The Writers Guild and the Future of American Labor with David Goodman

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2020

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Comedy writer and WGA West President David Goodman joins Adam for a deep dive into one of the most interesting labor unions in the country - the Writers Guild of America. They also cover what it's like when your boss is Seth MacFarlane and a member of your union, how solidarity powers the Guild's negotiations, and how the Guild is fighting back against the corporate consolidation that's transforming the entertainment industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a HeadGum Podcast. I don't know what you think I don't know what you say
0:16.0	and that's all right
0:19.0	yeah that's okay
0:22.0	I don't know anything.
0:28.2	Hello, welcome to factually.
0:29.5	I'm Adam Conover, and you know, we've talked about labor unions on this show before in my
0:34.6	episode of Stephen Greenhouse a month or two ago really recommend that one if you
0:38.2	want to intro to the topic but today I want to talk about the labor Union that I am a member of.
0:44.0	See back in 2007 you might remember, there was a writer strike.
0:48.0	You might remember this.
0:49.0	Hollywood writers were on the picket lines, remember that?
0:51.0	All the late night shows went dark. Conan started spinning his ring on his desk,
0:54.7	and all your favorite TV shows got like weird and bad for like a season or two.
0:59.0	If you wondered why like the second season of Friday Night Lights sucked so much like it seemed like all the episodes
1:03.3	are kind of half written and they only really shot two-thirds of the season.
1:07.2	Well it's because the strike happened in the middle of the writing process so that's exactly what happened.
1:12.2	Now look sure a couple of our nightly entertainments
1:15.4	got a little bit weirder for a few months.
1:18.2	But when I joined the Writers Guild,
1:20.2	which I know sounds like it's from the Middle Ages,
1:22.2	but I swear it is from this year in America
1:25.3	It's the Writers Guild of America. I realize that that strike was worth it because even though the idea of a bunch of TV writers on strike sounds weird, the truth
	...

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