Labor History

It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma speaks with Jeff Schuhrke, assistant professor in labor studies at SUNY Empire State University, to discuss his recent book Blue-Collar Empire: The Untold Story of US Labor’s Global Anticommunist Crusade. Then, she speaks with Seamus Malekafzali, freelance...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Joanna Wuest, assistant professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College and author of the book Born This Way: Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement, to discuss her recent piece in Jacobin entitled “The Best Way to S...
It’s an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Daniel J. Galvin, professor of political science at Northwestern University, to discuss his recent book Alt-Labor and the New Politics of Workers’ Rights. Then, she’s joined by Richard Beck, senior writer at n+1 Magazine, to discuss his recent p...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Sarah Jaffe, fellow at the Type Media Center  based in New Orleans, to discuss her recent piece for In These Times entitled “In Tough Loss, the High-Profile UAW Campaign at Mercedes-Benz in Alabama Falls Short.” Then, Sam checks in on some news stories he’s been int...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with writer and labor organizer Mindy Isser to discuss her recent piece in In These Times entitled “In Labor’s Mission to Organize the South, Another Domino Could Soon Fall.” Then, he speaks with Anna Clark, reporter at ProPublica covering issues in the MidWest, to discu...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Lainey Newman, research assistant at Harvard Law School, to discuss her recent book Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party, co-authored with Theda Skocpol. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s...
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 another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Juliet Hooker, professor of political science at Brown University, to discuss her recent book Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics Of Loss. Then, she speaks with Zachary Foster, proprietor of the website Palestine Nexus, to discuss the...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Joseph Jewell, professor and department head of black studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, to discuss his recent book White Man’s Work: Race and Middle-Class Mobility into the Progressive Era.
It’s another EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Blair LM Kelley, director of The Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina, to discuss her recent book Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class. First, Emma runs through updates on Biden’s call f...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Brian Merchant, tech columnist at the Los Angeles Times, to discuss his recent book Blood in the Machine:The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech. First, Sam runs through updates on Israeli operations in Gaza as 2 million Palestinians remain stuck in a t...
Emma returns for an EmMajority Report Thursday! She speaks with Rebecca Galemba, associate professor in international studies at the University of Denver, to discuss her recent book Laboring for Justice: The Fight Against Wage Theft in an American City. Then, she’s joined by artist and activist M...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks to Mila Wade, a Louisville area Starbucks worker, who participated in recent store shutdowns in conjunction with workers at Sunergos Coffee.  Then, they are joined by Guardian environmental reporter Oliver Milman to discuss his recent piece “‘Double Agents: Fossil-Fuel L...
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 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...
Sam and Emma host Senior Policy Analyst Krista Brown and Senior Fellow Moe Tkacik with the American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), to discuss their recent piece in the American Prospect, ”Ticketmaster’s Dark History”.
Emma is back for her first Thursday show of 2023! She hosts Neil Vallelly, researcher at the University of Otago in New Zealand, to discuss his book Futilitarianism: Neoliberalism and the Production of Uselessness. First, Emma runs through updates on a second set of classified documents being fou...
Sam hosts author Cory Doctorow to discuss his recent book Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We’ll Win Them Back, co-written with Rebecca Giblin. First, Sam runs through updates on Kevin McCarthy finally overcoming his Freedom Caucus brethr...
Sam hosts Clara Mattei, Assistant Professor of Economics at the New School for Social Research, to discuss her recent book The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism. First, Sam runs through updates on Kevin McCarthy entering day three of House purgatory, th...
Emma hosts Karen Levy, Assistant Professor of Information Sciences at Cornell University, to discuss her recent book Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance. Emma first runs through updates on Zelesnkyy’s congressional address, Senate Republicans obstructing Biden’s ...
Sam is back! Him and Emma speak with Nancy Fraser, professor of Political and Social Science at The New School for Social Research, to discuss her recent book Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet-and What We Can Do About It. Emma and Sam first run throu...
In a pre-taped conversation, Sam’s joined by Eric Alterman, Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College, writer of the ”Altercation” newsletter at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent book We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel. Then, Emma speaks with Javier ...
Emma hosts Jamie McCallum, associate professor of sociology at Middlebury College, to discuss his recent book Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice. Then, Emma is joined by Gerrit Bruhaug, Ph.D candidate at the University of Rochester and research assistant for...
Sam and Emma host Adam Hochschild, lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Journalism, to discuss his recent book American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis. First, Sam and Emma run through this weekend’s updates on the Georgia runoff,...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ryan Grim, DC Bureau Chief at the Intercept, to round up the week in news, including discussions on the freight rail labor contract, the progressives’ role in the debate (and the Democratic party writ large), and Biden’s changes to the election cycle – but fi...
Sam hosts Drs. Noa Nessim & Libby Wetterer, 3rd year family medicine resident physicians and members of the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) who, in affiliation with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), are a part of organizing efforts at the Montefiore Medical Center in ...
Sam and Emma host Jonah Furman of Labor Notes and author of the Who Gets The Bird? newsletter on SubStack to discuss the recent negotiations between rail workers, railroad companies, and the Biden administration. Then they are joined by investigative reporter Seth Harp to discuss his recent repor...
Sam and Emma host Jane McAlevey, Senior Policy Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Labor Center, to discuss her recent video for The Nation ”You Voted To Form A Union. Now What?” Then they are joined by T.J. Kitchen, Organizing Director for the Teamsters Joint Council #43, to discu...
Emma hosts Ruth Conniff, editor-in-chief of the Wisconsin Examiner, to discuss her recent book Milked: How an American Crisis Brought Together Midwestern Dairy Farmers and Mexican Workers. Emma also runs through recent news on Palin’s loss in Alaska’s special election (to Alaska’s first Native re...
Emma hosts Dr. Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washington University St. Louis, to discuss her recent book Porn Work: Sex, Labor, and Late Capitalism. Emma hosts Dr. Heather Berg, Assistant Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Washingto...
Emma hosts Dan Canon, civil rights lawyer and professor at the University of Louisville, to discuss his recent book Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class. Emma begins by running through the arrest of an Iranian citizen for planning an extrajudicial assassination att...
Sam hosts Jaz Brisack of Starbucks Workers United to give us some updates from the unionization efforts on the ground. Then, Sam is joined by Michael Bronski, professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Harvard University, to discuss his recent piece in the Boston Review ”Grooming and th...
Sam and Emma host Tony Delorio, Secretary-Treasurer of the Teamsters Local 665, to discuss the recent organizing efforts at Amy’s Kitchen in Los Angeles. Then Sam and Emma are joined by India Walton, former mayoral candidate in Buffalo and Senior Strategic Organizer at Roots Action, to discuss th...
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 Daisy Pitkin, organizer at Workers United, to discuss her recent book On The Line: A Story Of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build A Union. Then Emma is joined by Brianna Wu, executive director of The Rebellion PAC, to discuss the upcoming primary in Ohio’s 11th Congr...
Sam and Emma host Jonathan Robins, Associate Professor of History at Michigan Technological University, to discuss his recent book Oil Palm: A Global History. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Warren Hilsbos of the Coal Baron Blockade! Prof. Robins begins with the state of the palm oil industry – ...
Sam and Emma host Adolph Reed, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss his recent book The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives, on the lasting legacy of the racial order that defined the post-reconstruction era, and its intrinsic ties to labor and expl...
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 Jonathan Levy, professor of History at the University of Chicago, to discuss his recent book Ages of American Capitalism: A History of the United States. Sam and Emma begin by discussing the newly passed defense policy bill and debt limit increase in the House, which includes a ...
Sam and Emma host David Dayen, Executive Editor at The American Prospect, to discuss his recent project ”The Great Escape”, about the mass quitting trend in the labor market, as well as his new piece “Lina Khan Cashes in Her Chips.” They begin by confronting the numbers of the recent wave of resi...
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 New Yorker contributor Eyal Press to discuss his recent book Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America, on the moral division of labor and the emotional burden of getting by for countless Americans. They start off with Everett Hughes’ essay “Good Pe...
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 Mark Joseph Stern, staff writer at Slate covering law and the courts, joins Sam to discuss the biggest cases of the recent Supreme Court term, and the implications of the rulings on cases like TransUnion v. Ramirez and Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. They start with a discussion on SCOTU...
Sam and Emma host Kate Aronoff, staff writer at the New Republic, to discuss her new book, Overheated: How Capitalism Broke the Planet – And How We Fight Back, on how we got to this stage in the climate crisis and policy solutions needed to slow climate change in the coming decades. They cover a ...
Sam and Emma host Sarah Jaffe (@sarahljaffe) to discuss her new book, Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone and how to build a better relationship with our labor.
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.
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 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 is joined by two guests this Thursday on the Majority Report: Author and historian Cal Winslow joins the program to discuss his piece about the ongoing protests by Blackjewel Kentucky miners, “No Neutrals in Harlan County.” And Djene Bajalan also joins the program to discuss the Tr...
On today’s show, Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt), author of, Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor. Sam and Greenhouse begin their conversation distinguishing the differences between labor and union power and a brief history of how labor gained strength during ...
On today’s show, Joshua Specht (@joshspecht), author of Red Meat Republic: A Hoof-to-Table History of How Beef Changed America. The story of beef production in America begins at the cattle ranch, which was a tool of conquest in the West. In some places, cattle ranching resembled a paramilitary op...
Journalist Emily Guendelsberger, author of ‘On the Clock: What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane,’ joins us.
Jonathan M. Metzl (@JonathanMetzl), director of the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, joins us to discuss his book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland.
Activist and historian Dennis Lewycky joins us to discuss his new book, Magnificent Fight: The Winnipeg General Strike.
John Patrick Leary (@JohnPatLeary), Associate Professor of English at Wayne State University, joins us to discuss his book, Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism.
Historian Jack Kelly, author of The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America, joins us.
Good morning on today’s show, Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) and Julian E. Zelizer (@julianzelizer), co-authors of Fault Lines A History of the United States Since 1974.
Journalist and author Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) joins us to discuss her latest book, ‘Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.’