Labor Rights

Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with Benjamin Shestakofsky, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss his recent book Behind the Startup: How Venture Capital Shapes Work, Innovation, and Inequality. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on presidential poll...
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 News Day Tuesday! Sam and Emma speak with Peter Shamshiri, or Law Boy on Twitter, co-host of If Books Could Kill & the 5-4 Podcast, to discuss the recent oral argumentsat the Supreme Court. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Israel’s pre-October 7th war crimes, student anti-war e...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Lisa Heinzerling, law professor at Georgetown University, to discuss the impact of the Supreme Court’s upcoming rulings on Loper Bright Enterprises  v. Raimondo & Relentless v. Department of Commerce, as well as the court hearing arguments yesterday regarding mi...
Sam and Emma host Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer at Slate, to discuss the recent decisions regarding labor and environmental regulation by the Supreme Court. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Ukraine’s defensive, DeSantis’ human trafficking schtick, Atlanta’s City Council approving the...
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 they are joined by comedian and writer Adam Conover to give an update on the WGA writers strike. First, Sam runs through ...
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 ...
It’s Hump Day! Sam hosts Ian Millhiser, senior correspondent at Vox, to discuss the upcoming cases that will be before the Supreme Court this term. Sam starts off by touching on the recent revelations surrounding Tucker Carlson’s text messages disclosed from the Dominion lawsuit, and how he still...
It’s an extra special News Day Tuesday as Sam and Emma are on Trump INDICTMENT WATCH. Then they’re joined by John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, to discuss Tuesday’s Wisconsin State Supreme Court race. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on far-right legislation advan...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect to round up the week in news. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the Federal Reserve’s continued battle against labor, DeSantis going full fascist with the Florida legislature, the House ethics in...
Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. They begin by discussing the oral arguments before the Supreme Court today, focusing on Biden’s student debt cancellation plan. This includes Iowa’s attorney general, Brenna Bird, insinuating to Maria Bartiromo that Biden’s plan was design...
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 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...
Sam and Emma host Harvey Kaye, professor emeritus of democracy at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, and Alan Minsky, executive director of the Progressive Democrats of America, to discuss their recent mission statement published in Common Dreams, the 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights. Ho...
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...
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 Sara Matthiesen, Professor of History at George Washington University, to discuss her recent book Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice After Roe V. Wade, and how reproductive rights and the concept of choice have been manipulated and under attack in the age ...
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 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 – ...
Emma hosts Ken Klippenstein, investigative reporter at The Intercept, to discuss his recent piece “LEAKED: NEW AMAZON WORKER CHAT APP WOULD BAN WORDS LIKE “UNION,” “RESTROOMS,” “PAY RAISE,” AND “PLANTATION”.  Ken and Emma begin by summarizing the incredible culmination of the Staten Island Amazon...
Sam and Emma host Ryan Grim, DC Bureau Chief at The Intercept, to round up the week in news. Then in the Fun Half, we have a special April Fool’s Day compilation! Ryan and Sam begin by taking on the incredible work done by Amazon organizers in Staten Island and Bessemer Alabama as the unionizatio...
Emma hosts Danielle Lindemann, Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University, to discuss her recent book True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us. Then, Emma is joined by Alexandra Hunt, candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania’s 3rd District, to give us an update from the campaign trail! ...
Sam hosts author and journalist Jessie Singer to discuss her recent book There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster-Who Profits and Who Pays the Price, on the policy and regulatory collapse that has pushed America’s number of “accidental” deaths through the roof. Jessie begins...
Sam and Emma host Ryan Cooper, national correspondent at The Week, to discuss his new book How Are You Going to Pay For That? Smart Answers to the Dumbest Questions in Politics, on how the self-immolating ideas of the free market have locked us into a vision of government that is impotent in the ...
Emma hosts Peter Robison, investigative journalist at Bloomberg, to discuss his recent book Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing, on the deregulation and the turn to serve the shareholders exclusively that lead up to a six month period a few years ago that saw multiple plane c...
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 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 Keisha Blain, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, to discuss her recent book Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America, on how Hamer’s long life led up to a final decade and a half of incredibly influential activism. Professor Bl...
Emma hosts Alexandra Brodsky, civil rights attorney at Public Justice, to discuss her recent book Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash, and how the culture around sexual assault and harassment has shifted drastically over the last decad...
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 Columbia Law professor Jamal Greene to discuss his new book “How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights Is Tearing America Apart.” They delve into the absolutist, legalized view of rights that frames discourse in the US, how it diverges from the Framers original commun...
Sam and Emma host Richard Yeselson. strategic campaigner and editorial board member at Dissent Magazine, to discuss his recent essay in Jacobin “The Defeat at Amazon and the Union Fights to Come.” They contextualize what happened in Bessemer within broader Union history, explore how the Democrats...
Sam and Emma host Dave Zirin, sports editor at The Nation, to discuss the politics in sports including the MLB pulling the All-Star Game from Atlanta, NCAA athlete pay, and push back on Olympics real estate development in Los Angeles.
Sam and Emma host Gabe Winant, professor of history at the University of Chicago, to discuss his new book, The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America. They explore how a healthcare complex was built up around the failing industrial sector, the destabiliz...
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 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.
Nathan J. Robinson (@NathanJRobinson), editor of Current Affairs, joins us to discuss his book, Why You Should Be a Socialist.
Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman), author of Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World, joins us.
Historian Jack Kelly, author of The Edge of Anarchy: The Railroad Barons, the Gilded Age, and the Greatest Labor Uprising in America, joins us.