Talk Policy To Me

A new season of Talk Policy to Me is launching soon.

Professor Robert B. Reich was voted by the graduating students of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy to be their faculty speaker. Always a beloved teacher, this occasion was especially meaningful because it marked Professor Reich's retirement from teaching.  Robert Reich was introduced by Master of Public Policy student speaker Abraham Eli Bedoy. 

Tennessee Representative Justin Jones addressed the graduates at the Goldman School of Public Policy's commencement on May 14, 2023. Representative Jones came into the national spotlight when he was expelled from the Tennessee legislature for taking to the assembly floor to protest gun violence and the refusal of the legislature to take up this issue.    

This year, researchers found that the last 22 years were the driest consecutive years in the North American southwest in over a millennium. The pace and scale of climate change is forcing states and counties to adapt rapidly. In California, one of the industries at the forefront of the adaptation predicament is agriculture. In today's episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks speaks with resilience researcher Amélie Gaudin, Sacramento Valley farmer Scott Park, and water policy research fellow Caity Peterson to understand how farmers and growers are, and aren't, building resilience to drought.

The annual number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed has skyrocketed over the past several years, from 41 in 2018 to 240 and counting in the first three months of this year. Half of these bills are targeting transgender people specifically. At the same time, surveys of the general public show over 70% say they support same-sex marriage and laws preventing discrimination across the LGBTQ community. And Gen Z are proudly and loudly identifying with both gender and sexual fluidity. How do we square these two realities? In this episode, Talk Policy to Me reporter Amy Benziger dives into how the rise in representation of people from across the gender and sexual spectrum in media, business, and government has caused a policy backlash by the old guard to solidify their conservative base.  Our guests include Fran Dunway, Founder of TomboyX; Corey Rose, a student at UC Berkeley Journalism School and former reporter for South Florida Gay News; and Pau Crego, Executive Director of the SF Office of Transgender Initiatives.

Show Notes In 2016, California voters legalized recreational cannabis through Prop 64. Now, five years after legalization, city's are grappling with the difficulty of prioritizing social equity in the cannabis licensing process for Black, brown, and formerly incarcerated small business owners who were negatively impacted by the war on drugs. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole talks with Amber Senter, a cannabis advocate and Executive Director of Supernova Women and Chaney Turner, Chair of the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission. This episode was supported by research from Nabil Aziz and Victor Vasquez of the Cal in Sac Diversity and Entrepreneurship Summer 2021 fellowship program. References https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/business/cannabis-dispensaries-oakland.html?smid=url-share https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-27/california-pot-industry-social-equity-broken-promises https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/01/in-billion-dollar-cannabis-market-racial-inequity-persists-despite-legalization.html https://escholarship.org/content/qt7pb360bg/qt7pb360bg.pdf https://escholarship.org/content/qt1wx6w6w2/qt1wx6w6w2.pdf?t=qzvyay https://amberesenter.com/ https://www.beyondequity.online/

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party take different approaches to talking about race and racism. While politicians in the Republican Party have used coded language or “dog whistles” to stoke racial division, politicians in the Democratic Party either avoid talking about race in favor of talking about class issues or talk about race as a matter of white over nonwhite conflict. Each of these approaches have had difficulty resonating with a broad multiracial coalition of voters needed for electoral success. Berkeley Law Professor Ian Haney López has an alternative approach to messaging around race that could resonate with most Americans: Race-class fusion politics. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole speaks with Ian Haney López (Author of 2019's  “Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America”) about the race-class fusion approach to building a multiracial coalition for elections. Noah and Professor Lopez discuss the historical precedent for the approach, the focus groups that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, and criticisms of the approach. References Can Democracy (and the Democratic Party) Survive Racism as a Strategy?- - Ian Haney Lopez Medium Article Merge Left- Ian Haney López Dog Whistle Politics - Ian Haney López https://projectjuntos.us/ - Fusion politics messaging focus group findings https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ - Poor people's campaign https://peoplesaction.org/ People's action https://race-class-academy.com/  Race-Class Academy resources for learning about race-class fusion politics Audio credits AOC Demolishes Lauren Boebert's Welfare Hypocrisy- The Young Turks (Youtube) Ron DeSantis slams critical race theory as 'poison'- Fox News (YouTube) The First Presidential Debate: Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump (Full Debate) | NBC News NBC News (Youtube) Poor People's Campaign asks America to face the injustices keeping millions in poverty PBS Newshour (Youtube) George Goehl: If Dems Don't Embrace Populism They Will Be Destroyed People's Action (Youtube)

This is the second episode in a two-part series about changing how we vote in the United States. In today's episode, Talk Policy To Me reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks with voting systems researchers Sara Wolk and Clay Shentrup about what they think the order of operations should be to get to a place where everyone can vote their conscience and votes accurately translate into who ends up in power. GSPP researcher and policy analyst Charlotte Hill will be back with her thoughts too. To learn more about STAR voting, which Sara discusses in the episode, go to starvoting.us. For more information on ranked-choice voting, go to fairvote.org/prcv. And check out a brand-new initiative to bring proportional representation to the House of Representatives at fixourhouse.org.

In recent months and years, legislation meant to make it more difficult to vote, especially for Black and brown people, has proliferated in some state legislatures. But problems with the way we vote in the United States go deeper than these laws. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Talk Policy To Me reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to GSPP researcher Charlotte Hill about what it would look like to fundamentally change how we vote in this country. Look out for Part 2 next week. To learn more about proportional representation and what it could look like in the U.S., go to fixourhouse.org.

As of 2021, there were 30 million online dating users in the US and 321 million users worldwide. Despite this massive number of users, there's very little policy that regulates how users behave on these platforms. Studies show that a majority of women have experienced sexual harassment online and that rarely is any action taken by law enforcement in situations where technology is being used to commit acts of gender-based violence. Talk Policy to Me host Amy Benziger joins Ziyang Fan, the head of digital trade at the World Economic Forum, to interview Nima Elmi, head of public policy at Bumble. Most people know Bumble as the dating app that challenges outdated gender norms by only giving women the ability to send the first message when they connect with a match on the app. What you might not know is that Bumble has a female-led policy team doing amazing work to keep women safe, both online and offline. We'll explore how their team is challenging legislators in both the U.S. and the U.K. to protect women and how she views the future of dating in today's current digital landscape, the metaverse, and beyond.

In February 2020, the Oakland City Council passed Oakland's Fair Chance Housing ordinance. The legislation was the first in California — joining cities nationwide like Seattle and Portland — to ensure that people returning home from the criminal justice system can legally live with family members and access, on their own, nearly all other forms of previously off-limits rental housing. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me host Amy Benziger talks to housing activists Margaretta Lin and Lee “Taqwaa” Bonner about the fight to bring this legislation nationwide. To support fair chance housing, visit fairchance4all.org.

With 59% of the US population fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the increased availability of booster shots, and the rise of a new variant, having a highly vaccinated public is incredibly important to the fight against COVID in the months ahead. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me reporter Noah Cole talks to psychologist and behavioral scientist Philipp Schmid and public health expert and data scientist Crystal Son about the do's and don'ts of effective vaccine communication. Referenced in the Podcast The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook- A practical guide for improving vaccine communication and fighting misinformation World Health Organization Best Practices- How to Respond to Vocal Vaccine Deniers in Public The remaining mile: How do you persuade uncertain Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19? (Civis Analytics Report)

The A's proposal for a new waterfront baseball stadium at Oakland's Howard Terminal is a multi-use development site that would include shops, parks, and housing. As the City of Oakland and Alameda County negotiate with the A's over how these benefits are paid for, much has been made about the impact that sports stadiums have on communities. In this episode, reporter Noah Cole speaks with Dr. Richard Noll of the Stanford Economics Department and Veronica Cummings of the Oakland's City Administrator's Office about the economic impact of sports stadiums on cities and the equity-focused community benefits process for engaging the community in the proposal. Additional Reading Oakland City Council approved a Howard Terminal ballpark roadmap, but not on the terms the A's want- https://oaklandside.org/2021/07/21/oakland-city-council-vote-athletics-howard-terminal-ballpark-term-sheet/  Sports stadiums do not generate significant local economic growth, Stanford expert says-https://news.stanford.edu/2015/07/30/stadium-economics-noll-073015/  Oakland Waterfront Ballpark District at Howard Terminal Community Benefits- https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/community-benefits-agreement-cba-for-the-oakland-as-waterfront-ballpark-district-at-howard-terminal  Community Benefits Agreements -​​ https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/cblc/cba  Alameda County votes Yes to help fund Oakland A's Howard terminal ballpark project- https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/10/27/22748993/oakland-as-howard-terminal-ballpark-alameda-county-vote-tax   

As Congress struggles to pass a spending bill that includes some of the biggest climate legislation the U.S. has seen, there's another big hurdle the country needs to clear to make big moves on climate change —the electric grid. In this episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to energy policy expert Steve Weissman, environmental scientist Grace Wu, and energy equity researcher Daniel Raimi, to better understand how the grid needs to change to better adapt to the effects of climate change and mitigate future effects.

Today's episode explores the new wave of "rights suppressing laws" with New York Times Op-Ed writers and legal scholars Jon Michaels and David Noll.   Credits Jon Michaels, Professor of Law, UCLA Law School David Noll, Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School Links to news articles https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/04/opinion/texas-abortion-law.html Episode Description for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook "Join Talk Policy to Me hosts Amy Benziger and Noah Cole talk with legal scholars and New York Times Op-Ed Writers Jon Michaels and David Noll about private enforcement laws like SB 8 — and their impact on equality and democracy in America.

Season 5 of Talk Policy To Me is dropping soon, with new hosts Noah Cole and Amy Benziger. Listen and subscribe!

In this final episode of TPTM Season 4, we say goodbye to hosts Reem and Colleen and hello to the incoming Dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy, Dr. David C. Wilson.

Cash transfers discourage work, price ceilings and floors (like the minimum wage) are economically inefficient, and trade makes everyone better off. If you’ve ever taken a basic economics course in high school or even in college, these were probably the major takeaways. But these are myths --dire oversimplifications at best, and outright inaccuracies at worst --that often represent the most basic building blocks of conservative arguments against critical safety net policies. In this episode of Talk Policy To Me, GSPP economist Hilary Hoynes and TPTM reporter Reem Rayef unpacked the most nefarious myths to surface the truth about the impacts of economic policies, and imagine a better way to teach and learn economics.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode involves mention of police violence against people of color.  Since the 1970s, Black police officers have formed informal unions in response to racism within their departments and in the greater community. In this episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to an economist, a law professor, and a former president of a Black police union to better understand the purpose these organizations serve, their limits, and the ways in which they differ from police unions with bargaining power, like the Police Benevolent Association and Fraternal Order of Police.

As vaccine rates rise and health experts give more public activities the stamp of approval, people have begun shifting from private spaces to public ones. Today, we’re talking about what public spaces are and the policies that govern them. We’ll also talk about the unhoused folks for whom the distinction between public and private space is less clear.  Archival audio from YouTube user Saul Rouda.

On this episode of TPTM, we’re talking philanthropy yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  Since the Gilded Age, philanthropists have positioned themselves as gracious, charitable forces in society who are experts in identifying and solving our social ails. But the institution of philanthropy has had its critics from day one. What are the origins of modern philanthropy in the US, and how did they lead us to where we are today? What role (if any) does philanthropy have in a democratic society? And if there are real problems with philanthropy, how should we address them? Should we focus our efforts on implementing regulations and reforms of modern philanthropic institutions? Is our goal to tear down the institution of philanthropy writ large, and put in place a (potentially erosive) wealth tax? Or should we rely on rich people to voluntarily spend down their wealth? Colleen and Reem will dig in to explore the past, present, and possible futures of modern philanthropy in the US.  Want to learn more? Check out these follow-up resources: Resource Generation’s Class Privilege Quiz, Giving Pledge, and Class Definitions and Income Brackets Resource Generation’s National Partners, Movement for Black Lives and Center for Popular Democracy The Revolution Will Not Be Funded by INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence Decolonizing Wealth by Edgar Villanueva Read Laila’s op-ed on the Goldman website Find Sophie Dover on Twitter Philanthropy and Social Movements podcast series by Harvard Kennedy School students

With over 100 million users and counting in the US, TikTok is beginning to play a major role in the political education and mobilization of its young user base.   In this episode, which was written and recorded in the aftermath of the November 2020 election, Talk Policy to Me reporter Noah Cole spoke with Aidan Kohn-Murphy and Toni Akande, two of the teens who run the “Gen Z for Change” TikTok page. Aidan and Toni touched on how they used traditional organizing practices to get out the vote through TikTok in the last election cycle, the tradeoffs between producing popular and substantive political content, and where they think the future of online political mobilization is headed. Noah also heard from four additional political TikTok creators during a speed round of questions on politics, policy, and online civic engagement.  More info on: -Gen Z for Change https://genzforchange.us/ https://www.tiktok.com/@genzforchange -Quentin Jiles https://linktr.ee/Qrjiles  https://www.tiktok.com/@quentinjiles -Elise Joshi https://www.tiktok.com/@elisejoshi - Matthew Rein “The Dem Hype House” https://www.tiktok.com/@thedemhypehouse -Colton Hess “Tok the Vote” https://www.tokthevote.com/ https://www.tiktok.com/@tok.the.vote

Last summer, as a part of the public reckoning with racialized police violence, chants and mantras like “Whose Streets? Our Streets” and “We Keep Us Safe” and “We Are The Change We’ve Been Waiting For” resounded in the streets and all over social media. What would it mean to take these slogans seriously? To actually imbue people and communities -- rather than political representatives and corporations --  with the power to create and change the world around them? Talk Policy To Me reporter Reem Rayef delved into the practice and philosophy of anarchism, in search of an answer. In this episode, Reem speaks with Bryce Liedtke (friend, anarchist, GSPP alum, and Policy Director of the Scout Institute) about how he reconciles the principles of anarchism with his work in the policy space. Then, we hear from Dana Ward (anarchist, professor emeritus at Pitzer College) about the historical and philosophical origins and transformations of anarchism, in the United States and around the world. Additional Reading The basics of anarchism as defined by Kim Kelly in Teen Vogue Dana Ward’s Anarchy Archives Are You An Anarchist? by David Graeber

Black History Month 2021 has been an eventful occasion at the Goldman School of Public Policy. One student organization, Black Students in Public Policy (BiPP) has been responsible for putting together a weekly speaker series on health and wellness, economic policy, politics, and social impact in the Black community.  In this episode of Talk Policy To Me, we hear from 7 students in BiPP who share their path to public policy and the ways that they are celebrating Black History Month. For more information on the Black History Month Speaker Series, visit goldman.school/blackhistorymonth

The highly contentious Georgia Senate elections are right around the corner. The results will determine which party holds a Senate majority for the next two years. In this episode, we take a step back and examine the Senate as an institution in the current political context of hyperpolarization. Is it still functional as a mechanism of effective government? Maybe. Or, maybe not. To help make sense of it all, we spoke with UC Santa Cruz politics professor and co-author of The Invention of the United States Senate, Dan Wirls, and senior contributor at The Appeal, Jay Willis, who has written extensively on the Senate filibuster. Both Dan and Jay discuss the most worrisome aspects of the Senate—equal representation of states and the filibuster as a mechanism for gridlock—as well as potential paths forward.

During the holiday season, food is often central to the celebration. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are experiencing hunger for the first time, and food insecurity has become a daily reality for many. Today, we’re talking about what some say is a practical solution to rising hunger—urban agriculture and the policies that shape and support it. If you live in the Bay Area and are experiencing hunger this holiday season, check out these resources that may be able to offer help: (San Jose) West Valley Community Services (https://www.wvcommunityservices.org/) (Berkeley) Berkeley Food Pantry (https://www.berkeleyfoodpantry.org/) (Peninsula) San Francisco-Marin Food Bank (https://www.sfmfoodbank.org/) (Oakland/Alameda) Alameda County Food Bank (https://www.accfb.org/) (Richmond) Richmond Emergency Food Pantry (http://www.refp.org/) If you live outside the Bay, you can visit https://www.feedingamerica.org to find your nearest food bank.

When shelter-in-place orders were mandated in cities across the US, city employees sprang into action to facilitate the transition. Day-to-day government happenings were instantly and radically transformed, but one thing that cities still needed to do? Community engagement. In the face of orders for folks to stay home and social distance, cities faced a reality where they needed to quickly and efficiently transition to new or unfamiliar modes of digital engagement. So… how’d they do it? In this episode, we hear from Meghann Lucy, a sociology PhD student who studied the transition to digital engagement in Boston this past summer, and Heather Imboden, an engagement practitioner and the founding principal of Communities in Collaboration in Oakland. Both Meghann and Heather discuss what cities are learning about how to meaningfully engage residents virtually, and how this moment is shaping the future of city-led engagement processes more broadly.

Nothing in the US Constitution mandates or guarantees a two-party political system. Yet Americans are accustomed to understanding the political landscape as a binary of Democrats and Republicans; third parties are rarely taken seriously, particularly on the national scale. Members and candidates of political third parties, like the Green Party, argue that this is bad for democracy. With an increasing share of the electorate -- particularly young people -- growing disenchanted with the existing parties, third parties represent an opportunity to re-engage independent voters in civic life by better representing their worldviews and preferences. That’s why the typical Green Party platform reads like that of a very progressive Democrat, calling for deep investment in transformative climate policy, an end to all wars, and major social safety net expansion, plus electrical reforms that make third party candidates more visible and viable choices in the voting booth.    In this episode, which was written and recorded before the November 3 election, Talk Policy To Me reporter Reem Rayef spoke with Jake Tonkel, a biomedical engineer who ran for San Jose City Council as a member of the Green Party. Jake shared his perspective on the positionality of local and national Green Party candidates in the political sphere, the damaging narrative around spoiler candidates, and the Green Party’s theory of change. Jake also charted a course for elevating the profile of the Green Party, and other non-major parties, through targeted electoral and ballot access reforms.  Related Resources  Video from Vox on the benefits of multi-party systems Article by Briahna Joy Gray on “Vote Blue No Matter Who” politics, and their costs to democracy  Document from the National Association of Secretaries of State detailing ballot access rules for every state CSPAN interview with Green Party Presidential Candidate Howie Hawkins Jake Tonkel’s campaign site 

On November 3rd, California voters will decide on Proposition 22. The Proposition aims to allow app-based drivers to maintain their status as Independent Contractors by carving out a special exception to Assembly Bill 5. We talk to Goldman Alumna Rebecca Stack-Martinez and the Chair of the UC Berkeley Labor Center Ken Jacobs about the implications of Prop 22 on labor and the influence of money on the most expensive ballot initiative in California’s History. Gig Workers Rising Report- “The Uber/Lyft Ballot Initiative Guarantees only $5.64 an Hour,” Ken Jacobs and Michael Reich, UC Berkeley Labor Center

Talking: Election coverage—where’s the policy? Hourly breaking news. An endless stream of push notifications. A backlog of political podcasts (but not this one, right?). Today we’re talking about how the news media covers elections, and how voters can find real information within the sea of coverage in the final weeks before the election.

Welcome to Season 4 of Talk Policy to Me! It’s been a whirlwind of policy news and happenings since you last heard from us (to say the least) and there’s a lot to catch up on. While we work hard on new episodes, we thought we’d pop into your feeds for a brief moment to introduce a few new members of the TPTM team and take a moment to ask one another: What media resources are you looking toward for grounding and clarity in the lead up to the November election?  Feel free to share with us what you’re reading or listening to @goldmanschool and @BIFYA_Berkeley on Twitter and @GoldmanSchool on Instagram and stay tuned for forthcoming Season 4 episodes!

The brutal murder of George Floyd by four Minneapolis Police Department officers, and the failure of the justice system to quickly prosecute the police officers involved, has triggered an explosion of activism across the country, and the world, in loud protest of police brutality against Black people. These actions vary dramatically along spectrums of intended impact and severity. And the response from media, police, and the public have exhibited the same variation. Overwhelmingly, we’ve seen peaceful demonstrations and efforts to funnel money to bail funds, Black-led organizations, and Black-owned businesses -- both powered strongly by the social media organizing of young people. We’ve also seen the amplification of looting and wealth redistribution actions, used as justification for violent police and military response which have been stoked and authorized by the president. Finally, we’ve seen the chaos and anguish of the moment used to leverage the importance of voting in the coming Presidential election and unseating Donald Trump. These renewed calls to vote coincide with two clear barriers to democratic in-person elections: shelter-in-place orders in response to the ongoing spread of Coronavirus, and local curfew orders beginning as early as 1PM in some cities, aimed at reducing protest activity. In mid-April, Talk Policy To Me reporter Reem Rayef spoke with Dr. Sunshine Hillygus, Professor of Political Science at Duke University and co-author of the newly published Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes Into Civic Action, about the behavior of young people when it comes to voting and elections. At the time of the conversation, the Democratic primary had swung definitively in favor of Joe Biden, California had been under stay-at-home orders for over a month, and George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade were still alive. Dr. Hillygus and her co-author Dr. John Holbein examine the personal and systematic barriers that stand between young people and the voting booth -- and the consequences of the vast disparities in voting rates between generations. In this episode, which is the last in Talk Policy To Me’s series on democracy, Reem and Dr. Hillygus discuss the damaging misconceptions about young people’s civic attitudes, and how these misconceptions are weaponized by conservatives in the service of voter suppression. Why is it so hard to get young people out to the voting booth? Who benefits when young people stay in on election day, and who pays the price? What is the role of the public school system in preparing young people to be engaged citizens? And how can state electoral policies support civic attitudes? Dr. Hillygus asserts the importance of voting, particularly for those who want to see radical change in entrenched systems which seem broken beyond repair -- most notably, the healthcare and police systems. In the current moment, voting can seem like too small and too remote an action in response to the atrocities that have come to the fore in recent months, but which have been plaguing the Black community for much, much longer. And on its own, voting in November is too small an action. The urgent challenges faced by the United States require direct action and local community, in addition to the long-term changes that could become reality if young people were proportionally represented in the voting booth. Writing referenced in this episode is linked here: Stop Blaming Young People For Not Turning Out for Sanders by Ibram X Kendi An Excitingly Simple Solution to Youth Turnout For the Primaries and Beyond by Charlotte Hill and Jacob Grumbach For more on the importance of voting for systemic change, check out the rest of Talk Policy To Me’s series on democracy: Talking Democracy in the Era of COVID-19 Talking 16 Year Olds and Voting Talking Voting and Elections For ways to support Black communities and frontline protestors in the Bay Area, please consider supporting the following organizations with your voice and/or money: The East Oakland Collective Anti Police-Terror Project People’s Breakfast Oakland National Lawyers Guild - SF Bay Area Chapter

The 2020 Census launched April 1st, 2020. With it comes yet another time where individuals have to distill their identities into check boxes with limited options. In this episode, we’re exploring how the race/ethnicity category options were created and how those available choices impact policy. Host Sarah Edwards talks with Cristina Mora, Associate Director of Sociology and Co-Director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. Cristina wrote the book “Making Hispanics”, which explores the creation of the Hispanic ethnicity census category. Cristina shares the challenges in race/ethnicity category creation, policy and personal implications, and why the census is so important. To fill out the 2020 Census for your household, visit 2020census.gov.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought America to a screeching standstill, with most non-essential businesses shutting down, events being cancelled and postponed, school systems going virtual, and skyrocketing unemployment. And on top of it all, we’re technically in the midst of an election season, which has also been severely disrupted by the shelter-in-place measures implemented across the country.  In this Q&A-style episode of Talk Policy To Me reporter Reem Rayef interviews former Labor Secretary and economic inequality scholar Robert B Reich on the subject of democracy in the era of COVID-19.  In other episodes for this series on democracy, we discuss barriers to the voting booth and distortions in our electoral system that suppress the will of the people -- particularly black and brown people, and young people. In this episode, we dive deep into what happens when a pandemic is layered over these persistent issues. What happens when candidates can’t campaign? When polling places are shut down due to a lack of volunteers willing to risk their health on election day? When governors cancel primaries in the interest of discouraging big gatherings? When the sitting president demonstrates flagrant disregard for public health, and a single-minded goal of securing a second term? What happens if a candidate dies of COVID-19?  Can we even call what remains a democratic election?  This episode was made possible by the curiosity and generosity of members of the GSPP community, who contributed their questions and/or voices to this project. A heartfelt thanks to you all! Voices heard on this episode are: Larry Rosenthal, Molly McGregor, Lily Nienstedt, Mai Sistla, Justin Lam, and Maiya Zwerling. For more on inequality, democracy, and Twitter beef with Elon Musk, tune into Professor Reich’s Youtube series, The Common Good.

Continuing with our effort to cover the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy issues, Sarah Edwards (MPP ’20) speaks with Ellora Derenoncourt, who will join the Goldman Faculty in the fall. Tune in to the conversation unpacking the issues of racial inequality in health and economics and learn from Ellora’s historic economics perspective. For more on Ellora’s work, visit her website. Check out the “Campus Conversations” that was mentioned in the episode  For more in this series, check out Sarah’s conversation with Rashawn Ray. 

In discussions around expanding voter turnout, many different policy interventions come up—same day voter registration, automatic voter registration, making Election day a holiday. But what if the best way to change the likelihood of people voting actually came in changing their first voting experience? There’s a body of evidence that shows that voting for the first time at 16, rather than 18, increases the chances of people becoming life-long voters. In this second episode in our series on strengthening our democracy, we look at how this change can play a role to improve outcomes for all. In this episode, host Sarah Edwards (MPP ’20) explores efforts to expand the right to vote to 16 and 17 year olds. She speaks with Brandon Klugman, Campaign Manger of Vote16 USA and Arianna Nassiri, a high school student in San Francisco leading the push to lower the voting age for SF local and school board elections. Curious to learn more? We suggest the following: Read this article on the outcomes related to lowering the voting age Explore Ayanna Pressley’s efforts for federal legislation Stay up-to-date on San Francisco’s upcoming campaign

As the numbers are coming in, statistics show that communities of color, particularly Latinx and Black communities are both contracting COVID at higher rates and dying from it at higher rates. What is causing this inequity? What solutions can we enact, both now and in the future, to change this? Sarah Edwards (MPP ’20) spoke with Rashawn Ray, David M. Rubenstein fellow at the Brookings Institution and an associate professor of sociology at the University of Maryland. To learn more about this issue, we recommend reading these two articles Rashawn wrote for Brookings: “Why are Blacks dying at higher rates from COVID-19?” “How to reduce the racial gap in COVID-19 deaths”

Welcome to the first episode in TPTM’s brand new series on Democracy! Do you ever wonder why our voting and election systems work the way they do? Has anyone ever preached to you the virtues (or evils) of rank choice voting, blockchain, or eliminating the electoral college? Then tune in to the lastest TPTM episode where Colleen (MPP ‘21) sits down with elections-policy experts and fellow Goldman students Rachel Wallace (MPP’20) and Ben Raderstorf (MPP ‘20) to break down the “hows” and “whys” of our voting systems. Listen in as they chat about the values we embrace when designing our elections, break down a bunch of elections-policy proposals, and argue why we should care about any of this in the first place. Be sure to keep your eye out for upcoming episodes in our Democracy series. We’ll be talking about the upcoming election in the era of COVID-19 and trying to answer the pressing questions that arise given this unprecedented context.

We are nearly one month into California’s shelter-in-place order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. And it looks like, in the Bay Area at least, we’re seeing some payoff from our early efforts to socially distance; hospitals have not seen the number of patients initially expected, and public health experts are tentatively declaring our success in flattening the proverbial curve. In spite of these successes, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown America’s inequalities into even sharper relief. Those who are most exposed to risk are the poorest among us, the undocumented, the unhoused, the under-or un-insured, and those whose incomes have suddenly disappeared as non-essential businesses have closed down. Talk Policy To Me hosts Colleen Pulawski (MPP ‘21), Sarah Edwards (MPP ‘20), Reem Rayef (MPP ‘21) and Khalid Kaldi (MPP ‘21) assembled on a video call for the podcast’s first ever virtual roundtable, to share learnings about the ways in which the crisis has both exposed and exacerbated gaping inequality in the US—and what policymakers, organizers, and communities are doing to protect the vulnerable among us. In this episode we discuss all things COVID-19. How does the federal government’s stimulus bill risk cementing economic inequality? What does shelter-in-place mean if you don’t have a home? How should governors and mayors talk about the pandemic, when the president doesn’t appear to take it seriously? And what are the dangers and benefits of talking about silver linings?

To wrap-up our series on Demography Shifts, Colleen (MPP ‘21) sat down with Goldman School Visiting Assistant Professor Mia Bird, who started as an MPP student at GSPP before pursuing an MA in economic demography (and then returning again to GSPP as a PhD!). Professor Bird discusses the different approaches that demographers and policymakers might take toward demographic shifts, shares her perspective on how demography can help destabilize stuck-in-the-past policy models, and offers thoughts on how demography and policy might work together in the future. Colleen and Sarah (MPP ‘20) tease out some of the lessons they’ve learned about demography throughout this series and consider their responsibility to fold the demographic perspective into their work as future policy leaders.

More than half of the student population in U.S. public schools identify as students of color; yet less than one in five—18 percent— of the teacher workforce identify as teachers of color. Does diversity and inclusion in the teaching profession even matter? And, if so, how can public policy play a constructive role? To find answers to these questions, Khalid Kaldi (MPP ’21) sat down with two former teachers of color. MPP student, Whitney Parra, explains the importance of cultural understanding in the classroom and provides a window into the personal experiences of a teacher of color. Then, UC Berkeley Assistant Professor of Education, Travis Bristol, shares some of his policy recommendations on how to strengthen the ways we recruit and retain teachers of color. For more on demographic shifts, check out our episodes on aging and transportation, direct care workers and fertility.

We know from research—and from personal experience with our own elders—that mobility and independence are key components of mental and emotional wellness for the over 65, or senior, population. However, once they’re no longer able to drive their cars due to health and safety concerns, that mobility—or ease of getting from point A to point B—plummets. A senior who no longer drives may be supported by their family for essential trips to health care services and the grocery story, but even in this best-case scenario, their physical world shrinks substantially. The challenge is that when the elderly stop driving, they are largely left without good alternatives for transportation. For the vast majority of seniors who live in suburban and rural areas, there is no public transit to speak of, and a car-oriented streetscape means that walking isn’t a viable option either. And for the tiny percentage living in dense cities, public transit can be challenging to navigate for seniors who spent most of their lives driving their own cars –and it may not even serve the destinations they’re hoping to reach. The elderly community is a treasured and crucial part of our social fabric; seniors work, provide childcare to working families, volunteer, create art, and more. Improving transit and transportation systems to serve their needs is imperative, particularly as the share of the US population over the age of 65 grows. In the latest episode in our series on demographic shifts, Talk Policy To Me reporter Reem Rayef (MPP/MA-ERG ‘21) speaks with Clarrissa Cabansagan of TransForm and Dr. Sandi Rosenbloom of UT Austin to uncover how transportation systems must respond to the existing (and growing) issue of elderly mobility –and how doing so could help get us all out of our cars and onto public transit. Clarrissa Cabansaganis the New Mobility Policy Director at TransForm and a UC Berkeley alum. Her work at TransForm centers on transportation equity and justice, and what that looks like in the era of scooters and Uber. She is a lifetime Bay Area resident. Dr. Sandi Rosenbloomis a Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Director of the UT Lab for Safe & Healthy Aging. Read her report for the Urban Institute on elderly access to paratransit services here. For more on demographic shifts, check out our episodes on direct care workers and fertility.

As our population ages, we are faced with a number of policy challenges. One, in particular, stands out: how will we provide care for those who need help? Our next episode in the series around Demographic Shifts explores the policy implications of the aging population and the people who will help care for them. California expects to see its population of seniors rise from 15 to 25% in the next 40 years. While the challenge of caring for an aging population will expand as the population grows, there are real policy issues today. The Direct Care industry, which includes home care workers and care facility workers, faces many challenges. In this episode, Reem Rayef (MPP/ERG ’21) and Sarah Edwards (MPP ’20) speak with experts to unpack the challenges of today and tomorrow. Robert Espinoza from PHI National, a research and advocacy organization, shared the national perspective. Tanya Bustamante and Cuidonce Corona from Berkeley Aging Services Division ground the challenges in what is happening in Berkeley. Interested in learning more? Check out Berkeley’s Age-Friendly Plan. Read PHI’s most recent report. Stay tuned for another episode exploring Demographic Shifts and the role of policy!

When news articles talk about the county’s declining fertility, there tends to be a tone of panic and often of judgment. But what is the truth of fertility rate declines? What role does policy play in impacting these rates? And how does the nature of fertility rates influence policy? In this episode, Sarah Edwards (MPP 20) turns to a local expert, demography PhD Leslie Root. Leslie helps us unpack this specific intersection between demography and policy, and what it means for our future. Curious for more information on changing fertility rates and policy implications? Check out the following: Leslie’s Washington Post Op-Ed: "Don’t Panic Over Declining Fertility Rates—And Don’t Let Anyone Guilt You” The Shift Project, which Leslie mentioned in the podcast. This research effort by Berkeley and UCSF researchers has advanced our understanding of the nature of shift work and the implications these policies have. Paid Leave US, an advocacy organization working to expand paid leave policies in California and the nation.

It’s 2020 and Talk Policy to Me is back with a brand new series on Demographic Shifts. Over the next few episodes, we’ll dive into some of the most pressing demographic shifts taking place here in California, and discuss what their implications are for policymaking both here in California and across the country. In this short kickoff episode, hosts Colleen (MPP ‘21) and Sarah (MPP ‘20) ground us in a shared definition of demography, share a preview of some of the shifts we’ll be diving into later in the series, and pose some big-picture questions that these changes raise from the policy perspective.

Grab a warm drink and cozy up under your favorite blanket, listeners! In Talk Policy To Me’s final episode of 2019, we got all five hosts in one room to talk about... talking policy during the holidays. Join our hosts Reem, Khalid, Colleen, Spencer, and Sarah as they explore how policy gets personal during the holidays when we gather with family and friends, reckon with hometown and childhood memories, and look toward the future as a new year approaches. How does public policy get all wrapped up in your holiday festivities? Looking for better ways to talk policy all season long? TPTM Challenge! Talk about policies, not personalities: ask everyone at your holiday dinner table to share one public policy they are grateful for. Perfect your productive, political persuasion with NYT’s Angry Uncle Bot for when talk of impeachment (inevitably) comes up. Need a moment to step away from all the political chatter? Check out Harvard Med’s strategies for self-care this holiday season. Happy Holidays from all of us here at Talk Policy to Me. Catch you in 2020!

We’re not used to thinking about transportation as a raced policy area. But, like all other policy areas, transportation policy has the potential to improve racial equity or widen racial disparities. But writer and historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi asserts that all ideas, actions, and policies are either racist or anti-racist, removing the gray area of so-called ‘race neutrality’ in his recently published book, How To Be An Anti-Racist. This means that transportation policy – like all other policy areas – has the potential to improve racial equity, or widen racial disparities. For the final episode of our policy design series, Talk Policy To Me host Reem Rayef interviews two transportation experts about how planners and policymakers can build transportation systems that serve all communities, and improve accessibility for those who need it most. Dan Chatman, Associate Professor at UC Berkeley’s Department of City & Regional Planning, discusses how public transit infrastructures can facilitate increased racial segregation, and describes the inequitable distribution of transit’s costs and benefits between white and non-white communities. Lateefah Simon, District 7 Representative on the BART Board of Directors and President of the Oakland-based Akonadi Foundation, makes the concept of anti-racist transportation policy concrete through discussion of current policy debates happening at the BART Board of Directors. Dan and Lateefah are passionate about centering racial equity in designing both transportation infrastructures, and the policies that we lay over those infrastructures. If you listen closely, you can hear them banging their fists on the studio table, as they drive home their points on transit justice. The inequities of transit and transportation systems are clearly visible in the Bay Area, where BART lines and highways bisect historically Black neighborhoods, transit fares are regressive, and transit-oriented development is code for Black displacement. But the system isn’t broken beyond repair. Listen to this episode of Talk Policy To Me to learn how policymakers are integrating radical ideas of anti-racism into bureaucratic and regulatory processes to bring about justice in transportation systems, and beyond. For more information about anti-racism, check out Ibram X. Kendi’s book, How To Be An Antiracist. It’s an impactful and important read. For reading about equitable and just transportation policy in California, visit TransForm at www.transformca.org. The study referenced in the interview with Dan Chatman, titled “Race, Space, and Struggles for Mobility: Transportation Impacts on African Americans in Oakland and the Bay Area” can be found here. Thanks to the UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute for the use of footage from the September 2019 talk by Ibram X. Kendi which was excerpted in this episode. The speech and panel conversation can be found in their entirety here.

Who benefits most from the tax system? What did the Trump tax cuts achieve? How do taxes affect inequality? What’s the relationship between taxes and democracy? Tax policy seems like it was designed by, of, and for the rich. But, as our guest today Gabriel Zucman points out, the U.S. tax code was once a vastly different beast. Zucman is an associate professor of economics at UC Berkeley, director of the Center on Wealth and Income Inequality, and economic advisor for two 2020 presidential campaigns. His latest book The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make them Pay, co-written with UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, documents the dramatic transformation of the U.S. tax code. In less than a lifetime, Americans exchanged the most progressive tax system in the world—a tax system with marginal income tax rates as high as 94 percent for the highest earners—for one where the 400 wealthiest members of society pay a lower tax rate than any other income group. Zucman’s work is clear. "Tax dodging” and the current iteration of the tax system—from income and payroll taxes to sales and property taxes—are not inevitable outcomes, but deliberate choices made by policymakers to privilege the interests of wealthy Americans and multinational corporations. If you believe this theory, it follows that we can and should make better choices in the future. For a preview of what these choices might look like and an outline of how we can design a progressive tax system for the twenty-first century, tune in to this conversation between Khalid Kaldi (MPP ’21) and Gabriel Zucman. If tax policy brings you joy, check out: Tax Policy Simulator 60 Profitable Fortune 500 Companies Avoided All Federal Income Taxes in 2018, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (Report) Combating Inequality Conference (Video)

What options do we have in our toolkit as policymakers when it comes to policy design? Are the tools government typically chooses to wield the most effective ones? If not, how can we get government to invest in a new approach to policy design? In episode three of our series on policy design and implementation, Colleen Pulawski (MPP ’21) speaks with Brandon Greene of the Oakland Civic Design Lab and Michael Ford in the Oakland Department of Transportation about using human-centered design to restructure government policies and services. Spencer Bowen (MPP ‘20) joins in the conversation to help unpack what we, as policy students, should take away from this application of human-centered design.

Talking School Integration  Was school integration a “failed experiment”? Is the impact of policy limited when it comes to education?  In this episode, Goldman Professor Rucker Johnson debunks the myths around school integration and shares the insights from his new book, Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works. In this second episode of our series on Policy Design and Implementation, Sarah Edwards (MPP ’20) speaks with Professor Johnson about the way well-designed policy can lead to significant outcomes for all children. The conversation covers the impacts of historic desegregation, the dangers of current resegreation, and the best combination of policies to achieve diversity and educational excellence.  As with many of the issues that Talk Policy to Me covers, there is more to the story of integration and race in schools than we could cover in this short episode. Here are a few resources we suggest if you are interested in diving deeper:   Check out Children of the Dream, available at your local bookstore  Read “It was never about Busing” by Nikole Hannah-Jones  Explore the Washington Posts’ map on school district diversity

What do Healthcare.gov, police officer recruitment, and 911 call centers have in common? All can be improved through smart policy design tweaks! In this episode, Goldman Professor Elizabeth Linos and TPTM host Spencer Bowen (MPP '20) discuss how small changes in policy design can result in big differences in impact. The first in our ongoing series on Policy Design and Implementation, this episode helps break down the different mechanisms that can be used to influence the direction of policy results. In addition, Professor Linos shares her most recent research, about small changes to improve the day-to-day lives (and then the retention!) of 911 call center staff.