Rebecca talks to Dorian Warren, co-chair of the Economic Security Project, and Aisha Nyandoro, creator of the Magnolia Mother's Trust, about the growing evidence calling for guaranteed income policies in the U.S. -- and why now is the moment to finally leave the 1990s-era "work requirements" debate in the history books.

The Ever-Growing Case for Guaranteed Income -- feat. Dorian Warren and Aisha Nyandoro

Rebecca talks to Jeremie Greer--co-founder and co-executive director of Liberation in a Generation--about the case for centering grassroots leaders of color within the anti-monopoly movement, and reimagining the antitrust movement’s work through a racial justice lens.

Reimagining Anti-Monopoly Activism Through Racial Justice -- feat. Jeremie Greer

Rebecca talks to Nina Olson, executive director of the Center for Taxpayer Rights, who served from 2001 until 2019 as the IRS’s internal watchdog known as the national taxpayer advocate, and Jen Burdick, a lawyer in the public benefits unit at Community Legal Services, about what it will take to ensure low-income individuals and families newly eligible for the new child allowance, the EITC expansion, and other income-boosting provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act can actually access those benefits—to ensure that the law's promised poverty reductions transfer from spreadsheets into real life.

Eligibility doesn’t equal access

To kick off a series of conversations with leaders in the field of reentry and criminal records reform for April as Second Chance Month, Rebecca talks to two of the leading academics behind a critical new line of research on what’s now being called the “second chance gap”—JJ Prescott, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, and Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law and Paper Prisons Project—whose research on who’s getting left behind by hard to navigate expungement systems has been fueling state momentum to make criminal record-clearing automatic for everyone who’s eligible, instead of just the lucky few who can afford to hire a lawyer.

The Second Chance Gap -- feat. JJ Prescott and Colleen Chien

Off-Kilter continues our Second Chance Month series with Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, best known for the visionary Amendment 4 campaign that restored the right to vote for 1.4 million people with felony convictions in Florida—and Sheena Meade, managing director of the Clean Slate Initiative, a bipartisan national movement to expand record-clearing and make it automatic to put second chances within reach for everyone, not just folks who can afford a lawyer.

Desmond Meade and Sheena Meade Talk Second Chance Month

As Off-Kilter continues #SecondChanceMonth, to mark 4/20, Rebecca sat down with Adam Vine, cofounder of Cage Free Cannabis & Cage Free Repair, and Felicia Carbajal, interim director of programming with National Expungement Week.

Cage Free Cannabis Talks #SecondChanceMonth

As Off-Kilter closes out our #SecondChanceMonth series for the month of April, we’re bringing you a conversation Rebecca had earlier this week with a group of state leaders who’ve been advancing transformative “clean slate” and fair chance licensing reforms in recent years: Michigan Lt. Governor Garlin Gilchrist II; Sharon Dietrich, litigation director at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia; Representative Jordan Harris, Minority Whip of the Pennsylvania Assembly; Josh Hoe, policy analyst at Safe and Just Michigan; Whitley Carpenter, criminal justice staff attorney at Forward Justice in North Carolina; and Jael Myrick, interim director of the Clean Slate practice at the East Bay Community Law Center in California.

State Leaders Talk #SecondChanceMonth: Fair Chance Licensing and Clean Slate

The April jobs data released by the Department of Labor last week spurred an avalanche of hysteria and conservative hand-wringing about supposedly widespread labor shortages, with many on the right pointing to pandemic jobless benefits as the bogeyman. In a particularly troubling move, on Wednesday of this week, 12 Republican governors announced they’d be ending access to pandemic unemployment benefits in their states. To help unpack the state of the labor market as the COVID-19 economic recovery continues—and the role of pandemic unemployment insurance in the recovery—Rebecca sat down with Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the Economic Policy Institute, former chief economist at the Department of Labor under President Obama, for a reality check on the jobs data and what they really tell us about the kind of policies we need at this point in the ongoing recovery.

What's Really Going on in the Labor Market -- feat. Heidi Shierholz

While poverty is all too often portrayed as a personal failure, it’s actually the result of bad public policy choices. Public policy has purposefully erected barriers that deny access to basic needs, creating a society where people can easily become trapped in poverty—not because we as a nation lack the resources to lift them out, but because we are actively choosing not to. This is the premise of Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty, a new book that looks at many of the policy choices conspiring to keep people poor and offers a roadmap of solutions that would eradicate poverty in the U.S. Rebecca sat down with the authors, Joanne Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, for this week's pod.

"Broke in America"--feat. Joanne Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox

This week, Off-Kilter’s bringing you a conversation Rebecca moderated at The Century Foundation earlier this week, on the historic opportunity to make long overdue improvements to Supplemental Security Income as part of #BuildBackBetter—featuring Sen Sherrod Brown, Rep. Raul Grijalva, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, as well as a panel of disability and seniors’ advocates.

Why Strengthening SSI Needs to Be Part of "Building Back Better"

TalkPoverty Radio is now Off-Kilter. To kick off the inaugural episode, host Rebecca Vallas is joined by Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, which examines resistance movements in the U.S. and how they have the power to reshape American politics. Next, Ezra Levin of Indivisible talks about what’s next for the movement that’s responsible for some spirited town halls this week. And Dorian Warren of Center for Community Change Action joins to unpack Trump’s attacks on immigrants and how they fit in with a broader divide-and-conquer strategy. But first, Jeremy Slevin breaks down this week’s biggest news. 

Follow this week’s guests on Twitter: 

Ezra Levin: @ezralevin
Sarah Jaffe: @sarahljaffe
Dorian Warren: @dorrianwarren
Jeremy Slevin: @jeremyslevin

The Resistance is Everywhere

This week, we are talking Baltimore and moms. Our friends at Media Matters help us cut through the conservative media narratives that blame the Baltimore unrest on welfare; Sam Seder examines conservative rhetoric versus reality; Jenée Desmond-Harris of Vox reports from Baltimore on what is happening on the ground; we take a look at how moms get blamed for basically all of our social ills; and more.  Our guests include Sam Seder, host of the Majority Report and co-host of Ring of Fire; Rebecca Lenn, Director of Outreach at Media Matters for America; Jenée Desmond-Harris, staff writer at Vox.com; Linda Blum, Associate Professor of Sociology at Northeastern University and author of Raising Generation Rx: Mothering Kids with Disabilities in an Age of Inequality; and ​Levester Joe Green II and Bryan Bello, co-directors of the film I am Levester Joe Green II.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

All Eyes on Baltimore

We’re going international! In the wake of the UK’s recent elections, Mary O’Hara of The Guardian discusses the nation’s devastating cuts to public benefits programs and how the U.S. can heed the warnings from across the pond. Back in the U.S., Tianna Gaines-Turner with Witnesses to Hunger discusses her experiences living in poverty and her advocacy work on Capitol Hill; and Maya Dusenbery from Feministing calls out the sexist structures holding women back. Our guests include Mary O’Hara, columnist for The Guardian and author of Austerity Bites: A journey to the sharp end of cuts in the UK; Tianna Gaines-Turner with Witnesses to Hunger, Maya Dusenbery, Executive Director for Editorial at Feministing.com; and Alan Pyke, Deputy Economic Policy Editor, ThinkProgress.

The Ugly Truth About Austerity

Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor and Publisher of The Nation kicks off our show to discuss the recent poverty summit with President Obama, the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, and The Nation’s legacy since its founding by abolitionists 150 years ago. We are then joined by Patrick McCarthy, President and the CEO of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, who talks about what we need to do to provide opportunity for all children in the child welfare system. Finally, Maya Pinto of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum gives us an inside look into the working conditions within the nail salon industry.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Where is Our Moral Compass?

This episode is all about people fighting for their fair share of the “American Dream.” We’re talking with Hannah Groch-Begley of Media Matters for America about the new CBS show “The Briefcase” and whether it’s the latest example of “poverty porn.” Jared Bernstein, former chief economist to Vice President Biden and senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, joins to discuss his new book, The Reconnection Agenda, on getting back to full employment and how to ensure economic growth is widely shared. Slate’s Jamelle Bouie discusses his recent articles on race and housing, and why integration is so hard. And Linda Tirado, author of Hand to Mouth, returns to talk about her recent TalkPoverty.org column on what a real anti-poverty movement looks like.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

We the People

Rebecca and Tracey, who have criticized CBS's new reality show The Briefcase on air, talk directly with the show’s creator and producer, Dave Broome. They discuss what inspired him to focus on struggling families, debate the impact of the show, and hear why he believes he has created the most “real and raw” show on network television. Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, talks with Rebecca about her testimony at a recent Congressional hearing focused on "waste, fraud and abuse" in safety net programs. Laura Durso and Sarah McBride of CAP’s LGBT Progress team join to discuss Caitlyn Jenner’s recent Vanity Fair cover and the conversations it has sparked around issues impacting the transgender community. And as always(ish), Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress joins for the Weekly(ish) Worst.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Unpacking the Briefcase

Rebecca talks with Ian Millhiser, Justice Editor for ThinkProgress and author of Injustices: The Supreme Court's History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted, about the five worst Supreme Court Justices ever and the four most important court cases this session for low-income families and communities. She is then joined by RJ Eskow, host of The Zero Hour, to unpack how Orange is the New Black got it wrong (way wrong) about a vital program for kids with disabilities. And as always(ish), Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress joins Tracey and Rebecca for the Weekly Worst.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Supreme Court Countdown

Join us and explore the role art plays in social justice movements. Tracey talks with Meg Noe, Curator and Director of Education for David Weinberg Photography, about the gallery’s commitment to educating the public on issues of social justice. She is then joined by Billy McGuinness, a Chicago-based artist whose work is currently on display at the gallery as part of the exhibit An Invisible Hand. Tracey also speaks with Ben Stone, Executive Director of Station North Arts & Entertainment, Inc., to discuss the role the arts plays in community change throughout his hometown of Baltimore.  And Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress joins Tracey and Alyssa Peterson (filling in for Rebecca) for another rendition of the Weekly Worst.

Art and Soul

Economic justice is an essential part of civil rights. On the heels of major civil rights wins at the Supreme Court, we’re marking the 51st anniversary of the Civil Rights Act by discussing how far we have come, and how the fight must continue. We kick things off with Michele Jawando, Vice President for Legal Progress at CAP, who discusses the SCOTUS wins, calls for removing the confederate flag, and how the #BlackLivesMatter movement is a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement of 50 years ago. We are then joined by Rebecca Cokley, Executive Director of the National Council on Disability, who discusses how the fight for economic and social inclusion for people with disabilities has its roots in the civil rights movement and must be part of today’s fight. Finally, we’re joined by Katie Klabusich, writer and reproductive justice activist, who discusses the link between poverty, economic justice, and reproductive rights.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

We Shall Overcome

This week we talk to Joan Walsh, editor-at-large for Salon.com, MSNBC political analyst, and author of “What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America.” We discuss 2016, the stigma around poverty, and race in the U.S. But first, we’re joined by Craig Harrington, Economic Policy Program Director at Media Matters for America, to discuss why comparing the U.S. economy to the Greek debt crisis makes no sense, and why conservatives are doing this anyway to promote austerity here at home. We also talk to Liz Ben-Ishai, Senior Policy Analyst at Center for Law and Social Policy, on how we can protect workers and help business at the same time by simply making work schedules predictable, and how new legislation can help.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Big Fat Greek Lie

July 26th marked 25 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To discuss how far we’ve come—and how far we still have to go—we’re joined by Talley Wells, Director of the Disability Integration Project at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, for an overview of the ADA as well as the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision, a critical civil rights case for people with disabilities. Courtesy of the Vera Institute, we feature remarks from Talila “TL” Lewis, founder of HEARD, on the impact of the criminal justice system on people with disabilities. We also hear from Alice Wong about the Disability Visibility Project, a partnership with StoryCorps to collect oral histories of people with disabilities. And we are joined by Michael Morris, Executive Director of the National Disability Institute, to discuss the work that lies ahead to ensure that disability and poverty no longer go hand in hand.

For a transcript of the episode, click here.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Disability and Poverty: Breaking the Link

Last week we attended Netroots Nation in Phoenix, Arizona! In addition to our regularly scheduled Weekly Worst, we talked to Katie Klabusich, writer and reproductive justice activist, who discusses the need to include economic justice in all social justice movements. Rebecca also talked to Congressman Mark Takano (D-CA) about the push to raise the income threshold for overtime pay. We then hear from Analilia Mejia, Executive Director of New Jersey Working Families, about her work advocating for paid sick days for working families amid opposition from Governor Chris Christie (R) and the state legislature. And we close with the voices of the Black Lives Matter protesters who shifted the conversation of the Netroots Presidential Town Hall.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Netroots Nation Roundup

On August 6, 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which arguably has done more to empower African Americans than perhaps any law since the Fourteenth Amendment. Unfortunately, a 2013 Supreme Court decision gutted a central component of the law, and conservative attacks on voting rights have disenfranchised vulnerable communities. To discuss the storied history of the Voting Rights Act and where we need to go to restore its protections, we speak to Michele Jawando, Vice President of Legal Progress at the Center for American Progress and Ari Berman, a contributing writer for The Nation magazine. Later, we are joined by Glenn Martin, Founder and President of JustLeadershipUSA, to discuss President Obama's exciting program that would restore Pell Grants to some incarcerated students.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

The Voting Rights Act at 50

Happy (belated) 80th birthday Social Security! To celebrate the program that keeps more than 22 million Americans out of poverty every year, we’re joined by Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, who joins us from the road in between birthday parties for Social Security in states across the country. We discuss recent attacks on the program with Michael Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Rebecca sits down with Kevin Prindiville, Executive Director of Justice in Aging, to explore the myth that senior poverty is a thing of the past. And last but certainly not least, we’re joined by Mike Konczal, a fellow with the Roosevelt Institute and contributor to The Nation and Dissent to discuss the flaws in the conservative “voluntarism fantasy,” a world in which private charity fulfills all public needs.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Happy Birthday Social Security!

Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall, revealing the vulnerability of low-income communities and communities of color. To recognize this anniversary, we’re joined by a number of guests to better shine a light on the effects of extreme weather, racial inequality, and poverty. First, we’re joined by Dr. MarkAlain Dery, founder of the New Orleans radio station, 102.3 FM WHIV, which broadcasts TalkPoverty Radio each week. Dr. Dery, a physician at Tulane School of Medicine, discusses leading the Astrodome Health Clinic for evacuees of the storm and how New Orleans has changed. We’re also joined by Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League and former Mayor of New Orleans, who discusses how the recovery efforts are far from complete for the city’s poorest residents. We then hear from Sandy Rosenthal, activist and founder of Levees.org, who shares insights on the manmade aspect of the disaster. Lastly, Danielle Baussan, Managing Director of CAP’s energy team, discusses how social networks are a critical tool in fighting back against disaster.  We also have footage from The Bill Press Show, where Tracey was a guest discussing environmental justice.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Hurricane Katrina: Ten Years Later

On today’s episode, we’re celebrating Labor Day – a holiday recognizing the American labor movement and achievements of American workers. To kick things off, we’re joined by Steve Kreisberg, Director of Collective Bargaining for the public sector union AFSCME. He discusses the important role unions play in protecting workers, and why attacks on unions are misplaced. We’re then joined by Terrence McCoy of The Washington Post, whose recent article exposed how companies make millions off lead-poisoned, poor black residents of Baltimore. We’re also joined by Saqib Bhatti, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the Director of the ReFund America Project. He discusses the astronomical fees that cities pay for financial services and how cities should take a page out of the labor playbook by collectively bargaining with Wall Street to save money. We close things out with Clara Miller of the F.B. Heron Foundation, who discusses the role of philanthropy in the new economy.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Labor Day

This past weekend highlighted two historic visits to U.S. prisons. First, Pope Francis spoke with a group of about 100 inmates in Philadelphia. Then HBO aired VICE’s special report, “Fixing the System,” which covered President Obama’s visit to a federal prison. To discuss the significance of these visits, the rise of “offender-funded justice,” and the country’s failed experiment with private prisons, we’re joined by Jeremy Haile, Federal Advocacy Counsel for The Sentencing Project, as well as Carl Takei, Staff Attorney at the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). We also speak with Rachel Tardiff, Deputy Director of Outreach for Media Matters for America, who breaks down the latest attempt in Maine to shame low-income Americans. And finally, we provide a sneak peek into the United Planning Organization’s discussion on “Poverty in the Media,” which brought together D.C. media personalities and anti-poverty activists.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Prison-Industrial Complex

Nearly every worker will experience a caregiving dilemma at some point in their working lives, yet only 12 percent of all private-sector workers have access to paid family leave. In a historic move, DC’s City Council is working to change that for workers in the nation’s capital. To discuss this landmark legislation, we’re joined by at-large Council members Elissa Silverman and David Grosso, the lead supporters of the measure, as well as Sheena Wadhawan, Advocacy Director of the Employment Justice Center.  But first, we’re joined by Todd Cox, a Senior Fellow at CAP and TalkPoverty Radio’s new criminal justice correspondent, who helps us dissect The Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act, a groundbreaking piece of bipartisan legislation that promises to rein in our country’s “tough on crime” days with sensible reforms. And we’re joined once again by Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress for a special installment of the weekly worst.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

DC’s Fight for Paid Leave

On this week’s show, we kick things off by celebrating our neighbors to the North who elected Liberal Party Leader Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister after he campaigned on an anti-poverty platform. In addition to Trudeau’s victory, there were some big wins for the First Nations people of Canada. To discuss this, as well as the work ahead to fight poverty among Native populations, we’re joined by our colleague Erik Stegman, an expert in American Indian and Alaska Native policy. In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we next discuss the intersection of poverty and domestic violence with Lisalyn Jacobs of Legal Momentum, an organization dedicated to ensuring economic and personal security for women and girls, and Dana Bolger of Know Your IX, a national survivor-run, student-driven campaign to end campus sexual violence. And we close things out with The Weekly(ish) Worst with Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

O Canada!

This week, we talk to Todd Cox, Senior Fellow and Legal Correspondent for TalkPoverty Radio, about President Obama’s announcement that the federal government would “ban the box,” giving people with criminal records a fair shot in hiring processes. Next, Rebecca is joined by Eduardo Porter of The New York Times and Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality to discuss welfare reform's legacy and what the election of Speaker Ryan means for people living in poverty. Tracey also reports from her trip to PolicyLink’s 2015 Equity Summit in Los Angeles, California where she connected with a number of leaders fighting for social justice. First, she sits down with Angela Glover Blackwell, President and CEO of PolicyLink, to discuss the goals of the Summit and how “equity is a superior growth model” for the economy. She then speaks with Alderman Antonio French of St. Louis, who gained national attention for covering the unrest in Ferguson in 2014. French joins to discuss the predatory fines and fees municipalities place on low-income people and people of color, and the future of Ferguson. Tracey also talks to Dixon Slingerland, Executive Director of the Youth Policy Institute, and one of the leaders of the Los Angeles Promise Zone. He discusses the challenges the neighborhoods in the zone face, and the progress they are making to revitalize the area.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

A Fair Shot for All

To kick things off, our friend Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works and co-founder of We Act Radio, returns to discuss some recent actions on Capitol Hill in the fight to protect and expand Social Security. We then shift gears for a special segment on poverty and technology.  Tracey sits down with her mentor Dr. Freada Kapor Klein, Partner at The Kapor Center for Social Impact, to discuss the $40 million investment she and her husband are making to diversify Silicon Valley over the next three years. We’re also joined by John B. Horrigan, a senior researcher focusing on the internet and technology at Pew Research Center, who discusses gaps in access to technology and the need for “digital readiness” among low-income communities. And we’re joined once again by Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress for the latest installment of the Weekly Worst.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

The Digital Divide

This holiday season, millions of Americans will be heading to large retailers to buy gifts for loved ones, but at what cost? Workers at Walmart, the world’s most profitable corporation, face unpredictable scheduling practices that make it hard to balance work and family obligations, and many go hungry during the year due to their meager wages. To hear how workers are fighting back, we speak with Nancy Reynolds, a cashier at a Florida Walmart who started a petition asking her employer to join other retailers in giving its employees a 10% discount on food. We then speak with Michelle Chen, a contributing writer for The Nation and a co-producer of Dissent Magazine’s Belabored podcast, to discuss how such activism intersects with the labor movement more broadly. Later in the show, we’re joined by Scott Rodd, a freelance journalist and photographer, who provides some insight on the unfortunate reality that covering poverty can require journalists to live in poverty. Last but not least, Alan Pyke of ThinkProgress returns for the Weekly Worst.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Fast for $15

New analysis from CAP has found that nearly half of U.S. children now have at least one parent with a criminal record. To discuss the family consequences that can stem from the barriers associated with a parent’s criminal record, we’re joined by our colleagues Melissa Boteach, Vice President of the Poverty to Prosperity Program, and Todd Cox, CAP Senior Fellow and TalkPoverty Radio's criminal justice correspondent. We’re then joined by a 32-year-old mother of three from Philadelphia who discusses how a decade-old misdemeanor conviction continues to punish her whole family. We’re also joined by Jo-Ann Wallace, the President and CEO of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), who discusses how the underfunding of public defense makes the right to counsel ring hollow for low-income defendants.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Criminal Records are a Family Sentence

Thanks to this week’s presidential debate, stop and frisk—yet another controversial police tactic that disproportionately targets people of color—has returned to the national spotlight. To unpack its legality and understand its connection to mass incarceration and police brutality, Jason Williamson, an attorney with the ACLU, joins the show. Another topic that has dominated headlines this election cycle is child care, which remains out of reach for far too many Americans, particularly those in low-wage jobs with unpredictable hours. To discuss solutions for a more equitable child care system—as well as the racial and gendered history of child care in America—Aleyamma Mathew of the Ms. Foundation and Mary Ignatius of Parent Voices join the show.  But first, Jeremy Slevin returns to discuss this week’s news in poverty.

This episode originally aired as TalkPoverty Radio.

Stop and Frisk

As we commemorate this week's ‘Day Without a Woman’ strike, this week’s Off-Kilter is an episode without Jeremy Slevin. Instead, Rebecca is joined by Michelle Chen, co-host of Dissent’s Belabored podcast, to unpack what this week’s strikes say about the future of establishment feminism. Next, Sarah McBride of the Human Rights Campaign, and the first openly transgender speaker at a major party convention, discusses the fight ahead for the LGBTQ community under Trump—and why she’s managed to remain optimistic. Next, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, joins to break down Trump’s other war on the media playing out quietly at the FCC. And finally, with Republican efforts to repeal and “replace” the Affordable Care Act continuing to advance full speed ahead, Rebecca sits down with three women whose personal stories highlight how the GOP’s Medicaid cuts would set the clock back on disability rights 50 years or more.
 
Follow this week’s guests on Twitter:

Michelle Chen: @meeshellchen
Sarah McBride: @SarahEMcBride 
Katrina vanden Heuvel: @KatrinaNation
Andraea Lavant: @andraealavant
Anastasia Somoza: @AnastasiaSomoza
Marta Conner: @MartitaConner

A Day Without a Woman

Last week, Ben Carson, President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, unveiled a proposal to triple rents for the poorest families and take housing assistance away from unemployed and underemployed workers. This announcement comes amid a nationwide affordable housing crisis: In no state in the U.S. can a minimum wage worker earning $7.25 afford even a one-bedroom apartment at market rent.

Meanwhile, just 1 in 5 eligible low-income families receive help from the nation’s already massively underfunded housing assistance programs, leaving others paying 50, 60, 70 percent of their incomes on rent — while they languish on years, sometimes decades-long waitlists. Many end up facing eviction.

A new dataset produced by sociologist and Evicted author Matthew Desmond and his team at the Eviction Lab shines staggering new light on the scale and scope of the eviction epidemic. Cities such as Richmond, Virginia, face annual eviction rates as high as 1 in 9 households. Meanwhile, an exhibit at the National Building Museum based on Desmond’s book brings the issue to life.
This week on Off-Kilter, to help Ben Carson — and the rest of us — get up to speed on the reality of America’s affordable housing crisis, which his proposal would put on steroids, Rebecca speaks with two people working to fight eviction in very different ways.

But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka The Slevinator, returns from his brush with the bubonic plague with the news of the week, In Case You Missed It.

Evicted

Families aren’t just being separated at the border. Every day, parents in communities across the U.S. have their children taken from them as punishment simply for being poor, under the guise of protecting children from neglect. Congresswoman Gwen Moore knows what this is like from personal experience—she battled to retain custody of her oldest daughter, while she was struggling to make ends meet as a young mother. Recently, she introduced legislation to stop other families from being separated for the crime of being poor. Rebecca speaks with the Congresswoman about her own experience being punished for her poverty—and about her new bill.

Later in the show, wage theft is often viewed as a civil issue. But the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has taken it on as a major priority for criminal prosecutions—and with a focus on construction workers, as part of a larger initiative to protect and fight for a group of workers who don’t just risk their lives in some of the most dangerous working conditions… but can also be left wondering if they’ll even get paid. To hear more about how some of New York City’s top law enforcement officials are taking the fight on behalf of the city’s construction workers to the courtroom, Rebecca speaks with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Hilda Lin Colon, the coordinator of the Construction Fraud Task Force.

But first, what’s at stake for low-income workers and families if Brett Kavanaugh gets confirmed to the Supreme Court; good news out of Kentucky (for now) on Medicaid; DC Council introduces a bill to overturn the will of the voters by repealing Initiative 77, the minimum wage increase for tipped workers that passed last month; Jeremy gets engaged (!!); and other news of the week ICYMI.

Family Poverty is Not Child Neglect

Another Disability Justice Initiative takeover of Off-Kilter, for mental health awareness month.

From Stigma to Oppression

Rebecca sits down with Rep. Don Beyer, Vice Chair of Congressional Joint Economic Committee, and Heather Boushey of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, for the latest on where things stand in Washington on the federal COVID response.

Beyer + Boushey

Formerly TalkPoverty Radio, Off-Kilter is a podcast about poverty and inequality — and everything they intersect with. Each week, host Rebecca Vallas is joined by experts, advocates, activists, and other smart people to break down the issues of the day — and how we fight back. Heavy topics… but with a hefty dose of laughter and snark. Powered by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Find Off-Kilter on the Progressive Voices Network, the We Act Radio network in DC, local radio stations across the U.S., and as a podcast on iTunes. 

We want to hear from you! Send ideas, pitches, and feedback to offkilter@americanprogressaction.org.

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