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Bonus: WGA/SAG Strike Update (Patreon)

Published:
2023-08-19 13:25:46
Imported:
2026-06

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Content

We talk to Alex Press about her reporting on the ongoing WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes, with additional commentary from some of the striking entertainment workers we met on the picket lines in LA and NYC.

Special thanks to the following for speaking to us:

Bex Taylor-Klaus

Catherine Schetina

Jess McKenna

John Hodgman

Max Calder

Read Alex's piece on the strikes in Jacobin here: https://jacobin.com/2023/07/hollywood-writers-actors-strike-studios-streaming

Files

Comments

T

first

Ben Zaretsky

First! I’ll be submitting an alternate slate of electors

Malaparte_Animal

one of the best labor journalists, folks, lots of people are saying it ❤️

Wizard of Choice

Hollywood producers are scum. The lot of them!!

katie

Bex! 🩶

Allen Butt

Jess McKenna! I love her episodes on Comedy Bang Bang, she’s so funny.

Andrew Rexroat

Absolutely loved intercutting the interview with Alex with the man of the street interviews of workers. Best labor episode yet!

Adam

I like this format! more man on the street chapo 🤩

Tvvvv

More man on the street

Tvvvv

This is the best thing you guys have done

Comrade Trash Panda

Hearing a lot of complaining about being tossed into the gig economy. It is hell and such productive modes must be abolished. That being said I don't have a memory of these people saying anything when the lower tier of the working class started getting fed to this beast en masse over a decade ago. I support the strike and want them to succeed but it is very difficult to have sympathy for people in an industry that has never missed an opportunity to shit on the working class or fail to tip the dude who delivers them their food in their air conditioned writers rooms and sets. Hope the strike succeeds and fuck these people.

HarshMalarkey

I didn't hear you saying anything either

Seymour Butz

At the end of the day you should always support the workers in a strike if you claim to be of the left in any way, means testing your support is supreme lib shit

Comrade Trash Panda

I support the strike and donate to the fund. My support is not contingent upon me liking my fellow workers.

Violet

I'd give a 75% chance that the streaming companies also don't know how many people are actually watching their shows and really don't want anyone finding out how imprecise and useless their numbers really are, because they don't want investors to know how meaningless the stats they quote are. That's just based on my experience working in tech, though.

Ian

Wanna echo Andrew Rexroat - great episode and loved the format and editing. Thanks for putting up on public feed, this is perfect for sharing with friends who aren't regular listeners.

Nathan Explosion

they know. they might not understand or interpret data well, but they know. i had a student that was interning for a netflix sub that was breaking down all the movies into their component, algorithmic parts.

Violet

Oh, I'm sure they have numbers. Finding numbers to put in a database is easy. The question is what, if any, relationship those numbers have to reality. How many views are views and how many views are ghosts? How many rewatches are rewatches versus someone leaving the TV on while they go do something else and then realizing they need to watch something again? What's the real relationship between any given view and actual revenue? One of the key insights I can offer on metrics is that the easiest metrics to measure are generally the most meaningless ones. That's a technical and statistical problem. What's a unique view? Is it a per-account view? An IP address based view? Is it just someone hitting play? How many people were actually watching when play was hit? How many eyes are you actually selling with this product placement? Of course, even when you've selected the most _useful_ data to show investors (useful to show them - not useful to the investors), you still run into the problem that these view numbers you're bragging about have almost nothing to do with how much money you actually make.

Julie Baxter

Ironic that Netflix made millions (billions?) off of buying The Office, as series that in part condemns and mocks lazy, clueless, fucked up bosses.

Blank

Speaking of Alex Press, anyone else think Felix sounds like Gabe Winant? Would love to hear an interview of those two

Jeffrey Miller

That was excellent! Very well produced and the editing really had my full attention the entire time which just flew by!

Brian J. Lancaster

Writing is way harder than acting, including for AI. 3rd guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

teenynoid

Lived through NAFTA. They laughed and didn't give a shit - "get educated, stop voting against your own interests." As though a Democrat didn't pass it and annihilate our entire way of life. But NOW it's an emergency, because it affects white-collar people. Writers are getting absolutely fucked right now, but as a group they're fucking insufferable. Hard to talk to sometimes.

I am become reply guy

Art that isn’t made by humans that no one watches, people who want to work but can’t afford to, profit being pursued as a kind of high score without any ends or objective, all while the clock is ticking on the survival of the human species… my god it’s all so absurd. What is the point of living in a society? Isn’t it obvious that we’d be so much better off and HAPPIER living for each other and having a future??

Greg

Hodgman on Chapo?? Now I've heard everything!

Rico

love jess! off book is a joy

Nathan Explosion

this is their excuse and what needs to happen is creating some kind of metric to use because of the unknowables. but they won’t agree to anything because it benefits them to play a shell game. it won’t be perfect. neilsen ratings weren’t either but they created a reasonable metric for broadcast and cable television. such a compromise is key here and they will forever hide behind the reality that you’re elucidating in bad faith. it’s not so clear as butts in seats. TV never has been and it was something they made compromise on in the past.

October

John Hodgman is my celebrity free pass.

Austin Magleby

Absolutely love this. I thought I had a very complete view of the strikes already, but still learned a lot - we love to see man on the street Chapo!

Violet

Nielsen-style ratings would be a vast improvement on what currently is being done. Unfortunately, I think that the streaming platforms will prefer a deal that uses their own numbers over a deal that makes their performance measurable to everyone.

Richard Cardenas

If I discovered a new species of bird I’d name it the Striking Hodgman

Jaime Christley

around 29:00, Will recreating Bob Slydell in OFFICE SPACE asking "What would you say....... ya do here?"

Kyle Petty

Look this is probably a useless exercise on my part but I will think about the IDW and Conservative people I know and how they would hypothetically respond to certain podcasts/talking points. It's a useless exercise because it's based in the Aaron Sorkin "best argument wins politics," that's been downloaded into American culture. With that said, I hear someone with the prominent heavy inflection cadence at 8:00-8:30 and my heart sinks a little. Here's someone telling their story, making some real tangible points, actually personalizing why this is an important issue. Yet, I know people that would immediately check out just because of that specific voice pattern.

William

Solidarity forever

Jaime Christley

What's nuts is that companies generally aren't afraid that a big secret will be revealed like everybody working there is three kids in a trenchoat and they pull all their numbers from a fishbowl - the fear is that they'll lose A LITTLE BIT of money. Not that their stock price will plummet 97% on one crazy trading day, but that it'll drift down 3% year on year - as George Costanza once said, like an old man settling into a warm bath. It's what sets those people apart from labor: most of the people who produce value fear catastrophe but learn to shrug off slights and being devalued and getting ground down day after day. Say what you want about SUCCESSION - that last season got a little rocky imo - one of its most compelling aspects was showing how all these so-called power players (anyone who wasn't named Roy, really - but sometimes them too) had ice-cold fear behind their eyes 24/7 and had no other option but to keep smiling and saying things like "Well.... it's exciting!" when processing some new shitty idea or bad news. Part of that is the awareness of how expendable *they* are (thinking of, like, when Logan ordered Tom to fire Gerri because she couldn't negotiate a lower fine from that federal case), but also, Hollywood being Hollywood, another part is thoughts like "Fuck me, Ted has the new Audi R8 and I'm still leasing the 2023 model? How did he get it so quickly, does he have an in? My life is fucked I want to kill myself." No wonder these twats fail to understand how labor produces value and whatnot - they live in a complete fantasy. EDIT: It's true that there are many cases where CEOs will march a company over a cliff and somehow the calculus will work out that they get an even fatter bonus than if they, you know, did a good job and the company had a good year. But it's the people they have to deliver results to, quarter after quarter, the large stakeholder investors who literally have NO other driving force but to EXPECT infinite growth, one quarter at a time ---- they're the Germans hiding in the woods with the belt-fed machine gun. If the strikers get TOO GOOD of a settlement from all this, bodies are gonna drop.

Kyle Petty

I also appreciated at the 17:00 Mars where they bring up the topic I'm making things better for the next generation. I don't hear this thought process by most other workers and unions. Ironically, the one sector were actually here this being used the most is with professional athletes, arguably The most right wing of all American unions. Yes, most of their negotiations center around their own personal advancement But they still acknowledge that their personal contract negotiation paves the way for the next round. Specifically in the MLB, Which is the sport I love the most, The players are mostly made up of, "Good old boys from the south." Yet, they seem to be one of the unions that is most concerned with getting the bottom level members taken care of and setting the situation up for the future.

Benjamin Richey

John hodge man is so irritating to my ears.

Poppy Chulo

The sad thing is that this is like a ship thats been pointed in one direct and the car ntroks have all been pulled out and the crew jumped overboard. So even with many passengers wanting to change course nobody knows how. We're just hellbent in one direction and that will end in cataclysm.

Jaime Christley

I work DoorDash and the app says if there's a tip on the job or not - I mean you can tell by the payout (if it's under $4). If I get a no-tipper I usually pass it by because I don't feel like getting angry, but the ones I do accept, they've been known to arrive a little light. Maybe 1-2 tendies go missing. Couple of fries. And if it's a contactless delivery? Baby your order is being left at the end of your driveway, possibly upside down. Say what you like about Rian Johnson but the inspo for that last one came from the 2nd-to-last episode of POKER FACE.

Erik

Can’t believe Adam Friedland shamed Will into doing this. Truly a powerhouse of center-left podcasting

Jaime Christley

jeez, he's always said nice things about you!

Jaime Christley

I'm just giving you shit lol. I actually thought about posting when he said "most people prefer to hear my voice rather than look at your face" "Oh, John, people don't want to do that either." but I adore the guy. anywho

Brian

Man-aker on the Street

Jeremy

Wow, John Hodgman! Years ago I met him and jokingly apologized for having bitten his writing style for a college creative writing assignment. He told me what every writer is a thief, and signed my book with an instruction to read Borges. John, if you’re reading this, I eventually did as you commanded, and you were right.

J.P. McD.

Also work in tech and completely agree with Violet

Sean Earl Beard

Any striker is a good striker. Happy to see Chapo back on their “giving a shit” era

Poppy Chulo

I stand in solidarity with SAG and to prove it I have invite Jessie Buckley to use my face as a seat whenever she visits the states.

Eliot Van Buskirk

Great material here. Everyone needs to hear this regardless of where they work.

Kryn Benski

I was hesitating to say I felt like that was one of the least sympathetic statements. They’re not talking about future members knowing how to organize. They’re asking, “what will become of our storytelling?” (Something I personally care about, more than I probably should)

Folks,,

Hodgeman’s the man

Degrassi Knoll

Guess Dry Tortugas National Park is on strike as well...

Medellin

Love these episodes. Getting tired of the cynical shit. We know we’re all fucked we wanna hear what we can do about it.

Nolan

Yea, they used my likeness in a ton of gay porn. Hollywood sickos!

Demented Avenger

I eagerly await the ability of Hollywood to have digital Jesse Ventura kill digital Ahnold and digital Maria Conchita Alonso in a digital arena

Kyle Petty

I'm assuming you're saying the comments at 17:00 were the least sympathetic? If so, I can see that. That somewhat ties into what I was saying about sports unions. I think it taps into a larger issue with all American Unions, that have to function in a hyper capitalist society. Being in this society, stakes are raised, and you have to sift through the members to see who is actually a believer in the union, and who is just in the union for the sake of the power that it provides. I know a lot of people in education and this is a pretty common trope. The vast majority of people are just in the union because it personally helps them out, there are still portions of genuine believers, but that's the minority. I guess it comes down to what is more important? If someone's ideals are in the right place but their actions don't actually help or if someone's ideals are only about self-preservation but their actions do further the strength of the Union? Obviously, the perfect scenario is if both of those things line up.

Poppy Chulo

I'm in love with Jessie Buckley.

I am become reply guy

This is why we can never expect to negotiate with them, they need to be usurped, dispossessed. It’s like trying to reason with an addict or an infant. The tragic irony of all this is that they would be happier if they could get off the treadmill you described and feel like they were doing right by others.

Jaime Christley

There must be some kind of masochistic pathology going on with the hotshot set - also something about spending your entire life being as ruthless and unscrupulous as you can imagine, because you were inculcated to believe that you’d fall off the ladder if you weren’t…. that’s got to do something to your brain, right? Oddly this makes me think of the Dark Forest theory. But the junkie/infantile characterization you cite fits as well. In a larger sense, this is why I tend to look askance at our “betters” telling us We can’t afford it, There’s not enough, You can’t beat city hall, We’re gonna have to tighten our belts etc etc etc. These people want the masses to believe we’re living in a jungle and the wolves are at the door - to blend up a few metaphors. But it’s almost always bullshit and we owe it to ourselves to investigate what motivates those lies.

T

I feel like this could be submitted for some kind of award.

Evan Pitkin

Thank you for doing this. If its not public please make it available to everyone.

K102.1FM Mornings w/ Jonny Corndogs

Also, while I got you Chapos here, let me say that I loved Chris's off-mic but still audible, hypemanesque laughs after Matt's and Felix's zingers on Friday's episode. The off-mic laughs are always a great add to an already good zinger.

Jaime Christley

I been saying this, when Chris Wade is just out of frame, laughing too, that's a lil treat for us piggies

Haenyeo

Move to LA Will, California needs you.

nati

This was legitimately one of the best pieces of journalism I’ve listened to all year. Congrats everyone and solidarity forever

Chris W

I also picked up a Borges on the reco of Hodgman on the judge John Hodgman show. His poetry is also good and helped me get into that a bit more

Major Powers

Banger ep. I love Alex so much!

Starry Pr1nce

Weird how Stevie Nelson never achieved the same success as her LTASMI costar Milana V. I wonder why. Lmao perhaps SAG is what will finally let her beat Milana

Starry Pr1nce

Well obviously not watch a good tv show, it's over