Unproductive Labor

Pete Sinnott
  • 0.0 (0)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • BIWEEKLY SERIES
Unproductive Labor

A podcast about work, the work ethic, what it means to be a productive member of society, working conditions today, and the history of how we got here. So, yeah, we cover a lot of ground.

  1. EPISODE 1

    The Problem with Work

    This is the first episode of Unproductive Labor, a podcast made with support from Public Seminar.  The innovations of the gig economy are not just about technology but change our expectations, and the laws, around what companies owe their workers. This introductory episode of Unproductive Labor will discuss the gig economy, how it may represent the leading edge of the transformation of work, plans for the podcast, and what listeners can expect. The episodes are presented by your hosts, Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner.

    39 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    For Only $184 million You Can Have a Bespoke Labor Category For Your Business

    In this episode, we have a conversation with Alex Press, a staff writer at Jacobin magazine who covers a range of topics around labor in the United States, including the gig economy. We talked about the gig economy, what’s at stake for companies in and workers in categorizing workers as employees, contractors, or some new third category, and the divided response from organized labor over gig work.

    33 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    Work Society and Unworked Community

    James Chamberlain is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Mississippi State University. His dissertation, Undoing Work, Rethinking Community, was published in 2020. It explores some of the normative and theoretical questions around the topic of work.  James has also co-edited a forthcoming volume (with Albena Azmanova) exploring a series of critical debates about capitalism titled, Capitalism, Socialism, Democracy: Critical Debates. He and Azmanova have also founded a new open access journal called Emancipations. Contact US Twitter: @PublicSeminar, @lmergner Email: unproductivelabor@gmail.com Credits Producer: Katherine Huggins Music: Composed and performed by Samuel Haines.  Artwork: Daniel Fermin What We Talked About  James Chamberlain, Undoing Work, Rethinking Community: A Critique of the Social Function of Work (IRL Press, 2020). Chamberlain, "Post-Workers of the World Unite," Public Seminar (Dec. 6 2019). Chamberlain, "COVID-19 and the Work Society," Critical Times (April 30, 2020). Isabelle Stengers, In Catastrophic Times: Resisting the Coming Barbarism (Open Humanities Press, 2015).

    55 min

  4. EPISODE 4

    Human Evolution Has Left Us Ill-Prepared

    In this episode, we have a conversation with Emily Guendelsberger, author of What Low-Wage Work Did to Me and How It Drives America Insane. She worked at Philadelphia City Paper, the Onion’s A.V. Club, Philadelphia Weekly, and the Philadelphia Daily News, and has contributed to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, Politico magazine, and Vice. We talked about On the Clock, what it’s like to work in an Amazon warehouse, the abuse call center reps receive from management and customers, and how low-wage work has changed over the last 20 years.

    1h 17m

  5. EPISODE 6

    The Origins of Wage Labor

    Wage labor is one of the core principles for organizing our lives in western societies. How did that happen? We attempt to answer that question in 20 minutes, moving backward from Keynes to seventeenth century England to Virgil’s Georgics. It’s quite a ride. We also talk about farming. Contact US Twitter: @PublicSeminar, @lmergner, @pete_sinnott Email: unproductivelabor@gmail.com Credits Producer: Daniel Fermín Music: Composed and performed by Samuel Haines.  Artwork: Daniel Fermín What We Talked About John Maynard Keynes, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” James Livingston, No More Work  Ann Kussmaul, Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England Joyce Appleby, Economic Thought and Ideology in Seventeenth-Century England Joan Thirsk, Agrarian History of England The Natural John Denver, “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” James Suzman, Work: A Deep History from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots

    25 min

  6. EPISODE 7

    An Interview about Luddites and Luddism

    In his book, Breaking Things at Work, Gavin Meuller argues that we can’t think of technology in the workplace as “just” a tool but always as a tool created for a specific purpose to benefit specific groups and exploit others. As such, breaking machines in the workplace--which means many things--has been and will continue to be an important point of struggle for establishing worker autonomy, solidarity, and fair treatment.  Dr. Mueller Mueller is  Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He’s also a member of the editorial collective of Viewpoint Magazine. Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right about Why You Hate Your Job is available from Verso. Contact US Twitter: @PublicSeminar, @lmergner, @pete_sinnott Email: unproductivelabor@gmail.com Credits Producer: Daniel Fermín Music: Composed and performed by Samuel Haines.  Artwork: Daniel Fermín What We Talked About Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right about Why You Hate Your Job  Luddism Inventing the Future by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams. Andreas Malm, Fossil Capitalism.

    1h 7m

  7. EPISODE 9

    Covid Capitalism and Other Topics: An Interview with Jamie McCallum

    This week, I talk to sociologist Jamie K. McCallum about his book Worked Over, how the ethos of Silicon Valley shapes our work ethic, the genius and deceptions of Frederick Taylor, what Covid 19 has taught us about work in the 21st Century, and more.   McCallum is an author, teacher, and activist, focusing on labor and work issues around the world. He is currently associate professor of sociology at Middlebury College. You can find him on twitter @jamiekmccallum Contact US Twitter: @PublicSeminar, @lmergner, @pete_sinnott Email: unproductivelabor@gmail.com Credits Producer: Daniel Fermín Artwork: Daniel Fermín What We Talked About Worked Over The Real Work

    1 hr
See All Season 1 (7)

About

A podcast about work, the work ethic, what it means to be a productive member of society, working conditions today, and the history of how we got here. So, yeah, we cover a lot of ground.

Information

  • Creator
    Pete Sinnott
  • Episodes
    22
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2020 Unproductive Labor is the original work of Pete Sinnott and Luke Mergner, made with support from Public Seminar. Any reuse by permission only.
  • Show Website
    Unproductive Labor

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada