Shows
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside West Virginia's New Economic Bill of Rights–with Troy N. MillerFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Troy N. Miller, who's long served as the Off-Kilter podcast's beloved "man behind the curtain," aka executive producer. When he's not producing Off-Kilter, the Zero Hour, Breaking Through, and other progressive podcast/radio programs, Troy serves as West Virginia organizer and special projects director at Social Security Works and at-large member of the West Virginia State Democratic Executive Committee. In what was Troy's first time crossing over to appear as a guest on the podcast, Rebecca and Troy had a far-ranging conversation about the story behind the "21st Century Economic Bill...
2023-11-0959 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasRedefining Wealth–with Aisha NyandoroWealth is a word that gets thrown around a lot, especially in economic conversations and spaces. The most basic definition is what you own minus what you owe. But as Aisha Nyandoro—CEO of Springboard to Opportunity and architect of the Magnolia Mother's Trust—argues in her recent Tedx Talk, it's time to redefine wealth in the United States. In her words, "for too long, we have allowed financial institutions to define wealth and the process by which we buildi it." So for this week's episode of Off-Kilter, Rebecca sat back down Aisha for a far-ranging conversation about how we d...
2023-11-0259 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasShifting the Paradigm on Disability Employment—with Bryan Gill and Nan GibsonFor this week's episode of Off-Kilter, with October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Rebecca sat down with two leaders at JP Morgan Chase (JPMC) who are at the forefront of advancing disability employment within the business and employer community: Bryan Gill, head of JP Morgan Chase's Office of Disability Inclusion and the firm's global head of neurodiversity, and Nan Gibson, executive director of JP Morgan Chase's PolicyCenter. They had a far-ranging conversation about the story behind JPMC's Office of Disability Inclusion and how it's working to remove barriers to hiring and successful employment for disabled people at JPMC...
2023-10-2759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"It doesn't have to be this way"—with Jen Burdick of Community Legal ServicesFor this week's episode of Off-Kilter, Rebecca sat down with Jen Burdick, supervising attorney of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) unit at Community Legal Services (CLS), Rebecca's legal aid alma mater. They had a far ranging conversation about how "eligibility doesn't equal access" and other lessons Jen has learned throughout her years as a public benefits lawyer; the human consequences of a decade-plus of defunding the Social Security Administration, from years-long backlogs in disability cases to overpayments that wreak havoc in beneficiaries' lives; how Jen combines her client representation with policy advocacy and why the perspective of direct service...
2023-10-1959 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasOlder Workers in Physically Challenging Jobs Are in TroubleAccording to recently released Census data, poverty among older adults increased sharply again in 2022, after reaching an all-time low just two years before. One group of older Americans who's especially struggling is older workers in physically demanding jobs. Contrary to the popular narrative that everyone's living longer and work is getting easier, a recent task force convened by the National Academy of Social Insurance found that more than 10 million older workers are in jobs that are physically challenging and lack the resources to secure more viable jobs or retire. These workers are disproportionately low earners with lower educational attainment...
2023-10-131h 19OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside the Voices of Disability Economic Justice Project–with Emily LadauFor this week's episode of Off-Kilter, Rebecca sat back down with Emily Ladau. She's the editor of the Voices of Disability Economic Justice Project and the author of Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally. She's someone who's done an immense amount throughout her career to shift narratives on disability in the United States and is a master storyteller whose many superpowers also include supporting other people in telling their stories. They had a far-ranging conversation about the Voices of Disability Economic Justice Project as it comes up on its one-year anniversary; w...
2023-10-0559 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasLabor of Love: A Sit-down with America's Most Celebrated Labor Reporter—with Steven GreenhouseFor this week's episode of Off-Kilter, Rebecca sat down with longtime labor journalist Steven Greenhouse. He's someone who really needs no introduction after spending thirty-one years at the New York Times, eighteen of which he spent covering the labor beat, until 2014. He's also the author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker and Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor. And these days he's a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where he writes about wages and working conditions, labor organizing, and other workplace issues. In a conversation recorded the day...
2023-09-2859 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasAmerican Identity in Crisis–with Kat CalvinSomething many of us take for granted, if we've never been without it, is how vitally important it is to have photo ID. In this day and age you can't do pretty much anything without ID—from accessing public benefits to renting an apartment to voting, and so much more. So for this week's episode, Rebecca sat back down with a dear friend who's been leading the charge when it comes to ensuring that 26 million Americans have access to the IDs they need to escape poverty, access benefits, vote, and be fully part of American society—and that's Kat Calv...
2023-09-1459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside the Disabled Journalists' Association–with Cara ReedyFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Cara Reedy. She's a journalist and the founder of a new organization called the Disabled Journalists Association (DJA)—which she's spent the past two years setting up to identify the needs of disabled people in journalism and to amplify the voices of disabled journalists across the United States. It's just getting off the ground and just launched its website this past week. (Check out discojourno.com to learn more, and if you're a disabled journalist, check out the survey they're running between now and October 2023 as they work to lay the fo...
2023-09-0759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasSpeaking about pain—with Kate NicholsonFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Kate Nicholson, a dear friend and colleague and a policy advocate who's been leading the charge when it comes to fighting on behalf of people who live with chronic pain. Today she serves as the founder and executive director of the National Pain Advocacy Center. They talk about what it's like to live with chronic pain; Kate's path to founding NPAC; the double-edged sword of crackdowns on access to opioids in recent years; how the COVID pandemic has expanded the chronic pain community; why Kate's work has focused so heavily on...
2023-08-311h 08OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Find your north star and your strategy" —with Indi Dutta-GuptaFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Indi Dutta-Gupta, a dear friend and colleague who's dedicated his career to ending poverty in America and building an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. Today he serves as president and executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), one of the nation's leading organizations dedicated to advancing economic security and racial equity. They had a far-ranging conversation about the long road to the historic one-year expansion of the Child Tax Credit authorized as part of COVID relief and the road ahead to making...
2023-08-2459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Combining head and heart in the work" —with Kathleen RomigFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Kathleen Romig, a dear friend and colleague who today serves as the director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, one of the nation's leading organizations that focuses on economic and budget policy for low-income families. To mark the eighty-eighth anniversary of Social Security, they had a far-ranging conversation about the history behind the program, who's helped by Social Security today, and why there's no room for cuts; the importance of moving beyond technocratic, budget-focused narratives to put people at the center of policy...
2023-08-1759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"My passion is my superpower"—with Zaki "The Barber" SmithFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat back down with Zaki "The Barber" Smith, an entrepreneur, a powerhouse activist, and a criminal justice reform leader whose work focuses on ending the perpetual punishment that comes with having a criminal record in America. They had a far-ranging and emotional conversation about the historic clean slate legislation that passed the New York Assembly earlier this summer and now awaits the governor's signature; how a criminal record can be a life sentence to poverty; the impact of the criminal records crisis on millions of American families; the economic as well as emotional toll...
2023-08-1059 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasOn Resilience—with Alejandra Vazquez-BaurFor this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Alejandra Vazquez-Baur, an educator-turned-policy advocate whose work focuses on expanding supports for K–12 immigrant students—especially newcomers—and multilingual students. As Alejandra describes herself: "I am a product of resilient Mexican women. A sister. A dancer. An educator. A visionary." They talk about the National Newcomer Network Alejandra co-founded as a policy entrepreneur at The Next 100; how she's bringing her experience in the classroom as a high school math teacher onto the national policy scene; the role of dreaming in her work and her path to claiming her role as a vision...
2023-08-0359 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Lead with empathy, fight with fire"—with Mia Ives-RubleeWelcome to the summer/fall season of Off-Kilter! We're excited to be back and up and running with the show after a break, just in time to mark Disability Pride Month. And to kick things off right, Rebecca sat back down with Mia Ives-Rublee, a long-time disability rights and justice activist who today serves as the director of the disability justice initiative at the Center for American Progress. They talk disability pride; what liberation means to the disability community; how Mia's path as a transracial adoptee and competitive athlete shape her advocacy today; and lots more. Links fr...
2023-07-2759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasClaiming Identity as Self-Care —feat. Andraea LavantThis week, Off-Kilter is wrapping up our ongoing series digging into why in the famous words of Audre Lorde, "self-care is political warfare. A recurring theme uplifted by several guests throughout this series has been the importance of bringing your whole self to the work—a phrase that, like so much within the topic of self-care, has become watered down enough in recent years that it's about as likely to spur eye rolls as genuine interest in many circles. So to dig a little deeper beneath the surface of what it really looks like to bring one's who...
2023-06-021h 02OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Poverty Line Is Too Damn Low, Part 2: Redefining Poverty as Collective Self-CareAs Off-Kilter's ongoing series continues, digging into why in the famous words of Audre Lorde, "self-care is political warfare," we're zooming out for this next episode to explore the goal of ending poverty in the United States—and the broader work of economic and social liberation—as self-care for the larger collective organism of which we are all part. In this spirit, as Rebecca describes in this episode, she often thinks about advocates and activists for economic and social liberation as healers—healers of a collective organism that today is very sick—with one huge glaring symptom of that...
2023-05-2659 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow to Embed a Disability Lens Across Policymaking (and detoxing from the White House as self-care, too!) —feat. Kim KnackstedtThis week Rebecca sat down with Kim Knackstedt, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where she serves as director of the Disability Economic Justice Team and director of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative, both of which launched a little over one year ago in April 2022. Before coming to TCF, Kim served as the first-ever director of disability policy for the White House Domestic Policy Council for the first year of the Biden presidency. They had a far-ranging conversation about what it looks like to apply disability as a lens across all economic and social policy making i...
2023-05-1959 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Finding Beauty in the Struggle"—feat. Michele EvermoreThis week, Off-Kilter continues our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. Our next guest in this series is Michele Evermore, a longtime leading voice fighting for America's most marginalized workers, particularly when it comes to unemployment insurance. Michele is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation and most recently served as deputy director of policy in the U.S. Department of Labor's new Office of Une...
2023-05-1259 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"We're Either Whole Human Beings or We're Cogs in the Wheel"—feat. Julie KashenThis week, Off-Kilter continues our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. And this week, Rebecca sat down with Julie Kashen, a friend and a colleague at The Century Foundation who's a leading voice in the movement to bring policies like universal paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, and child care to the United States, and a senior fellow and the director of women's economic justice at...
2023-04-2859 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"You Have to Work Until You Die" and Other Barriers to Self-Care for People with DisabilitiesThis week, Off-Kilter continues our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. As we've explored a good bit in recent weeks as part of this series, the disability community harbors some of the greatest wisdom when it comes to radical self-care—with disabled people as modern-day oracles, as activist Alice Wong often puts it. For this week's episode, Rebecca sat down with Keith Jones, a longtime disab...
2023-04-2159 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Swimming with Dragons": What We Can Learn From "Spoon Theory" About Self-CareThis week, Off-Kilter continues our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. As we've explored a good bit in recent weeks as part of this series, the disability community harbors some of the greatest wisdom when it comes to radical self-care—with disabled people as modern-day oracles, as activist Alice Wong often puts it. Last week, Rebecca talked with Lisa McCorkell of the Patient Led Research Coll...
2023-04-1459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasLearning from Long-Haulers about Rest and Radical PacingThis week, Off-Kilter returns to our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. As we've explored a good bit in recent weeks as part of this series, the disability community harbors some of the greatest wisdom when it comes to radical self-care—with disabled people as modern-day oracles, as activist Alice Wong often puts it. And to that end, for this week's episode, Rebecca sat do...
2023-04-0759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasTime Travel as a Tool for Social Change and Self-CareThis week, Off-Kilter returns to our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. As a lawyer and policy advocate who's also a lifelong student of the magical and mystical, Rebecca thinks a lot about social justice advocacy and activism as their own forms of magic—magic that starts with a vision of a new reality and works backwards to manifest it through intentional individual and collective action. So for...
2023-03-2459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasEverything You've Ever Wanted to Know About Boundaries But Were Afraid to AskThis week, Off-Kilter returns to our ongoing series of conversations with social justice leaders digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work. Given that the disability community harbors some of the greatest wisdom when it comes to radical self-care–with disabled people as "modern-day oracles," as activist Alice Wong often puts it—Rebecca has been spending a good bit of this series in conversation with leaders across the disability rights and justice movement. For this week's episode, she sa...
2023-03-1759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasCelebrating Judy Heumann, Godmother of the Disability Rights Movement (1947-2023)This week, Off-Kilter is taking a break from our ongoing series about self-care as political warfare to honor the life and legacy of Judy Heumann, an iconic civil rights leader and the godmother of the disability rights movement. Judy passed away on March 4, 2023, at age 75. It was especially important to the Off-Kilter team and to many of us at The Century Foundation to do a tribute to Judy for this week's episode of the podcast because she was a mentor, friend, and an inspiration to so many of us personally, as is true for nearly everyone involved...
2023-03-101h 01OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow Philanthropy Can Support Self-Care for Social Justice LeadersAs Off-Kilter continues our ongoing series of conversations with leaders across the economic justice movement digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work—Rebecca Vallas had a ton of fun sitting down with her next guest in the series, who's a dear friend and colleague of hers and who's been on this show enough times she really needs no introduction. Rebecca Cokley is a longtime disability rights activist who serves as the disability rights program officer at the...
2023-03-0359 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasDiversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility as Self-care (and Intuition, Too!)"DEI" (a.k.a. diversity, equity, and inclusion) has become something of a buzzword in recent years, with more and more U.S. employers taking steps to incorporate DEI practices into their workplaces to better enable them to walk the walk when it comes to living their organizational values. Meanwhile, as DEI has taken hold as a north star in more and more American workplaces, it has also evolved to add another letter and dimension to the acronym, becoming DEIA, with the A representing accessibility for disabled people. But while the push for DEIA has gained greater v...
2023-02-2459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Economic and Emotional Costs of MaskingSomething that gets talked about a lot in conversations about self-care is the notion of "being your authentic self." But rarely do such conversations contemplate the structural barriers and discrimination many of us face to being our authentic selves, particularly in the workplace. So when The Century Foundation ran a commentary last month (as part of TCF's Voices of Disability Economic Justice Project) called "The Economic and Emotional Costs of Autistic Masking," Rebecca knew it was a conversation she wanted to bring onto the podcast. As author Alex Ashley Fox writes in the piece, "despite the cognitive and emotional...
2023-02-1759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasFinding the Technique That's Relevant for YouAs Rebecca's come to learn over the years, a key pillar of radical self-care when it comes to doing social justice work (and, really, life in general) is—to paraphrase jazz legend Thelonious Monk—finding the technique that's relevant for you, versus mirroring the status quo for the sake of fitting in. And there are few leaders in the economic justice movement who epitomize this kind of be-your-eccentric-self-without-apology genius to the extent that our next guest Alex Lawson does. As you'll hear in this episode, Alex wears a lot of hats, including executive director of Social Security Works, which has...
2023-02-1059 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Work Won't Love You Back"Continuing Off-Kilter's ongoing series of conversations with leaders across the economic justice movement delving into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care is indeed political warfare—and the role radical self-care plays in their own lives to sustain them in this work—this week's episode zooms out to take a look at the "labor of love" ideology underpinning the notion that social justice advocates must "suffer for the cause." To do that, Rebecca sat down with longtime labor reporter Sarah Jaffe, whose latest book Work Won't Love You Back surveys a host of structural factors that have cons...
2023-02-031h 00OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasSelf-Care Is Political WarfareWith burnout spreading like wildfire throughout progressive advocacy circles even before the COVID-19 pandemic started nearly three years ago, Rebecca's been feeling called to take the podcast in something of a different direction this year (you can read more about it here). So, starting with this week's 2023 opener, Off-Kilter will be spending the upcoming season going behind the scenes of the economic justice topics and debates the podcast has been uplifting for years and leaning into another dimension of the meaning of the term off-kilter, by digging into why, in the famous words of Audre Lorde, self-care i...
2023-01-2759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Stock Market Is Not the EconomyThis week, to continue the series of conversations we've been having on Off-Kilter about the limiting beliefs we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, Rebecca sat down with Claire Guzdar—managing director of campaigns and partnerships at an organization called the Groundwork Collaborative—to unpack one of the most salient limiting beliefs hampering economic policy in the United States today: the notion that the stock market is the economy. They had a far-ranging conversation about how Groundwork is working to shift economic narratives in the United States to help us remember that...
2022-12-1659 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Tough-on-Crime" Fearmongering Falls Flat in the MidtermsWith the U.S. midterm elections just behind us, to continue Off-Kilter's ongoing series of conversations about the limiting beliefs that we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, Rebecca sat down with Nick Turner—president and director of the Vera Institute for Justice—to unpack two of the most toxic limiting beliefs in American politics that flared up dramatically in the recent midterms: the notion that you have to be "tough on crime" to win political office, and that safety requires tough on crime policies. They had a far-ranging conversation about expa...
2022-12-0959 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasUpdating the Archetype of Public Policy ExpertThis week, to continue Off-Kilter's ongoing series of conversations about the limiting beliefs we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, Rebecca sat down with Stefan Lallinger, executive director of an organization housed at The Century Foundation called The Next 100. They have a far-ranging conversation about a core limiting belief constraining economic and other public policy making in the United States today—the notion that you need an advanced degree from an ivy league school and a Washington resume to be qualified to shape our society's public policies—and how The Next 100 is w...
2022-11-1059 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Believe Disabled People": How the Pod Access Initiative Is Removing Barriers to Entry for Deaf and Disabled PodcastersThis week, to continue Off-Kilter's ongoing series about the limiting beliefs we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, Rebecca sat down with Cheryl Green and Thomas Reid, two disabled podcasters who are leading a very cool new project called the Pod Access Initiative, in partnership with the Disability Visibility Project. They have a far-ranging conversation about why it's so important to diversify the voices out there in media—as hosts and guests and content creators of all kinds—and how the Pod Access Initiative is working to remove barriers to entry for...
2022-11-041h 02OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasSSI at 50: The Safety Net America ForgotThis week, Off-Kilter's taking a quick break from the ongoing series of conversations Rebecca's been having with leaders around the limiting beliefs we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, to bring you a discussion Rebecca had last week at a virtual event hosted by The Century Foundation and the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative to mark October 2022 as the fiftieth anniversary of Supplemental Security Income, or SSI—a long-forgotten and badly neglected component of our nation's safety net. For more: Watch the full SSI at 50 virtual anniversary event Read mor...
2022-10-281h 37OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasYour Work Is Not Your Worth, Part 2This week, continuing Off-Kilter's ongoing series of conversations about the limiting beliefs that we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, Rebecca sat down with two dear friends and leaders within guaranteed income movement—Dorian Warren and Aisha Nyandoro—to continue the conversation we started last week about one of the most toxic limiting beliefs underpinning large-scale oppression in the United States today: the notion that a human being's worth comes from their work. Dorian Warren is co-president of Community Change and co-chair of the Economic Security Project, and Aisha Nyandoro is CEO...
2022-10-2159 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasYour Work Is Not Your WorthThis week, continuing Off-Kilter's ongoing series of conversations about the limiting beliefs that we as a collective must release and replace to pave the way for economic liberation, Rebecca sat down with two dear friends and leaders within the disability rights and justice movement to talk about one of the most toxic limiting beliefs underpinning large-scale oppression in the United States today: the notion that a human being's worth comes from their work. They ended up having a far-ranging conversation about why disability leaders know this is not a moment to be seeking to return to "normal," who the...
2022-10-1459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"We Will Not Go Back to Normal": Moving Beyond 'Cutting Poverty' to a Vision of Economic LiberationModern-day oracles are increasingly describing this moment in human history as a "battle of imaginations"—in which oppression is what happens when an individual or a whole group of people are living in someone else's dream, instead of being free to dream their own. It's in that spirit that the first episode of Off-Kilter's fall season kicks off with the words of poet and activist Sonya Renee Taylor: "We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, ra...
2022-10-0759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasVisioning the Future of Disability PolicyThis week marked the thirty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act—or ADA, as it's better known—the landmark civil rights law that promised equal opportunity and economic security for Americans with disabilities. As we've talked about a lot on this show over the years, as important as it is to celebrate how far we've come in the decades since the ADA became part of the fabric of American life, every time we hit the month of July, it's even more important to acknowledge how far will still have to go to achieve the as-yet unfulfilled promises of the...
2022-07-291h 10OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasNot a Crime to be Disabled: The Criminalization of Disability in AmericaJuly marks the thirty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, as it's better known—the landmark civil rights law that promised equal opportunity and economic security for Americans with disabilities. As we've talked about a lot on this show over the years, as important as it is to celebrate how far we've come in the decades since the ADA became part of the fabric of American life, every time we hit the month of July, it's even more important to acknowledge how far will still have to go to achieve the as-yet unfulfilled promises of the AD...
2022-07-221h 06OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"The Long Haul": How Long COVID Fits Into Disability Policy (Part 2 of an #ADA2022 Special)July marks the thirty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, as it's better known—the landmark civil rights law that promised equal opportunity and economic security for Americans with disabilities. As we've talked about a lot on this show over the years, as important as it is to celebrate how far we've come in the decades since the ADA became part of the fabric of American life, every time we hit the month of July, it's even more important to acknowledge how far will still have to go to achieve the as-yet unfulfilled promises of the AD...
2022-07-081h 08OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"The Long Haul": Inside the Patient Advocacy Revolution of the COVID Era (Part 1 of an #ADA2022 SpecialJuly marks the thirty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, as it's better known—the landmark civil rights law that promised equal opportunity and economic security for Americans with disabilities. As we've talked about a lot on this show over the years, as important as it is to celebrate how far we've come in the decades since the ADA became part of the fabric of American life, every time we hit the month of July, it's even more important to acknowledge how far will still have to go to achieve the as-yet unfulfilled promises of the AD...
2022-07-011h 07OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Child Poverty Was Always a Political Choice": What's Next for America's Child Allowance?The year 2021 was one for the history books in many areas of American economic policy. And one thing it will be remembered as is the year the United States finally adopted a guaranteed minimum income for families with children. Unfortunately, that policy victory was short-lived, and the expanded Child Tax Credit signed into law as part of the American Rescue Plan Act expired at the end of last year after the historic economic recovery package many of us will forever remember as "Build Back Better" stalled in the Senate—despite widespread popularity with bipartisan voters—for lack of West Virg...
2022-06-2759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasTrevor Smith on How We Build Narrative Power behind ReparationsComing up on Juneteenth, which will for the second year be recognized as a federal holiday in the United States on June 20 to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States, Rebecca sat down with Trevor Smith, the director of narrative change at Liberation Ventures, an organization working to fuel the movement for Black-led racial repair, for a sneak peek at a new initiative he's building called the Reparations Narrative Lab. As he describes it, the lab will serve as a first of its kind creative space designed to build narrative power behind reparations. Trevor is...
2022-06-1059 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Human Toll of Defunding the Social Security AdministrationThere's a lot of talk about budgets in Washington—but budget debates are rarely humanized in ways that people can understand in real life terms. And that's a problem. Because a wide array of critical agencies across the federal government have been getting systematically underfunded over the years, resulting in very real problems for American families. A prime example is the Social Security Administration (SSA)—which oversees retirement, disability, and survivors insurance as well as Supplemental Security Income. Since 2010, SSA's operating budget has been cut by at least 16 percent, adjusting for inflation. Its staffing is down 13 percent, and all while...
2022-05-2759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside the Fight for Automatic Record-Clearing with Leaders from the Clean Slate MovementFollowing decades of failed tough-on-crime policies in the United States, between 70 million and 100 million Americans now have some type of criminal record, standing in the way of basics like jobs and housing for a huge swath of the nation's citizens. But a policy that's been gaining bipartisan steam in the states over the past five years, known as "Clean Slate," has started to chip away at that gargantuan figure, by enabling people to have eligible records automatically wiped after they remain crime-free. In a special episode of Off-Kilter recorded at the Clean Slate Initiative's first annual convening in Detroit, Rebecca...
2022-05-2359 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Road Ahead for RoeFollowing the rare leak of a draft majority opinion in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the prospect of partial or wholesale rollback of Roe v. Wade—and with it, the bodily autonomy of women and people who can become pregnant—now looms larger than ever in the United States. So in the wake of the leak that has everyone shook up, Rebecca sat back down with Ian Millhiser, a senior correspondent at Vox and Off-Kilter's favorite court watcher for the inside scoop on the leak, what happens if Roe goes down, and how the Supr...
2022-05-161h 01OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow Student Debt Became a $1.6 Trillion CrisisFor more than two years, student loan repayment in the United States has been on pause, and interest on those debts has been frozen in light of the pandemic. In April, that pause was extended to August 31 of this year, offering another temporary reprieve for borrowers, many of whom were struggling to make often-crushing payments well before COVID-19 became a household name. Now, after years of calls to cancel some or all of the nation's $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, federal policymakers are seriously considering finally taking a step in that direction. To unpack how student debt became a $1.6 t...
2022-05-0658 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasAnnouncing the Disability Economic Justice CollaborativeThis week, we're taking a break from Off-Kilter's regularly scheduled programming to share a special virtual discussion hosted by The Century Foundation earlier this week with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, and other leaders to mark the official launch of the new Disability Economic Justice Collaborative. Off-Kilter previewed the collaborative's launch a few weeks ago in a special behind-the-scenes episode with TCF's new Disability Economic Justice team: it brings together two dozen leading disability groups, think tanks, and research organizations to learn from each other, work in partnership, and finally break the link b...
2022-04-2559 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Ban Secret Deals": Meet the New Coalition Working to Ban NDAs in Corporate Subsidy DealsHow would you feel if you found out your elected leaders had voted to hand out huge sums of public money to corporations, with some of them not even knowing who the recipient is, and the rest bound by contract not to divulge its identity or what its specific plans are? Now what if we told you this happens all over the country, all the time, in deals involving wealthy corporations such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, and on and on? Unfortunately, thanks to a legal tool called a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), this kind of corrupt secret dealmaking...
2022-04-1559 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"The Invisible Kingdom"This week, Rebecca hands the mic to Ryan Prior for an Off-Kilter takeover episode. Ryan is a longtime journalist, former CNN reporter, and like Rebecca, someone who lives with invisible chronic illness. They first crossed paths when Rebecca was at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and more recently reconnected in the COVID era because of his forthcoming book The Long Haul—which looks at how COVID-19 pandemic as a mass disabling event has changed the face of disability and chronic illness in the United States. For this Off-Kilter takeover, Ryan sat down with another chronically ill journalist and au...
2022-04-0859 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasMeet TCF's New Disability Economic Justice TeamThis week, Rebecca took a break from Off-Kilter's regularly scheduled programming for a sit-down with the newest members of The Century Foundation's brand-new Disability Economic Justice Team, which officially launched last month. Kim Knackstedt comes to TCF from the Biden administration, in which she served as the first-ever director of disability policy on the White House Domestic Policy Council, after many years as a staffer on Capitol Hill and before that, as a special ed teacher. Vilissa Thompson is the founder of Ramp Your Voice!, a former licensed social worker, and a long-time thought leader in the disability community at...
2022-04-0157 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas'Racism Is Profitable': How Liberation in a Generation Is Putting People of Color at the Center of Policy Change"We believe that it is possible to create an economy where all Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, and Pacific Islander people thrive—in one generation. To accomplish this we must fight to dismantle what we call the Oppression Economy. Today, elite institutions use racism as a tool to expand their wealth and power and suppress the wealth of people of color through theft, exploitation, and exclusion. Suppressing economic power leads to suppression of political power to influence policies that oversee resources. The elite institutions that control resources use that control to change the rules of our economy in their favor, wh...
2022-03-2559 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow The Kelsey Is Putting Disabled People at the Center of Housing PolicySixty-one million Americans, or roughly one in four, live with disabilities. Yet people with disabilities have at best only been an afterthought when it comes to housing policy in the United States, without a seat at the metaphorical table to inform how it gets made. Now, a new organization called The Kelsey is working to change that. So, after a great set of conversations with some of the folks behind Next100 about how they're working to turn the traditional think tank model on its head—we at Off-Kilter have decided to keep the conversation going about what it l...
2022-03-1859 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasPutting People at the Center of Criminal Justice ReformOver the course of the past few weeks, Rebecca's been having a series of conversations with some of the folks behind Next100—a think tank that's turning the traditional think tank model on its head, to create a public policy sector where those with the most at stake are driving the change they and their communities want to see. We at Off-Kilter enjoyed what started as a single episode conversation so much, we decided to turn it into a three-part series. So, to wrap up that series of conversations with Next100 leaders about what it looks like to...
2022-03-1159 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasPutting People at the Center of Climate Policy Last week, Rebecca sat down with some of the folks behind Next100—a think tank that's turning the traditional think tank model on its head, to create a public policy sector where those with the most at stake are driving the change they and their communities want to see. We at Off-Kilter enjoyed that conversation so much, we decided to turn it into a three-part series. So, continuing last week's conversation about what it looks like to put people at the center of policy change in the area of antipoverty policy… for this week's pod, Rebecca sat down...
2022-03-0459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow to Put People at the Center of Policy ChangeLast month, the newly launched Congressional Progressive Staff Association published a survey of more than five hundred Congressional staff. The results were damning. Half of Capitol Hill staffers who weren't in management reported their pay was so low they were struggling to make ends meet. Roughly one in four of those who weren't managers said they didn't have the equivalent of even one month's rent in the bank in the case of an emergency. And this despite routinely working twelve-hour days and weekends. The survey's troubling findings come as a viral Instagram account called "Dear White Staffers" has been drawing...
2022-02-2559 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasRebecca Cokley on Leading the First U.S. Disability Rights Portfolio at a Major U.S. FoundationWith the Senate announcing they're heading into recess without passing the Build Back Better Act, we figured why not get out of the news cycle for Off-Kilter's last episode of the year and instead have a far more good-news conversation that Rebecca Vallas has been meaning to have for a while with her dear friend Rebecca Cokley about what she's got underway at the Ford Foundation, in her history-making new role as the first program officer to head a U.S. disability rights portfolio at a major U.S. foundation. For more: Learn more about Rebecca C...
2021-12-1759 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Real Culprit Driving Inflation? Corporate Greed.With the clock ticking on Democrats' "Build Back Better" legislation, which passed the House last month and now awaits Senate action, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has cited yet another in a never ending string of "new" reasons for withholding his support for the bill. This time? Inflation. On Tuesday, during a Wall Street Journal CEO Council Summit, Mr. Manchin said of inflation to a roomful of corporate CEOs: "The unknown we're facing today is much greater than the need that people believe in this aspirational bill that we're looking at and we've got to make sure w...
2021-12-1059 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe End of Roe v. Wade?With the biggest threat to abortion rights in fifty years reaching the Supreme Court this week, in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—which centers around Mississippi's fifteen-week abortion ban—Rebecca sat down with two of The Century Foundation's top experts on reproductive rights and health: Dr. Jamila Taylor, director of health care reform and senior fellow at TCF, and Anna Bernstein, a health care policy fellow at TCF. They unpack what overturning Roe v. Wade would mean for women and people who can become pregnant in the United States; why reproductive justice is critical to economic justice...
2021-12-0359 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasAn Open Letter from West Virginia Moms to Senator Manchin on Build Back BetterEarlier today, the House of Representatives passed President Biden's Build Back Better economic recovery legislation—which includes historic and long-overdue investments in child care, pre-K, home care for people with disabilities and seniors, an extension of the monthly expanded child tax credit, and more. But Democratic leaders caution that the bill still faces immense hurdles in the Senate: namely, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Senator Manchin—who has been wielding outsized influence throughout the entirety of the year's Build Back Better debate by withholding the critical fiftieth vote Democrats need for the package to pass in the Senat...
2021-11-1959 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Long Road Ahead for the Millions with "Long COVID"Some twenty months into the COVID-19 pandemic, estimates suggest that between 3 million and 10 million Americans may have "long COVID," which can bring long-term and, in some cases, debilitating symptoms ranging from chronic pain and fatigue to brain fog, respiratory problems, organ damage, and more. While experts may still be fuzzy on the exact number of so-called COVID "long-haulers," two things are clear: this population represents the largest influx of new entrants to the U.S. disability community in modern history, and their ranks continue to grow by the day. But is America's public policy infrastructure prepared to h...
2021-11-1259 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"The Kids Aren't Alright": Biden's Plan for Overhauling America's House-of-Cards Child Care SystemA major contributor to poverty among U.S. families with children today is the incredibly high cost of child care. Statistics abound, underscoring how unaffordable child care in America has become, left to the whims of the private market: In more than half of states, care for an infant in a child care center costs more than in-state college tuition. For low-income families, child care expenses for children under five often amount to 35 percent of their income. A recent New York Times article by Jason DeParle on the subject was aptly titled, "When childcare costs twice as much as...
2021-11-0559 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Crime, Boy, I Don't Know…."In recent months, a wave of champions of the "tough on crime" approach to criminal justice have been trumpeting a spike in U.S. homicides in 2020 as fodder for rolling back critical reforms to America's broken criminal legal system, and for scaremongering about the so-called defund the police movement. Meanwhile, criminal justice experts caution that efforts to blame the uptick in homicides on criminal justice reform aren't just unfounded but are in fact directly contradicted by the very crime data the tough-on-crimers are trying to spin. As Fordham Law professor John Pfaff has put it: the rise in homicides...
2021-10-2959 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside the Push to Remake "the Fed"The Federal Reserve, better known as "the Fed," has been in the spotlight quite a bit in recent weeks, following an apparent insider trading scandal embroiling several high-level officials at America's central bank. And in the latest shoe to drop, disclosure documents made public in recent weeks reveal that the scandal of stock trading during the pandemic extends all the way up to the chair of the Fed himself—Jerome "Jay" Powell. With Chairman Powell's term ending in January 2022, a growing chorus of progressives, climate activists, advocates for racial justice, and economic heavyweights from Nobel Prize–winning econ...
2021-10-2359 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Poverty Line Is Too Damn LowLast month, the U.S. Census Bureau put out its annual snapshot of income, poverty, and health insurance in the United States—which serves as something of an annual report card on the economic well-being of America's families. One of the most significant takeaways was the effectiveness of government relief at keeping people above the federal poverty line last year at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic: according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 53 million more Americans would have been officially poor in 2020 if not for a critical assembly of pandemic-related economic relief measures, from sti...
2021-10-1559 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Racist Roots of Work RequirementsAs the debate over President Biden's sweeping "build back better" agenda continues in Washington, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin hasn't been shy about laying out his demands, as Democratic leadership in the House and Senate and the White House bend over backwards to garner his and Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema's votes for reconciliation bill that's been moving through Congress. High on Senator Manchin's list: adding so-called work requirements to the newly expanded Child Tax Credit. In a September appearance on CNN's State of the Union, he derided parents who don't work outside the home, asking: "Don't you...
2021-10-0859 min
OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasLindsay Owens on This Week's D.C. Drama and Progressives' Push to #HoldTheLineThis week in Washington has featured no shortage of drama, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell saddling Democrats with the threat of both a government shutdown and default on the nation's debts by withholding Republican votes for keeping the government funded or raising the debt ceiling. Meanwhile, despite months of forward momentum in Congress to craft sweeping "build back better" legislation encompassing much of President Biden's American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan—austerity politics (or more precisely Sinemanchin intransigence—to borrow a timely term from The American Prospect's David Dayen) has threatened to derail the president's economic agenda.
2021-10-0159 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"It's Just Been Like This Rolling Cliff:" What's Next for America's Crumbling Unemployment Insurance System?For all the talk about what's in "Build Back Better" recovery legislation that Democrats are trying to move through Congress, one thing that's not currently in the bill, in what many workers' advocates say is a glaring omission, is anything to do with Unemployment Insurance—which was badly in need of a refresh long before the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure that when workers lose a job, they have the protection they need. In fact, workers' advocates and progressive think tanks have been ringing the alarm bells for years about how few jobless workers were protected by our UI...
2021-09-2459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside the Fight to Make America's New Child Allowance PermanentThis week, millions of families across the United States are receiving their third monthly child allowance payment as implementation of the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act earlier this year continues. Meanwhile, as "Build Back Better" legislation continues to come together in Congress, with key House committees marking up their portions of the legislation this week, the future of America's first guaranteed minimum income for families with children—a policy estimated to cut child poverty in half in the United States—is at the heart of the ongoing debate. Whil...
2021-09-1759 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe ongoing fight for disability economic justice, over thirty years after the ADAThirty-one years ago, the fabric of America's legal and policy landscape changed dramatically for people with disabilities in the United States when the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush, on July 26, 1990. But, as far we've come these past thirty-plus years, we still have incredibly far to go. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, disabled people in the United States—who make up one in four Americans—were roughly twice as likely to live in poverty and two to three times more likely to be unemployed. Now, as federal policymakers work...
2021-09-101h 44
2021-09-0901 min
Solidarity LiveRebecca Vallas - May 28, 2021Solidarity Live talks with Rebecca Vallas from The Century Foundation about why strengthening Supplemental Security Income (SSI) must be part of 'Building Back Better'
2021-06-0154 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasWhy Strengthening SSI Needs to Be Part of "Building Back Better" This week, Off-Kilter's bringing you a conversation Rebecca moderated at The Century Foundation earlier this week, on the historic opportunity to make long overdue improvements to Supplemental Security Income as part of #BuildBackBetter—featuring Sen Sherrod Brown, Rep. Raul Grijalva, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, as well as a panel of disability and seniors' advocates. Guests: Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY); Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-CA); Nancy Altman, president, Social Security Works; Matthew Cortland, chronically ill, disabled lawyer and senior fellow, Data for Progress; Kristen Dama, managing attorney for SSI, Community Legal Services of Ph...
2021-05-291h 40OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"Broke in America"--feat. Joanne Goldblum and Colleen ShaddoxNearly 40 million people in the U.S. live below the official poverty line—which in 2021 is just $26,000 for a family of four. But while poverty is all too often portrayed as a personal failure, it's actually the result of bad public policy choices. Public policy has purposefully erected barriers that deny access to basic needs, creating a society where people can easily become trapped in poverty—not because we as a nation lack the resources to lift them out, but because we are actively choosing not to. This is the premise of a new book called Broke in America: Seei...
2021-05-211h 08OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasWhat's Really Going on in the Labor Market -- feat. Heidi ShierholzThe April jobs data released by the Department of Labor last week spurred an avalanche of hysteria and conservative hand-wringing about supposedly widespread labor shortages, with many on the right pointing to pandemic jobless benefits as the bogeyman. In a particularly troubling move, on Wednesday of this week, 12 Republican governors announced they'd be ending access to pandemic unemployment benefits in their states. To help unpack the state of the labor market as the COVID-19 economic recovery continues—and the role of pandemic unemployment insurance in the recovery—Rebecca sat down with Heidi Shierholz, policy director at the...
2021-05-1443 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasState Leaders Talk #SecondChanceMonth: Fair Chance Licensing and Clean SlateAs leaders at all levels of government work to "build back better"—and to address the nation's legacy of racial injustice and persistent racial inequality—removing barriers to employment for workers with records is more urgently needed than ever amid the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and downturn, to ensure not only a full but an equitable recovery that does not leave tens of millions of system-impacted individuals and families behind. As Off-Kilter closes out our #SecondChanceMonth series for the month of April, we're bringing you a conversation Rebecca had earlier this week with a group of state leaders who...
2021-04-301h 22OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasCage Free Cannabis Talks #SecondChanceMonth -- feat. co-founder Adam Vine and National Expungement Week's Felicia Carbajal"The War on Drugs has disproportionately harmed communities of color. People have lost jobs, education, housing, their liberty, their families, and their lives to this War. Now they deserve equity, justice, and repair: ownership of cannabis businesses, full and automatic expungement, and community reinvestment of tax revenue and corporate philanthropy." This is the vision of a marijuana justice organization called Cage Free Cannabis and its sister organization Cage Free Repair. As Off-Kilter continues #SecondChanceMonth, to mark 4/20, Rebecca sat down with Adam Vine, cofounder of Cage Free Cannabis & Cage Free Repair, and Felicia Carbajal, interim...
2021-04-2452 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasDesmond Meade and Sheena Meade Talk Second Chance Month Off-Kilter continues our Second Chance Month series with two of the directly impacted leaders driving transformational change on second chance policies and rights restoration in the states, who also happen to be a powerhouse husband-wife team: Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, best known for the visionary Amendment 4 campaign that restored the right to vote for 1.4 million people with felony convictions in Florida—and Sheena Meade, one of the leaders in the Amendment 4 campaign and now the managing director of the Clean Slate Initiative, a bipartisan national movement to expand record-clearing and make it automatic to...
2021-04-161h 01OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Second Chance Gap -- feat. JJ Prescott and Colleen ChienIn recognition that a criminal record shouldn't be a life sentence to poverty, there's been a whirlwind of momentum in the states in recent years to expand eligibility for criminal record-clearing—with over half the states expanding laws for expungement, sealing, and other tools for enabling people to wipe their records clean so they can have a fair shot at jobs, housing, education and more. There's just one tiny problem. The expungement systems that states have been building are leaving behind the vast majority of the folks they're supposed to help. To kick off a series of...
2021-04-1059 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasEligibility doesn't equal access — feat. Center for Taxpayer Rights' Nina Olson and Community Legal Services' Jen Burdick Poverty researchers estimate that the income-boosting provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Biden signed into law last month, will cut child poverty in half, and that overall poverty in the U.S. will fall by one-third over the next year. But should we expect those promised reductions in poverty to transfer from spreadsheets to real life? A lot of the answer to this question hinges on whether federal policymakers take the steps needed to ensure we don't just make folks ELIGIBLE for historic income security protections like the new child allowance, the EITC expansion for workers no...
2021-04-021h 03OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasReimagining Anti-Monopoly Activism Through Racial Justice -- feat. Liberation in a Generation's Jeremie GreerAmid a global pandemic that has killed people of color at dramatically higher rates, and forced so-called 'essential workers'--again, disproportionately people of color--to risk illness and death to keep the a struggling economy churning... the outlook for predominantly white corporate monopolists has never been brighter. According to a new report from Liberation in a Generation, from March - November 2020, 644 U.S. billionaires saw their combined wealth increase by $931 billion (from $2.95 trillion to $3.88 trillion)--a jump of 31.6 percent. All the while, U.S. poverty worsened, and the unemployment rate was hovering at roughly double its pre-pandemic low. Rebecca talks to...
2021-03-2653 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Ever-Growing Case for Guaranteed Income -- feat. Dorian Warren and Aisha Nyandoro Results are in from the first year of a universal basic income experiment in Stockton, California, which gave randomly selected residents $500 per month with no strings attached—and they're striking. The income boost improved recipients' employment prospects, economic stability, physical and mental health, overall well-being, and more, according to an independent study released last week. The pilot's striking results only add to a growing body of evidence making the case for guaranteed income policies that provide recipients unconditional cash. They come on the heels of another groundbreaking guaranteed income experiment called the Magnolia Mother's Trust, which provides low-income African-American mo...
2021-03-1954 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHelp Is On the WayWith President Joe Biden's signature, the American Rescue Plan Act became law on Thursday of this week. This wide-ranging package of relief measures—which despite garnering widespread bipartisan support among voters, passed both chambers of Congress without a single Republican vote—authorizes a set of landmark expansions of existing income security policies and programs—including an historic expansion of the Child Tax Credit, that for the next year at least, turns the CTC into a fully available child allowance that's estimated to cut child poverty in half by establishing a guaranteed minimum income for families with children. ...
2021-03-1251 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasYou Shouldn't Need a Law Degree to Access Disability BenefitsFor this week's pod, we're bringing you a conversation Rebecca moderated at this week's National Academy of Social Insurance conference on "Pathways to Economic Security" about how America's social insurance and public assistance system is falling short for disabled people and care workers who provide home and community based care services; the human consequences of how hard we've made it to access Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI); outdated program rules that trap disabled people in poverty and keep them from marrying; the "care crisis" that's resulted from underpaying and undervaluing direct care providers; and...
2021-03-0555 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasClaudia Sahm on why we shouldn't be worried about inflation right now Earlier this week, in a hearing on the state of America's economic recovery, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee that the employment rate for low-wage workers—those hit hardest by the pandemic—is "probably above 20 percent." With President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package on the move in Congress, and with the first glimmers of what a $3 to $4 trillion infrastructure and jobs package might look like on the horizon to follow, Rebecca talks to Claudia Sahm, a senior fellow at the Jain Family Institute and a former economist at the Federal Reserve, about the economic debate...
2021-02-2753 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Case for a U.S. Child AllowanceRebecca joined Greg Duncan and Sam Hammond for a panel discussion about the prospects for a U.S. child allowance -- and why it's needed now more than ever -- hosted by the American Constitution Society's New York Chapter. Subscribe to Off-Kilter on iTunes. show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/the-case-for-a-u-s-child-allowance-1bb04067c3d3
2021-02-191h 03OFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow Biden is Expanding SNAPRebecca talks to Brookings Fellow Lauren Bauer about the steps the Biden administration is taking to increase too-low federal food assistance benefits, starting with updating an archaic policy called the "Thrifty Food Plan" -- and the larger agenda to expand SNAP. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/how-biden-is-expanding-snap-c9c64b8013ce
2021-02-1252 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasWhen will the pandemic end?Rebecca sits down with Be A Hero's Matthew Cortland for a look at the challenges with the vaccine rollout so far, and what it would take to get to the vaccination rates we need in the U.S. and globally to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/when-will-the-pandemic-end-45d6d69250c2
2021-02-0542 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasInside the Raise the Wage Act, with EPI's David CooperRebecca sits down with the Economic Policy Institute's David Cooper for a deep dive into Democrats' Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025. show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/inside-the-raise-the-wage-act-with-epis-david-cooper-2d6ee58ab1f6
2021-01-3050 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasVox's Ian Millhiser on why we need to nuke the filibuster to save democracyRebecca talks to Vox's Ian Millhiser about the ongoing debate over what to do with the filibuster -- and why it isn't just standing in the way of much of the Biden-Harris agenda, but key democracy reform measures the GOP wants to stop at all costs. show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/voxs-ian-millhiser-on-why-we-need-to-nuke-the-filibuster-to-save-democracy-c6d432e5fadb
2021-01-2332 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasHow President-Elect Biden Could Cut Poverty in Half Without the GOP -- Feat. Vox's Dylan MatthewsVox's Dylan Matthews breaks down everything you need to know about "budget reconciliation" -- a tool that if used strategically in the Senate could mean Dems' fragile majority could be enough to create a pathway for powerful policy change at a critical time. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/how-president-elect-biden-could-cut-poverty-in-half-without-the-gop-f647a0452e0e
2021-01-1659 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasSherrod Brown on the COVID relief workers & families urgently needSherrod Brown on the COVID relief workers & families urgently need Mini-pod: With poverty on the rise, Rebecca talks to Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown about the debate in Congress around COVID economic relief -- and the stakes for the tens of millions of workers and families struggling to stay afloat right now. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/sherrod-brown-on-the-covid-relief-workers-families-urgently-need-c7df53e6dcae
2020-12-0917 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas"How Mass Incarceration Became a Poverty Trap"Rebecca talks to the Brennan Center's Ames Grawert & Terry Ann Craigie about their research finding that people who spend time in prison see their lifetime earnings cut in half, further entrenching poverty and the racial divide -- the annual earnings loss by Americans with criminal conviction records now totals $372 billion per year. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/how-mass-incarceration-became-a-poverty-trap-6211e6712380
2020-12-0454 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasTransition Talk with Dorian Warren + Angela HanksRebecca talks to Dorian Warren & Angela Hanks about the work ahead now that the Biden/Harris transition team has been formed; some of the most exciting new members of Congress to watch; why Jan 5 matters so much; how Democrats can avoid falling into another austerity trap, and more. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/transition-talk-with-dorian-warren-angela-hanks-e986b94f43f7
2020-11-1459 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasDown-Ballot Deep Dive with Daniel NichanianRebecca talks to Daniel Nichanian, founder of The Appeal's Political Report, for a deep dive into some of the most important down-ballot stories from the 2020 election -- from ballot measures to state and local races that will shape policymaking in 2021 and beyond. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/down-ballot-deep-dive-with-daniel-nichanian-c000fcf09b04
2020-11-1152 minOFF-KILTER with Rebecca VallasThe Purge, 2020 editionRebecca talks to disability lawyer Matthew Cortland about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the disability community so far, the ageism and ableism underpinning claims that "we need to learn to live with it," and more. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/the-purge-2020-edition-32c38a059666
2020-10-3158 min
Interviews for ResistanceDefeating the attack on food assistance--for now, with Rebecca Vallas<p>A lot of things wind up embedded in the massive, regularly-renewed piece of legislation known as the "farm bill" each year, and one of the most important--at least, to the 40 million Americans who rely on it--is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, previously and still commonly known as food stamps. The program has been in the sights of Republicans, fresh off a victory on tax cuts, who want to pay for those cuts by slashing benefits to working people and the poor. Rebecca Vallas has been following the progress of these attacks and the...
2018-05-2329 min