Labor Heritage Power Hour

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

Songs that Organize, Strikes that Endure

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: We dig into how culture fuels courage on the shop floor and the strike line. First, legendary organizer–songwriter Si Kahn breaks down the organizer’s “secret weapon”: parody. From Joe Hill’s “new words to old tunes” to the brand-new “Solidarity at Starbucks,” we explore why familiar melodies can turn a crowd into a chorus—fast.
Then we head to Camp Solidarity in Matewan, West Virginia for “Lessons from the Massey Strike.” UMWA veterans Charles “Hawkeye” Dixon, Howard Phillips, and Eddie Burke take us inside the 1984–85 fight with Massey: the tactics, the unity, the losses, and what it took to stop production and keep a union alive.
All hour long, it’s WPFW’s Fall Fund Drive. If the music, history, and first-person voices you hear here matter to you, help keep Jazz & Justice strong and independent: wpfwfm.org or 1-800-222-9739; $12.50/month makes you a sustainer; any amount makes you family.
Broadcast on October 23, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and Pacifica stations and affiliates across America.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

Laurel’s Legacy, Fannie Lou & Joe Hill’s Ashes

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: We dedicate this week's show to Laurel Blaydes (1952–2022) — singer, organizer, and former director of the Labor Heritage Foundation—on the week she would have turned 73. Co-host Elise Bryant shares reflections on Laurel’s artistry and why labor culture sustains us in hard times, before we hear Laurel’s 1981 Labor Solidarity Day performance of “Hold the Fort” with Joe Uehlein, Tommy Moran, and John Gower.Then: the work, art, and voice of Fannie Lou Hamer—sharecropper’s daughter, timekeeper, Freedom Singer, and SNCC organizer. We spin the brand-new “Fannie Lou” from Baltimore’s R.J. Phillips Band, followed by Hamer herself singing “Pick a Bale of Cotton.”In our second segment, the Heartland Labor Forum talks with historian Marcella Bencivenni about Arturo Giovannitti—Italian-born union leader, poet, and a key organizer of the 1912 Bread & Roses strike—whose free-speech trial helped define labor’s voice. Our third segment is the Labor Song of the Week: Otis Gibbs’ “Joe Hill’s Ashes,” and we go out with Laurel Blaydes singing “What Will I Leave” at the 2004 Great Labor Arts Exchange. It’s also WPFW’s Fall Fund Drive this week. If this mix of music, memory, and movement matters to you, please become a sustaining member and keep Jazz & Justice strong: wpfwfm.org or call 1-800-222-9739. Broadcast on October 16, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and Pacifica stations across America. 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

Baristas vs. Billionaires; Roberts’ Fire & Gerard’s Grit

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: From a Buffalo coffee shop to a national movement, this week’s show pours a strong cup of worker power. Chris talks with Oscar-nominated director and former steelworker Mark Mori about “Baristas vs. Billionaires,” his new film on the Starbucks union drive. Then we head to Matewan for UMWA President Cecil Roberts’ barnburner on courage, history, and who this land belongs to. We close with street-level memories of former Steelworkers president Leo Gerard and his mic-grabbing solidarity. Plus Labor History in 2.00 and a brand-new version of Woody Guthrie’s classic “Deportee” from Colleen Kattau. 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

Donora’s Dark Air, Labor’s Bright Colors

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: A visit to the Donora Smog Museum, where a six-day inversion in 1948 trapped toxic fumes over a mill town and changed how the U.S. thinks about work, health, and accountability. Then educator and Mine Wars Museum co-founder Wilma Steele unpacks how a simple red bandana—rooted in centuries-old paisley—became a living symbol of union solidarity.  PLUS: Dropkick Murphy's frontman Ken Casey’s Favorite Labor Song, and a double helping of Labor History in 2:00, with the “Jerry Rescue” of 1851 and the 1919 Elaine Massacre. Broadcast on October 2, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and other 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