Fred Shaw: Comfort
Without warning, the busboy died
in his bed after school, the genes of his heart
finished ticking toward failure.
Mel Packer: The Bend on the River Road from Homestead
A falling down, bullet-pocked sheet metal wall
Once erected to mark the edges of the
South Side Jones and Laughlin steel mill
Paul Buchheit: The 50-Year Takeaway From Middle-Class America
We should be demanding the same benefits enjoyed by less wealthy but more progressive nations.
Elizabeth Romero: My Real Resume
I want to know why the corporate mentality sucks so bad.
Richard Hoffman: Summer Job
“The trouble with intellectuals,” Manny, my boss,
once told me, “is that they don’t know nothing
till they can explain it to themselves.
Video: J.D. Vance| America’s Forgotten Working Class
J.D. Vance grew up in a small, poor city in the Rust Belt of southern Ohio, where he had a front-row seat to many of the social ills plaguing America: a heroin epidemic, failing schools, families torn apart by divorce and sometimes violence.
Richard Levine: Day Labor
This is New York, drinking coffee in plain
blue paper cups at dawn. In every tongue,
the dream begins with showing up.
Morgan Marietta, David C. Barker: A less Trumpy version of Trumpism might be the future of the Republican Party
Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, but his populist ideas may continue to animate the Republican Party.
Joy Gaines-Friedler: Detroit
I think of the sound of factories in the voice
of an old boyfriend from The Cass Corridor –
cocoon of his attic bedroom, mattress on the floor,
candle light and books in that long season of snow
Faiz Shakir: Democrats Must Commit Themselves to the Needs of Non-College Educated Workers
Workers without college degrees have suffered most from recent decades of neoliberal fetishization with globalization, unregulated open markets, and corporate-friendly free trade.
Video: Praise Song for the Pandemic
Blessed are those in grief, especially who mourn alone, blessed are those who have passed into the Great Night
Video: Amazon Empire — The Rise and Reign of Jeff Bezos
As politicians and regulators around the world start to consider the global impact of Amazon — and how to rein in Bezos’ power — FRONTLINE investigates how he executed a plan to build one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world.
Jason Baldinger: Résumé
apparently just to live
just to experience life
is not an acceptable trade
Video: Travelers in the Night
Working the lonely late shift, a gas station cashier shares a silly moment with a special kind of stranger.
Vox Populi 