The State of Working America Podcast is part of EPI’s effort to raise workers’ voices to ensure they are heard in the economic policy debate. 

Core topics include workers’ rights, inequality, race, gender, labor markets, education and immigration, but we’re interested in all things related to social justice.

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Episodes

Rooted In Racism

In this episode, EPI’s Executive Vice President Naomi Walker is joined by Chandra Childers, senior policy and economic analyst with the Economic Analysis and Research Network (EARN), to discuss this history and impact of the Southern economic development model. Southern politicians claim that “business-friendly” policies lead to an abundance of jobs and economic prosperity for all Southerners. But is that true? The data actually show a grim economic reality. Learn more about the failed Southern economic development model in the Rooted in Racism.  series of reports at EPI.

The Democratic Advantage

EPI’s Executive Vice President Naomi Walker is joined by EPI Chief Economist Josh Bivens to discuss the historical economic performance of different administrations as detailed in his report, Economic performance is stronger when Democrats hold the White House. According to the report, there is a pronounced Democratic advantage in nearly every measure of macroeconomic performance since 1949.

Ask An Expert: Why have the lowest-paid workers seen historic wage growth?

• Economist Elise Gould discusses new Economic Policy Institute research showing that the lowest-paid U.S. workers saw historic wage growth between 2019 and 2022, even after accounting for high inflation.

Ask An Expert: What is the state of racial equity 60 years after the March on Washington?

Sixty years later, policymakers have failed to meet the economic demands of the March on Washington. Policy analyst Adewale A. Maye discusses new Economic Policy Institute research finding that post-civil rights era legislation has largely failed to address disparities in wages, wealth, and homeownership for Black Americans.

Ask An Expert: What does the surge in workers going on strike mean for racial and economic justice?

In 2023, workers across the country—from Hollywood writers to autoworkers, nurses, and Starbucks baristas—went on strike to improve their working conditions. Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute and former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor, discusses what this surge in labor actions means for workers and the fight for racial and economic justice.

The Black Agenda

• Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman discusses her new book, The Black Agenda.
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Fact-checking the labor shortage hype

• With Heidi Shierholz and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute
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The Whiteness of Wealth

• With Dorothy A. Brown, author of The Whiteness of Wealth and Asa Griggs Candler Professor at Emory University School of Law
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Democracy, Race, & Justice: Writings of Sadie Alexander. Nina Banks

• Nina Banks discusses her new book Democracy, Race, and Justice: The Speeches and Writings of Sadie T. M. Alexander.
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Native Americans too often left out of economic debate

• With Patrice Kunesh, director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ Center for Indian Country Development
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Racialized women’s unrecognized community work uplifts everyone

• With Nina Banks, economics professor at Bucknell University and a board member at the Economic Policy Institute
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America’s debtor prison system must be stopped • State of Working America Podcast

• With Damion Shade, criminal justice policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute
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‘Curb Cut-Outs’: How Black America’s Struggles Bolster U.S. Democracy

• With Tanya Wallace-Gobern, director of the National Black Worker Center Project
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America’s labor revival

• With Steven Greenhouse, author of Beaten Down, Worked Up and a long-time New York Times labor reporter
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Millennials Energize the U.S. Labor Movement

• With Kayla Blado, President of the Nonprofit Employee and Media Relations Director at EPI
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America’s racist economy

• With Valerie Wilson, director of EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE)
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Reimagining the American dream

• With Chris Lu, former deputy secretary of labor under President Barack Obama, University of Virginia Miller Center fellow
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Building worker power

• With Heidi Shierholz, EPI director of policy
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Killing U.S. manufacturing is a policy choice

• With Mickey Ray Williams, Firestone plant worker in Gadsden, Alabama, and Rob Scott, EPI director of trade and manufacturing policy research
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 Uber and the gig economy fallacy

• With driver and activist Sergio Avedian and EPI Distinguished Fellow Larry Mishel
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I want to see myself in the data

• With Rhonda Sharpe, director of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity and Race
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