Cecilia Sirianni's small office at Massabesic High School can sometimes get a bit messy. Piles of donated clothes and boxes of snacks fill cabinets and shelves — all for students at the rural district in York County, Maine. For more than a deca

Research says collaboration is needed to address Houston's "food deserts"

May 1st, 2019 2m 24s

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says more than 50 million people across the country live in “food deserts” – low-income communities where it can be hard to find healthy food. According to the last census, in 2010, almost 2 million of those p

Kicking the habit

Apr 18th, 2019 49m 28s

Many people in Wise County agree that they can’t jail their way out of a drug epidemic, but there’s a lot less agreement on what to do instead. And we find out what happened to Joey Ballard.

African Americans' wages nearly stagnant over decade

Apr 18th, 2019 1m 23s

The unemployment rate is near historic lows, the job market is tight, and wages have been rising steadily.But since the Great Recession, wage gains have varied significantly by race, with African Americans’ earnings nearly stagnant over the per

Families bear the costs of alternative sentencing programs

Apr 12th, 2019 3m 4s

For the past 30 years, courts in the United States have experimented with different programs designed to keep convicted offenders out of jail — things like drug court or court-ordered community service, where people work off jail sentences. We’

Supply

Apr 11th, 2019 40m 36s

It’s not easy being an undercover cop in a county of just 40,000 people. But drugs were making it hard for Bucky Culbertson to run his business, so he made it his business to get rid of drugs.

Low interest rates have cost savers roughly half a trillion dollars

Apr 10th, 2019 2m 40s

Historically low rates of interest have helped the U.S. economy recover from the Great Recession. But there have been casualties. Savers — and the wider economy — have lost interest income from deposits and investments that could total $500 bil

Life for Americans without identifying documents can be financially devastating

Apr 10th, 2019 2m 37s

When American-born children age out of foster care without identifying documents like birth certificates and state ID cards, their financial futures can be at stake. These young people may have trouble going to college, getting a job, or rentin

Welcome to Wise County

Apr 4th, 2019 35m 55s

It’s the deadliest drug epidemic our country has ever faced. We go to ground zero, where “nothing changes except for the drug.”

Sentencing

Mar 28th, 2019 48m 12s

The drug bust and the trial were a “farce,” but the full force of the law still came down on Keith Jackson — and thousands of people like him. That didn’t end the crack epidemic, so what did?

106: How do drug epidemics end?

Mar 26th, 2019 25m 51s

Opioid overdoses are killing about 50,000 Americans a year, more than car accidents and guns. Marketplace's documentary podcast, The Uncertain Hour, is digging into drug epidemics in its latest season: why people buy and sell drugs, how law enf

What happened to Keith?

Mar 22nd, 2019 32m 38s

One day, early in the semester, Keith Jackson didn’t show up to class. He’d been arrested for selling crack, but for his classmates, that wasn’t the surprising part.

George H.W. Bush and his baggie of crack

Mar 21st, 2019 45m 37s

It was the perfect political prop: drugs seized by government agents right across the street from the White House, just in time for a big presidential address. The reality was more complicated.

Report finds link between high housing costs and poor health

Mar 19th, 2019 1m 13s

According to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin — which ranks the health of nearly every county in the U.S. — more than 10 percent of households live with the burden of extremely high housing co

Border crossings on the rise despite increased federal investment

Mar 6th, 2019 1m 29s

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reports more than 76,000 people came over the southern border last month without documents. That’s more than double from the same time last year. A look at how the budget for border security isn't meeti

Delivery companies finding ways to help restaurants donate excess food

Feb 19th, 2019 2m 32s

Nearly one-third of food prepared by restaurants and grocery stores winds up as waste, according to data cited by the Environmental Protection Agency. It can be awkward and costly for restaurants to coordinate transport of their surplus food to

Rents in many California cities keep rising, could a cap on increases help?

Feb 11th, 2019 2m 17s

Californians' rejection of a rent control measure in November 2018 has prompted some politicians in Sacramento to talk about getting an anti-rent gouging cap on the books. The idea is similar to a current law that bars the state's businesses f

Urban Institute analyzes reach of social safety net

Feb 6th, 2019 1m 23s

A new analysis by the Urban Institute finds that a quarter of Americans living in poverty don’t receive public assistance such as food stamps, subsidized housing, child care or cash benefits.Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

Refunds are looking slimmer this tax season

Jan 30th, 2019 2m 9s

Update: This story originally published on Jan. 28. It has been updated to include emailed responses.Tax filing season got underway this week. And it's a big one, because we just finished the first full tax year since Congress passed the tax r

Millennials, like Baby Boomers, struggle with lifelong debt

Jan 21st, 2019 1m 21s

A recent survey points out that one in 10 millennials thinks they will die in debt.Click the audio player above to hear the full story.

Millions of workers don't do 9 to 5. So where's the child care?

Jan 14th, 2019 2m 45s

Most nights for Chardae Smith, a 33-year-old single mom in Pittsburgh, start with dropping off her baby at ABK Learning and Development Center around 10:30 p.m. to make it to work by 11.Smith does overnight home health care for people with disa

California’s devastating wildfires have made it harder for some day workers to find employment

Jan 1st, 2019 2m 36s

Recent devastating wildfires burned down more than 300 homes in Malibu, California — one of the wealthiest cities in California. Many homeowners there employed gardeners and housekeepers who lost their jobs.Oscar Mondragόn, the director of the

Confronting a crisis: The hard truths about American retirement

Dec 31st, 2018 4m 39s

With a resume that includes a Harvard MBA, a position at the World Bank and a stint as an entrepreneur, Elizabeth White didn't expect to be unprepared for retirement. She also didn't expect to find so many people in her same position: broke, un

Seniors are still struggling to recover after the financial crisis

Dec 19th, 2018 4m 42s

A high-rise for seniors isn't where Kathy Stevens, 67, expected to live at this point in her life. Her place has a small kitchen and living area and an accordion door she can pull to close off the space where her bed stands. She pays $840 a mon

Congress closes in on a final farm bill

Dec 12th, 2018 1m 31s

Lawmakers in the House and Senate have reached a bipartisan agreement on a nearly $900 billion bill. To get there, House Republicans backed off demands to increase work requirements for people receiving food assistance through the Supplemental