The State of Working America Podcast

In an environment where pursuing equity goals could invite dangerous scrutiny, one could reasonably ask: Is it still prudent to talk about reparations?  Join Kyle Moore, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE) for this episode of the State of Working America podcast about his piece on “ Why we have to keep talking about reparations in 20...

Season six of the podcast presents a series of discussions about economic issues related to the election. In this episode, EPI's Executive Vice President Naomi Walker is joined by Chandra Childers, senior policy and economic analyst with the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), to discuss this history and impact of the Southern economic development model. Southern politicians claim that...

Season six of the podcast presents a series of discussions about economic issues related to the election. In this episode, EPI's Executive Vice President Naomi Walker is joined by EPI Chief Economist Josh Bivens to discuss the historical economic performance of different administrations as detailed in his report, Economic performance is stronger when Democrats hold the White House . According to t...

In 2023, workers across the country—from Hollywood writers to autoworkers, nurses, and Starbucks baristas—went on strike to improve their working conditions. Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, discusses what this surge in labor actions means for workers and the fight for racial and economic justice.

Sixty years later, policymakers have failed to meet the economic demands of the March on Washington. Policy analyst Adewale A. Maye discusses new Economic Policy Institute research finding that post-civil rights era legislation has largely failed to address disparities in wages, wealth, and homeownership for Black Americans.

Economist Elise Gould discusses surprising new Economic Policy Institute research showing that the lowest-paid U.S. workers saw historic wage growth between 2019 and 2022, even after accounting for high inflation. __   Follow EPI on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EconomicPolicy EPI on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EconomicPolicy/ EPI on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/economicpolicy/?hl=en...

Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman discusses her new book, The Black Agenda. __ Follow EPI on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/EconomicPolicy __ The State of Working America Podcast is part of EPI’s effort to raise workers’ voices to ensure they are heard in the economic policy debate. Core topics include workers' rights, inequality, race, gender, labor markets, education and immigration, but we're interested...

Nina Banks discusses her new book "Democracy, Race, and Justice: The Speeches and Writings of Sadie T. M. Alexander." Banks, an economist, talks about her journey to unearth the economic insights of the first Black economist, Alexander, who was unable to find work in her field when she graduated in 1921 but went on to influence economics and press for equity for black workers and their families. _...

Dorothy A. Brown discusses her new book, The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—and How We Can Fix It. Brown, a law professor and expert in tax policy, provides a cross-disciplinary analysis exposing the racism of the American tax system.

Heidi Shierholz and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute fact-check current hype around the idea that a labor shortage is holding back U.S. businesses.

Hosts Pedro da Costa and Rami Jackson talk to Kayla Blado, President of the Nonprofit Employee and Media Relations Director at EPI, and bargaining chair at The Democracy Collaborative union, Katie Parker, about millennial activism, new sources of inspiration and recent victories for nonprofit union workers.__Follow EPI on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/EconomicPolicyFollow the Nonprofit Professiona...

As workers around the country both union and nonunion ramp up their activism, Steven Greenhouse, author of Beaten Down, Worked Up and a long-time New York Times labor reporter, chronicles the recent labor revival.__Follow EPI on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/EconomicPolicyFollow Steven Greenhouse:  https://twitter.com/greenhousenytFollow Pedro da Costa:  https://twitter.com/pdacosta__The State of...

Tanya Wallace-Gobern, director of the National Black Worker Center Project, talks about all the ways in which Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights is at the core of the country’s democratic advancement.

Damion Shade, a criminal justice policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute, talks about the key challenges and prospects he sees for undoing some of the damage from America's racist and punitive prison system not just on the people whose lives they hurt but also on the U.S. job market more broadly.

Nina Banks, economics professor at Bucknell University and a board member at the Economic Policy Institute, discusses her groundbreaking work on minority women's unpaid collective labor—things like civic and community protests and organizing that ultimately lead to stronger basic rights and a better society for everyone.

Season 2 of the podcast kicks off strong with Patrice Kunesh, director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis' Center for Indian Country Development. She talks to host Pedro da Costa about the specific challenges facing various Native American communities across the nation, and offers an eclectic range of policy options to solve the most egregious economic problems.

In the sixth and final episode of the State of Working America Podcast's first season, Rhonda Sharpe, director of the Women's Institute for Science Equity and Race, talks about the importance of gathering and studying economic data in ways that are broad enough to capture social, economic and racial trends in ways that make real-world sense.__Follow EPI on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/EconomicPol...

The ubiquitous nature of ride-sharing makes it easy to forget that much of Uber and Lyft's business model relies on skirting basic regulations in ways that harm drivers and passengers. That's the focus of this episode of the State of Working America Podcast, which features interviews with driver and activist Sergio Avedian and EPI Distinguished Fellow Larry Mishel, who has extensively researched a...