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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episode 4: There are cracks in the foundation of our housing system


The COVID-19 pandemic arrived at a moment when the gap between rich and poor in this country had hit a record high. One place that inequality is most visible is in the neighborhoods where we live. Generations of discriminatory housing policy, and lending practices that favored white borrowers, have entrenched segregation in American cities...


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 June 3, 2020  33m
 
 

episode 3: Unemployment benefits are hard to get. That’s on purpose.


Millions of Americans who are out of work don’t receive unemployment benefits. That’s by design. Today, we’ll look at the history of the United States’ unemployment insurance system, how this country defines “unemployment,”and why the program was never intended to cover everyone who’s not working.


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 May 27, 2020  36m
 
 

episode 2: An unequal history of quarantines


As long as there’s been such a thing as quarantine, each person’s experience under it has depended largely on their economic status. On this week’s show, we take a tour of quarantines through history, from the bubonic plague outbreaks in 14th and 17th century Italy, to the a typhoid outbreak in New York in the early 1900s and a few other stops along the way. Those quarantines looked very different if you were, say, an immigrant, or a Jewish textile merchant, or a sex worker...


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 May 20, 2020  29m
 
 

episode 1: You’re an essential worker. Do you get essential protections?


Chicken is America’s most popular meat. But chicken supply chains — in fact, many of our food supply chains — are in danger of breaking down. Part of the reason is the workers who process and package those goods are getting sick. In some cases, they’re dying...


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 May 13, 2020  29m
 
 

A History of Now: The Trailer


There’s not much more uncertain than our current moment. Our day-to-day lives and our economy have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. On this season, “A History of Now,” we’re digging into the history and policies that help make sense of this current moment, a time where issues of wealth and poverty feel even more stark than usual. New episodes start May 13.

 

 


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 May 6, 2020  3m
 
 

episode 7: A new piece of the opioid crisis origin story, revealed


We just found the answer to a really big question that’s been bugging us for years, about why the opioid crisis has hit some places so hard while other places have been relatively protected. The answer comes in the form of new academic research, that builds upon our reporting. Specifically, a secret internal marketing document from Purdue Pharma that senior producer Caitlin Esch discovered in the bowels of a county court house. She’s on this bonus episode to talk about it.


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 December 19, 2019  15m
 
 

George Bush’s infamous crack speech, 30 years later


On this day, 30 years ago, President George H.W. Bush gave his first address from the Oval Office. Bush held up a baggie of crack he said had been seized just outside the White House. Today, we’re revisiting our episode about that speech, the events that led up to it and the lives it affected. For more on America’s drug war, listen to season 3 of our show.


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 September 5, 2019  45m
 
 

Introducing “This Is Uncomfortable”


We’re hard at work on the next season of “The Uncertain Hour,” but in the meantime, we’re excited to share a new podcast from Marketplace: “This Is Uncomfortable.” It’s a storytelling podcast, all about life and how money messes with it. Every Thursday, host Reema Khrais will dig into the unanticipated ways money affects relationships, shapes identities and often defines what it means to be an adult. The first episode is out now...


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 June 15, 2019  3m
 
 

episode 6: Kicking the habit


Many people in Wise County agree that they can’t jail their way out of a drug epidemic, but there’s a lot less agreement on what to do instead. And we find out what happened to Joey Ballard.


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 April 18, 2019  49m
 
 

Families bear the costs of alternative sentencing programs


Does alternative sentencing create a system of easily exploited free labor?


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 April 12, 2019  3m