Today we are bringing you a piece produced by Ritika Sarma and Jimmy Mancilla, students in UCLA’s Labor Summer Research Program (LSRP). The piece is part of a larger 3-part series, “The Reality of Workers and Learners,” which examines the challenges faced by student workers, many of whom work over 20 hours a week. The episode opens with brief remarks by Lucero Herrera, a senior research analyst at the UCLA Labor Center and LSRP instructor. To listen to the rest of the series, please visit youtub...
Jun 26, 2025•29 min
In honor of May Day 2025, Victor Narro, project director at the UCLA Labor Center and career organizer, joined Tobias Higbie, UCLA IRLE Director and professor of labor and history, for a conversation on the significance of May Day in Los Angeles. They discuss how May Day unites diverse coalitions to engage in a powerful act of collective resistance, share an inside look at the process of planning major direct action campaigns, and provide expert tips on how to maintain a sustainable career in so...
May 15, 2025•45 min
In this episode, we bring you two more stories from Código Doméstico that have been translated into English. Código Doméstico is a podcast produced by Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero. It aims to expose working conditions for women hired as cleaners through apps in Central and South America as well as the US. At the heart of this show is deep listening and fostering collaborations to fight for the dignity of workers in the digital platform economy. Today’s episode features stories from Paola and Giselle...
Mar 31, 2025•20 min
We bring you two stories from Código Doméstico that have been translated into English. Código Doméstico is a podcast produced by Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero. It aims to expose working conditions for women hired as cleaners through apps in Central and South America, as well as the US. At the heart of this show is deep listening and fostering collaborations to fight for the dignity of workers in the digital platform economy. This episode features stories from Roxy and Jessi. To listen to the original...
Mar 24, 2025•22 min
These days, we hear more and more about burnout, as well as rising anxiety levels, particularly in light of the recent presidential transition. How do we want to think about burnout, anxiety, and the emotional and mental load we carry when working in the social justice sector — especially when you have a personal connection to what you’re fighting for? In this episode, Ainee Athar shares her immigration challenges and journey into advocating for immigrant rights, as well as her experiences with ...
Feb 10, 2025•28 min
We’re closing out the year with an episode from our friends at Making Contact: As graduation approached this year, students around the country began protests after calls for divestment from Israel were initially ignored by university leadership. The campus encampments were met with physical violence and the mainstream press dismissed the students’ demands as naive and immature. But, it turns out that there’s a lot we should be asking about college endowments. We take a look at what an endowment ...
Dec 05, 2024•30 min
We are approaching the 60th anniversary of the UCLA Labor Center, and we are celebrating - both how far we’ve come and where we’re going next! In honor of our anniversary, in this episode we’re sharing insights and memories from our colleagues about their work and evolving connections to the UCLA Labor Center, which they were all introduced to as students. We end with a powerful speech by a recent UCLA Labor Studies graduate. This episode will be the first track in our 60th Anniversary mixtape c...
Sep 17, 2024•25 min
It’s back-to-school season, and we’re sharing a recording of "Labor Studies 101" from our archives at the IRLE, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. In this episode, our IRLE director, Toby Higbie, interviews Kent Wong, our previous long time director of the UCLA Labor Center. Toby and Kent talk about the history of the Los Angeles labor movement and what makes it so unique; Kent’s personal background and what brought him to activism; the connections between the labor movement and...
Sep 03, 2024•54 min
In a fast-paced society that often privileges work, wealth, and individual success, where there isn’t always time or space to process, how can we do social justice oriented work while taking care of ourselves? In Radical Therapy, we speak with Claudia Morales, an LA-based therapist whose work exists at the intersection of social justice and mental health. Claudia shares her journey to developing a radical approach to therapy, one that centers community and emphasizes connection — to one other, t...
Jul 08, 2024•28 min
Rev. James Lawson Jr. passed away on June 9, 2024. Rev. Lawson was one of the civil rights movement’s most prominent leaders and a lifelong advocate of nonviolence, soul force. He co-taught a UCLA labor studies class on nonviolence for over 20 years with our previous labor center director Kent Wong, and our building, the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, is named in his honor. As we remember Rev. Lawson and process this deep loss for our community, we are sharing our episode Soul Forc...
Jun 25, 2024•33 min
It’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we’re sharing an episode about gentrification in Little Toyko from State of the Human, a podcast of the Stanford Storytelling Project. Little Tokyo is a small neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles. Since 1905, it has been home to generations of Japanese Americans. Today, gentrification is threatening to destroy everything these families have built. This episode tells the story of one community's struggle for survival a...
May 15, 2024•34 min
In partnership with the UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE), Re:Work presents “Changing Lives, Changing L.A.,” a play created from transcripts from the UNITE HERE Local 11 Oral History Project and originally performed before a live audience at Loyola Marymount University and UCLA. Portrayed by professional actors, four members of UNITE HERE Local 11 share their stories of becoming leaders in their union, and fighting for a better life while helping transform Los Angeles. S...
Mar 12, 2024•27 min
Civil rights icon, Reverend James Lawson Jr., shares his recollections of the 1960s and working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend Lawson presents the nonviolent movement in America as the "nuclear engine" of the mid-20th century civil rights movement, and as a strategic series of organizing campaigns for racial and economic justice. This is the second part of our miniseries on Reverend James Lawson Jr. Transcript: bit.ly/soulforcepart2 This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's...
Jan 12, 2024•32 min
We’re closing out the year with an episode from our friends at the Pulso Podcast: Latinos work hard. But is our "work hard" attitude too closely connected to our sense of self-worth? The Pulso Podcast brings you the untold stories & unheard voices that make up our history, our culture, nuestra gente. For Latinos, by Latinos This episode was produced by Maribel Quezada Smith with editorial oversight by Charlie Garcia. Audio engineering & music by Julian Blackmore. .
Dec 12, 2023•16 min
This fall, California’s fast food workers won a historic victory when Governor Newsom signed AB 1228, which ensures the creation of a fast-food industry council with the ability to determine wages and industry standards, and which, importantly, includes worker voices. The bill also means that by next spring, the minimum wage for California’s fast-food workers will go up to $20 an hour. In this episode, Mauricio Juarez shares his journey from working in the silver mines in Taxco, Mexico to workin...
Nov 28, 2023•30 min
We've partnered with Feet in 2 Worlds: A Better Life? and are excited to share an episode from their show! A Better Life? Producer Oscar Durand tells the story of Cesar, a delivery worker from Mexico who found a cause and a community while organizing his fellow delivery workers in New York. We also speak with Hildalyn Colón Hernández from Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group that advocates for delivery workers in New York City.
Sep 13, 2023•30 min
We've partnered with Immigrantly and are excited to share an episode from their show! Immigrantly is a weekly podcast hosted by rights activist and social entrepreneur Saadia Khan that bears witness to the extraordinariness of the immigrant experience Today we have a fellow podcaster in our midst. Ramtin Arablouei is the co-host and co-producer of NPR's podcast Throughline. This show explores history through creative, immersive storytelling designed to reintroduce history to new audiences. Ramti...
Jul 21, 2023•58 min
When we think about college, there’s a certain whimsical image, a time of self discovery and carefree fun before you step out into the “real” world. But now, with the rising costs of education and living expenses, most students work, and work a lot. In this episode of Re:Work, Adolfo González shares his decades long journey to provide for his family while pursuing his education. To learn more about “workers and learners” like Adolfo, visit our publications page at labor.ucla.edu. And to learn mo...
Jun 09, 2023•30 min
We often refer to birth as miraculous, and it can also seem mysterious. Many times there is a veiling around birth and labor, and the types of work mothers and birthworkers do to bring new life into this world. In this episode, Allegra Hill shares birth stories from her family and how her personal journey led her into the world of birthwork. It is part two of our miniseries on Black midwives in Los Angeles devoted to helping women experience empowered births through their birthing center and fou...
May 12, 2023•30 min
Despite a long tradition of midwifery in the Black community, which predates the founding of the United States, less than 2% of midwives today are Black. In this episode we share the story of Kim Durdin, who found her calling in reclaiming midwifery and birthwork. It is part one of two episodes where we bring you the stories of Black midwives in Los Angeles devoted to helping women experience empowered births through their foundation and birth center, Kindred Space LA.
Mar 31, 2023•31 min
In 2020, India suddenly went into a national lockdown without advance planning or adequate government support, which led to a humanitarian crisis in addition to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Millions of jobs disappeared and hunger was a serious issue. Tens of millions of migrant workers struggled to get home — often on foot — and many died attempting the journey. In this episode, we bring you the story of Gulzar, a migrant worker who left his village as a child and traveled across the co...
Mar 17, 2023•35 min
Civil rights icon, Reverend James Lawson Jr., shares his recollections of the 1960s and working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend Lawson presents the nonviolent movement in America as the "nuclear engine" of the mid-20th century civil rights movement, and as a strategic series of organizing campaigns for racial and economic justice. This is the second part of our miniseries on Reverend James Lawson Jr. Transcript: bit.ly/soulforcepart2 This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's...
Feb 28, 2023•32 min
“The Tractor Princess” draws on excerpts from an oral history interview that is a part of a community archive and research initiative called Watsonville is in the Heart, which highlights the stories of Filipino families from the greater Pajaro Valley region in California. In this episode of Re:Work, Antoinette Yvonne DeOcampo-Lechtenberg paints a picture of growing up in a rural farming community in the 1960s and 1970s, as the daughter of a Filipino immigrant from the manong generation. Watsonvi...
Feb 15, 2023•28 min
On Dec. 11, 2021, the UCLA Labor Center’s historic MacArthur Park building was officially named the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, in honor of a civil and worker rights icon who has been teaching at UCLA for the last 2 decades. In this episode of Re:Work, 93-year-old Rev. Lawson shares stories from his youth, and how he came to discover soul force and the path of nonviolence. Transcript: bit.ly/soulforcepart1 This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's UCLA Labor Studies cour...
Feb 01, 2023•30 min
There’s a tendency to associate fast-food with American nostalgia, which can shield issues in the franchise structure ranging from wage theft to violence and safety concerns. Most recently, fast-food workers have been at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 in their public facing jobs, in addition to confronting difficult work conditions that became more acute during the pandemic. In this episode, Mauricio Juarez shares his journey from working in the silver mines in Taxco, Mexico to working in f...
Aug 15, 2022•29 min
We’ve partnered with Self Evident, and are excited to share an episode from their show! Self Evident is a podcast focused on the full range of Asian American perspectives, which are too often erased from the national discourse. This episode is a collaboration between Self Evident and AZI Media, and is part of a project called “Advancing Democracy” by the Solutions Journalism Network. When Augustine Tang’s father passed away, Augustine decided to inherit his taxi medallion – the license that had ...
Jun 21, 2022•30 min
Civil rights icon, Reverend James Lawson Jr., shares his recollections of the 1960s and working closely with Martin Luther King Jr. Reverend Lawson presents the nonviolent movement in America as the "nuclear engine" of the mid-20th century civil rights movement, and as a strategic series of organizing campaigns for racial and economic justice. This is the second part of our miniseries on Reverend James Lawson Jr. Transcript: bit.ly/soulforcepart2 This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's...
May 05, 2022•32 min
On Dec. 11, 2021, the UCLA Labor Center’s historic MacArthur Park building was officially named the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, in honor of a civil and worker rights icon who has been teaching at UCLA for the last 2 decades. In this episode of Re:Work, 93-year-old Rev. Lawson shares stories from his youth, and how he came to discover soul force and the path of nonviolence. Transcript: bit.ly/soulforcepart1 This episode contains material from Rev. Lawson's UCLA Labor Studies cour...
Jan 31, 2022•30 min
We’ve partnered with Self Evident, and are excited to share an episode from their show! Self Evident is a podcast focused on the full range of Asian American perspectives, which are too often erased from the national discourse. In this episode, a daughter of Vietnamese refugees seeks out Southeast Asian Americans with criminal convictions who are at risk for deportation under the Trump administration — and the organizers fighting to keep them in the only home they’ve known. Learn more about Self...
Nov 29, 2021•49 min
In 2020, India suddenly went into a national lockdown without advance planning or adequate government support, which led to a humanitarian crisis in addition to the COVID-19 public health emergency. Millions of jobs disappeared and hunger was a serious issue. Tens of millions of migrant workers struggled to get home — often on foot — and many died attempting the journey. In this episode, we bring you the story of Gulzar, a migrant worker who left his village as a child and traveled across the co...
Oct 11, 2021•34 min
