Working People

We chat with Tarence Ray, writer and 1/3 of the Trillbilly Workers Party, about his recent article in The Baffler about what liberal pundits like Paul Krugman get wrong about rural America.     Additional links/info below... Tarence's Twitter page Tarence Ray, The Baffler, "Get Real" Trillbilly Workers Party Patreon, Twitter, and Facebook page Tarence's author page on Popula and The Baffler    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We chat with with author and scholar Nate Kalman-Lamb about his extensive work on the labor politics of professional sports, and about his and Dirk Hayhurst's recent Jacobin piece on the exploitation of professional baseball players.   Additional links/info below... Nate's website and Twitter page Nate Kalman-Lamb & Dirk Hayhurst, Jacobin, ""Inside the Game, You Are Still a Commodity""  Nate Kalman-Lamb, Fernwood Books, Out of Left Field: Social Inequality & Sport  Nate Kalman-Lamb, Fernwood Books, Game Misconduct: Injury, Fandom, & the Business of Sport  Michael Baumann, The Ringer, "The Disgrace of Minor League Baseball"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

In this special compilation episode, we talk to eight working-class scholars about loving, leaving, and being left behind by academia.   Additional links/info below... Working People, Season 1, Bonus Episode #2, Trevor Griffey  Working People, Season 1, Episode 10, John Buckley  Maximillian Alvarez, The Baffler, "Contingent No More"  Erin Bartram, "The Sublimated Grief of the Left Behind" The Nostalgia Trap, "Episode 89: Erin Bartram"   Patricia A. Matthew (ed), UNC Press, Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure  Kevin Birmingham, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "'The Great Shame of Our Profession'" James M. Van Wyck & Lynn Arner, Inside Higher Ed, "Blue-Collar Ph.D." Trevor Griffey, LAWCHA, "The Decline of Faculty Tenure"  Marc Bousquet, NYU Press, How the University Works: Higher Education and the Low-Wage Nation Hamilton Nolan, Gawker, “The Horrifying Reality of the Academic Job Market”  Anonymous, Inside Higher Ed, “Treadmill to Oblivion” Herb Childress, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "This Is How You Kill a Profession" Jonathan Kramnick, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "How the Jobs Crisis Has Transformed Faculty Hiring"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive:freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" Breath Before the Plunge, "End of All Things" Marisa Anderson, "Pulse"  Return to Normal, "The Observer" 

A special Alvarez family sequel to the very first episode of Working People.    Additional links/info below... Working People, Season 1, Episode 1, Jesus Alvarez  Maximillian Alvarez, Current Affairs, "Can the Working Class Speak?"   Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" Small Tall Order, "Easily" Anamoli, "En la casa"

While all eyes have been on a high-profile #CollegeAdmissionScam involving super-rich people buying and bribing their kids' way into elite universities, hardly anyone noticed that an entire network of private and for-profit universities was shut down this month. Faculty and staff have been abruptly fired and tens of thousands of students have been completely abandoned with no more financial support--the government cut off their student loans, which many used to pay for basic living costs--and no certainty that they will be able to graduate, transfer their course credits, or get their money back. In Part II of this mini-cast series, we talk with Torrey Wilson, (former) Associate Professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University.    Additional links/info below... Stacy Cowly & Erica L. Green, The New York Times, "A College Chain Crumbles, and Millions in Student Loan Cash Disappears"  Michael Vasquez, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "'Ruined' and Evicted: How Dream Center Closures Are Affecting Students" Michael Vasquez, The Chronicle of Higher Education, "The Nightmarish End of the Dream Center's Higher-Ed Empire"  Ben Unglesbee, Education Dive, "Timeline: How Dream Center's Higher Ed Bid Went off the Rails"  Zachary Small, Hyperallergic, "The Rapid Closure of Art Institutes Across America"  Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, The Washington Post, "'The Department Must Do More': Trump Administration's Handling of Argosy University Faces Criticism"  Dawn Rhodes, Chicago Tribune, "As Argosy University in Chicago Shuts Down Amid Student Loan Scandal, Confusion and Emotion Reign"  Savannah Eadens, Chicago Sun Times, "Argosy University Closing Leaves Students in Limbo: 'We're Sinking'"  Rachel Leingang, AZ Central, "Latest Victims of Argosy University Meltdown: Staff and Faculty Don't Get Final Paycheck"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We brought friend of the show Lauren Schandevel back on to vent about and break down last week's college admissions scandal. Lauren (whom we interviewed back in Season 1) is a brilliant, working-class student at the University of Michigan and she has some thoughts about rich people buying and bribing their kids' way into elite colleges and universities.    Additional links/info below... Working People, Season 1, Episode 4, Lauren Schandevel   Lauren's Twitter page Martin Slagter, MLive, "2 University of Michigan Students Help Create Nation's First Social Class & Inequality Minor"  Scott Jaschick, Inside Higher Ed, "Massive Admissions Scandal"  Nathan J. Robinson, The Guardian, "Meritocracy Is a Myth Invented by the Rich"  The Chronicle of Higher Education continuing coverage of the admissions scandal, "Admission through the 'Side Door'"  Malcolm Harris, NY Mag, "The College Admissions Ring Tells Us How Much Schoolwork Is Worth" Being Not-Rich at UM guide  Jennifer Meer, The Michigan Daily, "University ranks last in economic mobility and diversity among elite public colleges"  Gregor Aisch, Larry Buchanan, Amanda Cox, & Kevin Quealy, The New York Times, "Some Colleges Have More Students From the Top 1 Percent Than the Bottom 60. Find Yours"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We chat with  Katelyn O’Brien, a pipefitter working for a shipbuilding company in Virginia. Katelyn is a trans woman with a degree in History and an adorable cat named Merlyn—she’s also, by her own admission, a comic book nerd.  We talk all about how she came to work as a pipefitter out of college and what exactly goes into a day’s work doing this difficult and quite dangerous job. We also have a frank and really important conversation about the struggles LGBT workers face in the workplace—from everyday harassment on the job site to systemic and legislative discrimination. And we talk about the work Katelyn and others have been doing to fight against these barriers to equality and acceptance.     Additional links/info below... Katelyn's Facebook group, Positive Transgender Media Representation  Laura Vozzella, Washington Post, "Va. House Panel Kills Bills to Ban Anti-LGBT Discrimination in Housing and Jobs"  Graham Moomaw, Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Va. House Republicans Let LGBT Non-Discrimination Bills Die without a Hearing"  Kai Isaiah-Jamal, Broadly, "100 Easy Ways to Make the World Better for Trans People"  National Center for Transgender Equality, "Employment" & "Non-Discrimination Laws"  JUSTIA, "Transgender Discrimination in the Workplace"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" Derek Clegg, "I Have You" 

We talk with labor writer and activist Joe Allen about his recent Jacobin article on the death of FedEx freight driver William L. Murphy.    Additional links/info below... Joe's Facebook and Wikipedia page Joe Allen, Jacobin, "Worked to Death at FedEx" Joe Allen, The Package King: A Rank and File History of United Parcel Service  Amanda Woods, New York Post, "FedEx Worker Froze to Death Outside an Illinois Delivery Hub"   Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We talk with Naomi Burton and Nick Hayes, the young socialist brains behind Means Media, the Detroit-based leftist media cooperative that produced the viral campaign video for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and is about to launch a "Netflix for the left."    Additional links/info below... Means Media website, Twitter, and Facebook page SIGN UP FOR MEANS TV!  Meagan Day, Jacobin, "“Trust the Rich Less, Trust Each Other More": An Interview with Nick Hayes and Naomi Burton"    Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"

We chat with Rick Sturgill, a retired coal miner and electrician from Letcher County in South East Kentucky. Rick is a straight shooter, he calls things like he sees them. And, having spent most of his life around coal, he has a lot of sobering things to say about working in coal and about the far-reaching effects the coal industry has had on cities and towns in Appalachia, on politics and the environment, and especially on the lives of coal miners and their families.     Additional links/info below... Trillbilly Workers Party Twitter page and Patreon  Tom Sexton, The Baffler, "Going in for the Shill" Tarence Ray, Popula, "A Way Out" Elizabeth Catte, The Guardian, "Passive, Poor, and White? What People Keep Getting Wrong about Appalacia"  Elizabeth Catte, The Guardian, "Why 'Trump Country' Isn't as Republican as You Think"  Lou Martin, The Conversation, "Invoking Noble Coal Miners Is a Mainstay of American Politics"  James Green, LitHub, "A Day in the Life of a West Virginia Coal Miner"  Livia Gershon, JSTOR, "The Rise and Fall of Coal Miners' Unions"  Elyssa East, The Guardian, "Black Lung Disease Is Still Killing Miners. The Coal Industry Won't Hear It"   Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall" Blue Dot Sessions, “Low Coal Camper”