America Works

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.

  • Audio Recording
    Patrick Palmer, Owner-operator Thornapple Farm and Draft Trash. New Haven, Vermont. Patrick Palmer, the owner-operator of Thornapple Farm and Draft Trash in New Haven, Vermont, talks about his horse-based trash collecting business with documentarian Virgina Nickerson for the Occupational Folklife Project’s “Trash Talk: Workers in Vermont’s Waste Management Industry.”
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Patrick Palmer
    • Date: 2025-06-05
  • Audio Recording
    Bill Favaro, Favaro’s Rod & Reel Repair Shop. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bill Favaro, who, with his brother Sam is the owner and proprietor of Favaro’s Rod & Reel Repair Shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, talks with folklorist Douglas Manger about how his business developed during the 1940s when Mr. Favaros’ father–(Hypolite Favaro, Sr.) –sold fishing rods and other fishing related items at his Esso gas station. He was interviewed for the Occupational Folklife Project Baton…
    • Contributor: Bill Favaro - Nancy Groce - Douglas Manger
    • Date: 2025-05-29
  • Audio Recording
    Juan Salcido Sanchez, Racetrack Groom. Palm Meadows Training Facility, Boynton Beach, Florida. 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.”
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Juan Salcido Sanchez
    • Date: 2025-05-22
  • Audio Recording
    Alison Smith. Pet food and supply pantry. Bismarck, North Dakota. 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.”
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Alison Smith
    • Date: 2025-05-15
  • Audio Recording
    Joel Mashburn. Pharmacist and elephant enthusiast. Hugo, Oklahoma. 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…
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Joel Mashburn
    • Date: 2025-05-08
  • Audio Recording
    Bill Henessey and Beth Whiting. Sustainable farming. Huntington, Vermont. As part of a larger Occupational Folklife Project on “Grass-Roots Agriculture in Vermont,” Bruce Hennessey and Beth Whiting, owners of Maple Wind Farm in Huntington, Vermont, talk with folklorist Andy Kolovos about moving to Vermont in 1999 to become farmers; how their small business expanded into a diversified produce and livestock operation employing 18 workers; and how they are trying to move towards more…
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Bill Henessey - Beth Whiting
    • Date: 2025-05-01
  • Audio Recording
    Natalie Ameral, Port sampler. New Bedford, Massachusetts. Natalie Ameral, a port sampler in the large fishing port of New Beford, Massachusetts, talks with fieldworker Madeleine Hall-Arber about her specialized job collecting and analyzing the species, sizes and genders of fish harvested by the port’s fishing fleet. She reports her findings to the US’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses her results to inform their regulatory and environmental decisions. One…
    • Contributor: Natalie Ameral - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2025-04-24
  • Audio Recording
    Sonny Amato, Taxidermist. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Master taxidermist Sonny Amato, who has been operating his own taxidermy business in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for over 50 years, talks about learning and plying his trade with folklorist Doug Manger, who interviewed him for the Occupational Folklife Project “Baton Rouge, Small Businesses and Trades.”
    • Contributor: Sonny Amato - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2025-04-17
  • Audio Recording
    Dale Baumgartner, Head Cheese Maker, Tillamook Cheese. Tillamook, Oregon. Dale Baumgartener, long-time Head Cheese Maker at the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a farmer-owned cheese and dairy cooperative, talks with folklorist Jared Schmidt for his Occupational Folklife Project “Tillamook: Cheesemakers in Coastal Oregon.” He talks about growing up on a dairy farm, his start in the cheese industry, and his pride in working for a nationally respected brand like Tillamook Cheese.
    • Contributor: Dale Baumgartner - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2024-10-17
  • Audio Recording
    Phuong Mai Nguyen and Amp Phettaphong, Family Restaurant Owners. Columbus, Ohio. Phuong Mai Nguyen and her husband Amp Phettaphong, owners of the popular Indochine Café in Columbus, Ohio, came to the US as refugees and, after working a variety of other jobs, stared their own restaurant. The couple talk with folklorist Jess Lamar Reece Holler at their restaurant between lunch and dinner shifts by as part of Hollar’s Occupational Folklife Project “Back of House: Kitchen…
    • Contributor: Phuong Mai Nguyen - Nancy Groce - Amp Phettaphong
    • Date: 2024-10-10
  • Audio Recording
    George Neiden, German sausage maker. Maple Heights. Ohio. German sausage maker George Neiden, who owns and runs the Old Country Sausage Kitchen in Maple Heights, Ohio, talks with folklorist Lucy Long about learning and plying his trade – (and the delight he takes in creating new sausage flavors!) — for her Occupational Folklife Project “Ethnic Grocers in the Urban Midwest.”
    • Contributor: George Neiden - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2024-10-03
  • Audio Recording
    Jade Sato, Asian American Farm Owner. Brighton, Colorado. Jade Sato, the founder and owner of Minoru Farm in Brighton, Colorado, talks with documentarian Katelyn Reuther about being part of a growing movement of Asian American farmers, many of them women, who are experimenting with raising and marketing Asian heritage crops, like sisho, ginger and gobo root, for a rapidly diversifying American palate. Their talk is part of Reuther’s Occupation Folklife Project “Finding…
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Jade Sato
    • Date: 2024-09-26
  • Audio Recording
    Emily Daniels, Agricultural Pilot. South Hampton, New Jersey. Emily Daniel, one of a small but growing number of female agricultural pilots – or, as they are often referred to, “crop dusters” – talks with documentarian Ellen Kendricks about learning to fly planes as a teenager, career challenges, and managing a small family-owned crop spraying business that services farms from New Jersey to Maryland and Texas and Kansas.
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Emily Daniel
    • Date: 2024-09-19
  • Audio Recording
    Alfred Quijance, Fisherman and Subsistence Harvester. Seldovia, Alaska. Alfred Quijance talks with documentarian Josh Wisneski for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council’s Occupational Folklife Project “Beyond the Breakwater: Gulf of Alaska Small Boat Fishermen.” He talks about growing up in the remote Alutiiq/Sugpiaq community of Old Harbor on Kodiak Island; learning about traditional Native American seining, fishing and harvesting; and leaving at age 13 to find work on fishing boats and canneries throughout…
    • Contributor: Alfred Quijance - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2024-09-12
  • Audio Recording
    April Matson, Pitt Stop Food Concession Manager, Ransomville Speedway. Ransomville, New York. April Matson, Manager of the Pitt Stop food concession at the legendary Ransomville Speedway, a family-owned dirt track racecourse in western New York, talks with folklorist Edward Millar about her job, about why food is such an important part of the Speedway experience, and about preparing popular local specialties — including ‘flat dogs’ and hand cut fries.
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - April Matson
    • Date: 2024-09-05
  • Audio Recording
    David Swett, Owner, Swett’s Restaurant. Nashville, Tennessee. David Swett, the owner of Swett’s Restaurant, a family-owned establishment and culinary landmark in Nashville, Tennessee since 1954, talks with documentarian Candacy Taylor about running an African American family business, working in the food industry and his pride in Swett’s history as part of her larger project “The Green Book: Documenting African American Entrepreneurs.”
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - David Sweet
    • Date: 2024-08-29
  • Audio Recording
    Jeremy Presar, Rural Mail Carrier, US Postal System. Bukhannon, Kentucky. Jeremy Presar is a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service based out of the French Creek, West Virginia Post Office. Now in his sixth year as a mail carrier, he tells folklorist Emily Hilliard about his 70-mile route, delivering to 600 mailboxes, the challenges posed by animals, weather and being bi-racial in a largely White area as well as the pride he takes…
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Jeremy Presar
    • Date: 2024-03-28
  • Audio Recording
    Shanda Dunn, Peer Support Worker, Voices of Hope. Lexington, Kentucky. Shanda Dunn of Lexington, Kentucky, talks with folklorist Ethan Sharp about being a Peer Support Worker as part of his larger Occupational Folklife Project “Hope for Recovery.” Shanda explains how she overcame her own complicated past and struggles with substance abuse to train and now, to work alongside clinicians as a counselor for others recovering from substance abuse disorders.
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Shanda Dunn
    • Date: 2024-03-21
  • Audio Recording
    Jobie Hill, Restoration Architect and Founder of SavingSlaveHouses.org. Iowa City, Iowa. Jobie Hill, an architect and historic preservation specialist from Iowa City, Iowa, explains how her interest in her own African American heritage led her to become an expert on the documentation, preservation, and repurposing of slave dwellings throughout the United States. She talks about her training and professional experiences as an architect and what inspired her to document more than 700 structures built by…
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Jobie Hill
    • Date: 2024-03-14
  • Audio Recording
    Barbara Norman, Blueberry farmer. Covert, Michigan. Barbara Norman, a blueberry farmer from Covert, Michigan, speaks with oral historian Anna-Lisa Cox about growing up on her family’s farm as part a larger Occupational Folklife Project documenting “Multigenerational African-Descended Farmers of the Midwest.”
    • Contributor: Barbara Norman - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2024-03-07
  • Audio Recording
    Leah Chase, Chef and Owner of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. New Orleans, Louisiana. Leah Chase, chef and owner of the legendary Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in New Orleans talks with documentarian Candacy Taylor in her bustling restaurant for the Occupational Folklife Project “The Green Book: Documenting African American Entrepreneurs.” More than just a James Beard award-winning eating establishment, Dooky Chase’s has served patrons that range from Presidents to Civil Rights leaders and celebrities to Louisianans in search of…
    • Contributor: Leah Chase - Nancy Groce - Candacy Taylor
    • Date: 2024-02-29
  • Audio Recording
    Jerry Bransford, Park Ranger. Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. Jerry Bransford, a seasonal tour guide at Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave National Park, tells folklorist Brent Bjorkman how his family’s multi-generational history with the cave led him to become a guide after retiring from a successful corporate career. Members of his family began working as cave guides in the 1830s. Like many of the early guides, they were African Americans and through their knowledge, they…
    • Contributor: Nancy Groce - Jerry Bransford
    • Date: 2024-02-22
  • Audio Recording
    Damon Walker, Luthier. Durham, North Carolina. Damon Walker, a “luthier” or string instrument maker in Durham, North Carolina, talks about his work making and fixing double or ‘upright’ basses with folklorists Katy Clune and Julia Gartell as part of their Occupational Folklife Project “Fixing, Mending, Making New: North Carolina’s Repair Professionals.” Mr. Walker – or “Dr. Bass” as he is widely known in the business – explains how his love…
    • Contributor: Damon Walker - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2024-02-08
  • Audio Recording
    Marcus Wimby, Funeral Home Director. Atlanta, Georgia. Marcus Wimby, Director of Haugabrooks Funeral Home in Atlanta, Georgia, talks about his work and career. For more than 90 years, Haugabrooks has been a mainstay of Atlanta’s African American community. Mr. Wimby – a relation to Ms. Geneva Haugabrooks, the dynamic woman who founded the multi-generational business in 1929 — was interviewed by documentarian Candacy Taylor for her Occupational Folklife Project “The Green…
    • Contributor: Marcus Wimby - Nancy Groce
    • Date: 2024-02-02
  • Audio Recording
    Seymour Ray (“Ray Idol”). Independent Professional Wrestler. Bristol, Tennessee. This is AFC staff folklorist Nancy Groce and this America Works episode features excerpts from a longer interview with the independent professional wrestler Seymour Ray – a respected athlete who is widely known by his professional name: “Ray Idol.” He was interviewed at his home in Bristol, Tennessee, by folklorist Delainey Bowers as part of her project documenting “Independent Professional Wrestlers in Central Appalachia.”
    • Contributor: Delainey Bowers - Nancy Groce - Seymour Ray
    • Date: 2023-04-27