In this episode, we talk to Em, an Alaskan native who is now living and working in Jackson, Wyoming. Em is a fellow Millennial, and we talk about some of the funny and awful things that so many people in our generation have in common, like student debt, working multiple crappy jobs at once, and being stressed out from the time we’re in elementary school because we’re told we have to pile on more classes and extracurriculars and whatever to make ourselves stand out. But Em has also had so many unique experiences, and her life has taken so many twists and turns. We talk about growing up in Alaska, and we talk about dealing with the kids and teachers at school who always singled her out for being Native. We talk about her home in the city, and about the village where her Inupiaq relatives live. We talk about cheerleading and boyfriends. And we talk about all the jobs Em has had, from serving customers and cleaning and singing at a Cold Stone creamery to working all-day shifts in the Alaskan mines. We talk about the sexist crap she and other women had to put up with at the mine. And we talk about her move to Wyoming and her path to getting more involved in leftist politics and organizing, which ultimately led to her joining the Wyoming Red Star Coalition. The Red Star Coalition is a Marxist organization with chapters in four cities around the sparsely populated state of Wyoming, and they are doing really interesting and important work, pushing for workplace and tenant unions, talking with and addressing the needs of working-class folks in Wyoming who, like so many of us, have been left behind. 

 

Additional links/info below...

• Wyoming Red Star Coalition Facebook page and Twitter page

 

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

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• Handmade Moments, “Junkie” 
• Cletus Got Shot, “Singin’ Just the Same” 
• Cletus Got Shot, “Mountain Top”