Labor Heritage Power Hour

Is ‘Severance’ a show about unions?

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Tabitha Arnold and Rachael Mulvihill take a deep dive into the work issues raised by Apple TV’s hit show ‘Severance’; Plus, an update on the Songs and Chants for the Strike Line Contest and labor poetry from Chris Butters. And, on Labor History in 2:00: The year was 1937; that was the day workers sat down at the Hershey chocolate plant in Hershey, Pennsylvania.Broadcast on April 3, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@thetolerantweft @Protoncat76 @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Hold The Line; labor art & poetry

This week's show: Singer-songwriter Linda Allen with the story behind her song Hold The Line; artist and organizer Ricardo Levins Morales on how he uses his art as a form of political medicine, and longtime labor leader Stewart Acuff reads from his new book of poetry, Love Is Solidarity in Action. On Labor History in 2:00: Police Attack UE Amid the ‘46 Strike Wave
Broadcast on March 27, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@rlmartstudio @AcuffStewart @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

American Steel, 2020 PA nurses’ strike

This week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Alex Lin talks about her new play, American Steel (with a little bonus for our podcast listeners) and the Labor Jawn podcast remembers The St. Mary’s Nurses’ Strike of 2020. Plus we preview “Union”, the R.J. Phillips Band marks the 60th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march and, from Labor History in 2:00, the 85th anniversary of The Grapes of Wrath premiere. Bonus track: Bruce Springsteen’s The Ghost of Tom Joad. Broadcast on March 20 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@WrkingTheater @labor80132 @GeorgetownKILWP @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Stories of Belonging; Nuggets of Gold

This week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Stories of Belonging. A free outdoor exhibit of 6-foot-high interactive portraits exploring the history of migrant workers’ struggles to attain American citizenship is on display through the end of the week at Lamont Plaza (3210 Mt Pleasant St NW, Washington DC); Chris talks about the exhibit with its creator, Patricia Campos-Medina, Executive Director of the Worker Institute at Cornell ILR.Then, behind the ubiquitous Chicken McNugget is a fascinating tale of technological innovation, worker exploitation, and class distinction at the drive-thru. We talk with author Patrick Dixon – a regular contributor to this show – about his new book Nuggets of Gold: Further Processed Chicken and the Making of the American Diet.Also on today’s show: what we suspect will become a regular feature on the show: new songs of protest and resistance from the frontlines of the ongoing struggles for worker justice. From Steve Jones, inspired by something Congressman Jamie Raskin said at the Labor Heritage Foundation’s annual Gonna Take Us All Ball last month, A Rally a Day. And from Seth Newton Patel, Strike, Strike, Strike, Strike.On Labor History in 2:00: Victory for the Bread and Roses StrikeBroadcast on March 13, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@DrCamposMedina @cornellilr @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

1932 Ford Hunger March, Panama’s Box 25, Derry’s missing “Factory Girls”

This week's show: Dave Elsila on the 1932 Ford Hunger March commemoration in Detroit, labor historian Julie Greene talks about her new book, “Box 25: Archival Secrets, Caribbean Workers & The Panama Canal,” and Chris Garlock searches for Derry’s missing “Factory Girls.” Today’s music: The Ford Hunger March from "Forgotten -- the Murder at the Ford Rouge Plant"; Panama Canal by the Panama Brass; 'Factory Girls' by ELMA ORKESTRA. Bonus track: The Picket Line by Red Dust. PLUS: Francis Perkins Named Secretary of Labor, The Worker Uprising that Started the American Revolution and The Exodusters.Broadcast on March 6, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Nosferatu and the Golden Arches

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Alex C. Park on the global rise of the fast-food industry, and Tom McMahon takes a class-based look at Nosferatu.In our first segment, producer Patrick Dixon talks with Alex C. Park about his experiences inside the Golden Arches, the globalization of the fast food industry and about how McDonalds became an unlikely highlight of last year’s presidential campaign.
Then, writer, cultural critic, and activist Tom McMahon suggests that the horror in Robert Eggers' 2024 film Nosferatu is really about “a vampiric aristocracy that’s siphoning the societal lifeblood of capital, their need to consume taking precedence over all other social bonds, leaving the world to bear the burden of their indifference.” Interview by Tom Zaniello.
On Labor History in 2:00: The year was 2011; that was the day that labor movement took an historic stand in Madison, Wisconsin.Broadcast on February 27, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.Sources: "In Fast Food, Worker Stress is the Business Model"Robert Eggers 'Nosferatu' is a Symphony of Horror@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Labor songs for the fightback

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Chris and Elise spin labor songs to boost your spirits. Playlist: Unaccountable - Elise Bryant & Steve Jones Who's Gonna Build Your Wall - Tom Russell All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose - The Solidarity Singers of the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council A Strike Song (VirginLV) – Culinary Union The Communists Have the Music - They Might Be Giants What We Want - Shelby Bottom Duo Union Conga - Al Bradbury Bread and Roses-Women of the World People Have the Power - Patti Smith Time For A General Strike - Mike Stout Have You Been To Jail For Justice - Anne Feeney. Broadcast on February 20, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives? You Betcha!

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: first we go to St Paul, Minnesota, where producer Lisa Raye Garlock caught up with sculptor Gita Ghei, to talk about Gita’s new show You Betcha! Farmer-Labor Solidarity Is Possible. Then we hop over to Elise’s old stomping grounds, East Lansing, Michigan, where Chris talks with John Beck about “Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives”, an ongoing series which for more than 30 years now has focused on the artistic traditions of workers and on workplaces as contexts for the expression of workers culture.Broadcast on February 13, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Theater for the people!

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Shanara Gabrielle on The Garbologists, and Jim Walsh on The Romero Theater Troupe at 20; Charlie King on “Bring Back the Eight Hour Day”; On Labor History in 2:00: “The Rebel Girl”. Broadcast on January 30, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@TheaterAlliance @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

MLK in Memphis

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: MLK in Memphis“We Will Not Be Turned Around”, Part 3 of AFSCME’s I AM STORY podcast about the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike; Joe Uehlein on Morning Song, his tribute to Pete Seeger. Plus, on Labor History in 2:00: The First MLK Day & The Charleston FiveBroadcast on January 23 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC.Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod