The Uncertain Hour

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.

https://www.marketplace.org/shows/the-uncertain-hour/

Eine durchschnittliche Folge dieses Podcasts dauert 36m. Bisher sind 57 Folge(n) erschienen. Jede Woche gibt es eine neue Folge dieses Podcasts.

Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 1 day 9 hours 39 minutes

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The $80 Million Acre (from “How We Survive”)


This week, we’re dropping into your feeds to tell you about another podcast we make here at Marketplace that we think Uncertain Hour listeners will like. It’s called “How We Survive.” And it’s about how people are navigating solutions to a changing climate. We’re excited to bring you the first episode of the new season.

Buckeye, Arizona is a small city with dreams of becoming “the next Phoenix.” It’s one of the fastest growing cities in the country...


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 November 14, 2023  33m
 
 

episode 6: Chapter 6: The Welfare to Temp Work Pipeline


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 will help keep them out of poverty and off government benefits...


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 April 26, 2023  55m
 
 

episode 5: Chapter 5: Profits and Perverse Incentives


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...


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 April 19, 2023  49m
 
 

episode 4: Chapter 4: The Battle of Newburgh


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 forced to work gained influence in our country’s system to help poor people...


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 April 12, 2023  35m
 
 

episode 3: Chapter 3: Race and rumor


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 suspicions grew about people getting welfare right as more black people started gaining more access to welfare benefits...


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 April 5, 2023  36m
 
 

episode 2: Chapter 2: The compliance machine


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 safety of her children, she fled to Milwaukee and signed up for welfare, hoping it would live up to the promise of providing employment and self-sufficiency...


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 March 29, 2023  54m
 
 

episode 1: Chapter 1: The dream


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 “work experience” and enforce work requirements for welfare recipients, all in the name of teaching self-sufficiency...


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 March 22, 2023  44m
 
 

Season 6: The Welfare-to-Work Industrial Complex


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. Some are calling it Welfare Reform 2.0. But as politicians push these programs in the name of ending “welfare dependency,” behind the scenes there’s something else going on...


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 March 15, 2023  4m
 
 

25 years after welfare reform, let’s revisit “the magic bureaucrat”


It’s been 25 years since our country upended its welfare system – and so we’re looking back at our very first episode.

We spent that first season of “The Uncertain Hour” reflecting deeply on what welfare had become. Each of those episodes can still help us understand what’s happened to one of our nation’s oldest safety net programs, on this anniversary of its so-called “reform...


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 August 20, 2021  41m
 
 

episode 8: My boss is an app


The gig-app workforce has arrived at our doorstep. But Silicon Valley’s innovations in hiring are only the latest round of this long-running battle over what employment means in the American economy.  This concludes our fifth season of “The Uncertain Hour.” To be the first to hear about our next season, subscribe to our mailing list. 


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 March 24, 2021  48m