Labor Heritage Power Hour

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour, Josh Solomon and Erika Brett of The Empty Pockets explain how a polite letter to the boss became “Dearest Billionaires,” as California votes on a billionaire tax. Labor journalist Max Alvarez reflects on why working people’s stories matter, and we hear one of his favorites, Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” Then historian Catherine Venable Moore traces “Solidarity Forever” back to the West Virginia coalfields, on Mine Wars Forum.  Broadcast on November 5, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Labor Heritage Power Hour: Remembering Dolores Huerta and Jack Metzgar. Plus Big Annie stands tall in Calumet, hobo history, Rabble Rousers’ “Union Maid,” and Darryl Holter on Love and the Shorter Workweek. Broadcast on October 29, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Woody Guthrie’s been gone for 59 years, but his songs still speak to the world we’re living in. Chris Garlock talks with David Lutken, one of the creators and stars of Woody Sez, running at Washington’s Dupont Underground through Sunday. Lutken discusses bringing Woody’s life to the stage, the powerful response to “Deportees,” and why solidarity remains at the heart of the music. Andrew Tilson previews the fifteenth Workers Unite Film Festival, opening Friday under the banner “Workers Against Fascism.” From Amazon delivery contractors to Hollywood safety, the festival puts working people’s stories on screen—and helps workers become filmmakers themselves. Producer Harold Phillips brings us the story behind “Alexander Laidlaw’s Goodly News,” a song by Leith Kahl remembering Tacoma’s labor martyrs and the 1916 West Coast longshore strike. Then Chris visits Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry murals for an audio postcard about art, workers, and taking a little time to look. Plus, the latest labor arts news and calendar. Broadcast on October 22, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport.

This week on the Labor Heritage Power Hour: Who controls our work—and who gets included when we say “solidarity”? We explore two histories that challenge easy answers about worker power. Historian Colleen O’Neill, author of "Waging Sovereignty", discusses Native workers’ struggles for sovereignty, including control over their labor and workplaces with cultural anthropologist Aubrey Edwards. Then Eladio Bobadilla, author of “Dangerous Migration”, talks with El Cafecito del Dia producer Carmen Rodriguez about the politics of anti-immigrant fear and the labor movement’s complicated relationship with undocumented workers. Plus the latest labor arts news briefs. Broadcast on October 15, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Union Hall Arts gives workers time to create, while historian Tina Wei explores workplace fatigue and the human labor behind AI. Plus, Joe Hill’s enduring songs, Detroit’s “gentle anarchist” Joseph Labadie and the latest labor arts news Broadcast on October 8, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

On The Labor Heritage Power Hour: A mother sorts mail through the night. Miners occupy a coal plant. Baristas turn their organizing struggles into theater. This week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour explores how workers preserve their stories—and find power in telling them. Artist and writer Clifford Thompson takes us through Ma at the Post Office, his wordless, 25-panel tribute to the mother who supported him and his grandmother by working nights in Washington, DC. Small details reveal exhaustion, workplace camaraderie and the family life her labor made possible. Then producer Anthony Dominiczak takes us along Virginia’s Gravel Lick Road, connecting the Musick family’s devastating losses during the Harlan County Coal War with the 1989 occupation of Pittston’s Moss Number Three plant. Decades later, miners and neighbors joined forces again to oppose a landfill at the historic site. Finally, Bread & Roses Missouri’s Emily Kohring and worker-performers Alex Barge and Iana Rain discuss this year’s Workers’ Opera. Through music, sketches and poetry, workers bring organizing, bad bosses, racial injustice and hope to the stage. The production runs October 9–11 at Jefferson Avenue Mission in St. Louis. Find tickets at breadandrosesmo.org, and explore more worker culture at laborheritage.org. Broadcast on October 1, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Joe Uehlein shares stories from his new book, “Three Roads: Labor, Music, Ecology,” including how songs helped workers organize. Mark Strolle takes us inside “Assembled in Lansing,” a new exhibit about the autoworkers behind the city’s auto industry. Plus: Fighting the Runaway Shop on Labor History in 2:00 Broadcast on September 24, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; edited by Patrick Dixon; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

On this week's Labor Heritage Power Hour: Karen Nussbaum reveals the working-women’s movement behind Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5”; Kathy Newman explores labor, AI and individuality in Pluribus; and John Hanson recounts the rank-and-file solidarity that powered the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike. Plus Labor Arts News Briefs and the story of organizer and songwriter Ella Mae Wiggins. Broadcast on September 17, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; interviews by Lisa Raye Garlock and Peter Rachleff; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. Special thanks to Bob Buzzanco and Scott Parkin at the Green and Red podcast.   The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: Art, stories and songs don’t simply preserve labor history—they help working people recognize their power and imagine a different future. This week, we hear artists and historians at the Reuther-Pollack Labor History Symposium reflect on the creative legacy of organized labor. Erik Ruin and Tabitha Arnold explore art rooted in solidarity and working-class experience; Max Alvarez considers how stories shape who we are; and Shaun Slifer explains why he calls himself a “community-taught historian.” Then we travel to Tacoma, Washington, where union members gather each Labor Day at the grave of Ralph Chaplin, the Wobbly poet and artist who wrote “Solidarity Forever.” What began with one friend quietly honoring Chaplin has grown into a community tradition of remembrance and song. Finally, Tampa organizers Roger Butterfield and Manny Ramirez take us into Ybor City’s often-overlooked radical history—from cigar workers and Cuban independence to women-led antifascist organizing—and explain why workers must be remembered as makers of history, not passive figures in it. Plus, Harold Phillips has the latest Labor Arts News Briefs. Music: Solidarity Forever, Jester of No Court; Solidarity Forever, Leonard Cohen. Broadcast on September 10, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod

Workers in America’s newsrooms and museums are fighting back against low wages, job insecurity and the idea that devotion to their work should be compensation enough. On this special Labor Day edition of the Labor Heritage Power Hour, NewsGuild President Jon Schleuss takes us inside the organizing wave sweeping small local newsrooms. As corporate consolidation, layoffs and shrinking wages hollow out local journalism, reporters are building unions to defend their livelihoods—and the vital public-service journalism their communities depend on. Then Maida Rosenstein of UAW Local 2110 discusses the surge of organizing at museums and cultural institutions. Museum workers may love their jobs and believe deeply in their institutions, but love doesn’t pay the rent. They’re organizing for living wages, affordable health care, safer workplaces, job security and a meaningful voice on the job. First, historian Donna Haverty-Stacke joins America’s Work Force Radio host Ed “Flash” Ferenc to uncover Labor Day’s own history of worker resistance—and explain how it became America’s “respectable” labor holiday while May Day retained its more radical identity. Broadcast on September 7, 2026; hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant, Schleuss and Rosenstein interviews by producer Harold Phillips; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Kahlia Chapman. The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and syndicated on Pacifica’s Audioport. @LaborHeritage1 @wpfwdc @aflcio #1u #unions #laborradiopod