America Works Podcast By Library of Congress cover art

America Works

America Works

By: Library of Congress
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 Features the voices of contemporary workers from throughout the United States talking about their lives, their workplaces, and their on-the-job experiences. Drawn from hundreds of longer oral history interviews collected by fieldworkers for the American Folklife Center's Occupational Folklife Project (OFP), America Works is a testament to the wisdom, wit, knowledge, and dedication of today's working Americans. These engaging oral histories, which have are preserved in the American Folklife Center's archive, are enriching and expanding America's historical record. Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Juan Salcido Sanchez, Racetrack Groom. Palm Meadows Training Facility, Boynton Beach, Florida.

    Juan Salcido Sanchez, Racetrack Groom. Palm Meadows Training Facility, Boynton Beach, Florida.
    May 22 2025

    Juan Salcido Sanchez, who like his father before him, works behind-the-scenes at leading racetracks throughout the United States as a groom and caretaker for elite racehorses, talks with folklorist Ellen McHale at the Palm Meadows Training Facility in Boynton Beach, Florida, as part of her Occupational Folklife Project “Stable Views–Voices and Stories from the Thoroughbred Racetrack.”
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    6 mins
  • Alison Smith. Pet food and supply pantry. Bismarck, North Dakota.

    Alison Smith. Pet food and supply pantry. Bismarck, North Dakota.
    May 15 2025

    Alison Smith, founder and director of Addi’s Eats Pet Food and Supply Pantry, a food bank that assists pets and their care givers in Bismark, North Dakota, speaks with documentarians Margaret Mary Miles and Catherine ten Broeke as part of their Occupational Folklife Project “Homeless Shelter Workers in the Upper Midwest.”
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    6 mins
  • Joel Mashburn. Pharmacist and elephant enthusiast. Hugo, Oklahoma.

    Joel Mashburn. Pharmacist and elephant enthusiast. Hugo, Oklahoma.
    May 8 2025

    For several generations, the small town of Hugo in southeastern Oklahoma has been a “wintering over” town for family-owned circuses. Many of its residents are working or retired circus workers and circus references are found throughout town –from store signs to gravestones. Joel Mashburn, a Hugo pharmacist who is fascinated with circus elephants, explains how they intersect with his life and work to researchers Tanya Finchum and Juliana Nykolaiszyn for the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program “’Big Top’: The Show Goes On.”
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    6 mins
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