Cardinal Direction

Cardinal Institute for WV Policy
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What's really happening in the Mountain State? Cardinal Direction brings you in-depth conversations on the policies affecting West Virginia, from the economy and education to healthcare and infrastructure. Produced by the Cardinal Institute for WV Policy.

  1. 23h ago

    What Work Remains at the State and Federal Levels? with Les Ford

    Getting help shouldn’t become a full-time job. Yet families can face different applications, eligibility rules, renewal schedules, and caseworkers for each safety-net program they need. In the final episode of this Cardinal Direction series, Jessi Troyan talks with Les Ford, president of Ford Policy Solutions and senior fellow at the Alliance for Opportunity, about what it would take to make that system easier to navigate and better connected to work. They discuss lessons from the 1996 welfare reform, more recent changes to SNAP and Medicaid, and why work requirements alone leave bigger structural problems unresolved. Les also explains what states can learn from Utah’s approach to coordinating public assistance and workforce services, and why audits should ask what happens to families after they leave assistance. The conversation returns to a practical question: How can the safety net help people through a crisis and support a lasting return to stability?

  2. Sep 24

    State-Level Transformation in Louisiana with Susie Schowen

    What does it take to turn a fragmented safety net into a pathway to work? Louisiana Works Secretary Susie Schowen joins Jessi Troyan to discuss Louisiana’s “one door” approach to connecting public benefits and workforce services. From gas cards that help students stay in training to changes across state agencies, they explore the practical work of reform, the importance of frontline staff, and lessons West Virginia can apply to its own efforts.

  3. Sep 17

    Alternative Model in Action: Utah's Story with Nic Dunn

    What if getting temporary help also meant finding a clearer path back to work? On this episode of Cardinal Direction, Jessi talks with Nic Dunn of the Sutherland Institute about Utah’s “one door to work” approach, which brings assistance and employment services together. They discuss why benefit cliffs can make a raise feel risky, how complicated programs take time away from work and skill-building, and what West Virginia can learn from Utah. Dunn also makes the case for giving states room to test new ideas while asking a bigger question: If we designed the safety net today, what would we build?

  4. Sep 10

    Vision for a Better Safety Net with Mason Bishop

    Getting a job or earning a raise should help a family get ahead. But benefit cliffs and a maze of disconnected programs can make that harder than it should be. In this episode of Cardinal Direction, host Jessi Troyan, Director of Policy and Research at the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy, welcomes Mason Bishop, Principal at WorkED Consulting and Nonresident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Drawing on his role in creating Utah’s Department of Workforce Services, Bishop explains how bringing public assistance and employment services together can help people find steady work and increase their income. He and Jessi discuss making work pay, easing the transition off benefits, and what West Virginia can learn from Utah’s approach. Throughout the conversation, they return to the importance of human dignity and helping families build a future beyond meeting their immediate needs.

  5. Sep 3

    Overview of the American Social Safety Net with Angela Rachidi

    In the season premiere of Cardinal Direction, host Jessi Troyan sits down with American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Angela Rachidi to examine America’s social safety net and why programs intended to help families can sometimes stand in the way of stability and upward mobility. Drawing on nearly three decades of experience in government, research, and the private sector, Rachidi explains how overlapping programs and conflicting rules create administrative burdens, marriage penalties, benefit cliffs, and disincentives to work. The conversation explores lessons from the landmark welfare reforms of the 1990s, the dignity and nonfinancial benefits of employment, and the role states can play in leading the next generation of reform. It’s a thoughtful look at how America can transform the safety net from a system that manages poverty into a bridge toward opportunity and self-reliance.

  6. Jan 30

    How to Believe in Both Justice and Policing

    In this episode of Cardinal Direction, host Jessica Dobrinsky is joined by Brianna Neufer, Chief Operating Officer at Americans for Public Safety, to unpack one of the most polarized issues in American life: public safety. Brianna shares how her work across the criminal justice landscape, from managing national strategy and grants at Stand Together to helping launch a new organization focused on policy and elections, has shaped her view that public safety is not a partisan talking point, but a foundational public obligation. Together, they discuss how communities can rebuild trust between citizens and law enforcement, why constitutional protections are essential to a fair justice system, and what practical reforms can reduce crime while strengthening the rule of law, including risk-based pretrial detention, smarter policing strategies, and more effective rehabilitation behind bars.

  7. Jan 30

    The Conservative Case for Criminal Justice Reform

    Host Jessica Dobrinsky sits down with Beverly Sharpe, a former federal prison officer and administrator who spent 30 years inside the corrections system before turning her experience toward reentry and reform through West Virginia’s REACH Initiative. Together, they explore what happens after the sentence ends, when people returning home face hundreds of “collateral consequences” that block housing, work, education, and even basic stability, often setting them up to fail before they’ve had a chance to start over. Sharpe explains how REACH operates like a “triage nurse” for reentry: meeting people where they are, mobilizing a statewide network of reentry councils and community partners, and cutting through red tape to solve urgent needs in real time. The conversation also digs into the school-to-prison and foster-care-to-prison pipelines, the role employers and the faith community can play in restoring dignity, and why second chances are not soft on accountability—they’re essential to safer, stronger communities.

  8. Jan 30

    Second Chances: Life After Incarceration

    In this episode of Cardinal Direction, host Jessica Dobrinsky sits down with Vikrant Reddy, senior fellow at Stand Together Trust, to explore one of the most consequential and complicated issues in American life: how we punish, how we forgive, and what justice actually requires. Drawing on his experience launching the Right on Crime initiative at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Reddy explains how criminal justice reform can resonate with conservatives and libertarians, especially through the lens of overcriminalization, in which regulatory violations can land ordinary people in the criminal justice system. The conversation moves from big-picture principles to practical takeaways for states like West Virginia. Reddy argues that public safety and constitutional rights are not competing priorities, but mutually reinforcing ones—and that effective reform starts with “swift and certain” accountability rather than simply harsher sentences. They also discuss policing, rural-versus-urban realities, and why opioid and drug policy challenges should not default to an ever-expanding criminal justice response.

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About

What's really happening in the Mountain State? Cardinal Direction brings you in-depth conversations on the policies affecting West Virginia, from the economy and education to healthcare and infrastructure. Produced by the Cardinal Institute for WV Policy.

Information

  • Creator
    Cardinal Institute for WV Policy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    14
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Cardinal Direction
  • Show Website
    Cardinal Direction