Speaking Out of Place: VEENA DUBAL discusses how Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash…use algorithmic wage discrimination against their workers

October 10, 2023/ Interviewed by David Palumbo-Liu

on how Uber, Lyft, Instacart, DoorDash and others use algorithmic wage discrimination against their workers

In this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast, Professor David Palumbo-Liu speaks with Professor Veena Dubal about how such companies have exported globally a technique of algorithmic wage discrimination that pays workers based on data to which they have no access. Owners dangle bonuses before workers but take away work from them as they draw close to achieving their targets; they use psychological tricks derived from video games to create a casino-like environment where the house always wins. Dubal urges us not to fall into the trap of competing against the house, but back to “good old-fashioned organizing.”

September 29, 2023

Speaking Out of Place: JUNE CHOI, YANNAI KASHTAN & BELINDA RAMIREZ on the Coalition for a True School of Sustainability

September 29, 2023/ Interviewed by David Palumbo-Liu

Coalition for a True School of Sustainability

September 25, 2023

Speaking Out of Place: LIZA FEATHERSTONE on Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA)

September 25, 2023/ Interviewed by David Palumbo-Liu

Journalist · Essayist · Author · Teacher
Columnist Jacobin Magazine · New Republic

We have passed the Build Public Renewables Act which mandates and requires the state's power authority the New York State Power Authority to build its own publicly funded renewables: renewable energy, wind, and solar. And this was a long, long hard hard-fought victory. And to say how it happened, we need to think back to the early Bernie days just after the Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. Obviously, people were very disappointed that Bernie Sanders didn't win, but a lot of people were also very politicized by that campaign and by that moment. And so a lot of people were joining DSA (Democratic Socialists of America). At the same time, a lot of young people were becoming very aware and very anxious, disturbed, and deeply depressed by the climate crisis.

August 30, 2023

Speaking Out of Place: TIM HEWLETT - Co-founder of Scientist Rebellion, Activist, Astrophysicist

August 30, 2023/ Interviewed by David Palumbo-Liu

Co-founder of Scientist Rebellion · Climate Activist · Astrophysicist

I think the more pernicious aspect is the way that science as a set of institutions fits into a paradigm that is doomed from the outset. For instance, if you look at the framing of the science within the IPCC reports and how that informs the construction of policy related to the climate around the globe, well, it's foundationally dishonest. If you frame an entire report around the need to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees or 2 degrees, and all of the efforts that societies are going to make to do that, and you omit from the public discussion the fact that we have no chance whatsoever of achieving those goals.