August 28, 2024 Library of Congress Launches Sixth Season of "America Works" Podcast

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress today launched its sixth season of “America Works,” an original podcast series that honors the grit, resilience, humor and dedication of the 168-million-strong American workforce. The new season, released just in time for Labor Day, focuses on workers involved in food production, from agriculture workers to a fisherman and a German sausage maker, among others.

The eight-episode series, part of the American Folklife Center’s ongoing Occupational Folklife Project, introduces audiences to a wide range of voices within the American workforce as it grapples with continued challenges borne of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each episode, running between five to seven minutes, includes worker testimonies that add to the rich tapestry of American society. The first episode is available now on Apple Podcasts and at loc.gov/podcasts. Subsequent episodes will be released each Thursday through Oct. 17.

For the new season, “we thought it would be fun to feature interviews with contemporary American workers involved in growing, harvesting and preparing food, and feeding other Americans,” said project director and podcast host Nancy Groce. “From restaurant owners to cheese makers and crop dusters to a farmer who specializes in growing Asian vegetables, Season 6 will give listeners a taste of the full-length Occupational Folklife Project interviews available online with workers who feel passionately about food — and eating!”

The sixth season of “America Works” includes:

Episode 1 — David Swett, the owner of Swett’s Restaurant, a culinary landmark in Nashville, Tennessee, since 1954. Swett discusses the ups and downs of being an African American business owner, working in the food industry, the joy of Southern cooking and his pride in belonging to the Nashville community.

Episode 2 — April Matson, manager of the Pitt Stop Food concession at the legendary Ransomville Speedway, a family-owned dirt track racecourse in western New York, reflects on how she first started working the track’s concession stand, preparing popular menu items, including “flat dogs” and handcut fries, and how her job has changed and expanded over the years. 

Episode 3 — Alfred Quijance, a fisherman and subsistence harvester from Seldovia, Alaska, talks about growing up in a remote Alutiiq/Sugpiaq-speaking community on Kodiak Island, learning traditional Native American seining, fishing and harvesting, his experiences working on fishing boats and canneries throughout Alaska as well as harvesting local foods such as kelp, chocolate lilies, puffin eggs and more.

Episode 4 — Emily Daniel, one of a small but growing number of female agriculture pilots — also known as “crop dusters” — talks about learning to fly planes as a teenager, managing a spray business with her husband that services farms from New Jersey to Texas and career challenges for women ag pilots.

Episode 5 — Jade Sato, the founder and owner of Minoru Farm in Brighton, Colorado, talks about her love for food like shiso, ginger and gobo root, establishing her business and how her biracial identity influences her work.

Episode 6 — George Neiden, a German American sausage maker and owner of the Old Country Sausage Kitchen in Maple Heights, Ohio, talks about learning and plying his trade and the delight he takes in not only creating new sausage varieties but also keeping alive ethnic food traditions.

Episode 7 — Phuong Mai Nguyen and Amp Phettapong, owners and chefs of the popular Indochine Café in Columbus, Ohio, share their experiences arriving as refugees from Vietnam and their path to establishing and running their family restaurant, which features traditional dishes from Vietnam and Laos.

Episode 8 — Dale Baumgartner, longtime head cheese maker at the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a farmer-owned cheese and dairy cooperative in costal Oregon, talks about growing up on a small dairy farm, his evolving career at the creamery, developing cheddar recipes and the accolades he has won for the national brand.

Each “America Works” episode is drawn from a longer interview from the American Folklife Center’s Occupational Folklife Project, a multiyear initiative created to document workforce culture. Since 2010, fieldworkers from the American Folklife Center have interviewed more than 1,800 workers, documenting their experiences in more than 100 professions. More than  800 of these full-length interviews are now available online.

The first five seasons of “America Works,” launched in August 2020, April 2021, January 2022, March 2023, and February 2024, respectively, are available on Apple Podcasts and at loc.gov/podcasts.  Listen to a trailer for “America Works” and subscribe here: https://loc.gov/podcasts/america-works/.

About the American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center was created by Congress in 1976 and placed at the Library of Congress to “preserve and present American folklife” through programs of research, documentation, archival presentation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, public programs and training. The Center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world.

About the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.