The Story

Right now a group of really hardy runners are just finishing what’s called the toughest and coldest race in the world: the Yukon Arctic Ultra. It's 430 miles of such extreme conditions that prior to 2009, no one had made it to the finish line... that year, Bruce Thompson became one of the first.  He talks with Dick about how he did it.  One secret:  Do not sweat into your clothes or you’ll freeze. Also in this episode: saved by a penguin. and: Over the Garage Records.

On a good surfers’ beach, usually everyone is in the water. But at 38th Parallel Beach –  near the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea – surfers sometimes see parades with tanks, soldiers and guns.

In our final RE:WORKING show, Sean Cole brings us the stories of day laborers as they repair homes that were flooded and damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

For Labor Day, we take you to River Rouge, Michigan. An industrial enclave just down river from Detroit, it's a town full of union workers, including Don "Doop" Duprie. Doop got his union card right out of high school. Jobs were well-paid, but River Rouge always seemed teetering on the edge of ruin. Things are improving with the economy, but people are still without work and others are losing their homes to foreclosure. Doop is now making music full time. His music is all about River Rouge, and the working people that have prospered and suffered there. Also: in the early 1970s, young photographer Alex MacPhail decided to walk across the country, taking pictures and looking for a window into America. Alex focused on working people, snapping pictures of people on farms, in mills and mines and distilleries, and cowboys on the range.