PODCAST
We The Podcast
by Rep. Keith Ellison
When talking about our economy, nightly newscasts only seem to report on the stock market and the unemployment rate. But that doesn’t tell us much about how millions of Americans are getting by. From prison phone rates to the high cost of diapers, Congressman Keith Ellison looks at how the people outside of the billionaire and millionaire class (you know, most of us) engage the economy.
Episodes
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Social Wealth Funds with Matt Bruenig
Matt Bruenig, founder of the People's Policy Project, joins We The Podcast to discuss wealth inequality and a potential solution: a social wealth fund. With similar concepts already implemented in Alaska and Norway, is a social wealth fund the answer to our inequality crisis?
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Nancy Altman - Medicare For All
Social Security Works' Nancy Altman joins Rep. Keith Ellison remotely to discuss why Medicare for All is more efficient than the privatized health insurance status quo, and the idea's deep roots in America's own history.
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We The Podcast - Dream Act Now with Erika Andiola
We need a DREAM Act to protect 800,000 Dreamers whose lives were thrown into turmoil by Donald Trump. Dreamer activist Erika Andiola put her body on the line for this movement and joins us to discuss next steps.
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Taking on Amazon with Lina Khan and Stacy Mitchell
On this We The Podcast, we sit down with Lina Khan (Open Markets Institute) and Stacy Mitchell (Institute for Local Self-Reliance) on the monopolistic rise of the Amazon corporation and what it means for workers, small business and local power.
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Franchising: Part II
This week, Keith revisits the topic of franchising, with former guest Megan Edwards, who joined with other franchisees to successfully sue Curves Gym for unfair treatment of franchisees.
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Racism and Economic Hardship with Keri Leigh Merritt
Keri Leigh Merritt is the author of Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South. Keith and Keri Leigh Merritt discuss the link between economic hardship and the spread of racism throughout American history.
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Market Concentration with Barry Lynn from Open Markets Institute
Barry Lynn is the head of the Open Markets Institute, a think tank that examines the problem of corporate consolidation, market concentration, and monopoly power. These issues make it hard for workers to find jobs, take power away from working people, and make it hard for small businesses to…
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Labor Day with Lee Saunders
On this special Labor Day episode of We The Podcast, Keith interviews Lee Saunders, President of AFSCME, about the history and future of labor rights in America.
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Framing the Message with Professor George Lakoff
George Lakoff is a professor of cognitive linguistics and philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. Now, you might be asking yourself, “what does cognitive science, linguistic science, and phenomenology have to do with working families and the economy?” Well, as it turns out, quite…
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Voting Rights/Ari Berman
The Republican Party talks about "voter fraud" all the time. President Trump even claims he lost the popular vote because more than 3 million people voted illegally. Sounds like a big deal. But how common is voter fraud? And what might Republicans be aiming for if not a genuine interest in...
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Pre-Existing Conditions
For years, millions of Americans were frightened of two words: pre-existing conditions. Before the Affordable Care Act, private insurance could deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. That's what Republicans want to return to. To learn more about about pre-existing conditions and…
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Market Concentration
A few weeks ago, we learned that Amazon is buying Whole Foods for $13 billion. When big firms merge, it drives up market concentration. But how does that affect working people or local businesses? I talked with my friend Rep. Ro Khanna about market concentration and how it hurts working families....
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The Fight for $15 and a Union
Six bucks. That’s all someone working full-time at the federal minimum wage would have left over after paying the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the United States of America. It’s time to give America a raise. It’s time to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. And how about a union?...
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The Gender Lens
Women experience the economy different than men. They pay more for everything from clothes and hygiene products, to dry cleaning and vehicle repairs. This is called "the pink tax". Terry O'Neill is the President of the National Organization for Women, one of our oldest and best feminist...
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The Transgender Community and The Economy
The transgender community is more visible than ever. But this increased visibility hasn’t improved the lives of all transgender people. Nationwide, violence against trans people – and trans women in particular – is at an all-time high. This sort of violence has far-reaching repercussions – high...
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Unions Leading in Education
Unions raise wages and worker protections for everybody – even if you’re not in a union! These jobs aren’t so simple either. It takes a lot of training to do what these men and women do every day. But as our education system becomes more and more out of reach, it’s getting harder and harder for…
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Women In the Age of Trump
There are millions of women around the country fighting for equal pay, for better working conditions, for an end to sexual harassment. But in an age of extreme right wing politics – the age of President Trump – what can we do to make our society better? I talked to some of the women who are…
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Credit Access
Millions of Americans lack credit scores or have scores that are too low to gain access to affordable credit. The problem affects young people, African-Americans, Latinos and immigrants, many of whom can't establish a credit score without taking on debt. We can solve that problem by expanding…
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Best of We the Podcast (Special Election Day Episode)
Two years ago, we started We the Podcast so we could tell stories about how people engage with the economy. Twenty-three episodes and 75,000 downloads later, we’ve covered everything from union organizing to payday loans to tax havens. With Election Day right around the corner, I decided to take…
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Bank Workers
Just last month, we found out that Wells Fargo Bank committed a years-long scam that stole from their customers, inflated their stock price, and lined the pockets of their top level executives. Then, those same executives pinned the whole thing on their low-level employees, thousands of whom were...
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Minnesota Nurses Strike
We spend a lot of time talking about how important unions are. On this episode, we’re going to see organized labor in action on the streets of my home city, Minneapolis. Right now, almost 5,000 Minnesotan nurses are on strike. I went down to the picket line, and talked with a few of the striking...
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Overtime Pay
How many of you work 40 hours a week? If you’re a salaried worker, guess what: your employer is pretty happy. After all, they’re getting free work. That’s right. Millions of salaried workers are essentially working for free once they pass 40 hours during their work week. That’s because over the...
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Tax Havens with Frank Clemente
Let’s be honest, few people enjoy paying their taxes. But most of us understand that taxes serve a critical purpose—the public good. And since we all benefit from these things, you’d figure that we would all contribute. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. According to a recent report by Oxfam...
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The Housing Crisis with Matthew Desmond
What does "home" mean to you? For millions of people in America, a safe and stable home is something they dream about but is out of reach. There is a housing crisis in this country. To get a better understanding of this problem, I talked with Matthew Desmond, author of the book Evicted: Poverty…
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The Woman Behind the New Deal
Every single American has felt the benefits of the New Deal – and for low-income folks, working families, and seniors, the New Deal has been the difference between security and poverty. A lot of the credit for the New Deal goes to President Franklin Roosevelt, and rightly so. But it’s a...
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Diaper Need Update (From the White House)
This week, We The Podcast took a field trip to the West Wing of the White House to talk with Cecilia Munoz, the Director of the President’s Domestic Policy Council about something We The Podcast has covered before: diaper need. The President recently announced a White House initiative to address...
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Payday Loans
Payday loans aren’t like the kinds of loans you usually see, like car loans or student loans. They’re small dollar amounts, often as small as a few hundred bucks. But they have interest rates as high as 600%. I look into how payday loans got started, how they hurt people, and what we can do about...
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#SayHerName with Dr. Kimberle Crenshaw
When we talk about race, decision makers rarely talk about women. And when we talk about women’s issues, we rarely talk about black girls and women. This is a concept known as intersectionality, and it has been popularized by UCLA Professor Kimberle Crenshaw. I sat down with Professor Crenshaw to...
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Voter Turnout with Dr. Theda Skocpol
In 2014, voter participation was at its lowest since World War II. Why is that? Keith talks with Dr. Theda Skocpol about voter ID laws and how we can reverse declining civic participation.
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Special Episode: The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is supposed to have 9 justices. Today, we've got 8. On this week's We The Podcast, we talk about what this means for reproductive rights, voting rights, and the environment.
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Episode XII: Diaper Need
On this week's We The Podcast, we talk about "diaper need." That's the urgent need that many American parents have for affordable diapers. With one third of all parents struggling to pay for diapers, it's a big need.
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Episode XI: Prison Phone Rates
How much do you pay for your monthly phone plan? How much would you pay? Would you pay $14 a minute? On this episode of We The Podcast, we talk about prison phone rates - the charges that incarcerated Americans incur when they talk on the phone to their loved ones.
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Episode X: Criminal Justice Reform
More than 2.4 million people are locked up in the United States today. Our country has 5% of the world's population and more than 25% of the world's prison population. This week on We The Podcast, we talk about criminal justice reform.
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Episode IX: E-Waste and the Hard to Place
This week on We The Podcast: what happens to our gadgets when we're done with them? How many cell phones and computers have you gone through? What are you going to do with the device you're reading this on? Think about it.
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Episode VIII: Poverty and Shame
This week on We The Podcast, we talk about how our society treats the poor. In what ways is poverty stigmatized and shamed in the world we live in, and what does this mean for low-income folks?
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Special Investigation: Franchising
A special We The Podcast investigation into the way franchisees, the people who own corporate restaurant franchises, are treated by their parent companies.
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Episode VII: Zero Waste
If you threw away a piece of trash today, where would it go? How does this affect us? How will it affect our children? Is a world without waste possible? In this week's We The Podcast, we find out. Music: Redemption Song, by Bob Marley
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Episode VI: Money in Politics
How do the people outside of the millionaire and billionaire class (you know, most of us), engage with our economy and influence politics? Music: Viva La Vida by Coldplay
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Episode V: The Voting Gap
What is driving the disconnect between our legislators and working Americans? Music: "Future People" & "Don't Wanna Fight" by Alabama Shakes from the album Sound and Color
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Episode IV: Faith and the Economy
Faith is critical to the lives of so many working Americans, so I talked to Sister Simone Campbell, Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman and Imam Makram El-Amin about what faiths in the United States tell us about the economy. MUSIC: "Let It Carry You" and "With the Ink of a Ghost" by…
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Episode III: Right to Work
When people can come together and ask for better wages and working conditions on the job, we all do better. Unfortunately, some politicians and corporations don’t see it that way.
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Episode II: Home Healthcare Workers
Home healthcare workers take care of our loved ones. So why aren't they paid well? And what can we do to help them?
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Episode I: Employee Unions
When employers threaten workers, it often chills union activity. But retaliation doesn't intimidate everyone.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
When talking about our economy, nightly newscasts only seem to report on the stock market and the unemployment rate. But that doesn’t tell us much about how millions of Americans are getting by. From prison phone rates to the high cost of diapers, Congressman Keith Ellison looks at how the people outside of the billionaire and millionaire class (you know, most of us) engage the economy.
HOSTED BY
Rep. Keith Ellison
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does We The Podcast have?
We The Podcast currently has 43 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is We The Podcast about?
When talking about our economy, nightly newscasts only seem to report on the stock market and the unemployment rate. But that doesn’t tell us much about how millions of Americans are getting by. From prison phone rates to the high cost of diapers, Congressman Keith Ellison looks at how the people...
How often does We The Podcast release new episodes?
We The Podcast has 43 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to We The Podcast?
You can listen to We The Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts We The Podcast?
We The Podcast is created and hosted by Rep. Keith Ellison.
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