Where the Writers Guild of America Goes Next to Support Marginalized Workers, with Angela Harvey and Tawal Panyacosit Jr.

After the second-longest strike in Hollywood history, members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) voted to ratify a new contract in October 2023. Their 146-day walkout brought wins on some of the most pressing issues they were fighting for. These included new standards governing the use of AI for producing content and the distribution of residuals in the age of streaming.Joining host Bianca Cunningham to discuss the strike, the contract, and these shifts in the entertainment industry are WGA member and Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity (TTIE) co-chair Angela Harvey, whose writing credits include MTV’s Teen Wolf, Station 19, and American Horror Stories, and one of TTIE's other co-chairs,  Tawal Panyacosit Jr., a WGA member and activist whose has writing credits on Vampire Academy and other shows.Bianca also talks with Angela and Tawal about TTIE and the importance of bringing more diverse stories to audiences who are hungry for them. TTIE is an intersectional group of working TV writers comprised of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and women writers, from emerging voices to showrunners. Angela and Tawal reflect on the openness to diversity in TV and film writers' spaces today and their hopes for the industry's future.

Om Podcasten

Black Work Talk is a show that elevates the voices of Black labor, workers, leaders, activists, and intellectuals in discussions on the connections between race, labor, capitalism and culture in the struggle for progressive governing power. On season three of Black Work Talk, new hosts Bianca Cunningham and Jamala Rogers explore the impact of 2023’s strike wave in conversations with rank and file workers from unions that have fought or are still fighting for better, more equitable contracts in 2023; including the UAW, Teamsters, Writers Guild of America and more. Where did the energy for this wave of labor movements come from, what does it mean for black workers, and where does it go from here? They also open the conversation by calling in the 90% of American workers who have yet to organize in their workplace with an ongoing accessible and educational series on the process of organizing and filing to start a union from scratch.