NCSL Podcasts

There is an increasing focus at the state and federal level on policies to require greater cost transparency in health care. While there’s debate about how effective these policies are, the goal is to allow comparison shopping on the part of consumers and employers with the aim of controlling the increasing cost of health care. The guest on the podcast is an expert in the area of health data and a...

The federal minimum wage has been a hot topic this year and was debated during discussion of the 2021 Raise the Wage Act before Congress. The wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009, and proponents of an increase say it is not adequate given the rising cost of living. Opponents argue an increase will place an undue burden on businesses, especially small businesses just coming out of the pandemic. M...

As people slowly head back to the workplace as the pandemic begins to fade, there is concern about whether people with disabilities will face steeper hurdles to employment. In the recovery following the Great Recession, for example, employment growth for people with disabilities lagged years behind those without disabilities. Illinois Senator Dan McConchie, the Senate minority leader, is one of th...

This is a special episode of “Our American States” to observe Legislative Staff Week 2021. This annual event recognizes the enormous contributions that thousands of legislative staffers make every day in statehouses across the nation. Our guests are Sabrina Lewellen, deputy director and assistant secretary of the Arkansas Senate, and Eric Nauman, lead fiscal analyst for the Minnesota Senate. Our f...

Sending kids back to the classroom is a goal across the country for many reasons. Along with concerns about falling behind academically and parents’ need to have children in school, experts also are concerned about mental and behavioral health needs. Studies indicate children in need of such services are much more likely to receive them at school. Our guests include Craig Wethington with the Minne...

Millions of people are evicted from their homes every year in America and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made the situation worse. While poverty in America has been studied extensively, much less is known about evictions. In the last 20 years, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University has gathered records on more than 80 million evictions. Matt Desmond, who created the Eviction Lab and authored the...

The Quad Caucus is a coalition of the four national caucuses of color representing Asian-Pacific American, Black, Native American and Hispanic legislators. Combined, the four groups represent more than 1,400 state lawmakers. The group came together in 2012 with the support of NCSL and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and is focused on promoting equitable outcomes in all communities focusing on people o...

Overview NCSL’s Our American States podcast presents a special six-part series, “ Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures .” This new mini-series covers the history, characters and stories of state legislatures in America, from the beginnings in Jamestown, to the present day and into the future. Each episode in the series will contain interviews with experts from inside and outside the legis...

A new report from NCSL, “Immigrant Policy Project: Report on State Immigration Laws, 2020,” summarizes state laws and resolutions enacted between January and December 2020 and trends in immigration legislation throughout the year. The report’s author, Ann Morse, is federal affairs counsel for NCSL’s Immigrant Policy Project and a longtime observer of state legislation related to immigrants. Morse...

The U.S. census is an enormous once-a-decade undertaking aimed at counting everyone in the country. Despite its scope and importance, the census rarely makes headlines. This past year, however, upset virtually everything in society and the census was no exception. The data state legislatures rely on for redistricting congressional and state legislative seats will not be available until Sept. 30, s...

Like many areas of society, the criminal justice system has struggled over the last year dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank that works to advance understanding of the criminal justice system and help inform the development of public policy, decided to take a deep dive into the system to see how it was coping. The council formed a task forc...

Social isolation and loneliness are topics most of us have first-hand experience with after a year of a pandemic has left us unable to spend time with family and friends. The ill effects of such isolation are not just on our mental health but also can affect our physical health just as much as cigarette smoking or obesity. Our guests are Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a professor of psychology at Brigham...

HIV/AIDS has killed about 700,000 people in the U.S. since it first emerged more than 40 years ago. But deaths have dropped dramatically since the mid-‘90s as new treatments have beome available. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2019 launched the Ending the HIV Epidemic Initiative that aims to eliminate the disease in this country. On this podcast, we talk with Dr. Jonathan Merm...

The ability to negotiate skillfully is critical to a well-functioning legislature. On this episode, our guest makes the point that negotiation skills are not only crucial to the legislature, they are similarly important in just about everything you do in life. Our guest, Monica Giannone, is a consultant and trainer specializing in negotiation and conflict resolution. She also runs the Harvard Kenn...

Every state in the country is involved in distributing and administering the two COVID-19 vaccines now approved for use by the US. Food and Drug Administration. Each state is working with a plan that it created in consultation with the federal government. On this podcast we discuss how those plans were created, how they’ve had to change as the pandemic has progressed and what lies ahead. Our guest...

A new category of gene therapies is offering life-changing treatments to people with some forms of cancer and other rare disorders. These revolutionary treatments, however, come with a large price tag, sometimes exceeding millions of dollars for a single patient. Often, these costs fall on state Medicaid systems. On this podcast we discuss how states are dealing with this challenge. One of our gue...

After a year like no other, legislators face some unprecedented challenges when they return to work in the 2021 sessions. COVID-19 and its effects on every aspect of society—the economy, the health care, education, criminal justice and more—will be front and center for every legislature in the nation. Tim Storey, executive director of NCSL, is the guest on the podcast and offers his perspective on...

Possibly the most underreported story during the November 2020 election was the effect it would have on redistricting, the once-a-decade effort to draw congressional and state legislative districts. On the podcast, Ben Williams, an NCSL policy expert on redistricting, explains how the election sets up legislatures to start the redistricting process, and discusses when the U.S. Census Bureau will s...

As the 2021 legislative sessions begin, about 15% of the lawmakers will be first timers. As with any new job, a little advice from more seasoned colleagues can be helpful. On this podcast, I’m joined by Alabama Representative Debbie Wood and former Maine Representative Matt Moonen. They bring different perspectives. Wood, a Republican, was elected in 2018, and is completing her first term. Moonen,...

An estimated 700 women will die from pregnancy-related complications in the U.S. this year, and most of those deaths are preventable. In addition, Black and Indigenous women are two to three times more likely to die of pregnancy related issues than White women. On this podcast, the focus is on maternal mortality. I talk with Dr. Wanda Barfield, the director of the Division of Reproductive Health a...

Overview NCSL’s Our American States podcast presents a special six-part series, “ Building Democracy: The Story of Legislatures .” This new mini-series covers the history, characters and stories of state legislatures in America, from the beginnings in Jamestown, to the present day and into the future. Each episode in the series will contain interviews with experts from inside and outside the legis...

The presidential election, understandably, has drawn much of the attention of the media and the public following Election Day. But there also were more than 6,000 state legislators on the ballot and more than 120 statewide ballot measures. Some would argue those elections will have more effect on the life of the average American than those at the top of the ticket. One of those people is Tim Store...

Clean slate is a policy model that uses technology to automatically clear criminal records, usually for nonviolent misdemeanors, if a person stays crime free for a certain period of time. The first such law in the nation passed in Pennsylvania in 2018. It was cosponsored by Representatives Jordan Harris (D) and Sheryl Delozier (R). On this podcast, we talk with Harris about what prompted him to pu...

COVID-19 swept through some colleges and universities this fall as schools reopened with a variety of approaches. Beyond the headlines, however, higher education and post-secondary training have been profoundly affected by the pandemic in other ways. Our two guests on this podcast fill us in on the challenges ahead and the role legislators will play in dealing with state colleges and universities....

While there is intense focus on the presidential contest and the fate of the U.S. Senate as Election Day approaches, critical contests are also underway for the control of state legislative chambers. We’re pleased to have Tim Storey, the executive director of NCSL, as one of the guests on this podcast. Storey has been observing these elections for decades and shares his thoughts on the prospects f...