When I have snuck out briefly in the past couple of weeks to safely get a few items at the supermarket, I made sure to thank the workers in the aisles and my cashier for being on the job, and I also tell them be safe and careful. They are supremely vulnerable to getting sick.

Those retail workers, who still have jobs despite many stores having closed down, are forced to show up at work, mainly because they have no choice—their boss hasn’t shut down and the workers need the paycheck because lots of them are like millions of Americans with very little in the way of an emergency cash cushion, and in lots of cases they have zero paid sick leave. Today, I speak with Dave Mertz, vice president and New York City director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, about what’s happening in the lives of retail workers on the corona frontlines.

And speaking of bad employers—even without a pandemic Amazon is injuring workers and tossing them away like disposable units. Irene Tung, senior researcher and policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project, talks to me about a stunning new study she recently co-authored that looks at Amazon’s injury and turnover rates.

I wrap up this week’s episode with a conversation with Cori Bush, a single parent, registered nurse, a pastor, an activist, and a community organizer in St Louis Missouri, who is a strong progressive taking on a long-time entrenched incumbent in a Democratic primary in Missouri’s 1st Congressional District.