Welcome

This is a collection of selected published work by an eternally underemployed, upward striving, fiercely idealistic and hopelessly cynical writer--one of a million egos in New York City. It's mainly just an attempt to give my clips and links an anchored home in this tumultuous digital world, to be updated occasionally as needed. And you can learn a little about where this stuff comes from. Your interest is appreciated, but, as with anything you read online, don't take it too seriously.

There is also an About Me page that curates various archives of my work.

You can also view a much nicer website that I collaborate on, the digital home of a new project, Culture Strike, that brings artists and writers together to raise consciousness about the immigrant experience and the struggle for immigrants' rights.

2019-present

Selected stories:

2021:

How the Powerless Win Power (American Prospect)

Chinatown’s Long Covid (New York Review of Books)

The Other Epidemic Killing Americans  (The Nation)

How Covid-19 Supercharged a Foster System Crisis (The Nation)

2020:

For Some Workers, Schools Never Closed (The Nation)

Trump’s National Labor Relations Board Is Sabotaging Its Own Mission (The Nation)

Meet the Warehouse Worker Who Took On Amazon Over Inhumane Conditions and Harassment (In These Times)

Workers Fight for Their Lives (In These Times)

Disaster Looms as the Coronavirus Disrupts the Garment Supply Chain (The Nation)

2019:

The Robots Are Coming for Our Jobs (The Nation)

Black Lands Matter: The Movement to Transform Heirs’ Property Laws (The Nation)

2018 Media

A few media discussions and writings from 2018.

Talking about pregnancy and family at work, on WYPR's Midday with Tom Hall, February 6, 2018.

Discussing Millennials reviving the labor movement with Ed Chung on the Leslie Marshall show, February 6, 2018.



Wondering where your Smartphone was made? On WNYC's Midday with Jonathan Capehart, January 10, 2018.

2017 Media

"The Global Silence Around Myanmar," at The Progressive, December 26, 2017.

Academic-ish article expanding on my earlier news coverage of student labor abuse in China, "China's Workers and the Emerging Intern Class," in Asia Pacific Journal, December 2017.

On Al Jazeera's The Stream: "Reporting labour in the US media: A look at the labour beat and representations of working class Americans in the US media," August 27, 2017.

Talking the #Fight for 15 in Atlanta on the Dana Barrett Show on WAFS AM, July 14, 2017.


Thinking about the Grenfell Towers tragedy and "urban development," on This is Hell! Radio with Chuck Mertz, July 8, 2017.


Speaking on the International Women's Day Strike (aka #ADayWithoutAWoman) on the Off-Kilter podcast of the Center for American Progress, with Rebecca Vallas, March 10, 2017.


On Obama's labor legacy and Trump's lack of moral compass on This is Hell! Radio with Chuck Mertz, February 4, 2017.

 

 On a Korean American farmer and heritage agriculture: "Radical farmers are expanding agriculture’s political and economic philosophy." Tribune Media Wire, January 27, 2017.

2016 Media

Some recent appearances in non-textual form.


Talking about food security and the Fight for $15 on The Mike McIntee Show on AM 950 in Minnesota (starts at 00:30), September 2016.


Talking about climate change and millennials...

...and the state of labor on Labor Day on The Filter with Nomiki Konst on Sirius XM.



How Undocumented Immigrants Are Making Their Voices Heard on the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, August 2016.

Speaking about for-profit college scams and the Department of Education's recent efforts to try to rein in their predatory deals on Majority Report with Sam Seder, June 2016.



Speaking on The Union Edge radio program about New York's Domino's wage theft lawsuit, June 2016.

Speaking with Mark Grimaldi on the Leslie Marshall Show, on school privatization and government integrity, May 2016.



Talking about the Fight for $15 and the Democratic debate in Brooklyn on The Real News Network, April 2016.

Discussing my Slate article on housekeepers in Miami, on This is Hell! Radio.




"A Closer Look At A Dirty Business," interview on Miami's WLRN, March 2016.

"Spring Break Particularly Hard On Hotel Workers," interview on San Francisco's KCBS News, March 2016.

Discussing immigration economics on From a Woman's Point of View on WMNF, March 2016.

2015 Media Odds and Ends

Discussing Thanksgiving, food insecurity, and inequality with Joshua Scheer at KPFK, November 2015.




Discussing digital media and labor organizing in the "new economy" with Chuck Mertz on WNUR's This is Hell!, September 2015.

Leslie Marshall show, discussing water rights around the world. Based on this story at The Nation, September 2015.

A Belabored live event, with our comrades at the Who Makes Cents podcast, July 2015.

Speaking at The Century Foundation's event, "Not Your Grandmother's Union: The Next Generation of Labor Organizing," with Michelle Miller and Richard Kahlenberg, on June 10, 2015.

Discussing dirty labor practices at nail salons with Kathleen Dunn on Wisconsin Public Radio, May 2015. 

Talking poverty and retail labor with Catherine Ruetschlin of Demos on Bob Herbert's Op-Ed TV on CUNY TV, March 2015.

Discussing the politics of free community college on the Melissa Harris-Perry show on MSNC, January 2015.

Stories and Speaking in 2014

Time for a fresh post to mark the start of 2014. Scroll on.

Speaking on restaurant labor and food security on the Marc Steiner show, August 2014.

On the Majority Report with Sam Seder, discussing "Why the Supreme Court’s Attack on Labor Hurts Women Most."

Talking with Matthew Filipowicz about the #FastFoodGlobal strikes, the off-shoring of musicians in Hollywood, and how little was done to prevent the mining disaster in Turkey. May 2014. 

On Plains FM in New Zealand, discussing global labor migration, February 2014.

Speaking on Chinatown and gentrification with Dutch public radio, February 2014.

A look at Haiti's tragedy, four years on:
"Haiti’s Women Need More Than a Trickle of Aid Money," The Nation, January 2014
Also: My interview on Haiti's recovery on KPFK's Uprising radio show, with Nicole Phillips of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti.

Talking on KPFK's Feminist Magazine about my Ms. Magazine Fall 2013 feature story, January 2014.: 

"An in depth look at what inspired the recent fast food strikes, and how women workers are starting to stand together for a living wage and against the day-to-day hardships and indignities of irregular jobs without benefits, job security or hope." 

Talking with Belabored co-host Sarah Jaffe about unpaid labor and workers' rights on KPFA's Up Front radio show. January 2014.

An inaugural rant with Chuck Mertz on This is Hell! on WNUR in Chicago as an "irregular correspondent."

Academic Work (i.e. things you probably won't read unless you have to)

"Immigration Reform: Corporate Demands Trump Human Rights," New Labor Forum, January/February 2014.

"A Cultural Crossroads at the 'Bloody Angle': The Chinatown Tongs and the Development of New York City's Chinese American Community," Journal of Urban History, March 2014.

"In the early twentieth century in New York City, the tongs of Chinatown established themselves as one of the most resilient, and clever, organized crime enterprises in Lower Manhattan..."

Regulars

Weekly outrage with Belabored, Dissent Magazine's podcast on labor issues, co-hosted with Sarah Jaffe.

Regular contributions to Working In These Times, the magazine's blog on labor issues, with various other voices covering working people's issues of the day. 

Periodic contributions to Asia Pacific Forum, a weekly pan-Asian radio show on Pacifica's WBAI FM.