Labor Economics

It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with David Dayen, executive editor at The American Prospect, & Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project and author of the BIG newsletter on SubStack, to discuss their new podcast endeavor entitled “Organized Money”.
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Michelle Eisen, organizing member of Starbucks Workers United (SWU), to discuss the breaking news that Starbucks may be willing to return to the negotiating table with SWU. Then, Sam is joined by Melissa Gira Grant, staff writer at the New Republic, to discuss her r...
It’s Hump Day! And Emma is BACK! Sam and Emma speak with Rena Wong, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 663, to discuss the recent strike efforts by grocery workers in Minnesota. Then, they speak with Abby Vesoulis, national politics reporter at Mother Jones, to discu...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with KJ Boyle, research assistant with The Revolving Door Project, to discuss his recent piece in The New Republic entitled “Donald Trump Is No Friend to the Working Class.” Then, they speak with Prem Thakker, politics reporter at The Intercept, to discuss his re...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Alex Press, staff writer at Jacobin, to discuss her recent piece entitled “In 2023, the US Working Class Fought Back.” Then, they speak with Bill McKibben, contributing writer at The New Yorker and founder of ThirdAct.org, to discuss how 2023 was the hottest...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam speaks with David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam speaks with Shunte Sanders Beasley, former vice president of UAW Local 869 and worker at the Stellantis Stamping Plant in Warren, Michigan to discuss the UAW strike ...
It’s News Day Tuesday! Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. First, they run through updates on the subpoena of Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll’s new charges against Trump, a vehicular strike on the White House, the slow acceptance of greedflation theory by economic elites, and ...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma host Rosie Collington, Ph.D candidate at University College London, to discuss her recent book The Big Con: How The Consulting Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes Our Governments, And Warps Our Economies, co-authored with Mariana Mazzucato. First, Sam and Emma...
Sam and Emma host Jane McAlevey, Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center, to discuss her recent book Rules to Win By: Power and Participation in Union Negotiations. They begin by running through updates on the WGA strike, an impending airline strike, the fasc...
Happy Monday! Sam is back from vacation! He and Emma speak with Jon D. Erickson, professor of sustainability science and policy at The University of Vermont, to discuss his recent book The Progress Illusion: Reclaiming Our Future from the Fairytale of Economics. Then, they’re joined but Justin Al...
It’s News Day Tuesday! Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. First, they run through updates on the DOJ stepping in to block JetBlue’s takeover of Spirit Airlines, Oklahoma’s weed vote, Atlanta protests at the developing Cop City, Florida and Ron DeSantis finally stepping up f...
Sam and Emma host author Steve Paxton to discuss his recent book How Capitalism Ends: History, Ideology and Progress. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on clashes in and around Atlanta’s developing “Cop City,” DHS’s illegal domestic intel program, Biden vs. the airlines, the East Palestine ...
Sam and Emma host Raymond Jackson, President of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 689, to discuss the recent strike by Loudoun County Transit workers in Virginia. Then, they are joined by Helena Bottemiller Evich, founder of the publication Food Fix, to discuss the recent developments wit...
Emma hosts Adrian Hon, game designer and CEO of Six to Start, to discuss his recent book You’ve Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games to Control Us All. Then, she is joined by Alex Sammon, politics writer at Slate, to discuss the recent controversy surrounding New York...
Sam hosts Mike Konczal, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Roosevelt Institute, to discuss his recent paper ”Prices, Profits, and Power” that he co-authored with Niko Lusiani. Then, Sam is joined by Amane Badhasso, candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s 4th District, to give an update from ...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and proprietor of the AP newsletter on Substack, to round up the week in news. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by comedian Sarah Silverman to discuss her recent Off-Broadway musical The Bedwetter! First, Emm...
Emma hosts Kim Kelly, labor reporter and columnist at Teen Vogue, to discuss her recent book Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor. Then Emma is joined by Jessica Cisneros, candidate for Congress in Texas’s 28th Congressional District, to give us an update from the campaign trail....
It’s Sam’s triumphant return to the show! He and Emma host Sandy Jacoby, Research Professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, to discuss his recent book Labor in the Age of Finance: Pensions, Politics, and Corporations from Deindustrialization to Dodd-Frank, on the contradictions ingrain...
Emma hosts Alex Press, writer at Jacobin, to discuss her recent pieces on the burgeoning labor movement countrywide and Eric Adams’s homelessness policies. Then Emma is joined by Daniel Bessner, co-host of the American Prestige podcast on SubStack, to discuss his recent brief for the Quincy Insti...
Emma hosts Luke Savage, staff writer at Jacobin Magazine, to discuss his new book The Dead Center: Reflections On Liberalism And Democracy After the End Of History.  Then, Emma is joined by Rana Abdelhamid, candidate for Congress in New York’s 12th Congressional District, to give us an update fro...
Sam hosts investigative journalist Christopher Leonard to discuss his recent book The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy, on how the lessons that the US Government took from the 2008 financial crash led to a decade of an asset boom on Wall Street alongside wag...
Sam hosts James W. Russell, public policy affiliate scholar at Portland State University, to discuss his recent book The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans: For Union Organizers and Employees, on the importance of fighting for good end-of-life security and how employers and banks have capitalized of...
Sam and Emma host Will Stronge, co-director of research at the think tank Autonomy, to discuss his recent book Overtime: Why We Need A Shorter Working Week that he co-authored with Kyle Lewis. They start off by reflecting on the late night infrastructure bill passage from last Friday night, as we...
Sam and Emma host  Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics at Queen Mary University of London, to discuss her recent book Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula, on how the maritime trade infrastructure has become a microcosm of global capitalism, and...
Emma hosts Eric Rauchway, Professor of History at the University of California, Davis, to discuss his recent book Why The New Deal Matters, on the lessons we can take looking back on that period in US legislative history. Professor Rauchway and Emma first reflect on the laughable comparisons Bide...
Sam and Emma host public sector immigration lawyer Daniel Melo to discuss his recent book Borderlines: The Edges of U.S. Capitalism, Immigration, and Democracy, which contextualizes immigration policy within the history of the US, and exploring what we can do to push back against the unfair desig...
Sam hosts Alex Sammon, a staff writer at the American Prospect, to discuss California’s Prop 22 and how tech companies are working overtime to set labor laws back decades for non-white working-class people. We’re live at noon ET.
Sam hosts historian and policy analyst Christopher Shaw (@chris_w_shaw) to discuss his new book Money, Power, and the People: The American Struggle to Make Banking Democratic on how early 20th century finance shaped politics and grassroots mobilization.
Sam hosts the American Postal Workers’ Union President Mark Dimondstein to discuss the post office, the fall elections, and how Trump donor turned Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has dismantled the USPS.
Sam hosts Digby (@Digby56) and comedian Judy Gold (@JewdyGold) this May Day Friday, and special guest Winsome Pendergrass (@WinsomePenderg4), a tenants’ rights organizer in NYC who is leading today’s rent strike.
Michael Brooks hosts Jacobin writer Meagan Day (@meaganmday) and Jacobin editor Micah Uetricht (@micahuetricht) to discuss their new book, Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism. 
Happy Friday! Sam hosts author Joe William Trotter to discuss his new book Workers on Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America. Sam also interviews progressive candidate Jessica Scarane, who is running in the Democratic primary for Delware’s Senate seat currently held by Chris Coons.
Happy Thursday! Michael Brooks hosts Eric Blanc, author of Red State Revolt: The Teachers’ Strike Wave and Working-Class Politics, to discuss his experience organizing, the state of strikes in France, and why single-payer is the way forward on healthcare.
Happy Tuesday! Author and organizer Jane McAlevey joins Sam to discuss her new book,  A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy, on how workers must continue to fight with broad-based supermajorities across the working class. McAlevey and Sam begin their conversation d...
Michael Brooks hosts today’s show and speaks with Ronan Burtenshaw (@ronanburtenshaw), editor of Tribune Magazine, about next week’s elections in the United Kingdom. Will Corbyn’s rise in the polls and revelations of Tories offer to sell off the NHS lead to Labour victories?