Unproductive Labor Archives

Podcast

Non-compete Agreements and Corporate Subsidies, with Pat Garofalo

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 22

March 20, 2023 • by Pete Sinnott, Luke Mergner and Pat Garofalo

I’m pleased to be speaking with Pat Garofalo about NCAs and corporate subsidies...

Non-compete Agreements and Corporate Subsidies, with Pat Garofalo

Podcast

The Problems and Possibilities of Graeber’s Theory of BS Jobs, with Matteo Tiratelli

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 21

February 9, 2023 • by Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner

In this episode, I talk to Matteo Tiratelli about bullshit jobs. Tiratelli recently published an article in the journal Catalyst exploring the problems and insights of David Graeber’s well-known theory. ...

The Problems and Possibilities of Graeber’s Theory of BS Jobs, with Matteo Tiratelli

Podcast

Essential Workers and Labor Activism During the Pandemic: An Interview with Jamie McCallum

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 20

January 26, 2023 • by Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner

I talk to sociologist Jamie McCallum about his new book, Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice...

Essential Workers and Labor Activism During the Pandemic: An Interview with Jamie McCallum

Podcast

We’ll Always Need to Work: An Interview with Alex Gourevitch

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 19

January 12, 2023 • by Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner

What the anti-work and post-work crowd get wrong in their thinking about work and the future....

We’ll Always Need to Work: An Interview with Alex Gourevitch

Podcast

Inflation, the Labor Market, and Inequality: Two Interviews

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 16

November 10, 2022 • by Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner

This week a double episode, first a discussion about inflation and the labor market with Brian Callaci, chief economist at the Open Market Institute. Then an interview with political scientist David Lay Williams about inequality today and its place in the history of western political thought....

Inflation, the Labor Market, and Inequality: Two Interviews

Podcast

Violence and Class Solidarity: How Employers Organized to Fight Unions in the Nineteenth Century, an Interview with Chad Pearson

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 15

November 3, 2022 • by Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner

In this episode, Pete interviews Chad Pearson about his new book, Capital's Terrorists: Klansmen, Lawmen, and Employers in the Long Nineteenth Century (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). They talk about the use of violence to discipline workforces, labor battles in the long nineteenth century, the need to study the ...

Violence and Class Solidarity: How Employers Organized to Fight Unions in the Nineteenth Century, an Interview with Chad Pearson

Podcast

What Austerity Has done to Care Work and Care Workers: An Interview with Emma Dowling

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 14

May 6, 2022 • by Luke Mergner and Pete Sinnott

Unproductive Labor · What Austerity Has done to Care Work and Care Workers: An Interview with Emma Dowling Emma Dowling is a sociologist and political scientist and teaches at the University of Vienna. She previously held academic positions in Germany and the UK. Her research interests include political economies of unpaid ...

Podcast

Why We Need Unions: A Conversation with Eve Livingston

Unproductive Labor, Episode 13

April 1, 2022 • by Luke Mergner and Pete Sinnott

Unproductive Labor · Why We Need Unions: A Conversation with Eve Livingston Eve Livingston is a Scotland-based freelance journalist specializing in social affairs, inequalities, and industrial relations. She has worked for The Guardian, The Independent, VICE, and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism among many others and has appeared on TV and ...

Podcast

The Great Resignation, a Delayed Reaction

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 12

March 11, 2022 • by Luke Mergner and Pete Sinnott

This week my erstwhile cohost and collaborator, Luke, and I have a free-flowing conversation about the Great Resignation. This was a hot topic last fall as 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs in November 2021 and 4.3 Million in August of 2021. That’s according to reports from the US Department ...

The Great Resignation, a Delayed Reaction

Podcast

Company Unions and Why Voters Don’t Care about Policy: An Interview with Matt Bruenig

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 14

February 11, 2022 • by Luke Mergner and Pete Sinnott

The patreon page for 3Ps is here: https://www.patreon.com/peoplespolicyproject Unproductive Labor · Company Unions and Why Voters Don’t Care about Policy: An Interview with Matt Bruenig You can find Matt’s article on the Teamwork Bill here: https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2022/02/07/whats-the-point-of-the-rubio-company-union-bill/ Teamwork Bill: https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2022/2/rubio-banks-introduce-pro-worker-labor-reform-bill Marco Rubio in the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/help-working-class-voters-us-must-value-work/578032/

Company Unions and Why Voters Don’t Care about Policy: An Interview with Matt Bruenig

Podcast

The Need for a Shorter Working Week, with Kyle Lewis and Will Stronge

Unproductive Labor Podcast, Episode 11

January 28, 2022 • by Luke Mergner and Pete Sinnott

Kyle is a PhD candidate at the University of West London and a working-time consultant for the think tank Autonomy. Will Stronge is the Director of Research at Autonomy and a post doctoral researcher in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Brighton. Unproductive Labor · The Need for a Shorter ...