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My work this year.
TL;DR: Gig companies advanced extractive capitalism and national media organizations let us down.
Listen to 'How We Got Here,' the ongoing @theWatsound series, and @NPR’s most listened-to story.
Read the academic essay on the failures of tech journalism.
TL;DR: Gig companies advanced extractive capitalism and national media organizations let us down.
Listen to 'How We Got Here,' the ongoing @theWatsound series, and @NPR’s most listened-to story.
Read the academic essay on the failures of tech journalism.
This story came out on New Year's Day 2020.
It was the only story NPR took from me this year. It also became @NPR’s most listened to story of the year (after the pitch was ignored, then rejected, and finally accepted.) https://www.kqed.org/news/11754695/california-sounds-new-years-day-music-that-hasnt-been-heard-in-500-years
It was the only story NPR took from me this year. It also became @NPR’s most listened to story of the year (after the pitch was ignored, then rejected, and finally accepted.) https://www.kqed.org/news/11754695/california-sounds-new-years-day-music-that-hasnt-been-heard-in-500-years
I started the year continuing my reporting on SF taxi medallions.
San Francisco made millions selling medallions, mostly to immigrant families.
Years later the city is still letting medallion debt crush those families. https://www.kqed.org/news/11798851/s-f-taxi-drivers-say-the-medallion-crisis-is-killing-them-literally
San Francisco made millions selling medallions, mostly to immigrant families.
Years later the city is still letting medallion debt crush those families. https://www.kqed.org/news/11798851/s-f-taxi-drivers-say-the-medallion-crisis-is-killing-them-literally
Delivery apps were scamming restaurants before the pandemic.
This story was a premonition of the tech-fueled disaster capitalism of the Covid era. @TheBayKQED https://www.kqed.org/news/11798547/food-delivery-app-grubhub-tech
This story was a premonition of the tech-fueled disaster capitalism of the Covid era. @TheBayKQED https://www.kqed.org/news/11798547/food-delivery-app-grubhub-tech
In February, local Uber and Lyft drivers who had been organizing for years told me that big unions were trying to weaken their demands. https://www.kqed.org/news/11804507/uber-and-lyft-drivers-are-organizing-but-worry-big-unions-will-sell-them-out
A year ago, I reported about a local baker who was stiffed tens of thousands of dollars by a VC-backed company that abruptly went out of business.
After continuing to fight and all the negative press, she got her money back. https://www.kqed.org/news/11801762/meet-the-baker-who-got-her-money-back-from-the-venture-capitalists
After continuing to fight and all the negative press, she got her money back. https://www.kqed.org/news/11801762/meet-the-baker-who-got-her-money-back-from-the-venture-capitalists
My first story on the coronavirus. One of the most emotional interviews I've ever done. https://www.kqed.org/news/11806175/coronavirus-poses-heightened-hardship-for-workers-who-cant-take-sick-leave-or-work-from-home
I shifted to covering the impact of the coronavirus on essential workers in the Bay Area.
I pitched almost every story nationally. Hardly any were picked up.
6 months later, the problems remain unaddressed and in many cases are much worse. https://www.kqed.org/news/11809643/the-many-challenges-of-being-an-essential-service-worker-in-a-pandemic
I pitched almost every story nationally. Hardly any were picked up.
6 months later, the problems remain unaddressed and in many cases are much worse. https://www.kqed.org/news/11809643/the-many-challenges-of-being-an-essential-service-worker-in-a-pandemic
@Alanmontecillo, @Chrisjameshoff and I made “How We Got Here.” It’s a 3-hour radio doc about how shareholders and executives have undermined workers for decades.
It’s the first time on radio I’ve been able to talk about systemic problems in capitalism. https://www.kqed.org/howwegothere
It’s the first time on radio I’ve been able to talk about systemic problems in capitalism. https://www.kqed.org/howwegothere
'How We Got Here' aired on @kqed, @SPRlocalnews, @WCAI_NPR, @kfaiFMradio, and a handful of other small, radical public radio stations. Support local, community radio!
https://exchange.prx.org/series/39455-how-we-got-here
https://exchange.prx.org/series/39455-how-we-got-here
@chrisjameshoff and I won a regional Murrow for our piece about sensory consultant, Hoby Wedler. Most fun I've ever had making a radio story. Also, best door/bottle opening montage. @CalReportTweets https://www.kqed.org/news/11749650/blind-since-birth-this-petaluma-man-now-designs-how-products-sound
I wrote this article for a @CambridgeUP book called, "Beyond the Algorithm:
Qualitative Insights for Gig Work Regulation."
The piece is about how the conventions of “tech journalism” helped gig companies amass venture capital and avoid regulation.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668606
Qualitative Insights for Gig Work Regulation."
The piece is about how the conventions of “tech journalism” helped gig companies amass venture capital and avoid regulation.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3668606
In the lead up to the election, I was covering prop 22 every day. This is a comprehensive review of how gig companies dealt a devastating blow to labor protections in a state considered to be one of the most progressive in the nation. https://www.kqed.org/news/11843123/prop-22-explained-why-gig-companies-are-spending-huge-money-on-an-unprecedented-measure
An Uber driver sent me a screenshot. I tweeted it. Reps from the company told my bosses to make me take it down. We didn’t. Workers then filed a lawsuit against Uber. https://twitter.com/SamWHarnett/status/1318265349964394496?s=20
That tweet led to this story about how gig companies made their workers promote prop 22. https://www.kqed.org/news/11842964/gig-companies-are-making-their-workers-promote-prop-22
An Uber engineer told me why he quit over pressure at the company to support prop 22. https://www.kqed.org/news/11844698/uber-engineer-quits-over-pressure-to-support-proposition-22
This is the history on how Lyft, Uber, and other app companies have, for eight years, succeeded in avoiding regulation and denying workers basic protections. https://www.kqed.org/news/11833598/after-epic-8-year-battle-california-uber-lyft-drivers-may-soon-receive-employee-benefits
Local and national outlets brought me on to talk about proposition 22 and its devastating impacts on workers. @NewsHour, @thebayKQED, @slate, @Marketplace, @techwontsaveus, @KCRWPressPlay, @KQEDforum
A bunch of workers at Kickstarter started the first union of its kind at a modern venture-backed company. Here’s how they did it. @ClarissaRedwine is releasing an oral history about the fight to start this union. https://www.kqed.org/news/11839817/how-a-scrappy-group-of-tech-workers-formed-one-of-the-only-unions-in-the-industry
I reported about how venture capitalists are trying to take over home-cooked food, and how a local delivery co-op is resisting the extractive-app-based work model.
https://www.kqed.org/news/11837394/chefs-and-venture-capitalists-hope-to-make-money-on-home-cooked-food https://www.kqed.org/news/11849055/tired-of-big-tech-co-ops-appeal-to-delivery-workers-burned-by-gigs
https://www.kqed.org/news/11837394/chefs-and-venture-capitalists-hope-to-make-money-on-home-cooked-food https://www.kqed.org/news/11849055/tired-of-big-tech-co-ops-appeal-to-delivery-workers-burned-by-gigs
Hyunjoo Albrecht is a local kimchi maker who has been burned many times by venture-backed companies. She delivers the most acute assessment of San Francisco’s vc-scene out of anyone I’ve ever interviewed. https://www.kqed.org/news/11831806/they-just-dont-listen-sf-kimchi-maker-saw-food-tech-practices-up-close-in-her-kitchen
My final piece of this year is on a familiar topic: how executives and managers at gig companies have used rhetoric to construct an alternate reality that sways public opinion, regulators, and lawmakers. https://www.kqed.org/news/11852498/dashers-taskers-and-other-euphemisms-obscure-real-losses-for-gig-workers
Lastly, @chrisjameshoff and I began a 9-part, live, communal listening series. It’s ongoing, and a great way to join a bunch of people and, for a short time, escape the mess of the modern world.
https://www.theworldaccordingtosound.org/outside-in/
https://www.theworldaccordingtosound.org/outside-in/
Thanks to everyone who listened, read, did interviews, patiently explained things to me, and supported my work!
