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Peter Balonon-Rosen

Producer

Peter produced the narrative podcasts “The Uncertain Hour” and “This Is Uncomfortable.” He also reported radio features for Marketplace’s radio programs, wrote for our website and served as an in-studio and field photographer. What was your first job? Dishwasher What do you think is the hardest part of your job that no one knows? Video conferences. In your next life, what would your career be? Foley artist. Fill in the blank: Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you ______. Snacks for the snack desk. What’s your most memorable Marketplace moment? Seeking out tornadoes with storm chasers for half a week to report a story about the business of storm chasing. Watching severe storms develop over the prairies of Nebraska was breathtaking.

Latest from Peter Balonon-Rosen

  • Apr 1, 2021

    A lifelong scam

    Axton Betz-Hamilton and her parents in 2012.
    Courtesy: Axton Betz-Hamilton

    Axton Betz-Hamilton spent 20 years trying to track down an identity thief that wreaked havoc on her family, only to discover the truth was uglier than she’d imagined.

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  • This Is Uncomfortable returns October 6!

    “This Is Uncomfortable” is back for season four.

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  • Mar 24, 2021

    My boss is an app

    Julia Soler loads up her minivan with groceries before her shift doing gig work with Amazon Flex.
    Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

    The gig-app workforce has arrived at our doorstep. But Silicon Valley’s innovations in hiring are only the latest round of this long-running battle over what “employment” means in the American economy.

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  • Mar 17, 2021

    Inside baseball

    Anthony Shew (right) fist bumps fellow pitcher Adam Wainwright while playing for the minor league Springfield Cardinals. As a minor league player, Shew isn't subject to federal minimum wage and overtime requirements.
    Courtesy: Anthony Shew

    In minor league baseball, athletes train, suit up and play for wages that would be illegal in most sectors.

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  • Crowds of people stand in the street, waiting to identify bodies of immigrant workers following the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in New York City, March 25, 1911.
    Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    After Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, he took both companies to court — the subcontractor he worked for, the “little boss,” and its client, the “big boss,” Koch Foods.

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  • Jimmy Nicks, a chicken catcher in Mississippi.
    Caitlin Esch/Marketplace

    When chicken catcher Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, he started doing the same job for a new boss — only without the pay, protections and benefits he’d come to rely on.

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  • A group of Accenture employees.
    Peter Balonon-Rosen/Marketplace

    Over a quarter of the world’s largest employers don’t just make or sell products — they also rent out workers. Let’s talk about how we got here.

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  • “To suffer or permit to work”
    Ben Hethcoat/Marketplace

    We’ll finally tell you what happened to Jerry Vazquez and how it relates to the story of a 1930s hotel chambermaid. Plus, how we got the federal minimum wage and a new version of “The ABCs.”

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  • Feb 10, 2021

    Who’s the boss?

    Jerry Vazquez and his mother Isabelle.
    Krissy Clark/Marketplace

    Jerry Vazquez was running his own cleaning franchise, but he was barely getting by. He started feeling like he had little control over a business he owned — so Jerry decided it was time to fight back.

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  • Jerry Vazquez holding some of his Jan-Pro gear.
    Krissy Clark/Marketplace

    Jerry Vazquez always dreamed of owning his own business. But becoming a franchisee of a janitorial services company left him in debt and earning less than minimum wage.

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