High Iron and Higher Stakes — Unions, Antisemitism Myths, and a Boxcar for Labor

On this week’s Labor Heritage Power Hour: historian Joe McCartin unpacks Congress’s “Unmasking Union Antisemitism,” showing how employers have long weaponized antisemitic tropes against unions while Jewish workers helped build a pluralistic, democratic labor movement—and why the latest push is really about weakening unions and chilling speech. Then producer Patrick Dixon talks with artist-anthropologist Aubrey Edwards about High Iron, a traveling boxcar-turned-community museum honoring the immigrant and Indigenous workers who built the West’s railroads, towns, and economy. Two stories, one thread: who tells America’s story—the power brokers, or the people who built it?

Broadcast on September 18, 2025 on WPFW 89.3FM in Washington, DC and other stations across America.
Hosted by Chris Garlock and Elise Bryant; produced by Chris Garlock; engineered by Mike Nasella & Kahlia Chapman.
The Labor Heritage Power Hour is a member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network.

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