On Sunday, July 20, 2025, Working People host and TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez delivered the keynote speech at the national convention of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers (NOLSW), UAW Local 2320. “I am here to report back to you from the front lines of struggle, without hesitation or hyperbole, that we are at risk of losing everything,” Alvarez told the crowd of union members. “And so I am here not to extol the virtues of your union or the value of unions in general, but to ask you bluntly: What good is a union in Hell? How much can an organization of the dawned do in a future no one wants to live in? What good does a collective bargaining agreement serve when the world as we know it is dying?” Additional links/info:&nbsp;  NOLSW-UAW Local 2320&nbsp;,&nbsp;,&nbsp;, and&nbsp;  Featured Music:&nbsp;  Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song  Credits:&nbsp;  Audio Post-Production: Jules Taylor&nbsp;

What good is a union in Hell?

In 1974, oral historian Studs Terkel published a book with an unwieldy title: "Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do." This collective portrait of America was based on more than a hundred interviews Studs did around the country. And after "Working" came out, something surprising happened. It became a bestseller. It even inspired a Broadway musical. Something about ordinary people talking about their daily lives, struck a cord. Studs recorded all of his interviews on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, but after the book came out the tapes were packed away in boxes and few have ever been heard. On this episode of The Radio Diaries Podcast, we're bringing you eleven stories from the book. There's the telephone switchboard operator, the Chicago police officer, the private eye, the hotel piano player and many more.

Radio Diaries

The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel (Labor Day Special)

Scott Benson (@bombsfall) drops in to answer a burning question: what was it like to be straight edge in medieval times? Jk this episode is mostly about his killer video game, Night in the Woods. Enjoy!

Episode 40: Being Straight Edge in the Middle Ages (w/ special guest Scott Benson)

This is a preview of Premium Episode 14: Haunted Heaven House, which can be accessed at our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/posts/premium-ep-14-20853920

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Premium Ep 14 TEASER: More Thoughts on Electoralism

Working People is a podcast by, for, and about the working class today.

Visit us at: workingpeople.libsyn.com/

In this episode, we talk to Angela Prigge, who has been a hospitality worker in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, for 18 years. Angela has lived in Hawaii her whole life, and we talk about her love for her home and her deep family roots there. We talk about how Angela’s grandparents moved to Hawaii from the Philippines, how her father and grandfather worked and lived on sugar plantations. We talk about Angela’s memories of the bakery her mom worked at in Kauai, and we talk about how her parents instilled in her, from a young age, an appreciation for the necessity and power of unions. We also discuss what it was like to witness firsthand the major changes that have happened to Hawaii’s economy, as farming and small businesses gave way to a tourism and hospitality industry that has come to dominate life on the islands. We talk about the ongoing struggles for workers who can hardly afford to live in Hawaii, which has the highest cost of living out of any state in the U.S. And we talk about how Angela, who is on the executive board of her union, UNITE HERE Local 5, and her coworkers are banding together to fight not only for better wages and fair treatment, but for a more dignified and enjoyable life—one that doesn’t completely revolve around work and bills. 

 
Additional links/info below...
- UNITE HERE Local 5’s website (https://www.unitehere5.org/) 

- Hawaii News Now ongoing series, “Priced Out of Paradise” (http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/category/306602/priced-out-of-paradise) 

- Jed Smith, Stab Magazine, “Priced Out of Paradise: The Reality of Gentrification on the North Shore” (https://stabmag.com/news/priced-out-of-paradise-the-reality-of-north-shore-gentrification/) 

- Cultural Survival Quarterly, Issue 24-1, “Problems in Paradise: Sovereignty in the Pacific” (https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/24-1-problems-paradise-sovereignty-pacific)  
 
Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org/)
- Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
- Ayla Nereo, “Waves” 
- We Is Shore Dedicated, “Home”
- Monplaisir, “First”

Working People - Episode #5 - Angela Prigge

Working People is a podcast by, for, and about the working class today.

Visit us at: workingpeople.libsyn.com/

In this episode, we talk to Tom Madden, a native Missourian, a professional plumber, and member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 562. We talk about what it was like for Tom and his brothers to grow up in a strict household, and we also talk about some of his wilder days at high school parties. We talk about Tom’s father, a professional journalist and labor reporter in St. Louis, and about the huge impression it left on Tom to hear his dad talk about unions and take him and his brothers to worker demonstrations around the city. And we talk about the complex and absolutely vital work plumbers like him do to keep our homes, buildings, and cities functioning. 

We also talk about the historic “Vote No on Proposition A” campaign to defeat so-called “right-to-work” legislation in Missouri this month, and about all the work it took from union and non-union workers across the state. We discuss what the threat of right-to-work has meant for workers around Missouri and elsewhere, and what it took for campaigners to reach voters around the state to work around decades of built-up misconceptions about what right-to-work actually is.


Additional links/info below...
- Local 562’s website (http://www.local562.org/) 

- Alexia Fernández Campbell, Vox, “Missouri voters Just Blocked the Right-to-Work Law Republicans Passed to Weaken Labor Unions” (https://www.vox.com/2018/8/7/17655690/missouri-election-proposition-a-right-to-work) 

- Judy Ancel, Labor Notes, “Why Missouri ‘Right to Work’ Went Down in Flames” (http://www.labornotes.org/2018/08/why-missouri-right-work-went-down-flames) 

- Lonnie K. Stevans, Review of Law & Economics, “The Effect of Endogenous Right-to-Work Laws on Business & Economic Conditions in the United States: A Multivariate Approach” (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1027987)  

- Joe Burns, Jacobin, “Don’t Take the Boss’s Bait” (https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/07/janus-open-shop-union-working-class) 

- For more info about nationwide Prison Strike: https://incarceratedworkers.org/ 

- Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, “Prison Strike Organizer Warns: Brutal Prison Conditions Risk ‘Another Attica’” (https://theintercept.com/2018/08/21/prison-strike-2018-attica/) 

- Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, “US Inmates Stage Nationwide Prison Labor Strike Over ‘Modern Slavery’” (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/20/prison-labor-protest-america-jailhouse-lawyers-speak) 


Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org/)

- Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
- Dirty Fences, “High School Rip” 
- Sam Moss, “Working on a Building”
- Cletus Got Shot, “Saw Mill”

Working People - Episode #6 - Tom Madden

Working People is a podcast by, for, and about the working class today.

Visit us at: workingpeople.libsyn.com/

In this special Labor Day episode, we talk to LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota, and one of the founders of the resistance camps where the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline (#NoDAPL) took place from the spring of 2016 to the winter of 2017. LaDonna is a Native historian who was thrust by history into the role of an activist—her work and bravery have brought hope and courage to people all around the globe. She’s an incredible human being and a masterful storyteller. We talk about LaDonna’s life, about the struggles of Native tribes, and about the ongoing, violent erasure of the lives and history of Native people in this country, on this continent, and around the world. We talk about the care and wisdom and protection LaDonna always got from her grandmother, and we talk about LaDonna’s memories of being torn away from her family and put in foster care as a child. We talk about how she was always made to feel different, an outsider on land that was stolen from her and her ancestors. And we talk about returning home to the Reservation, about learning how to live with the land, and about being a survivor. 


Additional links/info below...
- **Sacred Stone Camp Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/CampOfTheSacredStone/) 

- **Sacred Stone Village Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sacredstonevillage/)  

- Wisdom of the Elders, “Turtle Island Storyteller, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard” ( http://www.wisdomoftheelders.org/turtle-island-storyteller-ladonna-brave-bull-allard/) 

- Democracy Now!, “Standing Rock Sioux Historian: Dakota Access Co. Attack Comes on Anniversary of Whitestone Massacre” (https://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/8/standing_rock_sioux_historian_dakota_access) 

- Democracy Now!, “‘Is This America?’ Co-Founder of Sacred Stone Camp Recalls Dog Attack on Native Americans” (https://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/21/watch_is_this_america_co_founder) 

- Water Protector Legal Collective (https://waterprotectorlegal.org/) 

- #NoDAPL Archive (http://www.nodaplarchive.com/) 

- Standing Rock Syllabus ( https://nycstandswithstandingrock.wordpress.com/standingrocksyllabus/) 

- For more info about nationwide Prison Strike: incarceratedworkers.org/

- Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, “Prison Strike Organizer Warns: Brutal Prison Conditions Risk ‘Another Attica’” (theintercept.com/2018/08/21/priso…ike-2018-attica/)

- Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, “US Inmates Stage Nationwide Prison Labor Strike Over ‘Modern Slavery’” (www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/au…e-lawyers-speak)



Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org/)
- Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
- King Kong Ding Dong, “Distant Drums”

Working People - Episode #7 - LaDonna Brave Bull Allard

On the 9th January, 1979 Vietnamese troops overthrew Pol Pot, bringing an end to the violence and genocide that defined his rule. 

The effort to rebuild the country after decades of war was long and arduous, and made even more difficult by Cold War politics and ongoing guerilla warfare conducted by the Khmer Rouge well into the 1990's. It was a tumultuous and difficult period, one which has had a deep influence on Cambodian politics and society today - and which continues to be bitterly contested in the way that it is remembered and memorialised. 

How do Cambodians make sense of their tragic and bloody past? And what difference does the memorialisation of genocide have on the way people live their lives today? 

I spoke to four experts on reconciliation and peacebuilding to begin to answer these questions. We shared fascinating discussions on a wide range of topics, including on the rise of Hun Sen and the CCP, the role of "fake news" and whether or not the Vietnamese faked the Toul Sleng prison, as well as why some people in Cambodia still support the Khmer Rouge leadership even to this day...

I was honoured to speak with Prok Vanny, formerly of the Human Rights Defence League Party; Chhay Visoth, Director of the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum; Kheang Ly, Director of the Anlong Veng Peace Center; and Chum Mey, survivor of the Toul Sleng torture prison. Thank you for your time and generosity in sharing your insights and experiences for this podcast. 

www.facebook.com/BeyondYearZero

soundcloud.com/BeyondYearZero

BYZ003 - Memory and Memorialisation

A podcast by, for, and about the working class today
(WE'VE MOVED OVER TO SPOTIFY/ITUNES, BUT WILL ALSO POST EPISODES HERE!)

What good is a union in Hell?

Working People

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