Dollar stores are the fastest growing food retailer in the United States, both by sheer number of stores and consumer food purchases. Just two corporations, Dollar General and Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar, operate more than 35,000 stores across the country. However, a growing body of research reveals that dollar stores offer limited healthy food options. Dollar stores shape the food environments of communities, especially in the South and Midwest regions and communities in rural areas with substantial shares of Black and Latin people and households with limited financial resources. What do we know about the impact dollar stores have on these communities and the overall wellbeing of community members? The Center for Science in the Public Interest conducted a national survey to understand how people perceive and actually use dollar stores. Today we will talk with lead author of this study, Senior Policy Scientist Sara John.

Results of a national consumer attitudes survey on Dollar Stores

If people knew how much food they threw away each week, would they change their food-wasting ways? That's a question scientists explore in the 2023 State of Food Waste in America report. The research goal was to understand why and how households waste food, and what would motivate them to prevent food waste. In today's podcast, we'll talk with MITRE scientists Laura Leets and Grace Mika, members of a team who developed and launched the MITRE Food Waste Tracker app. This is a first of its kind app for households to log information about discarded food and learn ways to save money by reducing food waste. The Food Waste in America study team includes the Gallup Survey Company, researchers from the Ohio State University, the Harvard Law and Policy Clinic, ReFED, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the World Wildlife Fund.

Insight from a national household food waste study

Isabel Wilkerson, an esteemed American journalist and author, visited the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy recently to meet with students and present the 2024 Terry Sanford Lecture. 

Born in Washington, D.C., and a graduate of Howard University, Wilkerson's career in journalism included notable positions at The New York Times, recognized with the Pulitzer Prize in 1994, becoming the first woman of African-American heritage to win the award in journalism. 

Her debut book, "The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration," garnered widespread acclaim for its exploration of the mass migration of African Americans from the South to the North and West. This seminal work earned her numerous awards and established her as a leading voice on social justice in America.

In her latest book, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents," Wilkerson delves into the concept of caste systems and their enduring influence on American society. Drawing parallels between the caste systems of India, Nazi Germany, and the United States, the book offers profound insights into the structural inequalities and systemic injustices that persist in contemporary America. 

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Event Recap: https://sanford.duke.edu/story/sanford-lecture-isabel-wilkerson-speaks-origins-racial-division-bring-hope-reconciliation/

A Conversation With Writer Isabel Wilkerson

Today's podcast is a story of one man's personal journey to making a difference by building communities. Zach Wyatt grew up caretaking an old 300-acre farm in Virginia. He went to college and ended up working in mortgage lending. And then something changed for Zack, and that's where the story gets interesting. He now leads the Carolina Farm Trust, working to strengthen local food systems in the Carolinas. The trust cultivates urban farm networks, farm apprenticeships, supports local farmers in purchasing equipment or land, making informed-decisions, and more.

Carolina Farm Trust - creating healthy food system disruption

A growing number of research studies show that the cognitive and brain development of low-income children differs from that of children in higher income families. For any family, that is a concerning statement. Today's podcast features a project called Baby's First Years, a multi-year effort to test the connections between poverty reduction and brain development among very young children. Here to talk about what the study has revealed so far is Dr. Lisa Gennetian from Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, and Dr. Sarah Halpern-Meekin from the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Grocery and meal insight from the Baby's First Year Study

Today's guests argue that the January 6th storming of the Capitol in the United States is a stark example of the violence that can come from the way in which people talk to each other across the political divide. To address the issue, Duke faculty members Stephen Buckley and Sue Wasiolek have developed a series of courses for students focused on civil discourse and democracy. Their goal is to "deepen understanding of how public debates shape--and are shaped by--policymakers, higher education, and the media."

The series is part of Duke Immerse, and will take place in the fall of 2024 in Durham, NC and London/Oxford, England.

More about the series of classes: https://immerse.duke.edu/?page_id=2405

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Transcript & resources: https://policy360.org/2024/04/02/ep-153-civil-discourse/

Towards More Civil Discourse

Maria Ressa has faced government arrests and online assaults for her work to “hold the line” and tell the truth. Ressa is CEO of Rappler, an international news organization that she founded. She is the author of “How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future.” The book is a memoir of her life’s work to hold power to account.

Maria Ressa fights for justice – often in the courts. She has fought numerous court cases brought against her by the Philippine government. Two of those cases are currently pending. She joins us to provides important lessons from her work that can be guideposts for a better world in the future.

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Transcript & resources: policy360.org/2024/04/02/ep-153-civil-discourse/

A Conversation with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa

Traditional clinical weight loss interventions can be costly, time consuming, and inaccessible to low-income populations and people without adequate health insurance. Today's guest, Dr. Gary Bennett, has developed an Interactive Obesity Treatment Approach, or iOTA for short, that represents a real advance in this area. Dr. Bennett is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Medicine and Global Health at Duke University, where he is also Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences.

Successful Interactive Obesity Treatment Approach

Why many college students' ballots are getting tossed — and what could be done about it.
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In this episode of the Ways & Means podcast  – as we head into the 2024 elections - why lots of North Carolina college students’ votes did not count in the last election, or the time before that, or the time before that. Why those votes weren’t counted, and how to prevent it from happening again.

Resources:
- Subscribe to Ways & Means: waysandmeansshow.org/subscribe/
- Resources, Credits, Transcript: https://waysandmeansshow.org/2024/04/28/s9e1-missing-votes/

Missing Votes

The first nutrition labels mandated by the Food and Drug Administration appeared on food packages in 1994. A key update occurred in 2016, informed by new science on the link between diet and chronic disease. Along the way, things like trans fats and added sugars were required, but all along, the labels have been laden with numbers and appear on the back or side of packages. There has long been interest in more succinct and consumer-friendly labeling systems that might appear on the front of packages. Such systems exist outside the US, but for political reasons and lobbying by the food industry, have been blocked in the United States. There's new hope, however, described in a recent opinion piece by Christina Roberto, Alyssa Moran, and Kelly Brownell in the Washington Post. Today, we welcome Dr. Christina Roberto, lead author of that piece. She is the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margot Krody Blutt Presidential Associate Professor of Health Policy in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Why we need a new food labeling system

Duke University’s World Food Policy Center develops coordinated and inclusive food policies. Our approach bridges key areas of food policies and systems to improve human well-being, planetary health, and equity At the heart of this work, we learn from and connect unique voices—including people most affected by food system challenges.

Successful Interactive Obesity Treatment Approach

The Leading Voices in Food

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