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Future Hindsight is a weekly podcastthat takes big ideas in civic life and democracy and turns them into action items for everyday citizens.

Mar 30, 2019

Poverty is widespread

Hardship in America is common. In all of rich democracies, we have the highest rates of poverty among the elderly and also among children. In fact, the majority of Americans will be poor for a significant period of time over the course of their lives: 62% percent will have their income at the...


Mar 23, 2019

Invest in early learning

Because the foundation for all of life’s successes -- whether academic, social, or emotional -- is laid in the first five years of life, it is critically important to invest in early learning. This is especially true for children from low income homes, who often do not have access to high...


Mar 16, 2019

Picking an insurance plan is nearly impossible

Although it is no surprise that picking an insurance plan is complicated, it turns out it is nearly impossible. A study by George Loewenstein at Carnegie Mellon reveals that a majority of Americans will choose a suboptimal plan. With access to a full analysis of all the...


Mar 9, 2019

The housing crisis started with a policy decision

The leading cause was cutbacks to federal funding for housing for poor people starting with the Reagan administration. In 1978, the federal government was funding about over 300,000 new units of affordable housing each year. In 1983, that number had decreased to under...


Mar 2, 2019

Max Kenner is the founder and executive director of the Bard Prison Initiative, a college that is spread across six interconnected prisons in New York State. We discuss the enduring value of the liberal arts, the immense power of an education on reducing recidivism, and the critical importance of deep investments in...