Social Safety Net

It’s Hump Day! And Emma is BACK! Sam and Emma speak with Rena Wong, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) local 663, to discuss the recent strike efforts by grocery workers in Minnesota. Then, they speak with Abby Vesoulis, national politics reporter at Mother Jones, to discuss her recent piece entitled “A Nixon-Era […]
Sam hosts Mark Joseph Stern, senior writer at Slate, to discuss the recent opening arguments that have come in front of the Supreme Court. First, Sam runs through updates on the Democratic victory in Arizona bringing Kari Lake down, the GOP creeping even closer to a House majority, Biden’s attempt to renew the student debt repayments, and Iran detaining minors […]
Emma hosts Paolo Gerbaudo, Director of the Centre for Digital Culture at King’s College London, to discuss his recent book The Great Recoil: Politics after Populism and Pandemic.  Emma first starts off by covering the amoral impending execution of Melissa Lucio, despite growing evidence that she was not responsible for the death of her child. Then, Emma touches briefly […]
Sam and Emma host Matthew Cortland, Senior Fellow at Data for Progress, to discuss Supplemental Security Income restorative/legislative efforts, and right to repair activist Louis Rossmann to discuss the change in right to repair laws after Biden’s competition executive order was signed into law. Sam, Emma, and Matthew cover the structural differences in disability social securities, […]
Sam and Emma host Spencer Headworth, professor of Sociology at Purdue University to discuss his recent book, Policing Welfare: Punitive Adversarialism in Public Assistance, on how welfare law enforcement has crippled public assistance programs. Professor Headworth begins by walking through what the U.S. sees as welfare, focusing on public assistance like TANF and SNAP, rather than […]
Sam and Emma host professor Mark Robert Rank to discuss his new book Poorly Understood: What America Gets Wrong About Poverty on realities of American poverty and what has to be done to reduce suffering in 21st century America. Plus, the MR community says goodbye to Jamie. On today’s show: Fox News says Covid relief bill is too […]
University of Notre Dame Professor, Benjamin Radcliff  author of the new book The Political Economy of Human Happiness: How Voters’ Choices Determine the Quality of Life, explains the importance of studying happiness in politics, what countries are the most happy and why, why more social safety nets and strong labor movements means more satisfied people, why policies that help […]