union organizing

It’s News Day Tuesday! Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. But first, they speak with Anna Heetman, striking tenant and leader with the Independence Towers Tenant Union in Kansas City.
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 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...
Happy Monday! Emma speaks with Ashley Dawson, English professor and founder of the Climate Action Lab at the City University of New York (CUNY), to discuss his recent book Environmentalism From Below: How Global People’s Movements Are Leading The Fight For Our Planet. Then she’s joined by Mike El...
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 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 Hump Day! Sam hosts Anjeanette Damon, government accountability reporter in ProPublica’s Southwest Office, and Byard Duncan, engagement reporter also at ProPublica, to discuss their recent piece entitled ”The Ugly Truth Behind “We Buy Ugly Houses”. Then, Sam is joined by Vilma Serrano of the...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma host Dennis Tajer, Communications Committee Chair Captain for the Allied Pilots Association (APA) to discuss a potential strike amongst American Airlines pilots. Then, writer Greg Iwinski joins the show from the Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) picket line as they ...
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...
It’s Hump Day! Sam hosts Patrick Rucker, finance reporter for The Capitol Forum and contributor at ProPublica, to discuss his recent piece entitled ”How Cigna Saves Millions by Having Its Doctors Reject Claims Without Reading Them”. Then, he’s joined by percussionist Andy Blanco with the Musician...
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 Hump Day! Sam hosts Hannah Story Brown, writer and researcher at The Revolving Door Project, to discuss her recent piece on Biden’s approval of The Willow Project. Then, Sam speaks with Michelle Eisen, organizing member of Starbucks Workers United, on her experience organizing Starbucks stor...
Sam and Emma host Kari Lydersen, journalism lecturer at Northwestern University and staff writer at Midwest Energy News to discuss her recent piece at In These Times entitled ”The Case for Nationalizing the Railroads.” Then, they’re joined by Bethany Kosmicki of the Temple University Graduate Stu...
Sam hosts journalist Ann Neumann to discuss her recent piece in Harper’s, ”Falling Like Leaves: The war in Ethiopia and its crimes against civilians”. Then, Sam’s joined by Dawn Tefft, a Lead Organizer with Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), and Sam Harshner, organizer and Adjunct I...
Sam hosts Tim Drea, President of the Illinois AFL-CIO, to discuss the Workers Rights Amendment that is on the state ballot next Tuesday. Then he is joined by Lee Harris, reporter at The American Prospect, to discuss her recent piece ”Industrial Policy Without Industrial Unions”. Sam begins by run...
Happy Halloween! Sam and Emma host Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts Magazine to discuss all of the biggest ballot measures that will be decided in next Tuesday’s midterm elections. Then, they are joined in the studio (!) by Christian Smalls, the President of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU)...
Sam and Emma host Daniel Medwed, Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, to discuss his recent book Barred: Why the Innocent Can’t Get Out of Prison. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on Russian escalation, JD Vance’s relationship to a big opioid pill mill physicia...
Sam breaks down the biggest headlines of the day. Sam begins by tackling the neck-and-neck midterm polling in Wisconsin and Nevada, Peter Thiel shifting his funding from JD Vance back to Blake Masters, and Dr. Oz and Herschel Walker both giving their opponents a boost in Pennsylvania and Georgia,...
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 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 break down the latest headlines, from the Democratic Leadership finally stepping in to ask for “reasonable republicans,” which they’ll surely respond positively to, to the continuing organizing movement within Starbucks franchises nationwide. They begin by covering the rapid response...
Sam and Emma host Jon Marshall, associate professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, to discuss his recent book Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Alex Speidel, organizer for the United Paizo Workers to discuss their ...
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....
Sam and Emma host Jeff Hauser, the head of the Revolving Door Project at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Then, Sam and Emma are joined by Jordan Flowers, co-founder of the Amazon Labor Union and The Congress of Essential Workers. First, Sam and Emma dive into the Ohio primaries, as J...
It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Ari Rabin-Havt, former deputy campaign manager for Sen. B
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...
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. They kick off the show with updates on the Kellogg’s unionization effort, Omicron, and Tucker Carlson’s prostate (not a metapho...
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 tackle a huge last week in news, as well as what’s coming down the pike in Congress, the courts, and more. They also speak with Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), to discuss NYTWA’s new debt forgiveness campaign for Medallion cab drivers...
Emma hosts Hahrie Han, director of the SNF Agora Institute and Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, to discuss her recent book Prisms of the People: Power & Organizing in Twenty-First-Century America, that she co-authored with Elizabeth McKenna and Michelle Oyakawa. Hah...
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 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 Washington Post national politics reporter Dave Weigel to discuss the on-going union organizing efforts in Alabama and how Democrats are leveraging them to their political advantage. Weigel offers his take on how the Biden administration has operated differently so far from prev...
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.
Nomiki Konst (@NomikiKonst) and Eric Blanc (@_ericblanc) join us.
Richard Kahlenberg, Century Foundation Senior Fellow, on the right to unionize, Taft Hartley and why labor movements haven’t seen same progress as civil rights movement.  Texas fails to get DOJ support for voter ID laws and massacre in Afghanistan fails to provoke real question: why are we there?...