitable happened. The Supreme Court ruled in Janus v. AFSCME, with the now-familiar right-wing conservative majority siding with the anti-union billionaire forces against public sector unions, and, really, the entire middle-class. I welcome back Celine McNicholas from the Economic Policy Institute to look at who is hurt by the decision. I, then, give […]

Read the full story

You may remember that last month I did a curtain-raiser on the Jet Blue flight attendants’ union organizing campaign vote (Episode 74). Yesterday, the vote came in—and the workers crushed it, winning by a 2-1 margin. You get to hear first-hand from three front-line flight attendant activists how it all came down. I also talk […]

Read the full story

Beto. He’s the guy who will send Ted Cruz into retirement.  I talk with Beto O’Rourke while he’s out driving on the campaign trail in Texas. Have you tried to live on a teacher’s salary? In Oklahoma, it means counting on visiting a food pantry to survive, as I learn in my in-depth talk with […]

Read the full story

Nine days striking isn’t the longest walk-out you will see. But, when you do that in defiance of the law, whoa, now that’s showing some spine. I kick off the podcast with a chat with the president of the West Virginia Education Association, Dale Lee, to get a read on what we can learn from […]

Read the full story

The attacks against public sector unions—an attack on all working people—reached their legal pinnacle Monday when the Supreme Court heard the case, Janus v. AFSCME. But, something else is exposed in the case: the links between the conservative right-wing ideologues on the Supreme Court, greedy billionaires and piles of money that have funded bigots, racists […]

Read the full story

I love this description of the people burrowing deep inside government agencies to screw the people: political termites. And it comes courtesy of investigative journalist David Cay Johnston who returns to the podcast to discuss with me his new book, “It’s Even Worse Than You Think: What The Trump Administration Is Doing To America”. I […]

Read the full story