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Government

The Uncertain Hour

by Marketplace
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Today: #83 in Government on our combined chart.

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Oct 1#83

About the show

Each season, we explain the weird, complicated and often unequal American economy — and why some people get ahead and some get left behind. Host Krissy Clark dives into obscure policies and forgotten histories to explain why America is like it is. The latest season examines the “welfare-to-work industrial complex” and the multi-million dollar companies running today’s for-profit welfare centers.

Latest episodes

  • Chapter 6: The Welfare to Temp Work Pipeline

    April 26, 2023 · 55 min

    Since the 1990s, most cash welfare recipients have been required to get a job or do mandated “work activities” to receive their monthly check. These requirements are intended to help parents who are struggling financially into jobs that…

  • Chapter 5: Profits and Perverse Incentives

    April 19, 2023 · 49 min

    Antoine Dukes is a natural born salesman. And when he started working for a for-profit welfare company, he figured it was a good way to put his skills to work helping needy Americans find jobs that would get them back on their feet. But…

  • Chapter 4: The Battle of Newburgh

    April 12, 2023 · 36 min

    In 1961, city officials in Newburgh, New York, declared war on their poorest residents by proclaiming, without evidence, that the city was overrun by welfare cheats. It was a moment in history when the belief that certain people need to be…

  • Chapter 3: Race and rumor

    April 5, 2023 · 36 min

    In the 1950s, a rumor that people were moving to Newburgh, NY to live off welfare riled up the city. When city leaders essentially declare war on welfare — and the people who get it — things tumble out of control. Plus, how national…

  • Chapter 2: The compliance machine

    March 29, 2023 · 54 min

    A single mother of two in Chicago was working and taking classes to become an addiction counselor when her life fell apart. The father of her youngest child assaulted her so badly it put her in the hospital. Worried for her safety and the…

  • Chapter 1: The dream

    March 22, 2023 · 45 min

    When a struggling mother of two in Milwaukee hits hard times, she turns to a local welfare office for help — a welfare office outsourced to a private, for-profit company. Inside, staff preach the power of work, place people into unpaid…

  • Season 6: The Welfare-to-Work Industrial Complex

    March 15, 2023 · 4 min

    There is a growing chorus of politicians who argue that there’s a simple solution to help all kinds of problems, including poverty, labor shortages and government deficits: putting more work requirements into government welfare programs…

  • To catch a chicken

    March 3, 2021 · 37 min

    When chicken catcher Jimmy Nicks’ job was subcontracted, virtually overnight, he started doing the same job for a new boss — only without the pay, protections and benefits he’d come to rely on. This episode looks at the subcontracting…