Re:Work is a weekly radio show that brings you real stories that rethink work. It airs every Friday from 6:30 – 7pm on KPFK 90.7FM and KPFK.org.
In its first year, Re:Work is the only storytelling show in the country focused on work. Re:Work also trains community producers and students in multimedia story production. The project includes curriculum and educational tools that use stories to learn about work.
WHY RETHINK WORK?
Most of us work for a living. Sometimes our jobs take us through hell and back, sometimes they bore us to tears, and sometimes they give us a reason to keep going. We share our stories with close friends and family, but often leave it at that.
Meanwhile, jobs are becoming more and more scarce, temporary, and low-paying. From the gardener landscaping mansions to the security guard on the graveyard shift to the carwash worker making just tips-- all these workers have stories about how they got there, and how they get by despite all odds.
Re:Work believes that it’s time to hear from workers who don’t often make it into the spotlight-- and change the future of work. Using the power of stories, Re:Work challenges, expands and enlightens the way we see (or don’t see) work. Let’s rethink work.
The UCLA Labor Center believes that a public university belongs to the people and should advance quality education and employment for all. Every day we bring together workers, students, faculty, and policymakers to address the most critical issues facing working people today. Our research, education, and policy work lifts industry standards, creates jobs that are good for communities, and strengthens immigrant rights, especially for students and youth.
MAJOR PROJECTS
The Dream Resource Center advances the leadership of students to promote equal access to higher education and pathways to citizenship.
The Global Solidarity Project collaborates with labor leaders, scholars, and activists to address common worker issues in the United States, Mexico, and the Pacific Rim.
The Los Angeles Black Worker Center addresses the Black job crisis by developing grassroots leadership to improve access to employment.
The Re:Work Project partners with worker centers and unions to improve conditions in low-wage industries and strengthen the enforcement of existing workplace laws.
The UCLA Labor and Workplace Studies Minor trains students to tackle real-world community and workplace issues through interdisciplinary courses, leadership training, and internship opportunities.
"ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LIVE A LIFE OF LUXURY WILL DEPEND ON THE WORK OF SOMEBODY ELSE."

-RAMIRO GOMEZ, DOMESTIC WORKER
Episode 15: Dispatch
It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in America: taxi driving. In this special joint episode from ReWork and Making Contact, weâ€...
Episode 14: Los Callejones
Who are the people who make the clothes we wear every day? Tune in to take a journey through "los callejones," Los Angel...
Episode 13: Moving the World
Most of the stuff we use, from our clothes to our iPhones, were at some point made in another country and shipped to our shores. B...
Episode 12: Listen Up!
What comes to your mind when you think of a musician? For many musicians, their work is no different from any other profession. Th...
Episode 11: All on the Same Ocean
We live in a global market, and most of the clothing and electronics that we use are made halfway around the world. They’re tran...
Episode 10: Indebted
Who was your favorite teacher in high school? We all have that unforgettable teacher that sets us on our life’s trajectory. But ...
Episode 9: Baby’s Bodyguard
All of us are on this planet because we were born. Still, for most of us, giving birth is so mysterious. Many people don’t reall...
Episode 8: Coming Home
A group of undocumented youth cross the border from the US into Mexico to cross back and turn themselves into border patrol. Why w...
Episode 7: A Hand Up
Everyday we pass by someone who’s homeless. We may be so used to seeing homelessness that it just becomes part of the normal cit...
Episode 6: Human v. Walmart
Sometimes work can take a toll on your creativity, your individuality, and what makes you human. So what is the cost of being effi...
Episode 5: Raw Deal
For those of sitting in a restaurant eating, we may not be aware of what it takes to make our meal possible. What’s it really li...
Episode 4: Dream On
A fascinating conversation between two fierce women – Lola Smallwood Cuevas from the Black Worker Center and Sofia Campos, a nat...
Episode 3: Get Up Stand Up
When you get into a taxi, you usually know where you are coming from, where you are going. But what about your taxi driver? This w...
Episode 2: Newcomers
Having arrived on different immigration visas, we follow two friends from when they first arrived to the US to the very different ...
Episode 1: Breaking Out of Roles
An ambulance driver finds himself in the middle of a shoot out between the Black Panthers and LAPD; a domestic worker artist paint...
Tell us what you think about Re:Work! Send us an email at rework@irle.ucla.edu, tweet us at @rework_radio, or send us a message on Facebook. And like and follow us! We post photos, information on future episodes, and music from the show.
We are always looking for compelling, funny, interesting stories that flip the way that we think about work. Pitch us your story by email at rework@irle.ucla.edu or tweet us at @rework_radio or send us a message on Facebook. Please note that each show takes us at least 1-2 months to produce.
To pitch, follow this advice from the show This American Life:
“If you're pitching a story you're hoping to tell on the air yourself, let us know in a few paragraphs what happened. You don't need to be formal about it, just tell the story the way you'd tell it to someone over drinks or coffee. If you have favorite moments in the story, let us know those. Tell us anything you think will help us understand what a great story it is. If the story happened to you and showed you something about the world you hadn't realized before, or changed you (or the other people in the story) in some way, let us know that too."
What is a story?
For this show, we are looking for stories that have the following ingredients:
- It is about work! Or we can connect it to work in some way.
- It is something that happens to a person (not a group of people), with audio from that person
- It is a series of events, with a beginning, middle, and and end.
- It has a “moment of truth”- a point of the story where the main character realizes something, has a reflection, or comes to a conclusion. This could also be called the “moral” of the story.
- There is something unexpected about the story. You should be able to fill in the blanks of this sentence: My story is about ____, but what is interesting about it is ____. The second blank should be surprising, out of the ordinary.
- It is accessible - this means no jargon!
Does my project/organization project have a story?
Yes! Just take a moment to ask:
- Who is the person we want to highlight? Is that person charismatic, funny, and/or reflective?
- Is there one specific moment/series of events that highlights what they are experiencing, or a moment where they we surprised?
Most of our episode ideas come from the incredible stories of our partner organizations on the ground - worker centers, unions, and community groups. If you are interested to learn more about the process of making radio, you can join us to help create your own show.
As a community partner, you have a range of opportunities to get involved. You can:
- Guest produce a story - interview people / provide audio
- Guest produce a story - interview, write script & narrate with guidance from the Re:Work team
- Guest produce a story - interview, write script, narrate & edit with guidance from the Re:Work team
Students and volunteers are involved in every part of the production process. Students and volunteers work with Re:Work radio through each piece of the production and learn about radio production along the way.
Contact us if you would like to apply to become a community producer or get involved with the Re:Work team.
If you want to make your own radio stories, here are a few resources to get started:
Radio Rookies is a New York Public Radio initiative that provides teenagers with the tools and training to create radio stories about themselves, their communities and their world. Check out this DIY Toolkit: How to Report Your Own Story.
Transom.org allows you to find essays by the most experienced people doing radio documentaries. Transom also has a Tools section that has reviews of cheap, good equipment you can use to make radio and guides on digital editing and mixing.
Our friend Will Coley of Aquifier Media also created a great intro training to radio Listen Up: Audio's Role in Digital Storytelling.
And there are a ton of great resources to produce radio on This American Life’s Make Radio page.
"WE’RE DREAMING HERE. BUT THAT’S WHERE WE’RE GOING, THAT’S WHAT WE WANT."
- LOLA SMALLWOOD-CUEVAS, FROM DREAM ON
Stefanie Ritoper
Producer
Saba Waheed
Producer
Stefanie is the communications director for the UCLA Labor Center. She is dedicated to finding creative ways to use traditional and new media to highlight compelling stories about working people. Stefanie has a multidisciplinary background in new media, communications and urban planning. As a multimedia consultant, she collaboratively produced short films and conducted media trainings with nonprofit organizations in the Los Angeles area. Prior to this, she conducted research on issues affecting underserved Asian American communities at Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, a philanthropic membership and advocacy organization based in San Francisco. Stefanie holds a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Saba is the research director at the UCLA Labor Center and has a decade of experience conducting research in low wage sectors such as taxi, restaurant, nail salon, domestic work, etc. that have led to campaign and policy victories. Since 2009, she has co-produced, engineered and hosted the weekly radio show “Flip the Script” on KPFK. She strongly believes that research and media are powerful tools for community storytelling. For the past decade, she co-edited the national online magazine SAMAR. As a performer, she has worked with Teada Theater and East West Players and her writing has appeared in Hyphen Magazine. She received an MA in Anthropology from Columbia University.
Tyler Milles
Assistant Producer
Tyler has been working in communications at the UCLA Labor Center since 2013, producing, writing, and editing Re:Work radio shows. He is a storyteller first and interested in finding stories that reveal the value in everyday work. In an episode called Indebted, Tyler talked about his experiences growing up in Oak Park, a suburb right outside of Los Angeles. In the fall of 2014, Tyler transferred from UCLA to the UC Berkeley film studies program to hone his skills in filmmaking and screenwriting. Tyler has a background in analyzing and creating media and hopes to continue to create shows that are deeply human and have the power to create change.
"I BECOME A BIG FAN OF REGGAE MUSIC. I WAS ALL DAY LONG RIDING ON MY ROLLER SHOES,
JUST LISTENING TO REGGAE MUSIC."
- JAVAID TARIQ, TAXI DRIVER
We would love to hear what you think about the show! Send us an email at rework@irle.ucla.edu, tweet us at @rework_radio, or send us a message on Facebook.
213-480-4155 x220
UCLA Downtown Labor Center 675 S Park View St Los Angeles CA 90057-3306
