Working Life

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 […]

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Now it’s the turn of teachers in Oklahoma to rise up. I chat with Alicia Priest, the president of the Oklahoma Education Association, and Jennifer Thornton, a third-grade teacher in Tulsa, after the state’s teachers walked off the job to push for higher pay so they don’t have to go to a food pantry to feed their […]

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  The gall of greedy employers never seems to end, right? This time it shows up in the restaurant biz where the other NRA—the National Restaurant Association–was trying to get its hands on waiters’ tips. I talk to Judy Conti, a key leader in the successful battle to slap down that money grab. I, then, […]

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Betsy Devos has already shown herself to be entirely unqualified to be running the Department of Education. I add on to what we already know with a look at how she is breaking the law by trying to impose rules on workers in the department without bothering to reach agreement with the union representing the […]

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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 […]

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I continue my deep-dive series interviewing scores of progressives candidates running all across the country with three new segments with three Congressional candidates: James Thompson in Kansas, David Gill in Illinois and Rico Franco in California…all regular people jumping into the electoral world. Our Robber Barons of the week are the U.S. Senate fools—including 12 […]

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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 […]

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ISIS poses virtually no threat to you in your home. The same can’t be said for Amazon. Amazon really is an economic terrorist. That’s what I spend most of the podcast this week digging into—after laying out the picture of the sorry spectacle of cities and states begging Amazon to locate its new headquarters in […]

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In Germany, the most powerful union in the country just secured the rights of workers to opt for a—get this!–28-hour workweek. I give us the details. And, then, I talk with two progressive candidates—Michael Bracamontes who is running for governor in California and Jenny Marshall who is looking to capture a House seat in North […]

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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 […]

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