WORKING

Series produced by Homelands Productions

Caption: Metal worker, Peru, Credit: Santiago Bustamante Mujica
Image by: Santiago Bustamante Mujica 
Metal worker, Peru 

WORKING is a series of intimate, sound-rich profiles of workers in the global economy. It was broadcast as a special monthly feature on Marketplace Radio between 2007 and 2009. WORKING won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Radio Feature Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Working. It's what most of us do for half our waking lives. It's how we feed and clothe ourselves and how we support our families. It shapes our sense of who we are, and of where we fit in the scheme of things.

Working is also what connects us. Almost everything around us is the product of human labor—much of it performed in faraway places, by people we will never meet.

Each WORKING profile brings us deep into the life of a single worker in the global economy—real people with real families, real struggles, real dreams, and real jobs.

The project has created an interactive tool called the Worker Browser (http://working.homelands.org) to give members of the public a chance to share and compare their own work experiences. Audio, photos and reporter's notebooks for the profiles are available there.

29 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Shipbreaking Worker
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Babu Hussein, Credit: Jashim Salam
Sandy Tolan profiles a 13-year-old laborer at one of Bangladesh's giant shipbreaking yards.

Bought by 'The Sea', Connecticut Public (WNPR), WBEZ, PRX Remix, and PRX to iTunes


  • Added: Aug 07, 2009
  • Length: 07:41
  • Purchases: 5
Runner
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Salina Kosgei, Credit: Stevie Mann
Jon Miller profiles the little-known Kenyan woman who won the 2009 Boston Marathon by less than one second.

Bought by 'The Sea', WXDU, Third Coast Festival/Re:sound (Outside Purchaser), PRX Remix, and KUOW


  • Added: Aug 07, 2009
  • Length: 07:58
  • Purchases: 5
Banker
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Brandon Davies, London, England, Credit: Robin Hunt
Sean Cole profiles an international banker living in London, both before and after the world banking crisis.

Bought by 'The Sea', WBEZ, PRX Remix, KFAI Minneapolis, and KUOW


  • Added: Jul 21, 2009
  • Length: 06:28
  • Purchases: 5
Electronics Recycler
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Vicky Ponce, Mexico, Credit: Magdalena Gonzalez Othon
Ingrid Lobet profiles a woman who joined a group of unemployed middle-aged women to open an electronics recycling plant in northern Mexico.

Bought by 'The Sea', WABE, WRST-FM Oshkosh, WNIJ, HCC Radio The Dragon and more


  • Added: Jul 21, 2009
  • Length: 06:35
  • Purchases: 10
Human Smuggler
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Alidad, Pakistan, Credit: Gregory Warner
Gregory Warner profiles a Pashtun man who smuggles Afghan refugees over the mountains into Iran.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 06:46
  • Purchases: 4
Marriage Broker
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Hang Nga, Vietnam, Credit: Kelly McEvers
Kelly McEvers profiles a Vietnamese woman who works for a marriage agency that matches Korean men with Vietnamese brides.

Bought by KALW, Marfa Public Radio, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, WBEZ and more


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:44
  • Purchases: 8
Circus Performer
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Svitlana Svystun, England, Credit: Robin Hunt
Sean Cole profiles a Ukrainian dancer who performs with in a Russian circus that tours the UK.

Bought by XRAY.fm, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 06:32
  • Purchases: 4
Labor Inspector
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Leandro Carvalho, Brazil, Credit: Petra Costa
Sandy Tolan profiles a member an anti-forced labor SWAT team whose job is to free slaves working in Brazil's iron, cattle and sugar cane industries.

Bought by WRPI, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, WBEZ, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:57
  • Purchases: 5
Miner
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Fidele Musafiri, DR Congo, Credit: Thomas Rippe
Gregory Warner profiles a freelance miner in the lawless eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Bought by WRPI, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, KUOW, KFAI Minneapolis and more


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:51
  • Purchases: 6
Pirate
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Agus Laodi, Indonesia, Credit: Kelly McEvers
Kelly McEvers profiles a small-time pirate who robs ships in Indonesia's Strait of Malacca.

Bought by KALW, XRAY.fm, KFAI Minneapolis, HowSound, PRX Remix and more


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 06:47
  • Purchases: 7
Industrial Designer
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Raffaella Mangiarotti, Italy, Credit: Laila Pozzo
Jon Miller profiles an Italian industrial designer who puts new twists on ordinary household objects.

Bought by 'The Sea', PRX Remix, and PRX to iTunes


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 06:51
  • Purchases: 3
Sex Worker
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Samanta, Azerbaijan, Credit: Kelly McEvers
Kelly McEvers profiles a transgender sex worker from Kyrgyzstan who works in the oil boomtown of Baku, in Azerbaijan.

Bought by KALW, WDBM, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, KFAI Minneapolis and more


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:27
  • Purchases: 6
Iceberg Wrangler
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Whyman Richards, Canada, Credit: Aaron Beswick
Janna Graham profiles a lifelong fisherman from northern Newfoundland who gathers ice from passing icebergs for a novelty bottled water company.

Bought by New Hampshire Public Radio, WRPI, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, and KUOW


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 06:58
  • Purchases: 5
Tannery Worker
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Mohmen, Pakistan, Credit: Gregory Warner
Gregory Warner profiles a teenager from a village in rural Pakistan who works in a dead-end job in a tannery in Karachi.

Bought by WBEZ, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:21
  • Purchases: 4
Movie Director
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen, Nigeria, Credit: Jon Miller
Jon Miller profiles one of the most prolific directors in Nigeria's booming Nollywood home video industry.

Bought by Marfa Public Radio, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, WMNF, WAMC Northeast Public Radio and more


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:14
  • Purchases: 9
Trader
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Hussein Ralib Esfandiari, Dubai, Credit: Tamara Abdul Hadi
Kelly McEvers profiles an Iranian trader who ferries goods in a wooden dhow from Dubai across the Persian Gulf to Iran.

Bought by KALW, PRX Remix, PRX to iTunes, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 06:39
  • Purchases: 4
Cargo Agent
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Wahid Khan Habibula, Saudi Arabia, Credit: Kelly McEvers
Kelly McEvers profiles an Indian cargo agent whose job is to repatriate the remains of foreign workers who die in in Saudi Arabia.

Bought by KALW, PRX Remix, WBEZ, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 05:59
  • Purchases: 4
Chocolate Taster
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Chloé Doutre-Roussel, Credit: Kate Malone
Jon Miller profiles an eccentric French woman whose job is to travel the world tasting chocolate.

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, The Story, Prairie Public, PRX Remix, KUOW and more


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:24
  • Purchases: 8
Cabinet Minister
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Gordana Jankuloska, Macedonia, Credit: Dana Wilson
Sandy Tolan profiles the thirtysomething interior minister of Macedonia, whose job is to clean up her country's notoriously corrupt security forces.

Bought by PRX Remix, WBEZ, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 05:41
  • Purchases: 3
Textile Worker
From: Homelands Productions
Series: WORKING
Caption: Marco Moreno Gonzales, Peru, Credit: Jon Miller
Jon Miller profiles a Peruvian man who has worked in textile factories since he was a teenager and who is now trying to open his own.

Bought by PRX Remix, WBEZ, PRX to iTunes, and Remix Radio


  • Added: May 27, 2009
  • Length: 07:18
  • Purchases: 4

Playlists That Feature This Series: