When we started working on the Going for Broke series, author Barbara Ehrenreich was in many ways a north star for creating the episode about work. Both Anne and Steve had interviewed Barbara over the years for TTBOOK for her landmark book “Nickel and Dimed” among other writings. And Barbara had founded the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, our partner on the series. EHRP’s current executive director Alissa Quart was very close with Barbara — she was her mentor and friend. We’d decided to interview Barbara for the show, and she and I had emailed a few times to set up a video call and conversation.
But before we could talk, last year, on Labor Day weekend, Barbara died. Alissa and I talked about how ironic yet perfect Barbara — who was known for her dark sense of humor — dying on Labor Day weekend was. Alissa had given me an interview she recorded with Barbara in 2021, a year before. We had planned to do the new one and maybe add to it. I wasn’t sure if Alissa would be able emotionally to listen, but she eventually did and found some peace hearing Barbara’s voice.
That interview became the final part of the three-part series, "Barbara Ehrenreich on writing the American labor story," which we thought you might want to hear this Labor Day. Many people are remembering Barbara this weekend, one year after her death on Sept. 1, 2022. On the evening of Sept. 28, Alissa will be part of “Remembering Barbara Ehrenreich” at the Center for Brooklyn History along with Cornel West, Jia Tolentino, Sen. Bernie Sanders and others. The tribute will be live-streamed, so all of us who read her books and remember her deeply revealing and original views on work, health care, and American life can tune in, too, together.
–Shannon