Working Life Podcast

Episode 40: Political revolution ain't beanbag. It's hard work and requires taking on tough assignments. Jonathan talks about two of the efforts with his guests: Pat Harris joins us for a chat about his California primary bid to unseat incumbent Senator Dianne Feinstein. And Lane Windham stops by to chat about maybe even a bigger, important task: building up the ranks and political power of women leaders within unions, and generally in the workers' advocates movement. Our Robber Baron of the week is Peter Barbey, owner of the Village Voice, who is acting like any big corporate abuser in contract negotiations underway right now.

Episode 39: The economic and political system kills people, in big numbers and, sometimes, one at a time. This week, Jonathan looks at the killing, big and small, with his guests. In Colombia, a union leader is murdered, and we discuss with Gimena Sanchez how his death is a microcosm of bad trade deals. We also look at the massive Pentagon budget increase Trump is proposing but, optimistically, a small city mayor, Ithaca's Svante Myrick, has rallied mayors nationally to oppose feeding the big killing machine. Our Robber Baron of the week is Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens who, incredibly, wants to impoverish thousands of people by cutting the St. Louis newly-enacted minimum wage from $10-an-hour to $7.70

Episode 38: KleptoGriftocracy: it's Jonathan's new word to describe the unusual Trump "brand", which, when you boil it down, really is just a family of grifters trying to build a kleptocracy in government. In this podcast, Jonathan digs deep into the dark side of the Trump KleptoGriftocracy, focusing on Ivanka Trump's use of slave labor in China to make a fortune. And she doesn't seem to care. We're shocked, shocked, right? And our Robber Baron of the week, then, is obvious: Ivanka.

Episode 37: Our brains are hard-wired when it comes to political ideology. Until people understand how the brain processes political ideas—based on circuitry we aren't even aware of—progressives, not to mention the Democratic Party, will continue to lose elections. That's the view of political linguistics guru George Lakoff, who comes back to the podcast for another in-depth conversation with Jonathan. In the midst of the health care battle and more losses for Democrats in special election, Lakoff chats about why conservatives think the way they do, why Jon Ossoff was a dumb candidate and if there is any hope for political change. And we wrap up with our Robber Baron of the week: British Airways CEO Alex Cruz who is engaging in ugly strike-breaking tactics.

Episode 36: Massive people activism dealt the Grim Reaper of the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell, a giant middle finger…from his own caucus. But, it ain't over. Jonathan uses this moment to talk to health care expert Dean Baker about a couple of critical work-related Obamacare benefits that not many people talk about. Jonathan also takes a harrowing look at the 65 million refugees displaced around the world. We wrap up with our Robber Baron of the week: California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Democrat who took it upon himself to kill a statewide single-payer bill.

Episode 35: In this week's podcast, Jonathan's guests help us understand how Amazon and the Supreme Court have a common mission: to undercut the standard of living of millions of people. Amazon's move to buy Whole Foods means a further big-time cutting of wages for thousands of workers, and a new blow to workers in retailing beyond the two companies. Over at the Supreme Court, the conservative wing—with its majority restored after the confirmation of Justice Gorsuch--is drooling over the prospect of a new case that will cripple public sector unions, and hurt workers everywhere. Our Robber Baron of the week is, appropriately, Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

Episode 34: We can't look away: 168 million children are laboring all around the world, usually in brutal conditions, partly to churn out the piles of consumer goods we lap up. Jonathan speaks with a leading global organizer trying to stop child labor. And, surprise, surprise, Wal-Mart is in the thick of that scandal…as well as breaking the law here, as we hear in our other amazing segment. We wrap up by crowning, not for the first time, Wal-Mart as our Robber Baron of the week.

"Politically speaking, you will be murdered and we will personally take part in murdering you"…that was the message Kimberly Ellis heard from her "sisters" in the California Democratic Party when she began running for the chairmanship of the party. And the "murder" took place—possibly through voter fraud. In her first extensive interview since the election on May 20th, Ellis tells Jonathan the whole story—why she decided to run, how the campaign built a massive, sophisticated operation, and came to the convention with hard numbers showing a comfortable victory in hand and, instead, watched as the election, she believes, was stolen by the establishment candidate Eric Bauman in a razor-thin contest. You have to wonder: if the election was fair and honest, why is Bauman, who has claimed victory, refusing to have an independent audit of an election in which almost 3,000 ballots were cast with just 62 votes separating the two candidates? The national party, Jonathan points out, better take notice because many progressive activists still do not trust the party establishment, and have not forgotten the unethical behavior of disgraced DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz who undeniably manipulated the 2016 presidential primary process.

It's an action-packed podcast. Jonathan looks at the daily stealing of workers' wages, to the tune of billions of dollars—right in time for an annual deep-dive to look at a big hike in CEO pay in 2016. There is also breaking news on what could be another chapter in Democratic Party insider shenanigans—was there fraud in the recent California Democratic state party elections? Jonathan also pauses to comment on Memorial Day—a day when the nation forgets that leaders like Henry Kissinger ignited the wars that killed so many people, committing war crimes along the way.

Jonathan Tasini

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Episode 31: We kind of love the bottom line message delivered to Democrats by Jonathan's guest, California progressive leader Karen Bernal: Get Good or Get Gone. In the discussion on this week's podcast, Bernal was speaking directly about the insider Democrats in California who are trying to hold back the rising wave of progressive activists who came close—and still might do so—to winning the chairperson spot of the state party at a tumultuous convention that Jonathan attended this past weekend. But, it's a message that could apply across the country. Our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of Citigroup who copped a plea on money-laundering charges—but actually didn't have to say the company was guilty…ain't America great?