Why is the poverty level dropping when the gap between how much it costs to live and how much families earn is actually growing? Workers across the United States are experiencing income insufficiency—the phenomena of working for a wage that doe

Episode 6: It’s Time to Take the Universal Basic Income Seriously

Nov 12th, 2018 25m 44s

Giving money to every American - no strings attached - sounds like a parody of liberal governance. But the policy, once proposed by Richard Nixon and suggested by colonial pamphleteer Thomas Paine, is gaining traction among a unique coalition

Episode 5: From Selfies to Social Justice

Oct 30th, 2018 25m 22s

Episode 5: From Selfies to Social Justice“Technology is best when it brings people together,” Matt Mullenweg, a founder of WordPress, wrote several years ago. As the reach of mobile devices continues to grow, non-profit organizations have reco

Episode 4: Guns do More than Shoot: Coercive Control and Firearms in Intimate Relationships

Sep 28th, 2018 24m 45s

Women who experience abuse are five times more likely to be killed if their partner has access to a gun. However, a gun never needs to be fired to entrap and terrorize a victim of intimate partner violence. On this episode we look at the relati

Episode 3: That Happens Here? Sex Trafficking in the United States

Sep 24th, 2018 28m 16s

We delve into a topic largely ignored - domestic sex trafficking in the United States. We talk with experts and advocates who explain the startling stats and life experiences of sex trafficking victims, along with what we, as a country, are do

Episode 2: Violence: Seeing the Forest From the Trees

Aug 1st, 2018 39m 26s

At the March for Our Lives, 17-year-old South Los Angeles native Edna Chavez shared her experience of growing up surrounded by violence. “I learned how to duck from bullets before I learned how to read!” she told the crowd of protestors. Whil

Bending the Arc: the Trailer

May 29th, 2018 2m 42s

Welcome to Bending the Arc, the new podcast from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy & Practice. We’ll talk about issues in which the moral universe just doesn’t seem to be bending toward justice quite quickly enough, and w

Episode 1: Stranger in a Strange Land: Understanding Homelessness and Community

May 29th, 2018 28m 47s

More than 1.5 million men, women, and children are homeless every year. They move into shelter at their most vulnerable moments, but are sometimes met by new neighbors who fear that with them comes violence, drug use, worse schools, and lower p