Summary: Labor rights for graduate student workers! Ben, Ben, Laura, and guest Matt McCune discuss the need for labor protections for early-career scientists and their quest to form recognized labor unions. We discuss the power imbalances that is imposing a mental health crisis on our next generation of scientists. Not a lot of disagreement on this pod; we get all Woody Guthrie on your ass. As always, we close with pub chatter and bad puns from Ben I. Participants: Dr. Ben Zalisko, @benzalisko Dr. Matt McCune, @Matttuple Dr. Laura Van Berkle, @Laura_VanBerkel Dr. Ben Issacoff, @bpisaacoff Links: Subject overview: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/06/push-graduate-student-unions-signals-deep-structural-shift-academia Mizzou graduate workers union decision: https://www.courts.mo.gov/fv/c/Judgment_FINAL.pdf?l=CT13&di=3176008 Letter that Matt mentioned about evenings and weekend expectations: http://www.chemistry-blog.com/tag/carreira-letter/ Ezra Klein podcast about workism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/work-as-identity-burnout-as-lifestyle/id1081584611?i=1000436045971 Laura’s book recommendation, “Rain”: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22822881-rain Ben I’s chatter about coffee stockpile: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-coffee/swiss-government-says-coffee-not-essential-stockpiling-to-end-idUSKCN1RM226 Ben Z’s chatter about FAA approval for UAV delivery: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/04/27/google-wing-drone-beats-amazon-faa-approval/3591824002/
