Mike Rowe On His New Series, How America Works And The Return Of Dirty Jobs

From sewer inspector to sheep castrator, Mike Rowe has devoted his career to celebrating America’s skilled labor. “All the programs I have worked on have been an attempt to tap the country on the shoulder and just say, ‘What about her? What about him? Remember them?,” says Rowe, who episode after episode, rolled up his sleeves as an apprentice on the TV series Dirty Jobs.

Rowe also created the mikeroweWORKS Foundation, which has given away over $5.2 million and 1,200 scholarships through their Work Ethic Scholarship Program to help women and men learn skills and master trades.

With all of his projects, Rowe hopes to inspire genuine appreciation for what it takes to provide the 20 million tons of fish we eat each day or how we turn on a light switch and get electricity or get our trash picked up. “It's hard for people to contemplate the scale and the scope of all that work that has to get done day after day, hour after hour, week after week, month after month,” he says.

Mike Rowe's New Show How America Works

To that end, Rowe has a brand new series, How America Works, on FOX Business Network, which he narrates and executive produces. The show, debuting on FOX Business Network on September 20 and continuing on Mondays at 8 pm ET, brings viewers behind the scenes, offering the backstory of how these proverbial fires are kept burning in the furnace. How America Works offers an up-close and personal look at ten of the nation’s most essential industries. "It's a way to pay a tribute to the part of our workforce that often goes forgotten or ignored,” says Rowe.

Related: Mike Rowe Knows What’s Right With America and He's Telling Things The Way I Heard It in His Memoir 

What is How America Works about?

In the most intimate fly-on-the-wall way, How America Works does a deep dive into industries that we deeply rely upon from waste to energy to fishing to airports. “Our cameras go into these places simply to document the truth of the day….It’s a look at the most important industries in our country through the eyes of a few of the people who live and breathe these jobs every day,” says Rowe. “We will follow two or three people in Alaska who are in the business of getting trees down, getting trees cut, getting lumber on a barge, getting the barge to port and so forth.”

The goal of each episode is to help viewers understand that if it wasn’t for these people and industries, a major part of their existence would be considerably different.

Rowe’s passion for amplifying the dignity of America’s workforce runs deep. As a child, Rowe’s family lived on a small farm next to his grandparents in Baltimore County. “I had a front-row seat to the magician who was my grandfather,” shares Rowe. “He was a guy who could build a house without a blueprint and could fix or repair anything. He only went to the seventh grade, but by the time he was 30, he was a master electrician, a plumber, steamfitter and pipe-fitter.”  In fact, Dirty Jobs, which is scheduled to return this fall, is a tribute to his grandfather.

Rowe sees all of his shows and his foundation as a love letter to work and the people who do the work. “There is really no such thing as a good job or a bad job,” he says.  “It’s all a question of labor and our identities.”

He also hopes to remind people of what binds and unifies them. “We forget about the electricians at our peril, we forget about the fishermen at our peril, we forget about the lumberjacks at our peril,” he adds. “These people are all connected to us. I don't understand why we work so hard to accentuate the difference between blue-collar and white-collar or trade schools versus universities. We need both. I hope these shows help magnify that.”

Read our exclusive interview with Rowe below.

Related: Read an Excerpt From Mike Rowe’s New Book The Way I Heard It

This year your foundation, mikeroweWORKS, turned 13. What inspired you to create it?

I started mikeroweWORKS on Labor Day in 2008 when our country was going into a recession and unemployment was headline news. The interesting thing back in those days was that even as more and more people were becoming less and less employed, the skills gap got wider and wider. In other words, millions of jobs were going unfilled at a time when millions of people were out of work. Because the people who were out of work simply didn't have the training for the jobs that existed.

My foundation started as an attempt to make a more persuasive case for lots of great opportunities that for whatever reason, people just weren't enthusiastic or excited by. It evolved over the years into a scholarship program…The scholarships are specifically for people who don't wish to pursue a four-year degree, but rather master the kind of skills that we highlight in shows like How America Works.

Are there certain moments in How America Works that you really love?

My favorite moments are the moments when you have no choice as a viewer but to understand the difficulty and sacrifice that these people are making in a way that benefits you. When you see a large tree come down, it's easy to feel sorry for the tree. Well, guess what? The lumber industry is incredibly sustainable. More trees are planted than are taken down every year. It’s nice to tell the story that says, wait for a second, the home you're sitting in right now was probably built with lumber from this part of the country. The electricity we're enjoying right now on this internet connection is probably being provided by a turbine very similar to the one we see maintained in the Hoover Dam.

Also, my favorite moments are ones that remind people that there are two sides to every coin. While many of these industries are sometimes looked down upon or dismissed as dirty, they are the absolute definition of essential.

Related: 5 of Mike Rowe’s Dirtiest Jobs

You mentioned that Dirty Jobs is coming back for a second season. What can you tell us about the show’s return?

I don't have an air date yet. We shot six episodes and it's the show you remember. I'm the apprentice. I show up early, do my best to keep up and learn the job. Along the way, we meet the people who actually do the work, laugh and learn. And usually, a toilet will explode in my face or there will be some misadventure in animal husbandry.

How America Works debuts on Fox Business Network on September 20 and continues on Mondays at 8 pm ET.

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