I hope this podcast finds you well during this difficult time.

This is Antibody, a three-part series on Life and Politics under COVID-19 from The Dig and Jacobin magazine.

I'm your host, Daniel Denver. Recently I called my friend

Nikil Saval who I've known for a while. Do you remember that night at your

house we're gonna go out somewhere far enough away that we

wanted a vehicle to take us and I proposed requesting a lift on my iPhone but you

insisted that we not call what you called a scab cab, and instead you

insisted on calling an actual taxi service from your landline. Do you remember what happened?

Yes, I remember that I remember the night when

you wanted to call a scab, you wanted to call a lift.

That is Nikil.

And you know, I...

Not really call one, some in one.

To summon one using your app.

Nikil and I have known each other since 2013.

I was a reporter at Philadelphia City Paper and he was a volunteer for Unite Here Local 634

Which represents cafeteria workers and noontime aides in Philly public schools

At the time the schools were facing devastating cuts in a privatization campaign.

And Nikile called me to try to talk me into covering a protest.

I was a leftering reporter, so activists often pitched me stories. When Nikiel called I didn't have any

clue that he was also an editor at the literary magazine N-plus-1 and I turned him

down on his pitch but we soon became friends anyway.

...