If you threw away a piece of trash today, odds are it will either be dumped in a landfill or burned in an incinerator. 

But what if we could reuse all our waste? 

Zero Waste means diverting over 90% of our waste from landfills and incinerators while also reducing the volume and toxicity of the waste we generate. It’s about preventing waste at the source and reusing whatever waste we can’t avoid.


Episode VII: Zero Waste

Let’s be honest, few people enjoy paying their taxes. But most of us understand that taxes serve a critical purpose—the public good. And since we all benefit from these things, you’d figure that we would all contribute. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. According to recent report by Oxfam America, the top 50 American companies hold $1.4 trillion overseas to avoid paying taxes. These are called tax havens

Music by: Keith Ellison and Podington Bear. 

Tax Havens with Frank Clemente

How many of you work 40 hours a week? If you’re a salaried worker, guess what: your employer is pretty happy. After all, they’re getting free work. That’s right. Millions of salaried workers are essentially working for free once they pass 40 hours during their work week. That’s because over the past 35 years, we failed to update our overtime pay regulations. 

Music by: Keith Ellison and Podington Bear

Overtime Pay

We spend a lot of time talking about how important unions are. On this episode, we’re going to see organized labor in action on the streets of my home city, Minneapolis. Right now, almost 5,000 Minnesotan nurses are on strike. I went down to the picket line, and talked with a few of the striking nurses. I wanted to hear, straight from them, why this negotiation was so important that they’ve decided to go on strike.

Music by: Keith Ellison and Podington Bear

Minnesota Nurses Strike

Just last month, we found out that Wells Fargo Bank committed a years-long scam that stole from their customers, inflated their stock price, and lined the pockets of their top level executives. Then, those same executives pinned the whole thing on their low-level employees, thousands of whom were fired from their jobs. I sat down with Ruth Landaverde. She worked at Wells Fargo and Bank of America and saw first hand what a high-pressure sales culture can do to a person. 

Music by: Keith Ellison and Poddington Bear

Bank Workers

Two years ago, we started We the Podcast so we could tell stories about how people engage with the economy. Twenty-three episodes and 75,000 downloads later, we’ve covered everything from union organizing to payday loans to tax havens. With Election Day right around the corner, I decided to take a look back at past episodes and some of the issues that are at stake on Tuesday. 

Music by: Keith Ellison and Podington Bear

Best of We the Podcast (Special Election Day Episode)

Congressman Keith Ellison represents Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The Fifth District includes the City of Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs and is one of the most vibrant and ethnically diverse districts in Minnesota.

Rep. Ellison’s guiding philosophy is based on “generosity and inclusion” and his priorities in Congress are building prosperity for working families, promoting peace, pursuing environmental sustainability, and advancing civil and human rights. 

Rep. Ellison’s commitment to consumer justice led him to write legislation that was included in the Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights of 2009. This law prevents an unfair practice called “universal default,” which allowed lenders to increase their customers’ interest rates if they had late payments with another lender. In response to the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008, Rep. Ellison also wrote the Protecting Tenants in Foreclosure Act, which requires banks and other new owners to provide at least 90 days’ notice of eviction to renters occupying foreclosed homes. 

As a member of the House Financial Services Committee, the congressman helps oversee the nation’s financial services and housing industries, as well as Wall Street. He also serves on the House Democratic Steering & Policy Committee, which decides committee assignments for Democratic Members and sets the Democratic Caucus' policy agenda. In the past he served on the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Rep. Ellison was elected co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 113th Congress that promotes the progressive promise of fairness for all. 

He is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, founded the Congressional Consumer Justice Caucus, and belongs to more than a dozen other caucuses that focus on issues ranging from social inclusion to environmental protection. 

Before being elected to Congress Rep. Ellison was a noted community activist and ran a thriving civil rights, employment, and criminal defense law practice in Minneapolis. He also was elected to serve two terms in the Minnesota State House of Representatives. 

Keith was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He has lived in Minnesota since earning his law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1990. Keith is the proud father of four children.

Rep. Keith Ellison

Popular tracks