It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone, and happy Labor Day.

To everyone who's in a union, to everyone who has a boss, to everyone who works hard in any way to put food on the

table, but still can be exploited by someone who holds power over you. Now, to celebrate this

Labor Day holiday, my team is taking a day away from work, and appropriate to today,

here's what our show will be. We will re-air much of our recent series about making a good living without a

college degree. We kicked off these conversations last October with a historical view, looking

back at the last hundred years of non-college employment. Was it easier to be in the middle class

without a four-year college degree then when so few people had one, and have we priced

too many people out of going to college without providing alternatives for developing

financially rewarding skills? We're also re-airing today a conversation about the pathways that do

exist now for people in a category often referred to as stars.

It's an acronym that stands for skilled through alternative routes, alternative roots,

meaning simply without a four-year college degree.

Several of our guests in this series were from Opportunity at Work, a research and advocacy

group pushing for fair hiring practices that opened doors for stars.

A Gates Foundation grant supported this series.

So today we'll hear people's stories and also some ways that policy can better facilitate

economic mobility for people without a four-year degree.

And then finally, we'll get a little bit of career counseling from the New York Public Library.

But first on this Labor Day, let's start with 100 years of non-college employment from our

100 Years of 100 Things history series.

We'll pick it up here.

...