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 prog

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 Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini Sign up for The Working Life Podcast at: www.workinglife.org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.tasini.3

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?

Episode 30: Why do we let Wall Street run wild with our money? We don't have to. With his guest Mark Armstrong, Jonathan digs into the idea of a public bank--a bank whose shareholders are we, the people. It's an idea gaining momentum throughout the country. Our Robber Baron of the week is hedge fund kingpin William Ackman.

Episode 29: Here is something almost no one is talking about but Jonathan takes it up in this podcast: the repeal of Obamacare, along with its immoral tossing millions of people off health coverage, will cost the country 3 million jobs and $1.5 trillion in economic activity. Jonathan breaks this down for all of us in simple terms with his guest Leighton Ku. You also will hear from House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi. And wrapping it all up is our Robber Baron for the week, Paul Ryan, who takes the crown home for an unprecedented second time.

Episode 28: People die at work, and people revolt and organize. All in sharp focus the last few days, Jonathan talks about the toll at work of sick, injured and killed workers—and why we mark Workers Memorial Day every April 29th—as well as the May Day mobilization that makes us consider how to change the system. Jonathan talks with Tefere Gebre, the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, the first immigrant, political refugee, black man and local labor council leader elected as a national officer of the Federation. And we go back to Mylan Corporation to find our Robber Baron of the week, the outgoing chairman Robert Coury who pockets tens of millions of dollars.

Episode 27: Jonathan digs into the top 10 really bad things that have happened so far in Donald Trump's reign, focusing on workers, and the issues we care about in the political revolution. It's all an easy-to-understand conversation with Jonathan's expert guest, Heidi Shierholz, Senior Economist and Director of Policy at the Economic Policy Institute. Jonathan also talks about American Exceptionalism—a big part of a recently much-talked about piece he wrote. We wrap up with our Robber Baron of the week, Yahoo's Marissa Mayer who was just showered with another $186 million that she will pocket—after failing miserably.

Episode 26: Uber or Isis: Which is really a greater threat to the security of millions of people in this country, and around the world? In conversation with national taxi workers advocate Bhairavi Desai and foreign policy expert Phyllis Bennis, Jonathan makes the point that, by far, the answer is Uber. ISIS is a brutal extremist gang—whose rise, people conveniently forget, was a direct result of U.S. foreign policy—but its capability to hurt millions of people comes nowhere near the reach of Uber's model of "corporate terrorism", which is a threat to the standard of living of most Americans. Our Robber Baron of the week is Rupert Murdoch.

Episode 25: Every day, it happens: the tax system puts unfair burden on the 99.9 percent while the very wealthy and big corporations pocket huge bucks…and a lot of those bucks come right out of our pockets thanks to corporate tax subsidies. Just in time for Tax Day, Jonathan talks to three of the leading experts in the country about the tax robbery underway, which is mostly entirely legal courtesy of politicians of both parties. You'll learn how to talk taxes to your neighbor, including how to blow up the myth that corporations pay too much and getting key tips on the ways in which the very wealthy use the tax code to get even richer. Our Robber Barons of the week are the top 25 corporations that dodge taxes the most.

Episode 24: Poof! Before you noticed it, the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates and, then, no one much talked about it, even though the Fed probably has more power over your job prospects than any politician. So, we talk about The Fed at length with long-time Fed watcher Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Also, Jonathan was the keynote speaker a few days ago at the Larimer (Colorado) Democratic County Committee annual dinner—you can hear him take on the Democratic Party's promotion of myths and "American Exceptionalism", as he asks whether the party is really able or interested in leading the rebellion against a corrupt system. Our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of Peabody Coal.

Episode 23: This isn't a surprise—CEOs are robbing the great wealth created by workers. But, Jonathan adds a new wrinkle to the robbery of the people—domestic outsourcing. Yup, you got it. Not jobs running to slave-wage countries but jobs vanishing within the borders of the country. And our Robber Baron of the week, for a second time, is Wells Fargo.

Episode 22: Who cares if old people go hungry if the military-industrial complex can celebrate, right? That's basically the upshot of Trump throwing a $54 billion increase the Pentagon's way—even if there is no clear idea what to do with the money, it's champagne time for the war machine. I go in-depth with two experts on this insanity. And, keeping with the theme of the podcast, our Robber Baron of the week is the CEO of Lockheed who is happy to make millions off the war machine while regular people go without food and water is polluted.

Episode 21: 24 million. Big number. The number of people who will be added to the ranks of those who have no health care coverage. More people will be sicker. More people will go bankrupt. More people will die. Jonathan goes deep into the "Make America Sick Again" bill, also known as the repeal of Obamacare, and gives answers to the key questions about what all this means, with some help from a top national expert from the AARP. Our Robber Baron for this week is the CEO of Uber.