Working History

Working History

By Working HistoryHistory
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Working History episodes

  • The Business of Being Dolly

    Dolly Parton: renowned country star, successful businesswoman, celebrated philanthropist... leftist? Not so fast.

    In this week’s episode Yami Rodriguez and Justin Randolph sit down with historian Amanda Marie Martínez (UNC, Chapel Hill), to discuss Parton’s legacy in the wake of her recent death and to challenge some of the myths and misconceptions that have been built up around the Queen of Country.

     

    Works Cited:

    Jessica Wilkerson, “Living with Dolly Parton,” Longreads, Oct 16, 2018, https://longreads.com/2018/10/16/living-with-dolly-parton/

    Tressie McMillan Cottom “The Dolly Moment,” Substack, Feb 24, 2021, https://tressie.substack.com/p/the-dolly-moment.

    Tressie McMillan Cottom, “Loving Dolly Was Easy. Understanding Her Was Hard,” New York Times, Aug 27, 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/opinion/dolly-parton-appalachia-legacy.html

     

    Working History is a joint project of:

    The Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), https://southernlaborstudies.org/;

    The Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), https://lawcha.org/;

    LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, https://www.dukeupress.edu/labor;

    and International Labor and Working-Class History, (ILWCH) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history;

    Follow the links for more information on how you can join and subscribe today.

    47 min
  • The Women of Mexico's Railroads

    When we think about the history of railroad labor, we often think of engineers, sleeping car porters, or the workers who constructed the railroads themselves. But what about the cooks, nurses, and laundresses who kept the railroads running? In this episode, Abosede George sits down with Kate Reed, a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago, to discuss her research on women workers on Mexico’s railroads and her recent article, “Rights to Her Labor: Women Workers on Mexico’s Southeastern Railroads,” published in International Labor and Working-Class History: https://cup.org/47Gquib

     

    Working History is a joint project between:

    The Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), https://southernlaborstudies.org/;

    The Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), https://lawcha.org/;

    LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, https://www.dukeupress.edu/labor;

    and International Labor and Working-Class History, (ILWCH) https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history

    Follow the links to join and subscribe today!

    42 min
  • Back to School

    School may have returned for the fall, but what are the challenges facing teachers unions and their members as we approach the midway point of Trump 2.0?

     

    In this week's episode of Working History, Joan Flores-Villalobos met with UTLA member Jake Roth, labor organizer Katie Miles from UC Berkeley, and historian Nick Juravich from UMass Boston to discuss how unions are confronting budgetary shortfalls, ICE raids, and how effective reform can only take place when community and labor work together.

    48 min
  • The Handoff

    It's official, "Working History" is back!  In our first episode back, Beth English—the founder, host, and producer of "Working History" vol 1—interviews Sarah McNamara, president of the Southern Labor Studies Association (SLSA), Eileen Boris, president of the Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA), Julie Greene, editor of LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, and Mae Ngai, senior editor of International Labor and Working-Class History (ILWCH). Together they discuss their vision for the podcast, developments in labor history, global authoritarianism, and labor issues past and present. 

    48 min
  • Working History Reboot Promo

    After several long years off the air, the beloved labor history podcast is back!

    Now brought to you by the Southern Labor Studies Association, the Labor and Working-Class History Association, LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History, and International Labor and Working-Class History.

    New episodes will drop weekly, starting Thursday, September 24, 2026. Follow along and stay tuned for more Working History!

    3 min
  • Fall for Liberation with Maria Harmon
    Step Up Louisiana co-founder and co-director Maria Harmon joins the podcast to talk about the group’s Freedom Summer-inspired voter turnout campaigns and grassroots mobilization efforts in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Jefferson Parish, New Orleans’ proposed Workers Bill of Rights, and the future of economic and education justice organizing in Louisiana.
    30 min
  • Organizing Faculty in Florida with Paul Ortiz
    Dr. Paul Ortiz, a professor of labor history at Cornell’s ILR School, joins co-host Olivia Paschal to discuss the history of higher education labor organizing in Florida, the resurgence of right-wing and austerity politics in public universities, and Dr. Ortiz’s work in higher education labor organizing. Until last year, Dr. Ortiz was a professor of history and director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida, where he spent fifteen years. Dr. Ortiz is also the past president of United Faculty of Florida-UF and has organized with the United Farm Workers, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and other labor organizing groups. His books include An African American and Latinx History of the United States and Emancipation Betrayed.
    Correction: In the episode, Olivia says that public-sector workers in Virginia can't collectively bargain. While that is true for state-level public sector workers (like university employees), collective bargaining is possible on the local level thanks to a 2020 law that gives local governments and school boards the authority to allow collective bargaining. Collective bargaining for all!
    36 min
  • The Present and Future of Southern Labor: The UAW’s Historic Win at Volkswagen
    Earlier this year, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted to join the UAW in a landslide. The Southern Labor Studies Association held our biannual meeting at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last week, just as UAW Local 42 began negotiating its first contract.
    This panel, recorded live at the conference, is moderated by labor journalist Sarah Jaffe and features Zach Costello of UAW Local 42’s organizing committee; Chris Brooks, chief strategist at the UAW; Michael Gilliland, the organizing director of CALEB in Chattanooga; and labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein.
    1 hr 15 min
  • Beyond Norma Rae
    Welcome to a new season of Working History! Series co-host Dave Anderson talks with Aimee Loiselle about her book Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class
    52 min
  • Southern Exposure at 50: Sue Thrasher, Bob Hall, and Leah Wise
    This week’s episode features a panel recorded live at the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Southern Exposure magazine, held in March at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Wilson Library. The panel, which reflects on the founding of the Institute for Southern Studies and the creation of Southern Exposure, features Sue Thrasher, a co-founder of the Institute who later worked at the Highlander Center; Leah Wise, one of the Institute’s early staff members and later the director of Southerners for Economic Justice; and Bob Hall, the founding editor of Southern Exposure, who spent many years at the Institute and was the longtime executive director of Democracy North Carolina. It is moderated by Chip Hughes, an early Institute staffer himself and occupational health and safety organizer before a career in public health. Produced in partnership with the Institute for Southern Studies.
    Show Notes:
    Episode transcription: https://www.facingsouth.org/2023/11/why-we-did-what-we-did-reflections-sue-thrasher-leah-wise-and-bob-hall
    Visit the Southern Exposure digital archive: https://www.facingsouth.org/southern-exposure
    A note from the archives editor: https://www.facingsouth.org/2023/03/archive-time-crisis
    More about the 50th anniversary event: https://www.facingsouth.org/2023/03/gathering-marks-half-century-southern-exposures-founding
    1 hr 12 min

About Working History

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Working History is a podcast brought to you by labor history organizations and journals, where we discuss labor issues past and present.