Podcast appearances and mentions of jeremy slevin

Air Date 6/10/2020 Today we take a look at the long arc of racism in America as a primer for many of the topics it would be good for you to be acquainted with as we live through yet another convulsive societal awakening regarding racism and police abuse in our country. If you only ever share one episode of this podcast with friends, family or another else, make it this one. Be part of the show! Leave us a message at 202-999-3991 MEMBERSHIP ON PATREON (Get AD FREE Shows & Bonus Content) Support us on PodHero Support us on Flattr EPISODE SPONSORS: Clean Choice Energy IF YOU'RE GOING TO SHOP AMAZON: Amazon USA | Amazon CA | Amazon UK SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Confederacy - @LastWeekTonight with @iamjohnoliver - Air Date 10-09-17 Confederate symbols are still celebrated despite the ugly history they symbolize. John Oliver suggests some representations of southern pride that involve less racism and more Stephen Colbert. Ch. 2: History of Slaveowners Receiving Reparations with DeRay, Sam, Brittany and Clint - Pod Save the People - Air Date 4-23-19 Discussing the New York Times story: When Slaveowners Got Reparations Ch. 3: 40 Acres and A Mule, Today with Brian Balogh and William Darity - BackStory - Air Date 5-24-19 “40 acres and a mule” promised ex-slave families 40 acres of tillable land on the southeastern coast. However, after many families had settled on the land, the policy was reversed and the area was reinstated to white farmers and former slave owners. Ch. 4: The history of the raising of Civil War monuments - @offkiltershow - Air Date 8-18-17 Jeremy Slevin speaks with Professor Kirk Savage, an author and expert on civil war monuments, to discuss the troubling history of these monuments. Ch. 5: As Confederate Monuments Come Down, the Struggle Continues - On the Media - Air Date 5-26-17 Bob talks with Malcolm Suber, an historian and co-founder of the group Take 'Em Down NOLA, about the significance of removing monuments to white supremacy, and the work that still remains to be done. Ch. 6: Bryan Stevenson wants us to confront racial terrorism and then say, Never again. Part 1 - Cape Up - Air Date 4-24-18 “We can’t go on. We cannot pretend that something really destructive, something really corruptive happened when communities came to celebrate this kind of violence. We have to talk about it. We have to acknowledge the wrongfulness of it.” Ch. 7: Study On The Impact Of Nazi Propaganda - @TheYoungTurks - Air Date 06-19-15 Cenk Uygur discusses the power of propaganda. A study has been released which looked into the effect of Nazi propaganda on Germany, particularly it's long-term impact. Ch. 8: Bryan Stevenson wants us to confront racial terrorism and then say, Never again. Part 2 - Cape Up - Air Date 4-24-18 “We can’t go on. We cannot pretend that something really destructive, something really corruptive happened when communities came to celebrate this kind of violence. We have to talk about it. We have to acknowledge the wrongfulness of it.” Ch. 9: The Great Migration - @DecodeDC - Air Date 5-14-15 Isabel Wilkerson spent 15 years researching and writing her book, “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration.” The book is the story of nearly 6 million African Americans who migrated out of the South. Ch. 10: A Dream Remembered? How we came to revere MLK - @Making_Contact - Air Date 1-17-17 Gary Younge, author of “The Speech” talks about Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and the story behind it. Ch. 11: MLK What They Won't Teach In School - News Beat - Air Date 1-8-18 We take an alternative look at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, examining how the civil rights icon was so much more than simply the “I Have a Dream” soundbite. Ch. 12: Michelle Alexander on The New Jim Crow - Leid Stories - Air Date 8-26-15 Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, discusses in a presentation at the University of Tennessee the policies that produced mass incarceration. Ch. 13: The True Origins of the War on Drugs - News Beat - Air Date 8-9-17 One trillion dollars. That’s how much the United States has spent in the last 40 years on the war on drugs. Currently, more than 450,000 Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses—up from 40,000 in 1980. Ch. 14: Racism vs Prejudice - Kat Blaque - Air Date 10-5-14 Ch. 15: Responding to the black-on-black-crime talking point - About Race - Air Date 9-1-15 Ch. 16: A More Beautiful & Terrible History The Whitewashing & Distortion of Rosa Parks and MLK_s Legacies - @DemocracyNow - Air Date 02-06-18 Professor Jeanne Theoharis’s new book is titled “A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History.” It shows how the legacy of the civil rights movement has been distorted and whitewashed for public consumption. Ch. 17: When Is the Right Time for Black People to Protest? - The Daily Show - Air Date 9-25-17 Trevor unpacks the backlash that NFL players, Stevie Wonder and ESPN commentator Jemele Hill received after speaking out against racism. Ch. 18: How whiteness distorts our democracy, with Eddie Glaude Jr. - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 4-4-19 Glaude is the chair of Princeton University’s department of African American studies, the president of the American Academy of Religion, and the author of the powerful book Democracy in Black. Ch. 19: Why We Riot The language of the unheard - NewsBeat - Air Date 12-18-17 MLK, Jr. once referred to “riots” as the “language of the unheard.” The reasons for such rebellions are myriad: political, social & cultural. FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 12: Final comments MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions): Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr  Derailed - The Depot The Envelope - Aeronaut Beast on the Soil - Desert Orchard The Cast and Favor - Bayou Birds Waltz and Fury - Macrame Landon Depot - The Depot Inessential - Bayou Birds Rafter - Speakeasy Midday - Pecan Grove Chrome and Wax - Ray Catcher Around Plastic Card Tables - Desert Orchard Turning to You - Landsman Duets Turning on the Lights - Speakeasy Line Etching - Marble Run Insatiable Toad - Origami The Coil Winds - Vacant Distillery Curio - Vacant Distillery Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent   Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Support the show via Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | +more Check out the BotL iOS/Android App in the App Stores! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Review the show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Facebook!

A roundup of some of the year’s most under-covered stories on poverty and inequality, with special guest Mara Pellittieri, editor-in-chief of TalkPoverty.org—and a teary goodbye to our own Jeremy Slevin.

Inside Trump’s “public charge” attack on immigrant families with the Protecting Immigrant Families campaign; Jocelyn Frye on how little has changed since Anita Hill; and Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week.

Jared Bernstein unpacks the new Census data on poverty, income, and health insurance; Liz Weintraub on how Kavanaugh’s confirmation would set disability rights back 50 years or more; and Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week, In Case Yachts Missed It

This week on Off-Kilter, over the past 40 days, more than 2,000 people have been arrested across the country as part of nonviolent civil disobedience through the Poor People’s Campaign. Many of those activists came to DC this past Saturday to mark the completion of the campaign’s first phase as it continues the work that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who founded the original Poor People’s Campaign began 50 years ago. Rebecca talks with Greg Kaufmann, editor in chief of TalkPoverty.org, about the activists fueling this growing movement and where it goes from here. Next, this week marks the 80th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which put in place the first-ever federal minimum wage and much more. But 80 years later, key parts of the law remain unchanged—including an obscure provision that allows people with disabilities to be paid pennies on the dollar for their labor. For a look at the history of the Fair Labor Standards Act—and how 80 years on, it’s still leaving workers with disabilities behind—Rebecca speaks with Rabia Belt, an assistant professor of law at Stanford Law School.  Later in the show, as June comes to a close, another Pride month is wrapping up. But the celebrations in places like San Francisco and New York look very different from those in places like rural Mississippi. In a state that helped put Mike Pence and his ideology into the White House, people like painter Jonathan Kent Adams are still finding ways to celebrate themselves and their communities. Rebecca (joined by David Ballard, one of Off-Kilter’s producers, in his on-air debut) talk with Jonathan about how he uses art as a tool for LGBTQ activism, what it was like growing up gay in rural Mississippi—and what marking Pride in the era of Trump looks like there. But first, the Supreme Court continues its all-out assault on workers with the Janus decision; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rides to victory running on a platform of universal health care, abolishing ICE, and more; Michigan Governor Snyder signs a cruel bill putting 700,000 Michiganders’ Medicaid at risk; and in a rare piece of good news, the Clean Slate Act—first-of-its-kind legislation to enable people with minor criminal records to have their records automatically sealed once they’ve remained crime-free—becomes law in Pennsylvania; and more… Jeremy Slevin returns to unpack the news of the week ICYMI. 

This week on Off-Kilter, a new report sheds horrifying new light on the state of the nationwide affordable housing crisis. A minimum wage worker earning $7.25 an hour would need to work a staggering 122 hours per week, literally all 52 weeks of the year — the equivalent of three full time jobs — to afford a two bedroom apartment at fair market rent. Rebecca speaks with Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, about the new report “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing.” Later in the show, while Trump and Congressional Republicans actively seek to exacerbate the affordable housing crisis, some states and cities are taking matters into their own hands. Rebecca sits down with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to hear how Denver’s tackling their affordable housing crisis and working to curb chronic homelessness. And finally, it’s no secret the Trump tax law that took effect earlier this year is already worsening inequality in the U.S. But it’s also a recipe for massively exacerbating racial inequality — and even mass incarceration. Rebecca talks with Darrick Hamilton and Michael Linden, both fellows at the Roosevelt Institute, about how “hidden rules of race are embedded in the new tax law.” But first: concentration camps for kids; how Trump’s plan to reorganize the federal government is just his latest effort to redefine everything from childcare to health insurance as “welfare”; what you’re not hearing about the Trump economy: wages FELL last year (!); momentum grows for expanding paid leave to include chosen family; and more — as Jeremy Slevin, aka your beloved Slevinator, returns with the news of the week ICYMI (and an even longer beard than last week).

This week on Off-Kilter, while Trump spent much of the week crowing about how he’s to thank for the so-called “best economy ever,” the United Nations released a scathing indictment of poverty and inequality in the U.S., finding that for all but the richest, “the American Dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion.” The report’s findings are damning and specifically call out Trump and the GOP for lavishing massive tax breaks on the wealthiest while 5.3 Americans live in “third world conditions of absolute poverty.” Rebecca speaks with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who authored the fiery report. Later in the show, ride-hailing corporations like Uber and Lyft have adopted the dirty tactics of the gun and tobacco industries to buy political influence and override local policies intended to protect consumers and drivers. In 2016, Uber and Lyft deployed a whopping 370 lobbyists around the country—more than Amazon, Microsoft, and Walmart combined. To unpack how Uber and Lyft have rewritten state laws in a staggering 41 states to benefit their own bottom lines at the expense of their drivers and consumers, Rebecca talks with Rebecca Smith, director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project, and one of the authors of the recent report, “Uber State Interference: How TNCs (Transportation Network Companies) Buy, Bully, and Bamboozle Their Way to Deregulation.” But first, Michigan passes a slightly less racist but still awful bill jeopardizing Medicaid for 350,000 Michiganders; the story behind the “Save Our Tips” signs all over D.C.; the return of the Equal Rights Amendment; why did Trump try to hide the Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report? and more. Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week in poverty and inequality, In Case You Missed It.

Victorian diseases eradicated long ago with the advent of antibiotics are making an unlikely comeback across the pond. You heard that right - scurvy and other illnesses related to malnutrition are now having devastating effects on thousands of families as hunger and hardship have spiked, following eight years of austerity cuts in the U.K. To discuss the state of the U.K.'s austerity cuts - which lawmakers in Washington would be wise to consider a cautionary tale as they debate a Farm Bill that would strip 2 million Americans of meager yet vital food assistance - Rebecca talks with Mary O'Hara, a columnist with The Guardian and the author ofAusterity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp Edge of Cuts in the UK. Later in the show, some 1 in 4 Americans report difficulty affording necessary prescription drugs, as prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In response to this growing crisis, a range of lawmakers in Congress have called for legislation to curb rising drug costs, and states have begun to take action as well, with Vermont's legislature last week passing a bill to allow the state to import prescription drugs from Canada. To dig into what drives rising drug prices - and what we can do to bring their cost down - Rebecca speaks with Fran Quigley, who coordinates of People of Faith for Access to Medicines and serves as a clinical professor in the Health and Human Rights Clinic at Indiana University's School of Law. But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka the Slevinator, returns with the latest on the Farm Bill debate (and his cat mitzvah!) and other news of the week, in another installment of In Case You Missed It.

Last week, Ben Carson, President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, unveiled a proposal to triple rents for the poorest families and take housing assistance away from unemployed and underemployed workers. This announcement comes amid a nationwide affordable housing crisis: In no state in the U.S. can a minimum wage worker earning $7.25 afford even a one-bedroom apartment at market rent. Meanwhile, just 1 in 5 eligible low-income families receive help from the nation’s already massively underfunded housing assistance programs, leaving others paying 50, 60, 70 percent of their incomes on rent — while they languish on years, sometimes decades-long waitlists. Many end up facing eviction. A new dataset produced by sociologist and Evicted author Matthew Desmond and his team at the Eviction Lab shines staggering new light on the scale and scope of the eviction epidemic. Cities such as Richmond, Virginia, face annual eviction rates as high as 1 in 9 households. Meanwhile, an exhibit at the National Building Museum based on Desmond’s book brings the issue to life. This week on Off-Kilter, to help Ben Carson — and the rest of us — get up to speed on the reality of America’s affordable housing crisis, which his proposal would put on steroids, Rebecca speaks with two people working to fight eviction in very different ways. But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka The Slevinator, returns from his brush with the bubonic plague with the news of the week, In Case You Missed It.

This week on Off-Kilter, the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the so-called farm bill — a massive piece of legislation that among many other things includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. House Republicans claim the bill is about “lifting Americans out of poverty” — but the draconian nutrition assistance cuts it proposes would be a recipe for massively increasing hunger and hardship, as Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, explains. Next, in Florida, climate change issues aren't just the stuff of Planet Earthepisodes — they're a day to day reality. The effects of rising seas and intensifying storms are being felt right now, and especially so in low income communities and communities of color. Meanwhile, President Trump and his EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt are doing nothing except making it worse — but there are people fighting back. As we mark Earth Day, Rebecca talks with Caroline Lewis, a south Florida principal turned climate change activist, who founded the CLEO Institute to make the conversation around climate change accessible to the people most likely to bear its burden. And finally, continuing Off-Kilter's Second Chance Month series, Rebecca sits down with Tarra Simmons, who after spending 20 months behind bars due to challenges with substance abuse, went to law school to help remove barriers to opportunity for others with records. She was awarded a prestigious Skadden Fellowship to do this work with the Public Defender Association in Washington State — but then was told she wouldn't be allowed to sit for the bar exam because of her criminal record. Not to be deterred, she sued for the right to take the bar — and won. But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka The Slevinator, returns with the news of the week for another edition of In Case You Missed It.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that the 2020 Census would include a question about U.S. citizenship. The news generated immediate and widespread blowback, including the filing of lawsuits by at least 2 states' attorneys general who argue the change violates the law. Rebecca sits down with Corrine Yu, managing policy director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, to unpack what's at stake. Next, when the TV sitcom Roseanne premiered in 1988, it was heralded for its honest portrayal of a working-class family struggling to make ends meet in the Midwest. The show returned to the airwaves this week, drawing tens of millions of viewers – and generating not insignificant controversy due to the eponymous character's proud support of Donald Trump. Rebecca talks with Mara Pellittierri, managing editor of TalkPoverty.org, about the good, the bad, and the ugly in the controversial reboot. But first, Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week, including Tennessee Republicans' plans to use funds intended for poor families to bankroll the disenrollment of thousands of the state's struggling workers from Medicaid. We also break down Utah's bittersweet Medicaid expansion, and more in another edition of In Case You Missed It.

The so-called “able-bodied” are now everywhere among government antipoverty programs, Republican officials claim. But, as Emily Badger and Margot Sanger-Katz write in the New York Times Upshot, this term has long been a political as well as a moral one, dating back centuries to the 1601 Elizabethan poor law, as a proxy for separating the “deserving” from the “undeserving.” To unpack the 400-year history of the term “able-bodied,” Rebecca talks with Emily Badger. Next, on the same day that President Trump releases a budget that is expected to—yet again—slash nearly every program that helps workers and families make ends meet, to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, fast-food workers will be staging a massive walk-out in Memphis, calling for higher wages and union rights. Protesters will be marching along the same route as the sanitation workers' strike that, 50 years ago, brought Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated. Rebecca speaks with Cheri Honkala, an organizer with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, one of the groups behind the march, about her long history of civil disobedience to fight poverty—and her early years as one of the founders of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union back in the early 1990s. But first, Jeremy Slevin, aka The Slevinator, returns with some choice words for Sen. Rand Paul's government shutdown.

This week on Off-Kilter, Rebecca talks with Alastair Gee, the only homelessness editor at a major U.S. publication, about The Guardian's year-long series looking at homelessness in the US. Next, continuing our series of interviews with candidates and elected officials living with mental illness and mental health disabilities, Rebecca speaks with Representative Garnet Coleman who represents parts of Houston in the Texas legislature. But first, with the federal government teetering on the edge of shutdown, Rebecca and Jeremy Slevin talk with Sam Berger, a senior policy advisor at the Center for American Progress and a shutdown expert from his time at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Literally at the same time Trump and his colleagues in Congress are working to ram gargantuan tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations through Congress without a single democratic vote, they're making no secret of how they want to pay for them. By slashing vital programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, nutrition assistance, and more. To help us unpack where they're headed -- and what they mean when they use buzzwords like “entitlement reform” and “welfare reform” – Rebecca talks with Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA). Next, when David Mullins and Charlie Craig walked into Masterpiece Cakeshop five years ago, they had no idea their search for the perfect wedding cake would take them to the United States Supreme Court. Following oral arguments in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case earlier this week Rebecca talks with Sharita Gruberg, LGBTQ policy guru at the Center for American Progress about what's at stake. But first, Jeremy Slevin brings some holiday cheer – plus updates on the tax fight, government shutdown, and more – for another installment of In Case You Missed It.

Democrats have plenty of reasons to celebrate this week. Will Ragland of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's War Room joins Jeremy Slevin to break down the news out of Virginia. Next, Jeremy talks with State Senator Dinah Sykes from Kansas, a Republican who challenged her own party after a conservative tax plan that is eerily similar to the one put forward by Trump and the GOP wreaked havoc on the state's budget. And lastly, we bring you a conversation that Rebecca had with Lauren-Brooke "L.B." Eisen, senior counsel at the Brennan Center and author of Inside Private Prisons: An American Dilemma in the Age of Mass Incarceration.

President Trump declared the opioid crisis a “national public health emergency” this week, directing a variety of federal agencies and administrators to focus on fighting this issue. Declaring the opioid crisis a “national public health emergency” instead of a “national emergency” makes a significant difference in sources of funding, administrative jurisdiction, and actions that Congress can take. Jeremy Slevin, associate director of advocacy for the Center for American Progress' Poverty to Prosperity program, details the pitfalls the Trump administration faces in fighting the opioid crisis. Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, talks about a reasonable and constitutional path to change the electoral college into a winner-take-all system through the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.

In the wake of the attacks in Charlottesville, the debate about confederate monuments has reached a fever pitch, with municipalities across the country moving forward to #takethemdown, and brave activists in Durham, North Carolina tearing down a statue with their own hands. When arrest warrants were issued for those alleged to be involved, hundreds of allies lined up at the police station attempting to turn themselves in, in solidarity. Jeremy Slevin speaks with Professor Kirk Savage, an author and expert on civil war monuments, to discuss the troubling history of these monuments. Later in the show, we bring you more interviews from last weekend's Netroots Nation conference in Atlanta.

Following the election, it seemed all but certain that the Affordable Care Act would be immediately repealed. And while its fate remains uncertain, constituents have made it more and more difficult for Congress to strip them of their healthcare. Rebecca speaks with Jeff Stein, a Congressional reporter at Vox who's been covering activism to kill the bill in communities across the country. Next, she speaks with a member of Indivisible's Phoenix chapter, whose efforts to swing Senator Jeff Flake to the “no” column are informed by her time as a claims analyst at a health insurance company. Then, with July marking eight years since the last time the federal minimum wage was raised, Rachel West of the Center for American Progress explains the trend that has enabled Republican-controlled legislatures to stop wage hikes in their states. And finally, thousands of LA families are facing serious health and safety consequences due to the now-closed Exide battery plant. Hilda Solis — former Secretary of Labor and current member of LA County's Board of Supervisors — joins with the story of how the community has stepped up— and what it's like to see the progress she helped create in the Obama Administration get unraveled by his successor. But first, Jeremy Slevin joins with this week's edition of In Case You Missed It.

What does President Trump's rollback of Obamacare's contraception mandate mean, and what's on deck for healthcare more broadly? Andy Slavitt joins to discuss. Next, Liz Kennedy explains the significance of the Supreme Court's decision to hear Ohio's voter-purge case, and what it means for the future of voter suppression. Finally, Aditi Juneja discusses what an inclusive resistance looks like. But first, Jeremy Slevin joins for another edition of In Case You Missed It, to unpack this week's biggest stories in poverty.

With Bill O'Reilly finally booted from Fox News following a string of sexual harassment accusations, Rebecca kicks off this week's episode with a proper farewell to him, featuring Rebecca Lenn of Media Matters for America (and per usual, Jeremy Slevin). Next, on the heels of Tax Day, Vanessa Williamson, author of Read My Lips: Why Americans Are Proud to Pay Taxes, unpacks how taxes became a four-letter word — and how Americans really feel about paying their taxes. Later in the show, Mara Pellittieri shares the story behind her powerful essay “I'm a Queer Woman. My Best Friend Is a Gay Man. We Almost Got Married Anyway” — and how the legal system doesn't gel with chosen family. And finally, with nearly 99 percent of low-income Mississippi residents who apply for income assistance turned away empty-handed, Bryce Covert of ThinkProgress joins to explain what's behind these alarming numbers.

As we commemorate this week's ‘Day Without a Woman' strike, this week's Off-Kilter is an episode without Jeremy Slevin. Instead, Rebecca is joined by Michelle Chen, co-host of Dissent's Belabored podcast, to unpack what this week's strikes say about the future of establishment feminism. Next, Sarah McBride of the Human Rights Campaign, and the first openly transgender speaker at a major party convention, discusses the fight ahead for the LGBTQ community under Trump — and why she's managed to remain optimistic. Next, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of The Nation, joins to break down Trump's other war on the media playing out quietly at the FCC. And finally, with Republican efforts to repeal and “replace” the Affordable Care Act continuing to advance full speed ahead, Rebecca sits down with three women whose personal stories highlight how the GOP's Medicaid cuts would set the clock back on disability rights 50 years or more.

This week, President Trump delivered a joint address to Congress, promising to ring in a “new era of greatness.” But he forgot to mention the $54 billion in cuts he's seeking to programs that serve low- and middle-income Americans. Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities joins to unpack what Trump said — and didn't say. Next up, Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Lower-Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy, joins the show. Bryce Covert of ThinkProgress talks about the return of general strikes, and finally Sarah Borgstede, a woman whose husband's life would have been saved if the Affordable Care Act had been in place, shares her family's story. But first, Jeremy Slevin returns with this week's news in poverty and inequality.

To kick off the inaugural episode, host Rebecca Vallas is joined by Sarah Jaffe, author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt, which examines resistance movements in the U.S. and how they have the power to reshape American politics. Next, Ezra Levin of Indivisible talks about what's next for the movement that's responsible for some spirited town halls this week. And Dorian Warren of Center for Community Change Action joins to unpack Trump's attacks on immigrants and how they fit in with a broader divide-and-conquer strategy. But first, Jeremy Slevin breaks down this week's biggest news.