Episode One:
We ask Michael Sherraden, what has changed in how you think about assets and the poor since having written his seminal book in 1991?
1h 15m
In this episode, we talk with Michael Sherraden, George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in Saint Louis, founding Director of the Center for Social Development, and author of Assets and the Poor, the transformational book in which he dared to suggest poverty was more than a lack of income, but also a lack of wealth. We discuss several topics such as what has changed since writing the book, what is the current state of asset building in the US, what are the prospects for major federal policy, and where is asset building research and policy heading in the next decade.
Episode Two:
How is New York City's Kids RISE program empowering communities to help children pay for college?
46m
In this episode we discuss how Kids RISE in New York City is helping families build assets to pay for college through a novel innovation called community scholarships. Community Scholarships provide an innovative mechanism to drive additional capital into children's savings accounts. Functionally, Community Scholarships are contributions to groups of NYC Scholarship Accounts through a donation to NYC Kids RISE. NYC Kids RISE deposits 100% of the donations received for Community Scholarships into the NYC Scholarship Accounts of the designated group of students.
Read more about the results from the NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program pilot phase and hear stories from many partners who helped co-create and build the Program.
The Community Scholarship culminated in a Virtual Celebration in honor of the children of the neighborhood that included a Read-along, College & Career Panel, musical guests, and well wishes from elected, faith, school, and community leaders. Read more in Fast Company and the NYCHA Journal.
Episode 3:
How is Mayor Carter and the city of Saint Paul using their CSA program to fight economic inequality?
45m
On this episode, we have Mayor Melvin Carter, the first African American mayor of the City of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Mayor Carter and the team at the City of Saint Paul have given a great deal of thought about how to solve poverty and wealth inequality in America. We will talk to him about several income and asset innovations they have been able to implement within the City.
Read case study on Saint Paul’s CollegeBound program:
Link to CollegeBound Saint Paul, Saint Paul’s CSA program:
Information on Saint Paul’s medical debt forgiveness program:
Episode 4:
Why unconditional cash transfer and asset policies may be the key to finally solving poverty?
1h 3m
Today we have Amy Castro, an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the School of Social Policy & Practice and is the Co-Founder and faculty director of the Center for Guaranteed Income Research. She served as the Co-PI of the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration under former Mayor Michael Tubbs, which lead to a proliferation of experimentation with unconditional cash across the U.S. She is the Co-PI of 30 applied cash-transfer studies; further, she currently advises more than 20 Mayoral teams, state, and county legislators on unconditional cash research. In today’s episode, we discuss with Amy what unconditional cash transfers are, why they are important, and why combining these income policies with asset policies might give us the best opportunity to actually solve poverty.
Episode 5:
What are the consequences of the racial wealth gap?
54m
In this episode of the Tangible Hope Podcast, we have Dr. Tom Shapiro. He is a professor at Brandeis University and one of the leading scholars on issues related to closing the racial wealth gap. We discuss his new report Tending Repair: Pigford Famers, Justice, and the Future of Farming and what are some of the consequences that can be drawn from it about the racial wealth gap.