Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast We Can Do Better

Devon Gray is the president of End Poverty in California, EPIC, https://endpovertyinca.org/ In this episode, we talk with Devon about EPIC’s work to change the narrative about poverty, focusing on amplifying the voices of workers through its #Listen2Workers campaign. Check EPIC’s website and social media, @EndPovertyCA,  for direct conversations with fast food workers, child care providers, gig drivers, etc.

Devon tells us about his journey from Stanford Law to working with Stockton, CA mayor and EPIC founder Michael Tubbs, who created successful guaranteed income and student scholarship programs.  We discuss EPIC’s Blueprint to End Poverty, and the lessons EPIC has learned that apply to all states, including the red ones. The Blueprint  is available to read on its site, under the same Issues tab that includes some of the legislation they push, including a $21 minimum wage for healthcare workers, corporate transparency, and limitations on renter security deposits.

Sister Emily TeKolste is an organizer for NETWORK Advocates and Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, https://www.networkadvocates.org/ and https://networklobby.org/. Sr. Emily tells us about her journey through activism and service to become a Sister of Providence and organizer for economic justice. Sr. Emily tells us how “giving up billionaires for Lent” is part of the program linking multi-faith values to direct advocacy to lawmakers, an agenda that was a key part of the abolition movement, the civil rights movement, and creating and defending the Affordable Care Act. We learn how progressive organizing can take a lesson from conservative movements–which have nurtured activism by emphasizing relationships and community first. Which leads Sr. Emily and colleagues to be nurturing “squad goals” in the push for higher wages, paid family leave, and healthcare for all.

#economicjustice #healthcareforall #workersrights #livingwage #communityorganizing #socialjustice #publicpolicy #faithinaction #wecandobetter

Stephen Semler is a self-described “producer of charts & policy analysis for the working class.” As the author of the newsletter Polygraph and a co-founder of the Security Policy Reform Institute, he is the best there is at explaining how the arms industry has used piles of campaign money to take over U.S. budgets via Congress and Presidential administrations, and the price we all pay for this domination. We talk about his journey from a short stint as an arms industry lobbyist himself to now writing amazing articles like, What $1.5 Trillion for the Pentagon Could Fund Instead–a stunning list that includes ending world hunger, ending U.S. homelessness, Medicaid for the uninsured, power half of U.S. households with solar–with plenty of billions left over. Reading that article spurred Fran to become a paid subscriber to Polygraph. For a podcast that insists we can do better, Stephen explains where the money is to accomplish all of our goals.

In this episode, we talk with Catlin Nchako of the topnotch research and policy institute Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Catlin and his colleagues are documenting the devastating impact of the Trump/Republican “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” As Catlin told us, the law has already pushed 3.5 million people off of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka Food Stamps program..

You can see those numbers, and the numbers for your own state on the Center on Budget’s website, specifically an ongoing feature called, SNAP Tracker: People Are Losing Food Assistance as the Republican Megabill Is Implemented (link below).

Catlin is a data researcher, but he emphasizes here the human cost to children and to our communities. He also explains how to fix this: the federal government needs to press pause on the transfer of SNAP responsibility to the states. That could help ease the very real suffering going on in the short-term, while repealing these mean-spirited barriers (more on the impact of red-tape work requirements here ) is the long-term answer.

🔗: https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-as...
🔗: https://endpovertynow.substack.com/p/...

In this episode of We Can Do Better, we interview Jesse Brown, the first openly socialist candidate ever elected to the city council of Indianapolis in the heart of Republican-dominated Indiana. Jesse won his seat in 2023, with the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America , DSA, by defeating the sitting vice president of the council.

Since then, democratic socialists have been on a roll. Zohran Mamdani in New York City and others are winning major mayoral elections and are poised to win more this year. Already in 2026, democratic socialists are defeating incumbents and winning open seats in primary wins that will likely yield a growing number of socialist members of Congress.

Many of us want to see our government respond much better to the struggles of everyday people. And we want wealthy people and corporations to have far less riches and regular people to hold far more political power.

What is “sewer socialism” and how does that service-focused history guide the new wave of elected socialist mayors like Mamdani? How does democratic socialism intersect with the care-for-others religious principles at the core of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other religious and moral traditions?

We engage with all these questions with Jesse Brown. Jesse is a former high school teacher, which seems to be good preparation for educating us about what democratic socialism is and is not.

He shares with us how his single mom’s financial struggles and his family’s Christian faith led him to socialism, how he thinks democratic socialists are speaking to the same frustration that has led many voters to embrace Trump in the past, and how the democratic nature of socialism should prevent him or any other elected official from thinking they have all the answers for a community’s needs.

A few articles and resources referenced in the episode:

• “Democratic Socialists are Winning in U.S. Cities With Message of Getting Stuff Done,” The Guardian
• Jesse Brown’s Weekly Newsletter
• Religious Socialism: Faith in Action for a Better World

In this episode, we talk with Mara Heneghan about something called “Public Pharma,” which can fix our current prescription drug prices.  Mara is director of the Health and Political Economy Project at the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, where she works on health-focused policy and programs.

Polling consistently shows a disturbing fact: 4 in every 10 Americans report skipping prescription doses because they can’t afford their cost, something we know can cost lives. Affording prescription drugs always ranks at the top of Americans’ concerns, and certainly a struggle that we see as very real for our low-income clients. 

Mara tells us that she and others have been working on a fix: drug manufacturing can and should be treated as essential public infrastructure, instead of a platform for price gouging.  In fact, it is already being done.

California’s CalRx is a state-backed initiative that produces CalRx-branded insulin pens, which are offered at pharmacies for approximately $11 per pen – a fraction of the roughly $80 or more per pen that patients typically pay for brand-name long-acting insulin. 

CalRx is working on doing the same for albuterol, a medicine that is critical for children with asthma. Michigan and New York are contemplating following California’s lead in public manufacturing of medicines. 

The public sector also is starting to leverage its purchasing power to lower drug prices. Not only is all this fully legal, the federal government actually has the right to license patents on critical medicines to generic manufacturers when those medicines are made unaffordable by monopoly-holding corporations. (See an explanation of that “1498 option below.) Our government has done this in the past, and should again.

Here is some additional background about Public Pharma:

• Prescription Drug Prices are a Problem–But TrumpRx is Not the Solution, by Victor Roy and Mara Heneghan, March 2026, https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2026-03-26/prescription-drug-prices-trumprx 

• The New School’s Institute on Race, Power, and the Political Economy,   https://racepowerpolicy.org/ 

• Democracy Collaborative, Why We Need a Public Option in Pharma, https://www.democracycollaborative.org/whatwethink/medicine-for-all-the-case-for-a-public-option-in-the-pharmaceutical-industry

• Chris Morten,Who’s Afraid of Section 1498? https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2810/

This week, we are doing something different from welcoming an outside guest. For our episode on the week of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we are going to talk about an article Fran recently published on the website Common Dreams: Reclaiming the Pursuit of Happiness: Let’s Celebrate the Declaration’s 250th by Ending Poverty (https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/reclaiming-pursuit-of-happiness)

To lead our conversation, we pulled out from behind the scenes our podcast’s guru and producer Jack Quigley.  Jack is a journalist and writer, now Chief Marketing Officer for 14 Regional Construction Trade Magazines.Jack takes over the questioning and asks Fran about his article, including: 

    •    The historical evidence showing that, by promising that our new government would fulfill “the pursuit of happiness” as an inalienable right, the founders meant a government guarantee of housing, healthcare, and meeting critical needs;

    •    How civil rights like voting, free speech, etc. are completely dependent on fulfilling economic rights to housing, healthcare, etc.;

    •    Why the record shows that the U.S. people, now and throughout history, are nowhere near as hostile to guaranteeing economic rights to housing, healthcare, etc. as we have been led to believe;

    •    Why the U.S. ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights could solve our poverty crisis.

The full article is available here: Reclaiming the Pursuit of Happiness: Let’s Celebrate the Declaration’s 250th by Ending Poverty (https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/reclaiming-pursuit-of-happiness)

In this episode, we examine a true silver bullet that can dramatically reduce poverty in the United States: pass a proposed law to update and improve our SSI program. 

We start out the episode with the story of Dorothy (not her real name), one of our many eviction court clients who is unable to work because of disability. Like 7.4 million Americans, Dorothy’s sole income is her SSI, Supplemental Security Income, check. But that check is only $994–less than the average rent, not to mention other expenses. This amount condemns millions of people to live in poverty and, like Dorothy and so many others, to experience eviction and homelessness. 

Our guest Stephen Nuñez, a researcher at the Roosevelt Institute, shows that we can do better. Stephen’s analysis of the SSI Restoration Act, introduced in Congress by Senator Elizabeth Warren and others, would boost the SSI monthly amount and dismantle nonsensical restrictions.

The bottom line: This legislation would do a LOT to help Dorothy and so many others: more deserving people would get SSI, and a lot less people on SSI would be in poverty.   

Here is some of the suggested reading mentioned in the episode:

• Estimating the Cost and Impacts of the SSI Restoration Act, by Stephen Nuñez, Jack Landry, https://rooseveltinstitute.org/publications/estimating-the-cost-and-impacts-of-the-ssi-restoration-act/ 
• SSI Restoration Act of 2026 Overview:, Justice in Aging, https://justiceinaging.org/the-supplemental-security-income-ssi-restoration-act/ 
• This One Neat Trick Can Reduce Homelessness https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/increase-ssi-reduce-homelessness 

Last week, on NBC’s Meet the Press, our new U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche was asked “Can you pledge that the Justice Department will always act independently of the White House?”

His reply? “ No, I’m not going to pledge that.”

Once again, the Trump administration does us a favor. It unmasks the inherent corruption that had been more politely hidden by previous presidents.

As more fully developed in a Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy article I researched and wrote back in 2010, called Torture, Impunity, and the Need for Independent Prosecutorial Oversight of the Executive Branch, our current system de facto grants impunity for the President of the United States. Because the President gets to appoint–and fire at any time– the only person who can initiate federal prosecutions: the Attorney General, the head of the Justice Department.

The fox is guarding the henhouse.

But we can fix that.

Specifically, we can independently elect our Attorney General.

An independently elected prosecutor is already the dominant model in local communities, where 95% of criminal cases are filed and adjudicated. Mayors don’t have control over the person and agency who might file criminal charges against them. State-level attorneys general are also usually elected, so they can similarly hold governors accountable, as can local prosecutors.

At the federal level, it seems very possible that, given our divided electorate, we could be electing a president from one party and an Attorney General from a different party. We have a lot of split ticket voters, and we like putting guardrails around our top leaders.

How do we do this? Likely through a constitutional amendment of Article II, § 3 which states the President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

But that is not fully settled. The framers did not specifically address the question of whether the Attorney General would be appointed by the President. And in fact they were very concerned about putting checks on the power of any one branch of government. And the first Congress did not see presidential control of federal prosecutions as a constitutional mandate.

So there is an argument that we may not need a constitutional amendment. And there are some other anti-impunity options explored in the article, including a strong independent counsel law.

But even if a constitutional amendment proves necessary, it is worth it . We need to root out the inherent corruption in our system, where at the highest level of government the fox pretends to guard the henhouse.

Many of the people we see in eviction court losing their homes are working long hours at difficult jobs. But they work in retail, the home healthcare sector, in food service work, etc.--where their employers do not pay them wages high enough to keep themselves housed. 

So that is why we welcome this week to We Can Do Better David Cooper of the Economic Policy Institute. EPI is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank working for the last 30 years to counter rising inequality, low wages and weak benefits for working people.  

David shares with us how, at a time when the national minimum wage is stagnant at a shameful sub-living wage of $7.25 per hour, dozens of states and localities are raising the wage themselves, including many this year alone. Among the 30 states with higher wages are several “red” states, reflecting the strong bipartisan public support for living wages for all workers. 

David shares with us the reams of evidence countering the false claims that increased wages lead to widespread jobs losses and sharply higher prices. We also discuss the ripple effects of higher minimum wages on public health and safety, including protecting our clients and others from domestic violence. 

David tells us why President Trump’s no taxes on tips/overtime changes are “gimmicks,” filled with false promises that usually do not meaningfully help those workers. What would help those workers is guaranteeing that their hard work meets the needs of their households for rent, utility, food, and other necessities. What is needed is a long-overdue national minimum wage increase. 

Last November, New Mexico became the first state in the country to launch free, universal child care for children from birth through age 13, regardless of household income. The program is exactly what working parents have been hoping for: there are no income limits, no copays, and families can choose the care that works best for them, including centers, home-based providers, language immersion or faith-based programs, and care during evenings or weekends.

Jacob Vigil, legislative director for New Mexico Voices for Children, one of the leading advocates for this remarkable program, joins We Can Do Better this week.

We talk about the broad coalition that fueled the campaign to create and implement universal childcare, and the importance of identifying a funding source. Jacob discusses the rock-solid science behind the value of high-quality early childhood education and care, the self-interest of the business community in having accessible child care, and the importance of ensuring that child care workers are well-trained and well-compensated.

Just as universal national benefits like Social Security and Medicare have proven to be more politically durable than means-tested benefits, it is hoped that universal childcare in New Mexico is creating its own broad constituency–one that can be replicated in states across the country.

Earlier this month, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act became law. It is the first substantial housing bill to pass Congress in decades, and it is . . . OK. 

In this episode, Jack and Fran discuss how the new law, like so many other reforms aimed at our housing crisis, focuses on increasing the supply of housing. Specifically, the Road to Housing Act will make it easier to get financing and construct new housing. 

Which is fine. 

But it won’t do much for the people we see in eviction court, and the millions of others who simply do not make enough money to afford market-rate housing. 

Our nation’s leading housing experts  have been making this point for years.  As the title of a 2019 article by Alan Mallach, senior fellow at the Center for Community Progress, pointed out, “Rents Will Only Go So Low, No Matter How Much We Build.”

Not that building more housing is a bad thing: we have an aging housing stock and more supply will lower the price of housing in many areas for some middle-income people. But, as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities insisted last year, “Our Response to the Housing Crisis Must Include Rental Assistance, Not Just More Supply.”

That is because 7 million households with income below the poverty line are paying more than half their income in rent: their recommended monthly housing cost is just $224 per month. No construction boom will lead to a for-profit landlord agreeing to anything close to that amount. Our clients living with disabilities and thus limited to a Supplemental Security Income check, face market rent that is more than 100% of their income. The same is true for many of our low-wage working clients, especially parents with young children. 

So we need more and better subsidized housing, especially high-quality public housing and a full supply of housing subsidy vouchers for all who qualify, not just the one in four eligible households who receive it now. 

A good detailed guide to the law’s changes is provided by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition here.

So, on behalf of our eviction court clients, a polite golf clap for the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act. But we will save our cheers for when real reform, like the Green New Deal for Public Housing Act, becomes law.