Today we are sharing an episode from our friends at Feet in 2 Worlds, an independent media outlet and journalism training program that empowers the voices of immigrant journalists.

We hear from women who work at the intersection of labor and immigration, including our own Labor Center director Saba Waheed. These women discuss the most pressing threats to immigrant workers, as well as the ways immigrants can resist and also support one another.

This episode is a part of a Feet in 2 Worlds series called The Hustle, which focuses on the ways immigrants navigate a changing economy — today and throughout history.

To learn more about Feet in 2 Worlds, please visit fi2w.org.

Today we are bringing you a piece produced by Ritika Sarma and Jimmy Mancilla, students in UCLA’s Labor Summer Research Program (LSRP). The piece is part of a larger 3-part series, “The Reality of Workers and Learners,” which examines the challenges faced by student workers, many of whom work over 20 hours a week.

The episode opens with brief remarks by Lucero Herrera, a senior research analyst at the UCLA Labor Center and LSRP instructor.

To listen to the rest of the series, please visit youtube.com/uclalabor. To visit the website LSRP students created, visit bit.ly/4k9G9ui

In honor of May Day 2025, Victor Narro, project director at the UCLA Labor Center and career organizer, joined Tobias Higbie, UCLA IRLE Director and professor of labor and history, for a conversation on the significance of May Day in Los Angeles.

They discuss how May Day unites diverse coalitions to engage in a powerful act of collective resistance, share an inside look at the process of planning major direct action campaigns, and provide expert tips on how to maintain a sustainable career in social justice work.

You can also watch their conversation on the IRLE's YouTube channel @UCLA-IRLE

In this episode, we bring you two more stories from Código Doméstico that have been translated into English. Código Doméstico is a podcast produced by Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero. It aims to expose working conditions for women hired as cleaners through apps in Central and South America as well as the US.

At the heart of this show is deep listening and fostering collaborations to fight for the dignity of workers in the digital platform economy. Today’s episode features stories from Paola and Giselle.

To listen to the original Código Doméstico podcast episodes, and to learn more about the broader project, please visit codigodomestico.com. You can also listen on Spotify: bit.ly/codigodomestico

To read the related research by Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero, please visit bit.ly/codigodomesticoreport

Episode Art:

Jessi (top left) by Priscila Barbosa, instagram.com/priii_barbosa

Roxy (top right) by Marisol Rivera, instagram.com/mar___rivera

Paola (bottom left) by Saro Agustina, instagram.com/saroagustina

Giselle (bottom right) by Day Cuervo, instagram.com/daycuervo

We bring you two stories from Código Doméstico that have been translated into English. Código Doméstico is a podcast produced by Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero. It aims to expose working conditions for women hired as cleaners through apps in Central and South America, as well as the US.

At the heart of this show is deep listening and fostering collaborations to fight for the dignity of workers in the digital platform economy. This episode features stories from Roxy and Jessi.

To listen to the original Código Doméstico podcast episodes, and to learn more about the broader project, please visit codigodomestico.com. You can also listen on Spotify: bit.ly/codigodomestico

To read the related research by Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero, please visit bit.ly/codigodomesticoreport

Episode Art:

Jessi (left) by Priscila Barbosa, instagram.com/priii_barbosa

Roxy (right) by Marisol Rivera, instagram.com/mar___rivera

These days, we hear more and more about burnout, as well as rising anxiety levels, particularly in light of the recent presidential transition. How do we want to think about burnout, anxiety, and the emotional and mental load we carry when working in the social justice sector — especially when you have a personal connection to what you’re fighting for?

In this episode, Ainee Athar shares her immigration challenges and journey into advocating for immigrant rights, as well as her experiences with burnout and her pivot to climate justice.

We’re closing out the year with an episode from our friends at Making Contact:

As graduation approached this year, students around the country began protests after calls for divestment from Israel were initially ignored by university leadership. The campus encampments were met with physical violence and the mainstream press dismissed the students’ demands as naive and immature. But, it turns out that there’s a lot we should be asking about college endowments.

We take a look at what an endowment is and how they’re invested. Then we learn why transparency around the endowment (and divestment!) might actually benefit the entire college community.

We talk to Kelly Grotke, a financial researcher from Pattern Recognition, a research collective focused on financialized higher education. And, with Andrea Pritchett, we look at the links between the encampments today, and those from the 80s, when students protested South African Apartheid.

Episode Credits:

Host: Salima Hamirani

Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, and Lucy Kang

Executive Director: Jina Chung

Editor: Adwoa Gyimah-Brempong

Engineer: Jeff Emtman

Digital Media Marketing: Anubhuti Kumar

Learn more about Making Contact at https://focmedia.org/

We are approaching the 60th anniversary of the UCLA Labor Center, and we are celebrating - both how far we’ve come and where we’re going next!

In honor of our anniversary, in this episode we’re sharing insights and memories from our colleagues about their work and evolving connections to the UCLA Labor Center, which they were all introduced to as students. We end with a powerful speech by a recent UCLA Labor Studies graduate.

This episode will be the first track in our 60th Anniversary mixtape coming out in September.

It’s back-to-school season, and we’re sharing a recording of "Labor Studies 101" from our archives at the IRLE, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

In this episode, our IRLE director, Toby Higbie, interviews Kent Wong, our previous long time director of the UCLA Labor Center. Toby and Kent talk about the history of the Los Angeles labor movement and what makes it so unique; Kent’s personal background and what brought him to activism; the connections between the labor movement and nonviolent philosophy; hopes for the future; and so much more.

The class was recorded in the spring of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic and as we were headed into a presidential election — so there are layers of history baked into this episode.

For publications by Kent Wong, please visit books.labor.ucla.edu

To watch Kent's "Labor's Voice" series, visit bit.ly/4ecuEQn

In a fast-paced society that often privileges work, wealth, and individual success, where there isn’t always time or space to process, how can we do social justice oriented work while taking care of ourselves?

In Radical Therapy, we speak with Claudia Morales, an LA-based therapist whose work exists at the intersection of social justice and mental health. Claudia shares her journey to developing a radical approach to therapy, one that centers community and emphasizes connection — to one other, to ourselves, to ancestral wisdom, to the Earth, to storytelling and art, and much more.

To learn more about Claudia’s work, visit socialjusticehealing.com. Or find her on Instagram @socialjusticehealing.

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