How can we end the scourge of poverty? How we can sustain ourselves once robots eliminate the need for many jobs? Annie Lowrey offers an answer in the title of her book, Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World (Crown, 2018). She makes the case for the policy called “Universal Basic Income,” ... Show More
Jun 6
Robert W. Snyder, "When the City Stopped: Stories from New York's Essential Workers" (Cornell UP, 2026)
The COVID-19 pandemic delivered its first and most devastating strike in the United States in New York City in the Spring of 2020. Closely connected to the world by air travel, with a virus able to circle the globe in a single flight, and with a population always living life larg ... Show More
41m 23s
Jun 4
Anand Gopal, "Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution" (Viking, 2026)
From Pulitzer and National Book Award finalist Anand Gopal, an epic and enthralling account of six Syrians fighting for a better world, in the tradition of classic works by Philip Gourevitch and Katherine Boo.In 2011, in a northern Syrian city, a small group of men and women bega ... Show More
43m 6s
May 29
Media, Power, and the Gaza Narrative
How Western media shapes public understanding of Gaza, Palestine, and conflict through language, political narratives, and global power structures. In this Nordic Asia Podcast episode, Khaled Ezzelarab, Director of the Middle East Institute Program at the American University in C ... Show More
20m 29s
Jun 2021
Mariana Mazzucato and Raghuram Rajan on Building Back Post-Pandemic
Behind every protest, and every election debate around the world, an underlying theme seems to be rising anger about inequality, and a sense that capitalism itself is broken. But what can be done to fix it? What can societies do to reverse some of its inherent problems? And how s ... Show More
22m 32s
Mar 2023
Mark Robert Rank, "The Poverty Paradox: Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity" (Oxford UP, 2023)
The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations? Based on his decades-long research and scholarship, one of the n ... Show More
32m 27s
Jul 2018
48: UBI Q&A. A Conversation with Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang
"That's really one of the most powerful things about Universal Basic Income. You start to believe in a sense of abundance and possibility." In this episode of Made You Think, Neil and Nat speak to Andrew Yang, the author of The War on Normal People, a follow up to our previous bo ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2021
GR: Is Capitalism Broken? With Mariana Mazzucato & Raghuram Rajan
Behind every protest, and every election debate around the world, an underlying theme seems to be rising anger about inequality, and a sense that capitalism itself is broken. But what can be done to fix it? What can societies do to reverse some of its inherent problems? And how s ... Show More
22m 32s
Mar 2023
Mark Robert Rank, "The Poverty Paradox: Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity" (Oxford UP, 2023)
The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among the industrialized nations? Based on his decades-long research and scholarship, one of the n ... Show More
29m 42s
Sep 2022
Pt. 2: Money, Millennials, & the Bizarre American Fever Dream: the Role of "Personal Finance Education" & Our Collective "Expectation Hangover"
Last week to kick off this two-part special, we explored the culture, economy, and education systems that built the millennial generation. If you haven't heard the first episode yet, I recommend going back to start with that first (https://link.chtbl.com/022a2-MX). Today, we’re d ... Show More
54m 47s