Talking Archives with the Society of Women Engineers

December 22, 2025December 19, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Karen Horting, Executive Director and CEO of the Society of Women Engineers, talks about SWE’s archives at the Reuther Library and shares how the 75-year-old organization leverages its history to advocate for the inclusion of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Karen Horting
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Polish American Women and Detroit’s 1938 Federal Screw Works Strike

December 11, 2025December 5, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Martin Hershock recounts the violent three-day strike against General Motors supplier Federal Screw Works in 1938, when women from Detroit’s Polish community led the fight to preserve both their recently-recognized union and their neighborhood. Hershock is a Professor of History at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and author of the article, “Seems to Me You Have Plenty of Nerve”: Polish American Women, Detroit’s Federal Screw Works Strike of 1938, and the Fate of the UAW.”

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Martin Hershock
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Talking History with AFA President Sara Nelson

November 26, 2025November 19, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, Sara Nelson, International President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO discusses the importance of understanding labor and legislative history when bargaining for better labor contracts for flight attendants today.

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Sara Nelson
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

November 17, 2025November 7, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Professor Michelle Adams describes the struggles to integrate Detroit’s highly segregated neighborhoods and schools in the 1960s, a federal judge’s ruling to alleviate that segregation by bussing students between the predominately Black schools in Detroit and predominantly white schools in the suburbs, and the Supreme Court’s subsequent 1974 Milliken v. Bradley decision that acknowledged the segregated state of Detroit schools but overturned the “metropolitan remedy,” thereby allowing de facto school segregation to persist today.

Adams is the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and author of The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North.

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Michelle Adams
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Remembering the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

October 30, 2025October 17, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Beth Widmaier Capo discusses the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center and the role health practitioners there—including her mother—played in empowering women to understand their bodies and take control of their health in the 1970s. Capo is the Edward Capps Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Illinois College, and author of the article, “The Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center; Or, on Hearing Your Mom Described as ‘The Fucking Bravest Bitch I Knew.’”

Related Collections:
Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Beth Widmaier Capo
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976

October 9, 2025October 1, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

John Miles Branch discusses the National Labor Relations Board’s policy to dismiss union petitions at charitable organizations in the decades following the Second World War, and the policy’s reversal in 1976 when the board acknowledged nonprofit institutions as a “third sector” of the economy linked with the nation’s commercial life.
Branch is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. History at Northwestern University and author of the article, “Union Exemption: Nonprofit Work and the Boundaries of the Commercial Economy, 1951–1976.”

Episode Credits
Interviewee: John Miles Branch
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Talking Archives with AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride

September 25, 2025September 17, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

In celebration of the Reuther Library’s 50th anniversary, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride reflects on the role the union’s history and archives play in current and future labor actions and organizing campaigns.

Related Resources:
AFSCME History

Related Collections:
AFSCME collections at the Reuther Library

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Elissa McBride
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars

September 11, 2025September 10, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Keith Wunderlich shares the life and legacy of D.L. Holmes, athletic director of what is now Wayne State University from 1917 though 1958. With a meager budget and outdated equipment, Coach Holmes nurtured a generation of track and field Olympians and world record holders in Detroit, regardless of race, ethnicity, or religious background. Wunderlich is co-author of Coach of Champions: D.L. Holmes and the Making of Detroit’s Track Stars.

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Keith Wunderlich
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education

August 21, 2025August 7, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Dr. Nick Juravich discusses the experiences of the first-generation of paraprofessional educators in New York City in the 1960s-1980s and their impact on the city’s educational system, community relations, and public sector unions. Juravich is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Boston and author of Para Power: How Paraprofessional Labor Changed Education.

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Nick Juravich
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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Oil Can Eddie and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union

July 31, 2025July 24, 2025 ~ Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University

Roger Biles and Mark Rose discuss the legacy of Eddie Sadlowski, a charismatic and progressive Chicago steelworker who, unhappy with the United Steelworker of America’s closed-rank authoritarian leadership and tepid support for rank-and-file members, led a highly visible yet unsuccessful dissident campaign in the contentious election for the USWA’s presidency in 1977.

Dr. Biles is a Professor Emeritus of history at Illinois State University. Dr. Rose is a professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. Their article, “’Oil Can Eddie’ and the Battle for the Steelworkers’ Union,” was published in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.

Related Collections:
Edward Sadlowski Papers (LP000754)

Episode Credits
Interviewee: Roger Biles and Mark Rose
Producers: Dan Golodner and Troy Eller English
Music: Bart Bealmear

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