Marketplace All-in-One

We’ve spent the past five weeks trying to make sense of this moment, where the inequalities of our society have been suddenly set in high relief. In that time, you all have written in with a bunch of questions big and small. Today, we’re going to cap off this pop-up season by answering a few of them. Questions like: What would chicken cost if plant workers got better wages and benefits? And how did health insurance get tied to our jobs anyway? We’ll also look back at two very clear moments, both after pandemics, when economic inequality started to fall dramatically. Thanks so much to everyone who listened and sent in questions. We’ll be back later this year with new episodes. Until, then, there’s always our first three seasons.

On any given night last year, half a million people in the United States were experiencing homelessness, and more than 60% of them were staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs. Now, those same facilities are hot spots for COVID-19. It’s hard to social distance when you’re cramped, sharing bedrooms and sharing locker-room style communal showers. Today, we’ll look back at the history of how America has sheltered unhoused people, and how those approaches can make it hard for them to get back on their feet even when there’s not a pandemic going on.

The COVID-19 pandemic arrived at a moment when the gap between rich and poor in this country had hit a record high. One place that inequality is most visible is in the neighborhoods where we live. Generations of discriminatory housing policy, and lending practices that favored white borrowers, have entrenched segregation in American cities. This week, we’ll examine the housing policies that emerged from past economic crises, policies that excluded black people and other people of color, preventing them from building the wealth that middle class white families built.

Millions of Americans who are out of work don’t receive unemployment benefits. That’s by design. Today, we’ll look at the history of the United States’ unemployment insurance system, how this country defines “unemployment,”and why the program was never intended to cover everyone who’s not working.

As long as there’s been such a thing as quarantine, each person’s experience under it has depended largely on their economic status. On this week’s show, we take a tour of quarantines through history, from the bubonic plague outbreaks in 14th and 17th century Italy, to the a typhoid outbreak in New York in the early 1900s and a few other stops along the way. Those quarantines looked very different if you were, say, an immigrant, or a Jewish textile merchant, or a sex worker. Crises like the COVID-19 pandemic shine a spotlight on all the inequalities already lurking in the system, and ideas of what the government owes to people in quarantine have changed over the centuries too. Long gone are the days of the government sending your family fennel sausage, cheese and wine to make it through.

Chicken is America’s most popular meat. But chicken supply chains — in fact, many of our food supply chains — are in danger of breaking down. Part of the reason is the workers who process and package those goods are getting sick. In some cases, they’re dying. For the first episode of our new season, “A History of Now,” we focused on America’s chicken supply chain because it raises a huge, looming question: How is it that essential workers don’t have essential protections? How do we get through a crisis — any crisis — if we can’t be sure our food-producing workforce is safe?

There’s not much more uncertain than our current moment. Our day-to-day lives and our economy have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic. On this season, “A History of Now,” we’re digging into the history and policies that help make sense of this current moment, a time where issues of wealth and poverty feel even more stark than usual. New episodes start May 13.    

On this day, 30 years ago, President George H.W. Bush gave his first address from the Oval Office. Bush held up a baggie of crack he said had been seized just outside the White House. Today, we’re revisiting our episode about that speech, the events that led up to it and the lives it affected. For more on America’s drug war, listen to season 3 of our show.

One woman’s fight against Silicon Valley’s racial pay gap. Plus, why it’s so hard for Black workers in tech to get ahead    

Years ago, one woman put college on hold because she couldn’t afford it. Now she faces a hard choice to keep history from repeating itself. Plus: What will college even look like this fall?

A teenager protesting police brutality lands in jail, and we try to understand the tricky business of bail.

Millions of Americans who are out of work don’t receive unemployment benefits. That’s by design. An episode from “The Uncertain Hour’s” pop-up season “A History of Now.” If you liked this epsiode, you can hear more at uncertainhour.org.

When you’re 17 or 18, you’re often making choices that can dictate the course of your whole life. Making those decisions during a pandemic is even harder. Today we follow three high school friends trying to figure out what comes after graduation when a global pandemic is clouding everything. By the way, today is the last day of Marketplace’s spring fundraising drive. We know not everyone can afford to give, but if you love the show and you are in a position to donate, we would really appreciate it. You can give and find more information at marketplace.org/giveTIU.

This week, we’re showcasing a story from our colleagues at “Terrible, Thanks For Asking”: When a supporting pillar is knocked out of a family, the consequences can be costly.

Kevin Harrington was exonerated last month after spending 17 years in prison for a murder conviction. He and his family are overjoyed, but the coronavirus pandemic means freedom looks a little different right now. By the way, Marketplace is in the middle of a really important fundraising drive right now. We know not everyone can afford to give, but if you love the show and you are in a position to donate, we would really appreciate it. You can give and find more information at marketplace.org/giveTIU.

A woman grapples with her shopping addiction in quarantine. By the way, we were just nominated for a Webby! Please take a second and vote for us at wbby.co/pod09.

Danni Askini fought cancer for 18 months before getting COVID-19. Their focus was on surviving, not the cost of care. That didn’t make the bill any easier to take.

The clock is ticking for one college student after she finds out she’s pregnant in the middle of a pandemic, in a state that’s trying to restrict abortion.

How do I keep from fighting with my partner about money? What do I say to a friend who’s just lost a job? This week, a little financial therapy session over zoom to help us all cope with our COVID-19 anxiety.

There are a lot of couples stuck at home right now. Some of them are out of work or dealing with canceled plans. Today, we’ll hear from two couples trying to figure out what their future will look like.