Best Maximillian Alvarez Podcasts (2025)

1
A bitcoin mine in Texas is “killing us slowly,” local residents say 50:31

4d ago50:31

50:31

I would like to see Texas become the center of the universe for bitcoin and crypto,” US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in 2021. In 2024, Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Texas “wears the crown as the bitcoin mining capital of the world.” But in small towns like Granbury, TX, about an hour southwest of Fort Worth, residents are the ones paying …

1
‘A tremendous chilling effect’: Columbia students describe dystopian reality on campus amid Trump attacks 58:45

11d ago58:45

58:45

One year ago, Columbia University became ground zero for the student-led Gaza solidarity encampment movement that spread to campuses across the country and around the world. Now, Columbia has become ground zero for the Trump administration’s authoritarian assault on higher education, academic freedom, and the right to free speech and free assembly—…

1
‘People are hiding in their apartments’: Inside Trump’s assault on universities 1:00:10

15d ago1:00:10

1:00:10

International students are being abducted and disappeared by ICE in broad daylight. Life-saving research projects across the academy are being halted or thrown into disarray by seismic cuts to federal grants. Dozens of universities are under federal investigation for their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, their allowance of trans athletes…

1
“Kill the Cuts”: Federally funded researchers warn DOGE cuts will be fatal 34:33

17d ago34:33

34:33

On Tuesday, April 8, unions, unionized federal workers, and their supporters around the country mobilized for a national “Kill the Cuts” day of action to protest the Trump administration’s cuts to life-saving research, healthcare, and education programs. As organizers stated on the Kill The Cuts website, "By cutting funds to lifesaving research and…

1
Trump escalates the war on federal unions 55:16

24d ago55:16

55:16

Last week, President Trump escalated his administration's war on the federal workforce and workers’ rights when he signed an executive order to end collective bargaining with federal labor unions across the government. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 150,000 government employees, has sued the Trump administration over the ex…

1
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire and the Uprising of the 20,000 56:16

1M ago56:16

56:16

As we’ve mentioned many times before on the show, movements today are a part of a legacy of extraordinary actions taken by ordinary people. Tapping into our own labor history provides us with a blueprint for action in today’s turbulent world. On March 25th, 1911, a fire began in the scrap bins under a cutter’s table on the 8th floor of the Triangle…

1
Privatize USPS? Mail carriers are fighting for a better idea 53:09

1M ago53:09

53:09

This week, we’re taking a more national focus, and checking in with the National Association of Letter Carriers, who have been embroiled in a years-long contract negotiation with the US Postal Service. In our episode today, I’m sitting down with Melissa Rakestraw, member of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Branch 825 in Chicago, IL, to …

1
Show us the ropes: How Touchstone Climbing Gym workers unionized five locations 51:03

1M ago51:03

51:03

This week, we’re staying in Southern California, where the workers of Touchstone Climbing Gym in Los Angeles have been negotiating their first contract with their employer. Touchstone Climbing, a regional climbing gym with over a dozen locations in California, experienced a wave of unionization in its Los Angeles locations early last year. The succ…

1
‘It’s Elon versus everyone’: A dire warning from fired federal workers (w/ Cat Farman, Jasmine McAllister, & Will Munger) 55:47

2M ago55:47

55:47

In this urgent episode of Working People, we focus on the Trump-Musk administration’s all-out assault on federal workers and its takeover and reordering of our entire system of government. “At least 20,000 federal workers have so far been fired by the Trump administration,” Ed Pilkington and Chris Stein report in The Guardian, “most of them recent …

1
Chemically exposed residents of East Palestine, OH, and Conyers, GA, have been left behind (w/ Ashley McCollom, Hannah Loyd, & Kristina Baehr) 57:02

2M ago57:02

57:02

We kick off the new season of Working People with another crucial installment of our ongoing series where we speak with the people living, working, and fighting for justice in America’s “sacrifice zones.” In this episode, cohost Maximillian Alvarez speaks with a panel of guests about the ongoing public health crises in East Palestine, OH, where a N…

1
Democracy dies, first, in the workplace (w/ Hamilton Nolan & Sara Nelson) 1:18:14

4M ago1:18:14

1:18:14

“I did not start out as a writer interested in organized labor,” Hamilton Nolan writes in The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor; “I started out as a writer interested in why America was so fucked up. Why did we have such gargantuan levels of inequality? Why were thousands of homeless people living in the streets of c…

1
Sick Georgia residents have been abandoned after toxic BioLab fire (w/ Hannah Loyd, Christina O'Connor, & Jeramie Julian) 1:17:12

4M ago1:17:12

1:17:12

“In late September,” Timothy Pratt writes in Capital & Main, “a massive billow of smoke from a chemical fire spread over metro Atlanta, lingering for weeks and prompting national news coverage. The smoke has cleared, but the anger has not dissipated in Conyers, the city of 20,000 where the fire occurred, and in surrounding areas... Smoke from the b…

1
What working people's struggles to survive the Great Depression can teach us today (w/ Dana Frank) 1:16:38

5M ago1:16:38

1:16:38

“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the US economy almost completely collapsed,” historian Dana Frank writes in her new book, What Can We Learn from the Great Depression? “By 1933 a third of all those who’d had jobs were unemployed; another third were scraping by with lesser work. Racism, far from collapsing, festered and metastasized as ins…

1
Judy Gearhart and the Labor Link Podcast - What can a can of tuna teach us about International Worker Solidarity 56:20

5M ago56:20

56:20

Longtime Working People listeners will be familiar with Max and Mel’s extended work discussing the supply chain, the workers who keep that system running day in and day out, and the dangerous and exploitative working conditions that many workers labor under. Our global economy relies on these workers to stay running–and bosses around the world use …

1
Catholic nurses at Ascension call on Bishops to help with contract fight (w/ Gideon Eziama & Lisa Watson) 30:21

5M ago30:21

30:21

On November 12, unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore held a rally in front of the Marriott Hotel downtown, where the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was holding a meeting. St. Agnes nurses rallied with supporters from around the city, and they were even joined by fellow Ascension nurses who traveled from Wichita, …

1
“Let’s unite!”: Poisoned residents of America’s sacrifice zones are banding together (w/ Hilary Flint, Melanie Meade, Elise Keaton Wade, & Angela Shaneyfelt) 1:12:30

5M ago1:12:30

1:12:30

Sacrifice zones are areas where people have been left to live in conditions that threaten life itself, from toxic industrial pollution to the deadly, intensifying effects of man-made climate change. In a more just and less cruel society, the very concept of a “sacrifice zone” wouldn’t exist. And yet, in America, after decades of deregulation and pu…

1
How will railroad workers vote after Biden and Congress blocked their strike? (w/ Hugh Sawyer, Mark Burrows, & Ron Kaminkow) 1:20:34

6M ago1:20:34

1:20:34

Two years ago, the US was on the cusp of seeing its first national rail strike in decades. Then, President Joe Biden, at the urging of the rail companies, and with the help of both parties in Congress, preemptively blocked railroad workers from striking in December of 2022. Workers were forced to accept a contract that did not address the vast majo…

1
SpoOoOoky Special 2024: The Movie that Traumatized Us All 1:12:51

6M ago1:12:51

1:12:51

Last year, we summoned all the Alvarez siblings from the ether to record our annual Halloween episode. Sadly, we were not able to record a new Halloween episode in 2024, but to celebrate the holiday and give listeners a break from all the heavy news, we are publicly releasing last year's spooky special. Jesse, Zak, Max, and MacKenna break down THE …

1
Workers take on Kaiser Again, Strike for a Fair Contract in SoCal 46:30

6M ago46:30

46:30

On Monday, Oct 21, 2400 behavior health workers at Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California locations walked off the job in their ongoing struggle for a fair contract. Over the summer, negotiations between the health system and the bargaining committee, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), failed to close the gap between t…

1
After two years of striking, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers aren’t ready to give up 59:17

6M ago59:17

59:17

We’re coming up on a pretty mind-blowing anniversary in the news labor world–Two years ago, in October 2022, after the newspaper unilaterally cut off insurance benefits to production workers and newsroom workers filed ULPs for bad-faith bargaining, the workers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette walked off the job on strike. The Newspaper Guild of Pitts…

1
Look for the Helpers: Organizing Relief Aid in Asheville, NC, After "Apocalyptic" Hurricane Helene (w/ Byron Ballard & Lori Freshwater) 27:51

7M ago27:51

27:51

Over the past two weeks, people around the country have watched in horror as our neighbors and fellow workers have been battered by the successive disasters of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. “After making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 26 and tearing through the Gulf Coast of Florida,” Adeel Hassan and Isabelle Taft write in Th…

1
Cornell's Crackdown on Palestine Solidarity Protests Could Force Grad Student-Worker to Leave US (w/ Jawuanna McAllister & Jenna Marvin) 38:44

7M ago38:44

38:44

The student encampment movement last school year turned institutions of higher education into flashpoints of struggle over Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, US support for it, and the right to speak out against it. This year, college and university campuses have become laboratories of repression where different administrative efforts to si…

1
Microsoft AI Data Center Comes for Drought-Battered Mexican Town’s Water (w/ Diana Baptista) 46:08

7M ago46:08

46:08

As the climate crisis intensifies, billions of poor and working people around the world are suffering from lack of regular (or any) access to clean water, but the dawn of “AI” is about to make the problem much worse. In their recent report for Context, “Forget jobs—AI is coming for your water,” Diana Baptista and Fintan McDonnell write, “Artificial…

1
Alec Plant 58:07

7M ago58:07

58:07

Two years ago, workers from several different Trader Joe’s grocery stores joined the wave of unionization efforts spreading across the country. Workers in Hadley, Massachusetts, made history in 2022 by not only becoming the first Trader Joe’s store to vote to unionize but also by opting to form an independent union, Trader Joe’s United (TJU). Howev…

1
When Work Inspires Art: Labor Poet George Fish 30:50

7M ago30:50

30:50

While Max was inside the Labor Notes conference this past April, attending panels and sharing space with intelligent, hard working organizers, Mel was wandering the conference grounds outside, meeting folks and talking about the joy of being a member of the working class as they sat in the grass and ate their lunches and talked with friends, old an…

1
Seven unions demand end to US military aid to Israel (w/ George Waksmunski & Brandon Mancilla) 44:45

8M ago44:45

44:45

The death toll in Gaza continues to climb, with conservative estimates putting the numbers of dead around 40,000, but a recent report in the British medical journal The Lancet estimates the actual death toll could be 186,000 or even higher—that’s roughly 8% of Gaza’s population. And with each passing day, the humanitarian crises unfolding in Gaza a…

1
300 Episodes of 'Working People'! Announcements, reflections, & what comes next... 55:36

9M ago55:36

55:36

In 2024, Working People officially crossed the 300 episode mark! Since we published our first episode back in 2018, the show has grown in ways we never could have imagined, and the world itself has changed in radical, hopeful, terrifying ways, the labor movement has undergone incredible changes, and we’ve done our best to document that change and t…

1
What it Means to 'Walk the Walk': the NEA Staff Lockout (w/ Rowena Shurn and Ambereen Khan-Baker) 46:44

9M ago46:44

46:44

Today we have an urgent and important conversation with members of the NEA Staff Organization, the union of staffers at the National Education Association, who have been locked out of their workplace by NEA management for the past four weeks. The NEA, representing over 3 million members, is the largest union in the country. Staffers working for the…

1
From the East Palestine Derailment Disaster to the Toledo Water Crisis (w/ Mike Balonek & Chris Albright) 39:38

9M ago39:38

39:38

From East Palestine, Ohio, to South Baltimore and beyond, we’ve been connecting you with residents living in the toxic wastelands left by private and government-run industry—ordinary working people who have been thrust into extraordinary fights for their lives. In the latest installment of our ongoing Sacrificed series, we go to Toledo, Ohio, a cit…

1
Teamsters Members React to Sean O'Brien's RNC Speech (w/ Amber Mathwig, Tony, Chantelle, Rick Smith, Zoey Moretti Niebuhr, Jess Leigh, Kat, & Robert Conklin) 1:50:03

9M ago1:50:03

1:50:03

On Monday, July 15, on Day 1 of the Republican National Convention, Sean O’Brien, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, became the first Teamsters president ever to address the RNC. Invited by former president Trump, who is now officially the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election, O’Brien’s speech was no o…

1
Dispatch from Labor Notes & Railroad Workers United Conferences (Chicago, 2024) 1:29:28

10M ago1:29:28

1:29:28

Two months ago, from April 17-21, workers and labor organizers of all stripes convened in Chicago for the bi-annual Labor Notes conference, which overlapped with the Railroad Workers United convention. As the registration website rightly noted, “Labor Notes Conferences are the biggest gatherings of grassroots labor activists, union reformers, and a…

1
"Safe Staffing Now!": Baltimore Nurses at Largest Catholic Health Network in US Fight On for First Contract (w/ Nicki Horvat) 23:40

10M ago23:40

23:40

On the morning of Thursday, June 20, unionized nurses at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore held a rally outside the hospital to raise awareness of their efforts to secure a first contract and to show management that they’re not backing down from their core demands for safe staffing and an operational model that puts patients and patient car…

1
TMBS ReAir: Hybrid Wars w/ Vijay Prashad & Missing Basketball w/ Stavros Halkias 1:52:39

10M ago1:52:39

1:52:39

TMBS 147 aired on July 7th, 2020 Episode summary: We need to oppose annexation. Vijay Prashad how does the US move forward, what can the Left learn from Kerala’s response to the crisis, Kerala & the response to the crisis, & hybrid warfare. Stavros Halkias (@stavvybaby) from Cum Town and Stavvy Solves Your Problems tells us how he weaponized lazine…

1
In Brazil, the Climate Crisis Is Already Turning Working People into Climate Refugees (w/ Michael Fox) 54:29

10M ago54:29

54:29

“Southern Brazil is facing its worst climate tragedy ever," Latin-America-based journalist Mike Fox wrote from Brazil for the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) in early May. "Unprecedented floods have impacted 1.4 million people and forced more than 160,000 people from their homes... The images are shocking. Downtown Porto Alegre, th…

1
TMBS 146 ReAir: 146 - Save The Post Office & Labor + Uprising in 2020 ft. Bill Fletcher, Jr. 1:34:59

10M ago1:34:59

1:34:59

TMBS 146 aired on June 30th, 2020. Episode summary: We gotta save the USPS. Bill Fletcher Jr. joins us to talk about the future of the movement & why learning the history of the radical agenda of the US Right is crucial to opposing it. The FED is standing up for big business, who is standing up for you? TMBS ReAirs come out every Tuesday here and o…

1
"CSX has got to go!" Industrially Polluted South Baltimore Residents March to "Evict" Rail Giant from Their Community 40:22

11M ago40:22

40:22

On June 10, in the working-class community of Curtis Bay in South Baltimore, over 50 residents, activists, and supporters from around the city marched through the streets of Curtis Bay to hold CSX Transportation accountable for polluting their community, homes, and bodies with toxic coal dust. Even after an expansive scientific study co-sponsored b…

1
TTMBS ReAir 145 Police & the ANC & We Need a Liberation Theology ft. William Shoki & Ronan Burtenshaw 1:42:34

11M ago1:42:34

1:42:34

TMBS 145 aired on June 23rd, 2020 Episode summary: What we can learn from liberation theology Lessons from the ANC and policing. Essential workers are being forced to expose themselves to the pandemic. Ronan Burtenshaw on the lessons for the left from the past 10 years. - TMBS ReAirs come out every Tuesday here on The Michael Brooks Show YouTube Ch…

1
Liz Oliva Fernández 1:23:27

11M ago1:23:27

1:23:27

For the past six years on this show, we've talked to working people from across the United States, from virtually every walk of life, about their lives, jobs, dreams, and struggles. But today, we’re going to talk about what it’s like to live and work in a country that has been designated a political enemy of US empire, a country that sits only 90 m…

1
TMBS ReAir: 144 - The Present Moment & Bill de Blasio's Budget ft. Noam Chomsky & Madina Touré 1:38:53

11M ago1:38:53

1:38:53

TMBS aired on Jun 16, 2020 Episode summary: Tyson is using the pandemic to hyper exploit their workers. Madina Toure on what De Blasio’s budget promises actually mean. Charlie Kirk’s sloppy history of philosophy. During the GEM, David breaks down why the Trump recovery is BS. And we debut the 1st half of our interview with Chomsky. - TMBS ReAirs co…

1
TMBS ReAir 143: The ABCs of Capitalism & Strategy for a Socialist Future ft. Vivek Chibber 1:23:28

11M ago1:23:28

1:23:28

TMBS aired on June 9th, 2020 Episode summary: Notes on the uprising and how we move forward. Vivek Chibber joins us to break down the ABC’s of capitalism and what socialism’s future might look like. During the GEM, David breaks down how COVID has affected the shipping industry and kept sailors trapped on their boats. - TMBS ReAirs come out every Tu…

1
A Veteran Longshoreman's View of the Baltimore Bridge Disaster (w/ John Blom & Marc Steiner) 47:48

11M ago47:48

47:48

Nearly two months have passed since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, and the city is still reeling from the disaster. The bridge collapse immediately rendered the Port of Baltimore inoperable, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs, and billions in wages, business revenue, and state taxes. While channels into the port h…

1
TMBS ReAir: 142 - Bail Fund Tuesday ft. Chuka Ejeckam & Matt Christman 1:33:29

11M ago1:33:29

1:33:29

TMBS 142 aired on June 2nd, 2020 Episode summary: The crew reacts to the national unrest. Chucka Ejeckam (@chuckaejeckam) on political strategy in these times. Matt Christman (@mattchristman) joins to TMBS to talk about the reaction in Brooklyn & where do we go from here? - TMBS ReAirs come out every Tuesday here and on The Michael Brooks Show YouT…

1
TMBS ReAir 141 - Trump's Arms Race & We Need Class War ft. Dustin Guastella 1:37:43

12M ago1:37:43

1:37:43

TMBS 141 aired on May 26, 2020. Episode summary: Donald Trump is destroying international arms control & threatening the globe. Dustin Guastella joins us to talk about his recent piece in Jacobin on Bernie’s loss and to chart a course to build the labor movement needed to win power. During the GEM, David breaks down Argentina’s default and their fi…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Maximillian Alvarez Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen