Empathy Media Lab

In every era, the people face a defining question: Will they build a future worthy of free people or slip into the managed decline of debt, speculation and cultural decay? The answer turns not on temporary political moods but on the system of political economy a nation chooses as its operating philosophy. There are two competing systems in modern history. One system treats money as the measure of value, markets as the arbiter of destiny and society as an arena of consumption, competition and extraction. Under this system, banks and asset values are placed above labor and production. Financial engineering replaces physical engineering, and speculative gains masquerade as economic growth. This is the monetarist system. The other system measures value not in money but in the productive powers of labor. It treats human creativity as the source of wealth, public credit as a tool of national purpose and infrastructure as the foundation for rising living standards. Under this system, progress is defined by increasing productive output, rising real wages, expanding scientific capabilities and improved conditions of life for each generation. This is the credit system, also known as the productive economy. Every great advance in American development came from the credit system. Every major period of decline followed a retreat into monetarism. The United States now stands at a decisive moment. Decades of financialization, offshoring, infrastructure neglect and cultural fragmentation have hollowed out the economic and civic foundations of the republic. We must again choose the system that builds nations, not the one that extracts from them. This is a call not only for economic reform, but for civic renewal. It is the blueprint for a National Credit and Productive Investment Era—a return to building a high-wage, high-energy, high-technology republic. Follow the conversation at https://politicaleconomyproject.substack.com www.eml.media

“You are also competing with the guy that goes on TikTok and eats 10,000 pieces of meat and is a superstar. Right? So Superstardom is no longer exclusive to artists or filmmakers or actors. I really feel for the artists.”  Foza Fawehinmi, President, Digital Music Commerce and Exchange Limited Foza Fawehinmi is an award-winning lawyer and the President of Digital Music Commerce and Exchange Limited, an intellectual property valuation, management and administration company serving sub-Saharan Africa. Over the last 9 years, she has served as a legal advisory and business consultant for some of Africa’s most reputable entertainment companies and artists including, Chocolate City Music, Premier Records, Boomplay Music, Infinix Nigeria, K1 De Ultimate, Teni, Adekunle Gold, The Sarz Academy, Sarz and more Learn more about Foza’s work at: https://digitalmusicce.com https://fozadoza.com/category/newsletter https://www.instagram.com/fozadoza https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyinkansola-fawehinmi  https://www.facebook.com/fawehinmi.oyinkansola https://twitter.com/fozadoza  About EMLab’s Artist Works Artist Works is an EMLab brand that explores the labor, concepts, and inspiration behind the artists illuminating and shaping our world.  EMLab is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, and journalists, and laborers who are fighting for a brighter day for everyone, everywhere. Union solidarity forever. All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab  #laborradiopod #ArtistWorks

“It's a matter of history now. With the podcast, it's not in a book somewhere that's just gonna sit in a library and nobody's gonna read it. Those voices are up in the ether, and they will remain there until the earth falls into the sun. So anybody going forward who wants to write something about the murder of Martin Luther King is going to have to deal with those people, those voices, those witnesses that we gathered there. You will not be able to go around it and not deal with it.” Bill Klaber Producer and Host of The MLK Tapes Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Memphis to organize the sanitation workers heading into the summer of 1968's Poor People's Campaign to march on Washington, D.C., demanding an Economic Bill of Rights.  King was uniting the trifecta of labor, civil rights, and anti-war factions. As I listened to The MLK Tapes, I was blown away by the obliteration of the official narrative while getting a glimpse of the ghastly forces aligned against everything King was trying to do. Explore The True Story Behind Dr. Martin Luther King’s Assassination, Complete with Rare Eye Witness Testimonies, in “The MLK Tapes,” From Tenderfoot TV and iHeartMedia “The MLK Tapes,” is a true crime podcast exploring never-before-heard details about what happened to King on the day of his death, with rare recordings of eye-witness testimonies and new interviews with people who were there to reveal the true story of the plot to kill Dr. King. According to the official story, on April 4th, 1968, a lone gunman assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. That man, James Earl Ray, pled guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison and for most people, the case was closed.  However, there is more to the story, including a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the King Family that concluded Martin Luther King’s death was the result of a conspiracy involving multiple groups, including government agencies.  The series is be hosted by William (Bill) Klaber, an author and co-host of the podcast “The RFK Tapes”, who has been investigating the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy since 1989. While working on “The RFK Tapes,” Klaber interviewed a man named Bill Pepper, who spent forty years investigating the assassination of his friend, Dr. King.  Pepper’s decades-long investigation included recording witnesses on tape. They revealed what they saw, and in some cases, what they had done. When Klaber heard this audio it opened up another opportunity to expose the lies in a 50-year-old murder mystery using secrets that had been hidden on tapes. Listen to the MLK Tapes at: https://themlktapes.com You can follow Bill Klaber and Tender Foot Media’s work at: Bill KlaberShadow Play: The Murder of Robert F. Kennedy  The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell https://twitter.com/billklaber  http://rfktapes.com https://www.facebook.com/therfktapes The MLK Tapeshttps://themlktapes.com https://www.instagram.com/themlktapes https://www.facebook.com/themlktapes https://twitter.com/TheMLKTapes TenderfootTVhttps://tenderfoot.tv  https://www.instagram.com/tenderfoot.tv  https://www.facebook.com/tenderfoottv https://twitter.com/tenderfoottv  ------------------------------------------- About the Labor Solidarity Podcast The Labor Solidarity Podcast highlights the work of labor leaders while discussing historic struggles and the importance of organizing with the goal of building international labor solidarity. Learn more at: https://www.empathymedialab.com/laborsolidarity  The Labor Solidarity Podcast is a part of the EML Publishing brands and we are a proud member of The Labor Radio Podcast Network. Learn more:  https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab  Union Solidarity Forever. #LaborRadioPod #1U #UnionStrong

“Sexual harassment was completely legal. Pregnancy discrimination was legal. We held these bad boss contests. Where, the first winner was a boss who had asked his secretary to sew up a hole in his pants while he was wearing them. So it was really dire out there. And when we started speaking up, everyone was so shocked. It was like the wallpaper had come alive.” Ellen Cassedy, 9 to 5 About the 9 to 5 Movement Starting out in Boston in 1973, the women of 9 to 5 built a nationwide feminist movement that united people of diverse races, classes, and ages. They took on the corporate titans. They leafleted, filed lawsuits, and started a woman-led union. They won millions of dollars in back pay and helped make sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination illegal. “The entire time that we were working on the movie I could carry in my heart that this was married to a movement.” — JANE FONDA When women rose up to win rights and respect at the office, they transformed workplaces throughout America. Along the way came Dolly Parton’s toe-tapping song and the movie inspired by their work. Working 9 to 5 is a lively, informative, firsthand account packed with practical organizing lore that will embolden anyone striving for fair treatment. Buy the book 9 to 5 at https://ellencassedy.com/#9to5 About Ellen Ellen Cassedy was a founder and longtime leader of 9 to 5, the national association of women office workers. Working 9 to 5 is her first-person account of this exciting movement, which began in the early 1970’s, mobilizing women across the country to organize for rights and respect on the job. The movement inspired Jane Fonda’s hit movie and Dolly Parton’s enduring anthem. 9 to 5 is still active today. Ellen appears in the documentaries “9 to 5: The Story of a Movement” and “Still Working 9 to 5.” Ellen is the award-winning author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust, in which her journey to connect with her Jewish family roots expands into a wider quest. She explores how people in Lithuania are engaging with their Nazi and Soviet past in order to move toward a more tolerant future. Winner of the Grub Street National Book Prize for Nonfiction, shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Ellen is also the co-translator of Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories by Blume Lempel, a collection that moves between the realistic and the fantastic, the lyrical and the philosophical. The translation received the Leviant Memorial Prize from the Modern Language Association, among other awards. Ellen is the translator of On the Landing: Stories by Yenta Mash, which traces an arc across upheavals and regime changes, making a major contribution to the literature of immigration and resilience. Ellen’s play, “Beautiful Hills of Brooklyn,” celebrates the spare beauty of a small but important life, with help from Walt Whitman. It was adapted into a short film starring Joanna Merlin, which qualified for an Academy Award nomination. Ellen was a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, a speechwriter in the Clinton Administration, and author of two previous books for working women. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications. She lives in New York City. Ellen’s Tips for Writers offer advice about writing and being a writer. You can follow Ellen’s work at https://ellencassedy.com https://twitter.com/ellencassedy https://www.instagram.com/ellencassedy/  https://www.facebook.com/ellencassedyauthor ------------------------------------------- About the Labor Solidarity Podcast The Labor Solidarity Podcast highlights the work of labor leaders while discussing historic struggles and the importance of organizing with the goal of building international labor solidarity. Learn more at: https://www.empathymedialab.com/laborsolidarity  The Labor Solidarity Podcast is a part of the EML Publishing brands and we are a proud member of The Labor Radio Podcast Network. Learn more:  https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab  Uni

“We tend to be so lucky in Zambia and Africa because much of the land that we own, most people just inherit it. You don't buy it. And and yet you're sitting on this inherited land and not making it productive.You can’t send your kids to school, you can't have decent housing, you can't actually sustainably feed yourself and yet you're sitting on this resource, So my focus was how do we turn this resource that we sit on, which we don't even value into something that we can actually get jobs out of,” Conrad Bwalya, Bwando Farms Conrad Bwalya is the co-founder of Bwando farms with his wife Linda.  Based in Zambia, Bwando Farms was started in 2015 as a small farm that has been transformed into a successful integrated farming business, while also creating financial opportunities for rural Zambians by training local farmers. The goal of Bwando Farms is to be one among the best protein food suppliers that feeds a growing population while continually raising expectations for what good food can do. Learn about Bwando Farms and support their mission by visiting: https://bwandofarms.com.   About EML Publishing EML Publishing is produced by Evan Matthew Papp and we are a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network. Support media, authors, artists, historians, journalists, and laborers who are fighting for a brighter day for everyone, everywhere. Union solidarity forever. All Links: https://wlo.link/@empathymedialab