Unionization

It’s Casual Friday! Sam and Emma speak with Ryan Grim, reporter at the newly founded venture Drop Site News and co-host of Counter Points, to talk about Drop Site and break down the biggest headlines of the day. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the NATO conference, Biden’s candidacy, Ne...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Daniel Poppen, member of the union organizing committee at the Trader Joe’s location in the North Center neighborhood of Chicago, to discuss the staff’s decision to file for a union election. Then, he speaks with Matt Bruenig, founder of the People’s Policy Project,...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Jeremy Kimbrell, a measurement machine operator at the  Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama and member of the volunteer organizing committee at the plant, to discuss the plant’s recent decision to file for a union election with the National Labor Relations...
It’s a Casual Friday all calls and all clips edition! Sam, Emma and the MR Crew break down the biggest stories of the week. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the opening of the Erez crossing for aid to Gaza, the US economy, Biden’s student debt relief, Trump v. Tish James, and immigratio...
It’s Hump Day! First, in a pre-taped conversation, Sam speaks with Seth Goldstein, legal counsel for Trader Joe’s United & the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), to discuss a recent legal filing by Amazon, Trader Joe’s, and SpaceX that alleges that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is unconsti...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma speak with Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute, to discuss the state of play in Israel/Gaza nearly 3 months after October 7th. Then, they’re joined by Paul Ortiz, professor of history at the University of Florida, to discuss how unions in Flor...
It’s Hump Day! Sam speaks with Ari Tolany, research consultant for Women for Weapons Trade Transparency, to discuss her recent piece that she co-authored in In These Times entitled ”How Israel Got an Endless Supply of U.S.-Made Smart Bombs.” Then, Sam speaks with Andi Dymond, member of the contra...
Happy Monday! Sam and Emma speak with writer and labor organizer Mindy Isser to discuss the United Auto Workers (UAW) calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Gaza conflict. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the US vetoing a UN ceasefire resolution while sending more bombs to Israel, Biden’...
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...
It’s a JAM PACKED Casual Friday! Sam and Emma host Alex Pareene, Contributing Editor at the New Republic and host of the Politics of Everything podcast, to round up the week in news. Then, they’re joined by actor and SAG-AFTRA member Andrew Leeds to discuss the most recent vote by the union to au...
It’s Hump Day! Sam and Emma discuss some of the biggest stories of the week, including (of course) Trump’s arraignment in Miami yesterday. Then, they’re joined by Dr. Titi Afolabi, resident physician in internal medicine at Mass General Brigham (MGB), to discuss the MGB resident physicians recent...
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 an EmMajority Report Thursday! Emma hosts Sarah Brayne, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss her recent book Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing. Then, Emma is joined by Donna Murch, associate professor of History at Rutgers Un...
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...
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 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,...
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 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 writer Jacob Silverman to discuss his recent piece in the New Republic ”The Quiet Political Rise of David Sacks, Silicon Valley’s Prophet of Urban Doom”. Then they are joined by Lauren Ornelas, founder and president of the Food Empowerment Project, to discuss the recent union bu...
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 Timothy Jost, Emeritus Professor at Washington & Lee University Law School, to discuss the upcoming Supreme Court Case Talevski v. Health and Hospital Corps of Marion County. Then, they are joined by Nick Weiner, Senior Campaign Lead for the Committee for Better Banks at the...
Emma hosts Katherine Blunt, reporter for the Wall Street Journal, to discuss her recent book California Burning: The Fall Of Pacific Gas And Electric-And What It Means For America’s Power Grid. First, Emma dives into updates on the Freight Rail strike, the unionization of Minor League Baseball, a...
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...
Sam hosts Brian Callaci, Chief Economist at the Open Markets Institute, to discuss his recent piece in Dissent Magazine ”Inflation Is No Excuse For Squeezing Workers.” Then, Sam is joined by Ilana Marcucci-Morris, a Kaiser Permanente mental health therapist, to discuss recent efforts by her and h...
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 and Emma host Dannel Jurado of Kickstarter United to discuss their unionizing effort from the ground. Then, they are joined by Vincent Vertuccio, a student climate organizer with Now Or Never, who is planning to protest the Congressional Baseball Game this Thursday. Before that, Sam and Emma ...
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 Jamie Edwards, organizer with the Trader Joe’s Union effort in Hadley, Massachusetts, to discuss the union organizing efforts from the ground. First, however, they touch on the GOP’s flipping of a century-long Democratic seat in Texas, discuss a Florida Synagogue’s suit against ...
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 ...
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...
Sam hosts David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect, to touch on the big weekend in news, as well as all of the fantastic journalism going on at the Prospect. He and Sam kick it off with his recent piece “The Accidental Revolution,” first covering the absolute state of despair within...
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 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...
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 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...
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...
Sam hosts Heather “Digby” Parton to discuss the week’s top stories, including the infrastructure negotiations, SCOTUS decisions to gut voter rights, and more. Then, WGA East Executive Director Lowell Peterson joins to discuss the unionization efforts at MSNBC Digital. Digby and Sam start off the ...
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 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 Pareene (@pareene) of the New Republic and Comedian Andy Kindler (@AndyKindler) to discuss the week’s biggest stories. Sam also hosts National Nurses United President Jean Ross to discuss the union’s protest in Washington DC and the government’s failure to deliver PPE to frontline ...
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.
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 ...