Labor Heritage Power Hour

We Were There

Broadcast on March 7, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: Celebrating women’s labor herstory: Bev Grant on the origins of “We Were There”; a sample of Work Stoppage’s “Women in the US Labor Movement” series; Why AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride loves “Electric Boogie”; Les Leopold on “Wall Street's War on Workers” and, on Labor History in 2:00, Lucy Parsons and Frances Perkins. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@WorkStoppagePod @les_leopold @AFSCME @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

SAG’s laborific shows; the Black Wobbly

Broadcast on February 29, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: Actor and fellow labor podcaster Harold Phillips joins us for his annual labor review of the Screen Actors Guild Awards; Nashville-based folk artists Michael and Nell with the story behind their song Boss Called a Meeting; from the Working Class History podcast, on this last day -- in fact this extra Leap Year day -- of Black History Month, who was Ben Fletcher and why have you never heard of him before? And, on Labor History in 2:00: The year was 1937; that was the day with whistles blowing, the call to strike could be heard through the aisles of Woolworth in downtown Detroit. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@sagaftra @SAGawards @wrkclasshistory @ProfPeterCole @wpfwdc @AFLCIO #1u #UnionStrong #LaborRadioPod

American Fiction’s Cord Jefferson

Broadcast on February 22, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: Writer/director Cord Jefferson takes us behind the scenes of creating his acclaimed film American Fiction, the challenges of adaption, and creating Black-centered narratives; organizer and musician Joe Uehlein tells the story behind his song “Hands”, and, on Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1805; that was the day abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Angelina Grimke was born.NOTE: The Cord Jefferson segment is excerpted from 3rd & Fairfax, the podcast of the Writers Guild of America West.Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.@WGAWest @THEULINERS @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Black, Red, White and Blue

Broadcast on February 15, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock
This week's show: Union and civil rights organizer Si Kahn on “Black, Red, White and Blue,” his song about a Black World War II veteran; "Campbell's Slave Pen," a brand-new song from the R.J. Phillips Band about the Baltimore slave trade and liberation of the captives by Union troops during the Civil War; “Detroit Diva” Lynn Marie Smith on “Union Funk,” and a special treat, a live recording of legendary folksinger Anne Feeney, who died three years ago this month, accepting the Joe Hill Award – and singing -- at the 2005 Great Labor Arts Exchange (click here for info on the 2024 GLAE at Labor Notes). Plus, the LaborForce podcast’s Michael Struchen on his favorite labor song.Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @Kahn75Si @LaborForcePod @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

JFK's Last Words to Labor

Broadcast on February 8, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: JFK's Last Words to Labor, Saving the UE Chicago Mural, Discovering Maxo Vanka, "the Diego Rivera of Pittsburgh", plus UE president Carl Rosen’ Favorite Labor Song, Anita Mathias with The Story Behind the Song, and, on Labor History in 2:00: the Seattle General Strike
That’s all on this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour on WPFW 89.3FM, Revolutionary Radio for Revolutionary Times. Just a quick reminder; the Power Hour crew works for free but it takes cold hard cash to keep the lights on at the station and the radio tower humming, so please, take a sec right now to partner with us in this critical work of liberation by donating during our winter pledge drive at wpfwfm.org or call 800.222.9739, and ensure that WPFW will be here to chronicle the revolution!
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @steelworkers @ueunion @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Vermont’s Old Labor Hall

Broadcast on February 1, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union shares his favorite labor song; we find out how Vermont's Old Labor Hall is surviving last year’s devastating flood; and Si Kahn tellsThe Story Behind The Song: Back When Times Were Hard.Plus: Carmelita Torres and the Bath Riots, and Troubadour, a tribute to Pete Seeger, both by the RJ Phillips Band.And, on Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1865. That was the day that the US Congress passed the 13th Amendment to the constitution, abolishing slavery.
Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @APWUnational @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Chokepoint Capitalism

Broadcast on January 25, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: Essayist, novelist and activist Cory Doctorow on Chokepoint Capitalism and the threats that Amazon and other huge corporations pose to creative freedom and the wellbeing of authors and the world.
Plus, Elise shares one of her Top 10 Favorite Labor Songs, Labor Notes editor Al Bradbury tells us the story behind her song “Union Conga” and previews this year’s Labor Notes conference; the R.J. Phillips Band remembers the Bread and Roses Strike.On Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1874; that was the day Arturo Alfonso Schomburg was born.Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @doctorow @labornotes @al_bradbury @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Hilary Peach’s Thick Skin

Broadcast on January 18, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
Writer and recording artist Hilary Peach worked for twenty years as a transient welder, travelling across Canada and the United States, working in pulp mills, chemical plants, refineries, and generating stations. In 2022 she released a memoir about this time, Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood; our interviewer is Susan Eisenberg, a poet, visual artist, oral historian and former electrician. On today’s installment of our “Story Behind the Song” series, Joe Jencks tells us how he came to write his labor classic “Rise As One”. Joe is a 25-year veteran of the international folk circuit, an award-winning songwriter and celebrated vocalist, and a member of A.F.M. Local 1000, the North American Traveling Musicians Union.On Labor History in 2:00: the year was 1915; on this date, the most popular labor song in the United States was completed in Chicago.Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @AnvilPress @JoeJencksMusic @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

David Bacon’s “Working Coachella”

Broadcast on January 11, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: Photojournalist David Bacon on “Working Coachella: Images of the farmworker community of the Coachella Valley”; Labor historian Julie Greene on Woody Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions, plus, Labor History in 2:00.Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @photos4justice @WoodyGuthrieCtr @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

“We want everything”

Broadcast on January 4, 2024Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant
This week's show: AFSCME president Lee Saunders on his favorite labor song; Labor’s Troubadour Joe Glazer on the song’s history; novelist Rachel Kushner on "We Want Everything," Nanni Balestrini’s classic novel about the Italian Fiat workers’ strike that led to a mass uprising; and folksinger Si Kahn launches a new feature, “The Story Behind the Song”.Plus Labor History in 2:00. Produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman. @Kahn75Si @Heartland_Labor @AFSCME @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod