Over a third of Americans lack sufficient savings to handle a $400 emergency. In this revealing public radio documentary, we consider the plight of tens of millions living on the edge of poverty in the United States. They may be among your family members or neighbors.

Most of us hold misconceptions about who is struggling to get by on low income, and whether the social safety net — intended to safeguard people who fall on hard times — is actually adequate.

We visit food pantries to discuss these conditions with patrons who line up for a limited supply of groceries — among them young mothers, older adults, the working poor and people with disabilities. The number of folks using these services has noticeably increased as the Covid-19 crisis has tapered off. At the same time, emergency benefits for many families have been scaled back.
 
You’ll hear from Mark Rank, author of The Poverty Paradox and professor of social work at Washington University in St. Louis; Kisha Davis, MD, the Health Officer for Montgomery County, Maryland; members of the Poor People’s Campaign, who testified before Congress, including Rev. William Barber II; and brief excerpts from powerful movies dramatizing this theme.

And we listen back to how government aid to low-income Americans has been politicized from the enactment of Social Security in 1935 to the debate over newer protections in the Affordable Care Act.

Once an important life-force of early civilization and an ancient crafter of community, beer was, like many things under our current economic system, disfigured and twisted by the forces of the market and the drive for profit.

In this episode, we take a close look at this story, starting in ancient Mesopotamia and tracing the history of beer up through the giant consolidations of the 20th century to the birth of the craft beer revolution in the 1970s and 80s. Brew expert and award-winning author Randy Mosher guides us through this history, telling great stories and exploring ancient beer mythology along the way.

But the story doesn't end there -- the beer revolution is really just beginning. Craft beer has begun to bring back many of the most important values and characteristics of beer that were lost for so long, going far beyond just taste.

How is the new economy embodied in a pint of beer? This is an important theme that Rob Hopkins, the co-founder of the Transition Town movement and founder of New Lion Brewery, explores throughout the episode. How is craft beer beginning to stitch back together the economies of towns and cities that have been torn apart by globalization and an obsession with growth? How can beer demonstrate the concept of the circular economy? These are important questions explored in depth through Rob’s expertise.

There are many other incredible stories of brewers and breweries that are radically changing the landscape of the beer industry. Throughout the episode you’ll meet a wide variety of folks, from a brewery in London that makes beer out of surplus bread, to the first cooperatively owned brewery in California. After listening to this episode, you may never look at a bottle of beer in the same way.

Disclaimer: listening to this episode may cause you to crave a dark, chocolatey stout. Or a piney, hoppy IPA. Or a nutty brown ale. Or a fruity saison. Or a tangy farmhouse ale. Or...well you get the point: you may want to listen to this episode over a pint.

Featuring
​Rob Hopkins - Founder of New Lion Brewery, Co-Initator of the Transition Town Movement
Randy Mosher - Author of Tasting Beer: An Insider's Guide to the World's Greatest Drink
Bart Watson - Chief Economist, Brewers Association
Tom Stainer - Head of Communications, CAMRA
Julie Prebble - Business Development Manager, Toast Ale
Vanesa de Blas - Brewer, Temple Brew House
Andrew Gilhespy - Grower at The Almond Thief
Emy Mendoza - Umunhum Brewing

Music by:
​Maude Gun
Lanterns 
Antwon
Pele
​
Many thanks to Bethan Mure for the background/cover art.

When the plague broke out in San Francisco in 1900, the public health department poured all of its energy into stopping the spread of the deadly disease in Chinatown—as if Chinatown were the problem. This episode reveals why they did it, what it has to do with race science, and what it tells us about the history of public health.

On this episode of the Polley Music Library show, we discussed the book "Who Cares Anyway: Post-Punk San Francisco and the End of the Analog Age" by Will York, which documents the wild underground music coming out of the Bay Area in the 1980s and 90s. We listened to some examples of music from the scene, too.