The Uncertain Hour

Marketplace

Each season, we explain the weird, complicated and often unequal American economy — and why some people get ahead and some get left behind. Host Krissy Clark dives into obscure policies and forgotten histories to explain why America is like it is.

The latest season examines the “welfare-to-work industrial complex” and the multi-million dollar companies running today’s for-profit welfare centers.

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Our Editor's Take

The Uncertain Hour is a documentary podcast about the economy. Host Krissy Clark says the topics that cause the most debate are often the least understood. She's an award-winning reporter and senior correspondent for Marketplace. The host clarifies governmental strategies that affect, yet confuse, many Americans. These include federal regulations, drug approval policies, and unemployment. Welfare is a recurring subject here.

When Clark asked people how they felt about welfare, they gave confident answers. But when she asked them what welfare was, they couldn't explain it, including the people on welfare. The Uncertain Hour podcast analyzes the historical origins and modern efficacy of programs like these.

Clark interviews welfare reformer Larry Townsend. He promotes putting welfare recipients to work. He says educating them wastes time. Townsend's license plate frame reads, "Life works if you work." He wrote slogans like, "Success stands on your backbone, not your wishbone." The Uncertain Hour assesses whether his theories work. Podcast listeners hear where welfare money goes in their state. Only one-fifth of low-income families receive it. The other recipients are surprising.

The Uncertain Hour investigates government regulations. President Carter denounced a 12-year regulatory fight about the percentage of peanuts in peanut butter. Homemaker Ruth Desmond prompted that fight. A self-described "alerter," she demanded transparency for consumers. Desmond fought against nitrates in baby food and sawdust and chalk in bread. She decried carcinogens in cranberries and chloroform in children's toothpaste. She rode on her husband's hospital gurney to prevent him from getting anesthesia.

Desmond dedicated herself to everyone's safety. She and Clark share that commitment. Clark discusses pharmaceutical companies that contributed to the oxycodone epidemic. OxyContin's original label claimed its delayed absorption might reduce abuse liability. Who wrote that? Were they required to prove it? There were 80,411 opioid-involved overdose deaths in 2021. Opioid addiction affects millions.

As cocreator of this podcast, Clark is friendly yet relentless. She asks Townsend to explain his controversial comments about menopause and welfare. He gets flustered. She doesn't. Clark is an educated ally for listeners. Her reflective research explains current economic uncertainties.

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Season 6

Chapter 6: The Welfare to Temp Work Pipeline
Apr 26 2023
Chapter 6: The Welfare to Temp Work Pipeline
Since the 1990s, most cash welfare recipients have been required to get a job or do mandated “work activities” to receive their monthly check. These requirements are intended to help parents who are struggling financially into jobs that will help keep them out of poverty and off government benefits. But is the work requirement system meeting either of those goals? According to our analysis of data from Wisconsin, an average of nearly 70% of employed welfare participants worked at temp companies. These companies put people to work in other companies, trying to fill temporary jobs where the work is often grueling and the pay low.  Welfare-to-work has been so good for temp agencies that some of them actively lobby for more work requirements for government benefits through campaign contributions and white papers. “It gives us a pool of more people we can help,” said the CEO of one temp company whose franchises have ranked among the top 10 employers of Wisconsin welfare participants. “A person loses self-esteem when they don’t go back to work. Whether it’s voluntary or involuntary work is very important for their psyche.” On this episode, host Krissy Clark looks at the cozy relationship between for-profit welfare companies and temp companies desperate to put people to work in some of the country’s most precarious jobs. Plus, a frank discussion with an architect of our modern welfare-to-work system, former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson. For a deeper dive into the numbers about how private welfare contractors make money and some other eye-popping data, check out the work of our colleagues at APM Research Lab. Give today to help cover the costs of this rigorous reporting. Every donation makes a difference!

Season 5

Season 4