You’re invited to join the live studio audience for How To Citizen with Baratunde, a podcast where we reimagine "citizen" as a verb and remember how to wield our collective power. Baratunde will be in conversation with Michelle Miller of CoWorker.org and Saru Jayaraman of OneFairWage to talk about new models of worker organizing.
How To Citizen with Baratunde reimagines the word “citizen” as a verb and reminds us how to wield our collective power. So many of us want to do more in response to the problems we hear about constantly, but where and how to participate can leave us feeling overwhelmed and helpless. Voting, while critically important, simply isn’t enough. It takes more to make this experiment in self-governance work. Listen in to learn new perspectives and practices from people working to improve society for the many. Join writer, activist, and comedian Baratunde Thurston on a journey beyond politics as usual that will leave us all more hopeful, connected, and moved to act.
Baratunde Thurston is an Emmy-nominated host who has worked for THE ONION, produced for THE DAILY SHOW, advised the Obama White House, and wrote the New York Times bestseller HOW TO BE BLACK. He’s the executive producer and host of WE’RE HAVING A MOMENT, a limited-run podcast series that captures this defining moment of pandemic, policing, and race in the U.S and the creator / host of the weekly pandemic show, LIVE ON LOCKDOWN. In 2019, he delivered what MSNBC’s Brian Williams called “one of the greatest TED talks of all time.” Right now, the writer, activist and comedian is using his powerful voice to help people understand this revolutionary moment with his unique blend of criticism, humor, and optimism.
Saru Jayaraman is the President of One Fair Wage, Co-Founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley.
Saru is a graduate of Yale Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She was profiled in the New York Times “Public Lives” section in 2005, named one of Crain’s “40 Under 40” in 2008, was 1010 Wins’ “Newsmaker of the Year” and New York Magazine’s “Influentials” of New York City. She was listed in CNN’s “Top 10 Visionary Women” and recognized as a Champion of Change by the White House in 2014, and a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award in 2015.
Saru authored Behind the Kitchen Door, a national bestseller, and has appeared on CNN with Soledad O’Brien, Bill Moyers Journal on PBS, Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, the Today Show, and many MSNBC shows. Her most recent book is Forked: A New Standard for American Dining. She attended the Golden Globes in January 2018 with Amy Poehler as part of the Times Up action to address sexual harassment. In 2019, she was named the San Francisco Chronicle Visionary of the Year.
Michelle takes the lead on organizational development and fundraising at CoWorker.org, a digital platform for worker voice. She also engages partners, allies and researches on questions related to the economy, technology and the future of the labor movement. She shares responsibility with her co-founder Jess on strategic planning, programming and organizational growth.
Michelle has published research and analysis on labor market impacts of technology in partnership with the Roosevelt Institute and the Century Foundation. In 2015, Michelle was proud to join President Barack Obama as co-moderator of the first ever Town Hall on Worker Voice, bringing the voices of workers directly to the White House. Before co-founding Coworker.org, Michelle spent a decade at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) where she used creative media and the arts to advance union campaigns.
She is on the boards of Arts and Democracy and the Brooklyn Institute For Social Research, and lives in Brooklyn, NY
Sab Pell is senior director of product marketing at Openform, where her goal is to help people unlock the power of in-person events. Prior to Openform, she led global product marketing teams. Sab Pell is senior director of product marketing at Openform, where her goal is to help people unlock the power of in-person events. Prior to Openform, she led global product marketing teams.