In this podcast, Alexes Harris, a sociologist at the University of Washington, talks about work from her June 2016 book Pound of Flesh: Monetary Legal Sanctions as Punishment for the Poor. Music is from "Test Drive" by Zapac, used under Creative Commons license.

In this podcast, Chris Herbst of Arizona State University discusses his research on changes in the cost of child care in the United States in recent decades. Despite reports of skyrocketing child care costs, Herbst finds that child care costs have been essentially flat since around 2000 and that there has been a noticeable divergence in the quality of child care that low- and high-income parents purchase for their children. Music is from "Test Drive" by Zapac, used under Creative Commons...

Our April 2016 podcast features IRP National Poverty Fellow Megan Reid discussing her research on cohabiting stepfamily formation among low-income black families in the Bronx and, in particular, the ways in which mothers engage in deliberative vetting of potential partners before allowing them to move in. Music is from "Test Drive" by Zapac, used under Creative Commons license.

In this podcast, law professor Susannah Camic Tahk discusses the growth in U.S. antipoverty programs that are administered through the tax code and what it means for the politics of these programs, how they're administered, and the types of problems that they raise. Intro and closing music from Test Drive by Zapac, used under Creative Commons License.

Our February 2016 podcast features Lincoln Groves, who is a postdoctoral scholar in the National Poverty Fellows Program, talking about his research on how increased Child Medicaid access in the 1980s and early 1990s may have led to improved high school graduation rates. Intro and closing music is from "Test Drive" by Zapac, used under Creative Commons license.

In this podcast, Lisa Gennetian of the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families discusses research about income instability in the households of Hispanic children and how better understanding the ways that race, ethnicity, and language affect the experience of poverty may matter when it comes to developing better public policy. Intro and closing music is from "Test Drive" by Zapac, used under a Creative Commons license.

Our November 2015 podcast features Clare Huntington, Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Law at Fordham University. In the podcast, Huntington discusses how family law and the related institutions that support it do not align with needs of many of today's families, particularly given a shift in marriage trends in the United States in which lower income Americans are much less likely to ever get married.

Neighborhood violence is often talked about as being a result of poverty or random threat but, in this podcast, University of Wisconsin–Madison sociologist Robert Vargas says that those characterizations can be very inaccurate. Instead, based on his extensive ethnographic research in a Chicago neighborhood, Vargas explains we can't understand problems of violence or disadvantage without understanding the political histories and structures of those neighborhoods. *Music is from "Test Drive"...

Does foster care lead to worse academic achievement for kids? In this podcast, IRP Director Lawrence Berger discusses a Wisconsin study he conducted with other IRP colleagues that explores the relationship between foster care and academic achievement using linked child welfare and Department of Public Instruction data.

In this podcast, UW–Madison School of Social Work Professor Daniel Meyer discusses the growth of family complexity in the United States, what that growth might mean for inequality, and the challenges that policymakers face in adapting U.S. family policy to the needs of more complex families.

In this podcast, Urban Institute Senior Fellow and IRP visiting scholar Julia Isaacs talks about the effectiveness of safety net supports for low-income children with an unemployed parent during the Great Recession. Music is from "Test Drive" by Zapac, used under Creative Commons license.

In this podcast, UCLA Associate Professor of Economics Leah Boustan discusses the Great Black Migration that took place in the United States from 1915 to 1970 and how competition from migrants from the South affected wages in Northern labor markets.

In this podcast, University of Nebraska-Lincoln sociologist Bridget Goosby discusses her work on how the health of African American people may be linked to stress associated with discrimination.

In this podcast, Dr. Tova Walsh talks about the reunification process for fathers of young children returning from military deployment as they transition back into family roles. While reunification can be a very happy time, it can also be challenging as military fathers face parenting and relationship stresses alongside stress related to their deployments. Additionally, deactivated soldiers often experience a drop in pay and rates of unemployment that are higher than for their civilian peers,...

The U.S. prison population has expanded significantly over the last three decades. In this podcast, University of Minnesota sociologist Christopher Uggen talks about the links between crime, punishment, and inequality and discusses how the criminal justice system can mediate transitions in and out of poverty and adult social roles.

In this podcast, Maria Rendón of UC-Irvine discusses findings from her qualitative study of second-generation Latino young men in urban neighborhoods and their attitudes about getting ahead in the United States.

IRP affiliate Sarah Halpern-Meekin talks about her research on how recipients of the Earned Income Tax Credit understand and respond to the incentives of the EITC, especially regarding decisions about childbearing, marriage, and earnings.

Joe Glass of UW–Madison's School of Social Work discusses results from his study that examines disparities in the effects of alcohol consumption by race, ethnicity, and poverty status.

IRP Director Lawrence Berger discusses the challenges that families with multipartner fertility or complexity encounter when it comes to determining roles and dividing resources like time, money, and public benefits across multiple households or family groups.

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee economist Owen Thompson talks about his research that examines how parenting practices changed among southern African Americans relative to their experiences during the civil rights era.

New York University Professor Dalton Conley talks about how advances in the availability of genomic data can potentially inform the study of intergenerational poverty and inequality.

Case Western Reserve University Associate Professor Darcy Freedman discusses her work on food access and health, with a focus on two studies that took place at the Right Choice, Fresh Start Farmers' Market in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

In this podcast, Zachary Oberfield of the Haverford College Department of Political Science discusses his research on how "street-level bureaucrats" develop in their first years on the job, and what that means for how they act and how the public experiences government.

In this podcast, Professor Dorceta Taylor discusses her book, Toxic Communities, which addresses the structural processes by which poor and minority Americans are disproportionately exposed to industrial pollution, and the state of environmental justice scholarship.

In this podcast, Mariana Chilton, director of the Center for Hunger Free Communities and associate professor at the Drexel University School of Public Health, talks about doing participatory research and the lessons this type of work can offer.