2025 Best of the Year Picks (Part One)

2025 Best of the Year Picks (Part One)

Author: laborradiopodcastweekly December 27, 2025 Duration: 22:50
As the year winds down, the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly takes a step back to celebrate the work coming out of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Instead of choosing favorites ourselves, we asked Network producers and hosts to select their top five episodes of 2025—and this week, you’ll hear the first batch of those Best of the Year picks. Highlights include Labor Jawn’s deep dives into Philadelphia labor history; Labor Force’s sharp analysis of power, precarity, and organizing in today’s economy; and selections from the Labor Heritage Power Hour exploring labor culture through music, history, and imagination. We also feature grassroots reporting from Working To Live in Southwest Washington, national political coverage from The Valley Labor Report, and on-the-ground worker stories from My Labor Radio. Want to hear the full episodes our producers chose as their best of the year? Find them at LaborRadioNetwork.org, and follow @LaborRadioNet on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, and X for links to each episode as we roll them out over the coming weeks. Thanks to all the producers and hosts who make the Network what it is—and to everyone who listens, shares, and supports labor radio.

Tune in to Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly for a curated soundscape of voices often missing from mainstream headlines. This program acts as your direct line to the stories, struggles, and victories of working people across the nation, stitching together the most compelling segments from a diverse network of worker-focused shows. Each episode is a digest of on-the-ground perspectives, featuring conversations about workplace organizing, economic justice, policy debates, and the cultural issues that shape daily life for millions. You’ll hear from organizers, journalists, and workers themselves, offering analysis and personal narratives that go beyond simple news summaries. While the podcast compiles these highlights for on-demand listening, it also originates as a radio feature, airing weekday mornings on WPFW 89.3 FM in Washington, D.C. This dual identity ensures the content is both timely and deeply rooted in community broadcasting traditions. For anyone looking to understand the real conversations happening within the labor movement, this podcast provides an essential, unfiltered compilation. It’s more than a review; it’s a weekly immersion into the ongoing fight for fairness and dignity on the job, delivered with the urgency and authenticity that these topics demand.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Labor Radio-Podcast Weekly
Podcast Episodes
Data centers, May Day and the fight for power [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:55
On this week’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly, we explore the real-world impacts of major economic and industrial shifts—and how working people are organizing in response. The Rick Smith Show examines the rapid expansion of…
From ICE raids to layoffs, workers push back [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:02
On this week’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly: Work Week Radio reports on a shocking ICE raid at San Francisco International Airport and the fight for sanctuary…El Cafecito Del Dia and Solidarity Works examine how unions are…
Breaking Chains from Memphis to Baseball [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 29:22
On this week’s Labor History Today: In April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. stood with striking sanitation workers in Memphis—members of AFSCME Local 1733—delivering his powerful “Mountaintop” speech just one day before hi…
Organize, Disrupt, Win! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:00
This week on the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly: direct action, rising costs, worker resilience, and the long fight for free agency—Chris and Harold are joined by special guest co-host Judy Ancel of the Heartland Labor Forum…
Meatpacking Strike, Movement Truths, and Solidarity on the Field [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:24
On today’s Labor Radio Podcast Weekly: Working People – JBS meatpacking workers launch one of the largest strikes in decades, demanding safer conditions, fair pay, and dignity on the job amid growing corporate consolidat…
Where’s the Beef? Labor Radio Covers the JBS Strike [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:00
This week on the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly: comprehensive coverage of the strike by meatpacking workers at JBL; Labor Force looks at what led to the walkout, Colorado-based Labor Exchange brings us voices from the picke…
Where’s the Beef? Labor Radio Covers the JBS Strike [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:00
This week on the Labor Radio Podcast Weekly: comprehensive coverage of the strike by meatpacking workers at JBL; Labor Force looks at what led to the walkout, Colorado-based Labor Exchange brings us voices from the picke…