labor

Emily in Paris: The Disillusioned American Dream

Americans love Paris. We envision a fictional version of the city where life is full of cafes, croissants, and a certain je ne sais quoi. We idealize their style, food, and liberated concept of romance. Netflix’s hit sit-com, Emily in Paris, encapsulates our infatuation not only with France’s popular culture, but with its working culture […]

Uber’s Yellow Cab Deal: The Bittersweet Redemption of a New York Staple

On March 24, Uber announced that it would add NYC taxicabs to its app this summer to increase user accessibility. This partnership, referred to as the “yellow cab deal,” kills two birds with one stone: it creates new customers for cab drivers while simultaneously tackling Uber’s driver shortage. Though the deal appears to revive the […]

Prison Labor in a Post-Pandemic Economy

On January 26, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order declaring that the federal government will eliminate its reliance on private prisons in an attempt to reform our deeply broken incarceration system. With this order, the federal government would sever its ties with for-profit detention facilities, aiming towards a more ethical system focused on rehabilitation. […]

Episode 3: “Death by Overwork” with Beza Zenebe

Listen and subscribe to our podcast: Via Spotify | Via Apple Podcasts This week, Max talks with Beza Zenebe, one of the co-managing editors at NUPR, about confounding problem of overwork in Japan and the rest of the world. We discuss why western media often fixates on overwork in Japan and discuss some potential solutions. […]

Japan’s Vicious “Death by Overwork” Cycle

In July 2013, Miwa Sado logged 159 hours of overtime work and took only two days off. She then died of heart failure.  Less than two years later, Matsuri Takahashi died by suicide after consistently logging more than one hundred overtime hours per month. Before her suicide, she tweeted “I want to die” and “I’m […]

Beyond “Point-of-Production” Organizing: Participatory Budgeting, Worker Cooperatives, and Left Praxis

An overview of PB and workers cooperatives: Participatory budgeting and workers cooperatives are some of the best institutions being used to build egalitarian, democratic political structures that can transcend national rightwing forces. Participatory budgeting (PB) humbly started in Porto Alegre and has since inspired Leftist political movements across the globe, unleashed political agency, and revolutionized […]