Marketplace’s History Podcast The Uncertain Hour Returns Feb. 3 to Tackle “This Thing We Used to Call Employment”
With the rise of subcontracting, gig work and freelance opportunities, this season examines what happened to the American job — one with benefits, paid time off and a retirement plan
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2021 — Announced today, American Public Media’s Marketplace will return with the fifth season of its award-winning history podcast The Uncertain Hour. The show, hosted by Krissy Clark, explains our complicated, and often unequal, American economy — and why some people get ahead, while some get left behind.
The latest season looks at the current condition of employment in the United States. More and more Americans are taking jobs that are outsourced, subcontracted, freelance, “self-employed,” temporary or “gig” — a decadeslong trend that has accelerated in recent years. These types of jobs often come without benefits and sometimes offer pay below the minimum wage. In this season of The Uncertain Hour, the show will cover the history and policy decisions that led us here, how some companies use loopholes to avoid providing workers a minimum wage or basic protections and what a workforce increasingly made up of “nonemployees” means for the future. The show is back with new episodes available Feb. 3.
“Lately we’ve heard a lot about the pitfalls of gig work — especially relating to Uber and Lyft drivers—but this is just one recent example of something that has been happening for years,” said Clark. “This season looks at the long history of corporations shedding their employees, along with the costs and responsibilities that come with them. And we look at the rise of the “nonemployee” — a strange term that businesses use to describe the growing number of workers whose labor they rely on but don’t want to directly employ.”
According to Clark, “There’s a huge amount at stake — like who actually gets the basic protections that most American workers took as a given not long ago. Things like getting help if you’re hurt on the job, having a workplace free of harassment and discrimination, being able to form a union, having access to unemployment insurance and being paid a minimum wage. Employees usually have rights to those things from their employers. Non-employees often do not.”
Listen to the trailer of The Uncertain Hour season five here.
EPISODE TOPICS THIS SEASON
The first part of the series follows janitors who were promised the American dream through purchasing janitorial franchises that came with the benefits of being their own bosses, flexibility and entrepreneurship. These janitors paid large corporations thousands of dollars to get jobs cleaning toilets and taking out trash. They did not receive health benefits or paid sick days, vacation or overtime. Sometimes they made less than minimum wage and ended up going into debt. These janitors do not feel like entrepreneurs at all; they feel like employees, and they want to be treated that way in the eyes of the law. At their core, these stories are about what it means to be an employee.
Another story in the series focuses on an expanding and lucrative business model — outsourcing employment. Listenersget a peek behind the curtain of Accenture, a consulting firm that has become a labor-outsourcing guru for Fortune 500 companies. The episode introduces the business philosopher whose idea sparked this employment revolution and his vision of what employment in America should be.
The third part of the series follows workers in central Mississippi’s chicken industry. Previously employed by big poultry companies, many “chicken catchers” now work for subcontractors, often without traditional benefits. Court documents reveal how chicken companies use the “not our employee” defense to disclaim liability for allegations of workplace violations, minimum-wage law infractions and hiring undocumented workers.
The final part of the series delves into the world of baseball and minor league players. Every year, hundreds of top athletes train, suit up and play baseball for wages that are illegal in most sectors. Today, minor league players are employed by 30 Major League Baseball affiliates but provide labor for over 200 minor league teams, in some cases earning less than the batboys and concession vendors in the same stadiums. Over the past few decades, in fact, MLB has been waging a quiet battle to reshape employment law. In this episode, listeners will be introduced to minor league players who are barely scraping by. It’s an in-depth look at the cost of pursuing a dream and how entire industries can sculpt laws to match their business interests.
Listeners can subscribe to The Uncertain Hour on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all podcast platforms.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Host Krissy Clark and producer Caitlin Esch make a dynamic, experienced reporting team. Krissy is an award-winning senior correspondent and host for Marketplace. She brings her curiosity, attention to detail and empathy to the task of making sense of fundamental shifts in the U.S. economy, including the widening gap between rich and poor and what that means for economic mobility and the American dream.
Throughout her career in journalism, Krissy has been recognized for her work. She is a Gracie Award winner and was a James Beard Award nominee and a Stanford Knight journalism fellow. She was part of a team that received an Investigative Reporters and Editors medal and a national Scripps Howard Award, and she shared a first prize in investigative reporting from the National Awards for Education Reporting.
Krissy’s work has appeared in many podcasts, broadcasts and publications, including 99% Invisible, Reveal, Slate, Freakonomics, Pop-Up Magazine, NPR’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered” and the BBC. Krissy graduated cum laude and with honors from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in the humanities.
Caitlin Esch is the senior producer of The Uncertain Hour. She joined Marketplace as a producer for the wealth and poverty desk in 2014 — she can often be found poring over court documents or filing public records requests. Caitlin has a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master’s degree in journalism.
Together, the team has won high accolades for their work on the podcast, including a Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing award and a Webby Award. Krissy and Caitlin were two-time Loeb Award finalists.
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About Marketplace
Marketplace® is on a mission to raise the economic intelligence of the country. Its core programs —”Marketplace”®,“Marketplace Morning Report”® and “Marketplace Tech”® — are currently broadcast on more than 800 public radio stations nationwide and heard by nearly 12 million weekly listeners. Marketplace podcasts, including “Make Me Smart with Kai and Molly,” “The Uncertain Hour”®, “This Is Uncomfortable” and “Million Bazillion,” can be found at Marketplace.org or on your favorite podcast app. The Marketplace portfolio of programs are produced and distributed by American Public Media®, one of the largest producers and distributors of public radio programming in the world. For more information on Marketplace, visit marketplace.org, follow us on Twitter @marketplace or like us on Facebook. For more information on American Public Media, visit americanpublicmedia.org.
About American Public Media
American Public Media® (APM) is the national programming and distribution division of American Public Media Group and reaches nearly 17 million listeners via approximately 1,000 radio stations nationwide each week. APM is one of the largest producers and distributors of public radio programming in the world, with a portfolio that includes BBC World Service, Marketplace® and the leading classical music programs in the nation. APM offers a diverse array of podcasts featuring the best in food, culture, entertainment, business and investigative journalism. For more information on APM, visit americanpublicmedia.org. Source: Data are copyright Nielsen Audio, Nationwide DMA data, Persons 12+, average of Fall ’19 and Spring ’20.