Telling Times is a new website and podcast series examining some of the most pressing issues facing America today. Its author is Priya Kothari, an economist, living in San Francisco.

Telling Times shines a light on these issues by talking directly to those people who are affected, to organizations working to tackle these issues and by drawing on the latest academic research, to tell a story about the America that we live in today.

It has no political message. It is simply a contribution to the debate.

And if it sheds a new light on darker aspects of our world, then it will have done its job.