Best AFSCME Podcasts (2025)

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Talking Archives with AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride 31:11

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5d ago31:11

31:11

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride reflects on the role the union’s history and archives play in current and future labor actions and organizing campaigns. Related Resources: AFSCME History Related Collections: AFSCME collections at the Reuther Library Episode Credits Interviewee: Eli…

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Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars 53:04

19d ago53:04

53:04

Dr. Keith Wunderlich shares the life and legacy of D.L. Holmes, athletic director of what is now Wayne State University from 1917 though 1958. With a meager budget and outdated equipment, Coach Holmes nurtured a generation of track and field Olympians and world record holders in Detroit, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religious background. Wunde…

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Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education 59:13

1M ago59:13

59:13

Dr. Nick Juravich discusses the experiences of the first-generation of paraprofessional educators in New York City in the 1960s-1980s and their impact on the city’s educational system, community relations, and public sector unions. Juravich is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of Para Power: How …

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Oil Can Eddie and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union 35:22

2M ago35:22

35:22

Roger Biles and Mark Rose discuss the legacy of Eddie Sadlowski, a charismatic and progressive Chicago steelworker who, unhappy with the United Steelworker of America’s closed-rank authoritarian leadership and tepid support for rank-and-file members, led a highly visible yet unsuccessful dissident campaign in the contentious election for the USWA’s…

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Seeking “Self-Determination” in Detroit: Housing, Race, and the Activism of the West Central Organization, 1964-1971 46:43

3M ago46:43

46:43

Dr. Anna E. Lindner discusses the rise and subsequent downfall of the West Central Organization in Detroit, a coalition of civil rights organizations, community groups, and church congregations that sought to bring attention to housing inequality and other social issues in the 1960s. Although founded with good intent, the group’s aggressive lobbyin…

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Schools and the Rise of Mass Incarceration in a Post-Brown World 50:55

4M ago50:55

50:55

Dr. Matt Kautz explores how evolving school disciplinary practices, changes in crime reporting, and political pressure in the decades following school desegregation led to the rise of student suspensions, expulsions, dropouts, and the school-to-prison pipeline in Detroit and other cities. Kautz is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Leaders…

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The Worthy Wages Movement for Childcare Workers 53:02

6M ago53:02

53:02

Dr. Justine Modica discusses the Worthy Wages movement centered in Seattle from the 1980s through the 2000s. Affiliated with SEIU, daycare directors and childcare workers in childcare centers and home-based daycares joined together to raise public awareness of the underfunding of daycare and lobby for increased state childcare subsidies, hoping to …

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Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to COVID-19 42:55

7M ago42:55

42:55

Dr. Lori Flores discusses food systems in the US and Northeast region specifically, illuminating how the nation has developed a growing appetite for both Latinx food and Latinx food laborers, who are often underpaid and under-nourished as they help grow, process, transport, prepare, and serve food across the country. Flores is an associate professo…

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The Carter Presidency and Gay Rights 52:34

9M ago52:34

52:34

Dr. Harris Dousemetzis shares the extraordinary impact of U.S. President Jimmy Carter on gay rights in the 1970s and early 1980s, from instituting policies to prevent anti-gay discrimination of most federal employees to facilitating IRS nonprofit status for gay rights organizations and community centers, enabling them to receive federal funding for…

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A Fond Farewell with Audiovisual Archivist Mary Wallace 57:59

9M ago57:59

57:59

Reuther Library audiovisual archivist Mary Wallace has worn many hats over the past 27 years, from student page in the Reading Room to interim director and chief weather-spotter and safety monitor. As she prepares to retire in January 2025, Wallace reflects on the changes she’s seen at the Reuther and in the field, shares a few of her favorite coll…

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When Detroit Played the Numbers: Gambling’s History and Cultural Impact on the Motor City 25:34

12M ago25:34

25:34

Dr. Felicia George explains how number lotteries in the city’s Black Bottom and Paradise Valley neighborhoods in the 20th century, although illegal and rife with exploitation, also raised some Black Detroiters out of poverty and created an important social support in a community stressed by racial discrimination and job insecurity. Dr. George is an…

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Building Power, Breaking Power: The United Teachers of New Orleans, 1965-2008 47:04

1y ago47:04

47:04

Dr. Jesse Chanin describes how the United Teachers of New Orleans (UTNO) gained power and influence in a region hostile to unions from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s by building trust in the community with transparent and democratic decision-making and a focus on racial and economic justice to improve the lives of the New Orleans community. In the …

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Detroit Industry and ‘The Mural’ 31:59

1y ago31:59

31:59

Dr. Jay Cephas considers two Depression-era murals in Detroit and their contrasting messaging about workers, labor, and power. Diego Rivera’s famed Detroit Industry murals, commissioned by Edsel Ford for the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1932, champions industrial and technological progress and the factory workers who fueled it. In contrast, Walter …

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Organizing Your Own: The White Fight for Black Power in Detroit 38:34

1+ y ago38:34

38:34

Dr. Say Burgin explains that contrary to the common belief that white activists were purged from the Black freedom movement in the mid-1960 and 1970s, Black-led organizations in Detroit – including the Northern Student Movement, the City-Wide Citizens Action Committee, and the League of Revolutionary Workers—called on white activists to organize wi…

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Hillbilly Highway: Charting White Migration from Appalachia to the Industrial Midwest 43:45

1+ y ago43:45

43:45

Dr. Max Fraser shares the often overlooked story of the “hillbilly highway,” the route nearly eight million poor, rural, white Americans took in the 20th century from economically depressed areas in the Southeastern and Southern United States toward higher paying factory jobs in the Upper South and Midwest. He explains how the social advancement an…

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Betty Friedan’s Labor Roots 33:57

1+ y ago33:57

33:57

Rachel Shteir shares how Betty Friedan’s early experience as a labor reporter for the Federated Press informed her later work as a famed women’s rights activist, author of The Feminine Mystique, and co-founder of the National Organization for Women. Although Friedan’s activism shaped the American women’s movement in the latter half of the 20th cent…

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The UAW’s Southern Gamble in Foreign-Owned Factories 57:16

1+ y ago57:16

57:16

Dr. Stephen Silvia explains how the UAW built a cooperative relationship with workers’ councils and unions at foreign automotive companies, but has nevertheless struggled to organize those companies’ vehicle factories in the southern United States since the 1990s due to anti-labor politics and the companies’ shared anti-union playbooks. Silvia is a…

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Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence and Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era 44:20

2y ago44:20

44:20

Dr. Matthew Lassiter shares stories uncovered in Detroit Under Fire: Police Violence, Crime Politics, and the Struggle for Racial Justice in the Civil Rights Era, a collaborative digital exhibit created by undergraduate history students documenting nearly 200 civilians killed between 1957 and 1973 by the Detroit Police Department and other law enfo…

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Labor Radical Harry Bridges and the Cold War Ire of the US Government 47:42

2y ago47:42

47:42

In the second of a two-part series, Dr. Robert Cherny recounts how immigrant Harry Bridges successfully led the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) for four decades beginning in the 1930s, even as his militant unionism and association with communists placed him at odds with the American government during the Cold War and at …

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Labor Legend Harry Bridges and the Pacific Coast Longshore Strike of 1934 1:09:33

2y ago1:09:33

1:09:33

In the first of a two-part series, Dr. Robert Cherny explains how the early life of Australian immigrant Harry Bridges prepared him to lead the groundbreaking 1934 Pacific Coast longshoremen’s and maritime workers’ strikes in the United States, later becoming the first president of the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Ch…

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Taming the Octopus: Eli Black and the Search for Social Responsibility at the United Fruit / United Brands Company 55:44

2y ago55:44

55:44

Dr. Matt Garcia traces the legacy of Eli Black, a former rabbi who, as CEO of United Fruit/United Brands Company in the late 1960s and early 1970s, attempted to instill corporate social responsibility into the notorious fruit conglomerate before ending his life following a series of business setbacks and looming corruption scandals. Garcia is the R…

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Toxic Debt: An Environmental Justice History of Detroit 54:12

2+ y ago54:12

54:12

Dr. Josiah Rector explains that since the 1880s a confluence of unregulated industrial capitalism and racist practices in housing and employment in Detroit created pollution and environmental disasters disproportionately affecting the poor, working class, and particularly African Americans. He explores the resulting environmental justice movements …

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We Will Never Stop 31:22

2+ y ago31:22

31:22

In the fifth episode of the I AM Story podcast, current labor leaders discuss how the lessons of the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike are as relevant today as they were 55 years ago. Whether it’s building resolve in the face of setbacks, understanding the power of non-violent civil disobedience, the timeless call for safety in the workplace, or h…

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Latinx Encounters: How Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and Puerto Ricans Made the Modern Midwest 57:46

2+ y ago57:46

57:46

Dr. Juan I. Mora examines three groups of Latinxs as they used postwar migration, temporary guest-worker programs, and agricultural labor to redefine migrant power, justice, and rights in the twentieth century Midwest, and particularly in Michigan. He shows that Latinx migrants melded distinct claims to U.S. citizenship, ethnic identity, and labor …

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Stand Up, Don't Sit Down 31:37

2+ y ago31:37

31:37

Episode 4 of the I AM STORY podcast looks at the impact the strike had on the lives of the people involved and the challenges workers have faced in the years since.By AFSCME

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We Will Not Be Turned Around 1:03:13

2+ y ago1:03:13

1:03:13

Seven weeks after the sanitation strike began, garbage was piling up and the city was feeling the pressure. The labor action was expanding into a mass community mobilization – with churches, student activists, and civil rights organizations and even outside agitators joining the fray. But the mayor and city council had stopped negotiating with the …

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I Am A Man 41:22

2+ y ago41:22

41:22

In the wake of the deaths of Echol Cole and Robert Walker, 1,300 Memphis sanitation workers went on strike. The men were demanding safer working conditions and basic respect for the services they provided. But Mayor Henry Loeb dug in, refusing to recognize their union or even talk to the workers. When a peaceful demonstration elicits a violent resp…

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The Breaking Point 42:16

2+ y ago42:16

42:16

In 1968, Memphis sanitation workers faced dangerous and degrading conditions on the job. The mayor showed the men no respect, paying them poverty wages and refusing to recognize their union. During a driving rainstorm on February 1, Robert Walker and Echol Cole were crushed to death as they sought shelter in the back of their sanitation truck, a ho…

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PREVIEW: The strike that shook the nation 2:09

2+ y ago2:09

2:09

In 1968, Memphis sanitation workers went on strike – for dignity, for respect, for recognition of their basic humanity. Courageously, they declared: I AM A MAN. The strike would draw together the labor movement and the civil rights movement in a way that changed the course of history. The I AM STORY Podcast revisits this struggle, telling the story…

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INTRODUCING THE I AM STORY PODCAST 2:40

2+ y ago2:40

2:40

In 1968, two Memphis sanitation workers, Robert Walker and Echol Cole, were crushed to death in the back of their truck, a horrific accident that was the result of shocking negligence by city leaders. The workers had raised a red flag that trucks in the fleet were unsafe. But the city didn’t recognize their union and had no incentive or inclination…

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Under the Iron Heel: Repressing the IWW and Free Speech 58:27

2+ y ago58:27

58:27

Ahmed White explains how industrialists and government officials in the United States used violence and legal maneuverings to stultify the Industrial Workers of the World and silence its members in the early twentieth century. White teaches labor and criminal law at University of Colorado Boulder and is the author of Under the Iron Heel: The Wobbli…

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SNEAK PEEK: I AM STORY 1:04

2+ y ago1:04

1:04

In 1968, sanitation workers in Memphis took a stand against degrading and deadly working conditions. They declared a strike that would lead to a movement that would shake the nation. The I AM STORY podcast tells the story of the sanitation workers who dared to declare: I AM A MAN. Learn more at http://www.IAMSTORY.com…

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“Girls, We Cannot Lose!”: Midwestern Black Women Activists During the Great Depression 49:38

2+ y ago49:38

49:38

Dr. Melissa Ford explores the influence of working-class Black women in Detroit, St. Louis, and Cleveland on the development of Black radicalism in the American Midwest during the Great Depression. Ford is an associate professor of African American history at Slippery Rock University and author of A Brick and a Bible: Black Women’s Radical Activism…

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“No Labor Dictators For Us”: Revisiting Anti-Union Forces in the Flint Sit-Down Strike 23:45

3y ago23:45

23:45

While the 1936-1937 Flint Sit-Down is usually viewed as a pivotal success for the UAW, Dr. Gregory Wood considers more closely the influence of anti-union workers and the General Motors-supported Flint Alliance both during and after the strike. Wood is an associate professor and chair of the history department at Frostburg State University. His res…

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Heard It On the News: Preserving 20th Century Detroit History Through Local Newscasts 31:47

3y ago31:47

31:47

Reuther Library audiovisual archivist Mary Wallace discusses the Library’s WWJ / WDIV Film, Video, and Teleprompter Scripts collection, which captures seven decades of news, current events, politics, and community life as reported by the Detroit news station from the 1920s through 1990s. Related Collections: WWJ / WDIV Film, Video, and Teleprompter…

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No Equal Justice: The Legal and Civil Rights Legacy of George W. Crockett Jr. 40:41

3y ago40:41

40:41

Peter Hammer describes the life and legacy of civil rights icon George W. Crockett, Jr. A Black lawyer who fought racism and defended constitutional rights in landmark cases in the 1940s through the 1960s, Crockett brought his ethos to the Detroit Recorder’s Court during his time on the bench from 1966 through 1978, and to his decade of service in …

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A Miasma of Metals: The Steelworkers’ Environmental Call Following the Donora Smog of 1948 32:30

3y ago32:30

32:30

Louise Milone recounts how smog produced by the southwestern Pennsylvanian steel industry poisoned the air in the Monongahela Valley town of Donora on November 1, 1948, killing more than 22 people and sickening thousands more. Exploring the response of the US Steel Corporation, employees, and Donora residents, Milone explains how the United Steelwo…

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A “Most Conscientious and Considerate Method”: Grosse Pointe’s Gross Post-War Housing Point System 28:26

3y ago28:26

28:26

Emma Maniere describes how homeowners associations in Grosse Pointe, an affluent suburb bordering Detroit, developed a point system following the Second World War to rank and exclude prospective homebuyers to maintain the community’s Anglo Christian whiteness and affluence. The point system, which ranked nativity and ethnicity, accent, skin tone, a…

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Labor’s End: Automation’s Failed Promise of Freedom 45:18

3y ago45:18

45:18

Dr. Jason Resnikoff explains that the rise of automation in the mid-20th century workplace was heralded as a way to free workers from manual labor, but resulted instead in the intensification of human labor and the degradation of workers’ protections and powers. Resnikoff is a core lecturer in the History Department at Columbia University and autho…

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Detroit vs. Everybody: Exploring Race, Place, and Black Superheroes in DC Comics 39:50

3+ y ago39:50

39:50

Dr. Vincent Haddad explains that while Detroit has often served as the inspiration for crime-ridden settings in comics, DC Comics rose above those stereotypes with black superheroes Amazing-Man in the 1980s series All-Star Squadron and the Cyborg solo series in the 2010s. He describes how those two series represented Detroit and issues of race, pol…

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Detroit Remains: Using Historical Archeology to Connect Detroit’s Past to Its Present 50:39

3+ y ago50:39

50:39

Dr. Krysta Ryzewski explains how historical archaeology digs at famous Detroit locales – including the Little Harry speakeasy, the Blue Bird Inn, and the Grande Ballroom – have clarified how underrepresented communities of Detroit experienced and responded to the Great Migration, changing economic forces, and a shifting political and social landsca…

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Environmental Activism in Deindustrialized Detroit 52:35

3+ y ago52:35

52:35

Brandon Ward explains how Detroit residents, community organizations, and the labor movement, alarmed by the pollution remaining in Detroit’s deindustrialized era that mostly heavily impacted Black Americans and the working class, worked together from the 1970s onward to create a healthier, greener, and more livable city. Ward is a lecturer at Peri…

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Bargaining for the Common Good: Milton Tambor Reflects on 50 Years in Labor and Social Activism 52:53

3+ y ago52:53

52:53

Labor leader and social activist Milton Tambor discusses his life’s work in Detroit since the 1950s as a social worker; AFSCME local union president, staff representative and assistant education director; and teaching faculty in both labor studies and social work at Wayne State University and other institutions. He also discusses the intersection o…

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And Many More: Celebrating SEIU’s Centennial in the Archives 39:15

4y ago39:15

39:15

Reuther Library SEIU archivist Sarah Lebovitz shares highlights from the union’s first 100 years, and explains how its archives at the Reuther Library have supported labor organizing and centennial celebrations. Related Collections: SEIU District 925 Records SEIU Executive Office: George Hardy Records SEIU Executive Office: John Sweeney Records SEI…

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Brewing a Boycott: Collective Activism and the Decades-Long Coors Beer Boycott 44:34

4y ago44:34

44:34

Dr. Allyson Brantley explains how large and diverse groups joined together for a decades-long consumer boycott of the Coors Brewing Company to fight against its union busting, discriminatory hiring practices, and politics. Brantley is an assistant professor of history and Director of Honors & Interdisciplinary Initiatives at the University of La Ve…

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Communists and Community in Wartime Detroit 56:06

4y ago56:06

56:06

Dr. Ryan Pettengill explains how communist activists in Detroit worked with labor activists during and after the Second World War to enhance the quality of life in the community by advocating for civil rights, affordable housing, protections for the foreign-born, and more. Pettengill is a Professor of History at Collin College and author of Communi…

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Sandfuture: Exploring Minoru Yamasaki, Lost Humanist Architecture, and the Rise of Sick Buildings and Sick People 48:53

4y ago48:53

48:53

Artist and author Justin Beal shares the career and legacy of influential yet often forgotten architect Minoru Yamasaki. Yamasaki’s human-centered architectural design was often overrun by economics, politics, and capitalist symbolism, leading to his two most well-known developments, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis and the World Trade …

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Midnight in Vehicle City: Modern Lessons From the Flint Sit-Down Strike 34:05

4y ago34:05

34:05

Edward McClelland recounts the gripping details of the Flint sit-down strike, and considers what we can learn today from the strikers’ successful fight for shared prosperity in 1936-1937. McClelland is a journalist, historian, and author of Midnight in Vehicle City: General Motors, Flint, and the Strike That Built the Middle Class. Related Collecti…

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Blaming Teachers: How America Simultaneously Professionalized and Patronized Education 46:38

4y ago46:38

46:38

Dr. Diana D’Amico Pawlewicz explains how the push to professionalize and standardize educators beginning in the mid-1800s, without granting them decision-making power, has made them the public face of foundering school policies developed and implemented by local school administrators and state and national policymakers. Widespread policy narratives…

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From Bargaining Table to Diplomatic Table: Leonard Woodcock in China (Part 2) 41:57

4+ y ago41:57

41:57

After Leonard Woodcock stepped down as president of the UAW in 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter sent him to Beijing as a diplomatic envoy and ultimately as the nation’s first ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. In the second of a two-part interview, his wife Sharon Woodcock talks about Deng Xiaoping’s visit to the United States; Leonard …