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 Nikol Seval, who I've known for a while.

Do you remember that night at your house?

We're going to 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 cab, you wanted to call a lift. That is Nikiel. And you know,

not really call one, summon one, summon one using your app.

Nikiel 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 Nikiel called me to try to talk me into covering a protest.

I was a left-ring 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 One. And I turned him down on his pitch, but we soon became friends anyway.

Back to that night when I tried to summon a lift.

You wanted to summon a lift using your app.

Yeah, what I tried to do is call a taxi service, and I was put on hold for quite a long time. And in that interim,

intervening period, I think the Lyft showed up. At that time, Nikiel didn't use apps. He had a landline

...