4 episodes
More Than Enough Mia Birdsong, The Nation Magazine
-
- News Commentary
The latest podcast from writer and activist Mia Birdsong and The Nation explores how a Guaranteed Income might actually transform people's lives.
Mia Birdsong first heard about the concept of Guaranteed Income in the mid-90s through the 1967 writings of Martin Luther King Jr. King. He asserted that “the time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty” by providing a basic level of material well-being to allow all Americans to truly flourish. Birdsong thought it sounded "absurd.” As Birdsong notes, "Free money went against everything I'd learned about being a respectable citizen. But people change and our ideas evolve. I no longer think guaranteed income is absurd.”
After years of political education and activism, Birdsong came to reject some ideas that most of us believe: that having a job makes you a whole person, and that you have to earn the things we all deserve to live a good life.
From The Nation, More Than Enough is a four-episode podcast that explores the concept of guaranteed income, or "universal basic income," through conversations with the experts, people who experience poverty in America.
We invite you to listen to these under-explored conversations with Americans about Universal Basic Income: what it is, what it means, and what it says about a culture that so closely correlates deservedness with work. Join Birdsong as she explores the idea of the meaning of work, of inequality, and most importantly, of what America is and what it can be. More Than Enough launches January 15. Sign up for updates at thenation.com/morethanenough (https://www.thenation.com/content/more-than-enough/).
-
3: Poverty Makes the Pursuit of Happiness a False Promise
Could Guaranteed Income be one way of ensuring we all have the agency we need to pursue “the good life”?
-
2: Poverty Can Be Solved. Just Trust Poor People.
Our current poverty alleviation programs just aren’t working the way they should. Is there a better way?
-
1: ‘Let’s Give Them Money’: Could Guaranteed Income Be a Solution To Wealth Inequality?
The latest podcast from writer and activist Mia Birdsong and The Nation explores how a “Guaranteed Income” might actually transform people’s lives.
-
1: America Has More Than Enough Wealth For Us All
The latest podcast from writer and activist Mia Birdsong and The Nation explores how a Guaranteed Income might actually transform people's lives.
Customer Reviews
Should be Mandatory Listening
As a former criminal defense attorney I wish this podcast were part of judicial mandatory listening (and in law schools, medical schools, social work and economic programs, to name a few).
Mia Birdsong presents some of the previously unheard voices in the conversation on universal basic income with clarity (and more generosity than we in the white privileged culture deserve).
THANK YOU, Mia and The Nation!
Mia is brilliant
Mia travels around the country, talking to people who are often left out of policy convos: those who are struggling the most. It's a brilliant break down.
A wide selection of voices
Already in one episode we hear from policy experts, a Native American researcher, MLK, and an anecdote from Mia on her experience at a rural gun club. Glad that we have a perspective on guaranteed income that includes everyone who stands to benefit from it.