Try free for 30 days
-
Broke in America
- Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty
- Narrated by: Joanne Samuel Goldblum, Colleen Shaddox, JD Jackson
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $33.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Poorly Understood
- What America Gets Wrong About Poverty
- By: Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard, Heather E. Bullock
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few topics have as many myths, stereotypes, and misperceptions surrounding them as that of poverty in America. The poor have been badly misunderstood since the beginnings of the country, with the rhetoric only ratcheting up in recent times. Our current era of fake news, alternative facts, and media partisanship has led to a breeding ground for all types of myths and misinformation to gain traction and legitimacy. Poorly Understood is the first book to systematically address and confront many of the most widespread myths pertaining to poverty.
-
$2.00 a Day
- Living on Almost Nothing in America
- By: Kathryn Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are, in the United States, a significant and growing number of families who live on less than $2.00 per person, per day. That figure, the World Bank measure of poverty, is hard to imagine in this country - most of us spend more than that before we get to work or school in the morning.
-
When We Walk By
- Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America
- By: Kevin F. Adler, Donald W. Burnes, Amanda Banh - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Kevin F. Adler
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When We Walk By takes an urgent look at homelessness in America, showing us what we lose—in ourselves and as a society—when we choose to walk past and ignore our neighbors in shelters, insecure housing, or on the streets. And it brilliantly shows what we stand to gain when we embrace our humanity and move toward evidence-based people-first, community-driven solutions, offering social analysis, economic and political histories, and the real stories of unhoused people.
-
We're Still Here
- Pain and Politics in the Heart of America
- By: Jennifer M. Silva
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In We're Still Here, Jennifer M. Silva tells a deep, multi-generational story of pain, place, and politics that will endure long after the Trump administration. Drawing on over 100 interviews with black, white, and Latino working-class residents of a declining coal town in Pennsylvania, Silva reveals how the decline of the American Dream is lived and felt. The routines and rhythms of traditional working-class life such as manual labor, unions, marriage, church, and social clubs have diminished.
-
The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
-
We the People Are the Problem
- How Americans Betrayed America
- By: Peter Magistrale
- Narrated by: Chuck Galco
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American who shows a distaste for civic responsibility and whose great aim in life is comfort and ease is a greater threat to America than any terrorist. The American who mindlessly chants, “USA! USA! USA!” when a politician wraps themselves in the flag permits the highest of crimes. The American who votes for the politicians who steal, lie, and cheat should share a cell with the criminals they ignorantly empower.
-
Poorly Understood
- What America Gets Wrong About Poverty
- By: Mark Robert Rank, Lawrence M. Eppard, Heather E. Bullock
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few topics have as many myths, stereotypes, and misperceptions surrounding them as that of poverty in America. The poor have been badly misunderstood since the beginnings of the country, with the rhetoric only ratcheting up in recent times. Our current era of fake news, alternative facts, and media partisanship has led to a breeding ground for all types of myths and misinformation to gain traction and legitimacy. Poorly Understood is the first book to systematically address and confront many of the most widespread myths pertaining to poverty.
-
$2.00 a Day
- Living on Almost Nothing in America
- By: Kathryn Edin, H. Luke Shaefer
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are, in the United States, a significant and growing number of families who live on less than $2.00 per person, per day. That figure, the World Bank measure of poverty, is hard to imagine in this country - most of us spend more than that before we get to work or school in the morning.
-
When We Walk By
- Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America
- By: Kevin F. Adler, Donald W. Burnes, Amanda Banh - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Kevin F. Adler
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When We Walk By takes an urgent look at homelessness in America, showing us what we lose—in ourselves and as a society—when we choose to walk past and ignore our neighbors in shelters, insecure housing, or on the streets. And it brilliantly shows what we stand to gain when we embrace our humanity and move toward evidence-based people-first, community-driven solutions, offering social analysis, economic and political histories, and the real stories of unhoused people.
-
We're Still Here
- Pain and Politics in the Heart of America
- By: Jennifer M. Silva
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In We're Still Here, Jennifer M. Silva tells a deep, multi-generational story of pain, place, and politics that will endure long after the Trump administration. Drawing on over 100 interviews with black, white, and Latino working-class residents of a declining coal town in Pennsylvania, Silva reveals how the decline of the American Dream is lived and felt. The routines and rhythms of traditional working-class life such as manual labor, unions, marriage, church, and social clubs have diminished.
-
The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
-
We the People Are the Problem
- How Americans Betrayed America
- By: Peter Magistrale
- Narrated by: Chuck Galco
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American who shows a distaste for civic responsibility and whose great aim in life is comfort and ease is a greater threat to America than any terrorist. The American who mindlessly chants, “USA! USA! USA!” when a politician wraps themselves in the flag permits the highest of crimes. The American who votes for the politicians who steal, lie, and cheat should share a cell with the criminals they ignorantly empower.
Publisher's Summary
Water. Food. Housing. The most basic and crucial needs for survival, yet 40 percent of people in the United States don't have the resources to get them. With key policy changes, we could eradicate poverty in this country within our lifetime - but we need to get started now.
Nearly 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line - about $26,200 for a family of four. Low-income families and individuals are everywhere, from cities to rural communities. While poverty is commonly seen as a personal failure, or a deficiency of character or knowledge, it's actually the result of bad policy.
Public policy has purposefully erected barriers that deny access to basic needs, creating a society where people can easily become trapped - not because we lack the resources to lift them out, but because we are actively choosing not to. Poverty is close to inevitable for low-wage workers and their children, and a large percentage of these people, despite qualifying for it, do not receive government aid.
From Joanne Samuel Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox, Broke in America offers an eye-opening and galvanizing look at life in poverty in this country: how circumstances and public policy conspire to keep people poor, and the concrete steps we can take to end poverty for good.
In clear, accessible prose, Goldblum and Shaddox detail the ways the current system is broken and how it's failing so many of us. They also highlight outdated and ineffective policies that are causing or contributing to this unnecessary problem.
Every chapter features action items listeners can use to combat poverty - both nationwide and in our local communities, including the most effective public policies you can support and how to work hand-in-hand with representatives to affect change.
So far, our attempted solutions have fallen short because they try to "fix" poor people rather than address the underlying problems. Fortunately, it's much easier to fix policy than people. Essential and timely, Broke in America offers a crucial road map for securing a brighter future.
Critic Reviews
“This listen will educate - and infuriate. The authors and JD Jackson describe how poverty could be eradicated and why it hasn't been.... Jackson conveys just the right amount of exasperation, frustration, and understanding to make this a compelling listen. It's never preachy or academic.” (AudioFile Magazine)
“An exploration of why so many Americans are struggling financially.... A down-to-earth overview of the causes and effects of poverty and possible remedies.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“...thoroughly accessible to the non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject of poverty in the United States and what can be done about it.” (Midwest Book Review)