Labor Heritage Power Hour

A Discography of Workers’ Revolt (Encore)

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Chris Garlock sits down with Strike While the Needle is Hot: A Discography of Workers’ Revolt authors Josh MacPhee and Kennedy Block to spin and unpack strike records from the ’60s–’80s—including the rousing 1978 EP “Ford Workers on Strike.” A fast-moving tour of worker-made music and how vinyl captured picket lines, speeches, and solidarity anthems. Broadcast on December 25, 2025 (originally released September 4, 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

Labor Radio; The Dig; Power Line Podcast; The Workers' Mic; The Heartland Labor Forum

This week’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly takes a wide-angle look at where labor power is showing up right now—on the shop floor, in politics, in culture, and across the media landscape.We start on The Workers’ Mic, where hosts are joined by The Labor Radio Podcast Network’s Chris Garlock and Harold Phillips to talk about why independent labor media matters and how the Network connects worker struggles across industries and regions.
From there, The Dig digs into the political moment, with Eric Blanc, Leah Greenberg, and Waleed Shahid examining the liberal resistance’s sharp left turn and what it means for organizing and strategy moving forward.
On Labor Radio from WORT in Madison, it’s a packed labor news roundup—from state worker rallies and dairy workers authorizing a strike to Starbucks organizing wins and fights over school voucher transparency.
We also hear from Heartland Labor Forum, which takes on the often-overlooked issue of mental health in the labor movement, spotlighting union-led programs that support members and their families.
Our unusual pick this week comes from the Power Line Podcast, featuring a tailgate conversation with Austin Carr—known online as “America’s Favorite Lineman”—on life in the trades and how social media is reshaping work and identity.
Plus, in our Shows You Should Know speed round, we spotlight more voices across the Network, including The Wealthy Ironworker, Boiling Point, RadioLabour Canada, El Cafecito del Día, and The CWA Hour of Power, and we pause to remember Ken Nash of Building Bridges.
👉 Subscribe, listen, and follow us at laborradionetwork.org@thedigradio @powerlinepodcast @coalition_labor
@Heartland_Labor#LaborRadioPod #1u #UnionStrong #WorkersVoices #SolidarityMedia @AFLCIO
Help us build sonic solidarity by clicking on the share button below.Highlights from labor radio and podcast shows around the country, part of the national Labor Radio Podcast Network of shows focusing on working people’s issues and concerns.
Produced by Chris Garlock, edited by Patrick Dixon, social media guru Mr. Harold Phillips.

“A Red Carol”

On today’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: "People always think this story is about you,” Bob Crachit tells Scrooge in the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s “A Red Carol” radio play. “But it ain’t about you, it’s about us - and how we let ourselves get infected with your ideas, your greed, your lies, it’s you steppin’ over the hungry and homeless and us following your lead, it’s us lettin’ you turn our government into a casino, listenin’ while you say day after day that profit is the new god, and us not standin’ up and shouting "NO!"'
“It ain’t about you," Cratchit says. "It’s about us.”
Click here to support the San Francisco Mime Troupe and here to support WPFW’s jazz and justice in the New Year! Produced by the San Francisco Mime Troupe; Broadcast on December 18, 2025; WPFW broadcast engineered by Kahlia Chapman. @SFTroupers @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Care, Craft, and Community: Inside “The Doublewide”

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour, novelist Ann Goethals joins us to share the stories behind The Doublewide, her powerful debut novel about caregiving, community, and the invisible labor that holds our world together. Ann reads from the opening chapter and reflects on her years as a teacher, union activist, and caregiver navigating the realities of dementia care.
We’ve also got Labor Arts News Briefs, including big wins for PAs organizing with LIUNA, a new contract at the Los Angeles Times, and a first contract victory at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Plus: exciting news about the return of the Labor Oscars and Labor Grammys under the Labor Heritage Foundation’s banner.
Then we turn to Labor History in 2:00, tracing the fall of the Knights of Labor and the rise of the American Federation of Labor — two very different visions of the labor movement.
Plus a sneak preview of next week’s show, the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s radio drama, A Red Carol.
Broadcast on December 11, 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

When the Machines Start to Sing

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: Singer–songwriter and longtime movement troubadour David Rovics joins us to talk about his unlikely collaboration with an AI persona he calls Ai Tsuno, which has already produced nearly 40 songs in a stunning range of styles. We dig into what it means to “vibe code” music, how expertise and craft still matter in avoiding “AI slop,” why this technology threatens the jobs of working musicians, and why Rovics believes we’ll need something like universal basic income as AI transforms whole professions. Along the way, we hear clips from new labor anthems including No Contract, No Coffee and In the Age of AI.
Then we travel back to December 3, 1946, when Oakland workers shut down their city in a historic general strike. Drawing on accounts from Stan Weir, we tell the story of how one unlikely pop hit—“Pistol Packin’ Mama,” by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters—blared from jukeboxes dragged onto the sidewalks, becoming the unofficial soundtrack of the uprising and reminding us how popular culture and class struggle collide in surprising ways.
We close with a joyful preview of the DC Labor Chorus’ annual Favorite and Sacred Songs concert (Sat., Dec. 6, free; RSVP here). We feature a powerful medley including “None of Us Are Free,” “We Did Not Come This Far” and a union-flavored holiday wish for justice and good contracts—a taste of the spirit, harmony, and solidarity waiting for audiences this weekend.
Broadcast on December 4, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and stations across the country on the Pacifica network.
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; editing by Patrick Dixon, 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

Work Songs (Encore)

This week's show: Workers have been singing while working and singing about working since antiquity; the Heartland Labor Forum’s Mark Galus plays classics from Billy Bragg, Joe Glazer and Anne Feeney as well as some more obscure folk and punk tracks. Broadcast on November 27, 2025 (Original broadcast December 5, 2024).Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; original source The Heartland Labor Forum (KKFI in Kansas City); this version produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@Heartland_Labor @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

When the City Stopped: Stories from New York’s Essential Workers

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour:Historian Robert W. Snyder joins us to discuss When the City Stopped: Stories from New York’s Essential Workers, a powerful collection of oral histories from the frontline workers who kept NYC alive during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviewed by Tim Sheard—veteran nurse, labor organizer, and Hard Ball Press publisher—we explore the trauma, courage, inequality, and solidarity that defined the era, and the urgent need to preserve these memories.
Then, historian Peter Cole takes us to the Philadelphia waterfront with Ben Fletcher: The Life and Times of a Black Wobbly. Recorded at the 9th annual Reuther–Pollack Labor History Symposium, hosted by the WALS Foundation, Cole tells the story of one of the most important—and too often forgotten—Black labor leaders in American history, who led an interracial, militant IWW union decades before the Civil Rights Act.
Broadcast on November 20, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and stations across the country on the Pacifica network.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

Bernie, Debs & the Sound of Solidarity

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Senator Bernie Sanders accepts the Eugene V. Debs Award in Terre Haute, celebrating Debs’ legacy of solidarity and social justice — and reminding us that Debs’ vision still guides the labor movement today.Then, from the Solidarity Works podcast, meet California musician Johnny Miller Jr., who’s keeping labor’s musical traditions alive with songs of struggle, hope, and community.Plus music from The Local Honeys. Broadcast on November 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

Strikes Across Time — Casa Bonita to the Washington Post to Ancient Rome

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: three stories of strikes and solidarity in the arts. Casa Bonita performers in Denver walk out for fair pay and safety; journalist Pete Tucker revisits the 1975 Washington Post pressmen’s strike; and historian Sarah Bond’s book Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire uncovers how Roman workers used collective action thousands of years ago.Broadcast on November 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

Honest Work and Deadly Deception

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: how labor art and history illuminate both the dignity and danger of work.
In our first segment, photojournalist and union organizer David Bacon talks with photographer Jim Brozek about his exhibit Honest Work at the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Brozek captured working life from the inside — as a crew member, ranch hand, and farm worker — documenting labor’s rhythm, camaraderie, and physical toll from 1976 to 1985.
Then, we turn to Deadly Deception: The Asbestos Tragedy in McLean County, an award-winning exhibit at the McLean County Museum of History in Bloomington, Illinois. David LeGrande, former Occupational Safety and Health Director for the Communications Workers of America, interviews Mike Matejka about the hidden cost of corporate greed and the community’s ongoing fight for justice.
From ships and fields to factory floors, these are stories of workers’ courage, creativity, and solidarity.
Broadcast on October 30 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and stations across the country.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