Social Policy

Ep 230. Dana Suskind: Parent Nation

Ep 230. Dana Suskind: Parent Nation

Dr. Suskind is a Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and is Co-Director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health. . She is also the author of the bestselling book, Thirty Million Words: Building a Child's Brain. Stew and Dana discuss her latest book, Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise, and the ways parents can use developmental neuroscience to help their children grow and ultimately to build a society that works for families and for all of us…[Click for more]

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Ep 221. Alec Ross: The Fight For Our Future

Ep 221. Alec Ross: The Fight For Our Future

Alec Ross is one of the world’s leading experts on innovation. A former senior advisor in the Obama Administration and currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at The University of Bologna Business School, his book is called The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People — and the Fight for Our Future. Stew and Alec talk about what he learned starting out as a school teacher in an economically ravaged part of Baltimore; the central problems of government, the private sector, and labor politics; and creating a sustainable world. [Click for more]

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Ep 215. Ulcca Joshi Hansen: The Future of Smart

Ep 215. Ulcca Joshi Hansen: The Future of Smart

Ulcca Joshi Hansen, a researcher and education advocate, is the author of The Future of Smart: How Our Education System Needs to Change to Help All Young People Thrive. Stew talks with Ulcca about what we want our children to learn, what they are actually being taught in our schools, what it means to be “smart” in today’s in today’s complex world, and how the educational system we have had for centuries has to change…[Click for more]

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Ep 209. Lauren Smith Brody: The Fifth Trimester

Ep 209. Lauren Smith Brody: The Fifth Trimester

Lauren Smith Brody is the founder of The Fifth Trimester and author of the bestselling book The Fifth Trimester: The Working Mom’s Guide to Style, Sanity, and Success After Baby. She was previously the executive editor of Glamour magazine. Stew talks with Lauren about practical advice for working mothers following their children’s arrival…[Click for more]

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Ep 200. Darby Saxbe: What Happens to Us When We Become Parents?

Ep 200. Darby Saxbe: What Happens to Us When We Become Parents?

Darby Saxbe is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California’s David and Dana Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Stew talks with Darby about her research on what happens to men and women when they become parents and how the pandemic has affected parents…[Click for more]

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Ep 199. Julie Kashen: Advocate for Change in Public Policy

Ep 199. Julie Kashen: Advocate for Change in Public Policy

Julie Kashen is the director for women’s economic justice and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a progressive independent think tank that fights for economic, racial, and gender equity in education, health care, and work. She served in federal and state government, including as Labor Policy Advisor to the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy and as Deputy Policy Director for former New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine. Stew talks with Julie about the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan, also known as the American Rescue Plan, and its implications for strengthening our nation’s care infrastructure…[Click for more]

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Ep 170. Christine Beckman: Living, Working and Parenting in the Digital Age

Ep 170. Christine Beckman: Living, Working and Parenting in the Digital Age

Christine Beckman is The Price Family Chair in Social Innovation and Professor of Public Policy at the Price Center for Social Innovation in the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, and the author of Dreams of the Overworked: Living, Working and Parenting in the Digital Age. Stew and Christine talk about the pluses and minuses of technology for working families, especially during these pandemic times…[Click for more]

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Ep 164. Michelle Travis: Dads for Daughters

Ep 164. Michelle Travis: Dads for Daughters

Michelle Travis is a law professor at the University of San Francisco’s School of Law, where she serves as a Director of USF’s Labor and Employment Law Program. Stew and Michelle discuss her new book, Dads For Daughters: How Fathers Can Give their Daughters a Better, Brighter, Fairer Future, and the ways by which men can help empower women…[Click for more]

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Ep 142. Michael Kimmel: Men's Changing Roles

Ep 142. Michael Kimmel: Men's Changing Roles

Michael Kimmel is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Stony Brook University, where he is also the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities. He is a leading authority on masculinity and gender, and author of numerous books on manhood including Angry White Men as well as Manhood in America: A Cultural History, and his bestseller, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. Stew and Michael discuss the history of feminism, the changing social and economic forces that shape gender roles, the way boys are raised in our culture, what it means to be a man…[Click for more]

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Ep 140. Chris Marvin: A Veteran's View on Patriotism, Service and Guns

Ep 140. Chris Marvin: A Veteran's View on Patriotism, Service and Guns

Chris Marvin is the principal for Marvin Strategies, a strategic communications firm that constructs narratives to change minds and solve social issues. Chris founded the Got Your 6 campaign to advocate for accurate portrayals of military veterans in the media. In this episode, Stew and Chris discuss the anniversary of 9/11, Chris’ military service, how veterans are civic assets, and how we can all become more engaged and better citizens….[Click for more]

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Ep 127. Caitlyn Collins: Seeking Work/Life Justice

Ep 127. Caitlyn Collins: Seeking Work/Life Justice

Caitlyn Collins is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis and author of Making Motherhood Work: How Women Manage Careers and Caregiving, a cross-national interview study of 135 working mothers in Sweden, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Stew and Caitlyn discuss the cross-national differences Caitlyn observed in her research on working mothers in four countries. It was only the American women who blamed themselves for the stresses and strains of life as a working mother…[Click for more]

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Ep 112. Rebecca Henderson: Reimagining Capitalism

Ep 112. Rebecca Henderson: Reimagining Capitalism

Rebecca Henderson is the John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, where she has a joint appointment at the Harvard Business School. Her research explores the degree to which the private sector can play a major role in building a more sustainable economy, focusing particularly on the relationships between organizational purpose and innovation and productivity in high performance organizations. She teaches Reimagining Capitalism: Business & the Big Problems at Harvard, a course that has grown from 28 students to over 300, and is under contract for a book tentatively titled “Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire.” Why is she hopeful…[Click for more]

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Ep 107. Paul Rupert: Respectful Exits

Ep 107. Paul Rupert: Respectful Exits

Paul Rupert is the Founder and CEO of Rupert Organizational Design as well as CEO of the advocacy start-up Respectful Exits, a company promoting the rights of aging workers by improving retirement options including online guidance and training for all forms of flexible work, including Phased Retirement…[Click for more]

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Ep 106. Marc Freedman: The Power and Beauty of Intergenerational Connections

Ep 106. Marc Freedman: The Power and Beauty of Intergenerational Connections

Marc Freedman is the President and CEO of Encore.org; one of the nation’s leading experts on the longevity revolution; member of the Wall Street Journal’s “Experts” panel and the author of several books including Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life and The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife. Freedman co-founded, with AARP, Experience Corps to mobilize people over 50 to improve the school performance and prospects of low-income elementary school students; spearheaded the creation of the Encore Fellowships program, a one-year internship for grownups as well as the Purpose Prize (now run by AARP). Marc and Stew talk about his latest book, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations…[Click for more]

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Ep 79. Advocates for Paid Leave: Ellen Bravo, Sen. Joe Fain, Rep. Kaniela Ing

Ep 79. Advocates for Paid Leave: Ellen Bravo, Sen. Joe Fain, Rep. Kaniela Ing

This week Stew speaks with three guests who are all advocates of paid family leave: Ellen Bravo (founding director of Family Values at Work), Washington State Republican Senator Joe Fain, and Hawaii Democratic State Representative Kaniela Ing. They discuss the need for paid leave (beyond parental leave) and the economics for employers and employees and societal impact. [Click for more]

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Ep 65. Jeffrey Pfeffer: Is Your Work Killing You?

Ep 65. Jeffrey Pfeffer: Is Your Work Killing You?

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University and the author of the bold and critically important 2018 book, Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance -- And What We Can Do About It.  Stew and Jeff discuss the stress and strain, the toxicity, of today's workplaces and the effects on employee health. To hear about humane organizations and solutions...[Click for more]

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Ep 63. Ellen Galinsky: Making Life Better for Parents and Children

Ep 63. Ellen Galinsky: Making Life Better for Parents and Children

Ellen Gallinsky is the Chief Science Officer at the Bezos Family Foundation where she also serves as executive director of a program called Mind in the Making. In addition, she’s Senior Research Advisor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). She's the co-founder and President of the Families and Work Institute and author of the best-selling Mind in the Making and also of Six Stages of Parenthood. Stew and Ellen talk about the current state of working families, childcare, parental leave, and what children and parents, employers and society need...[Click for more]

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Ep 49. Josh Levs: Paternity Leave Champion

Ep 49. Josh Levs: Paternity Leave Champion

Josh Levs is an author, entrepreneur, and expert on fathers in the workplace. For 20 years, Josh wrote for NPR and CNN. He is a six-time Peabody award-winner and two-time Edward R. Murrow award-winner.  At the time of the birth of his third child he sued his employer, CNN/Time Warner, to obtain a paternity leave for biological fathers that matched the company’s leaves for mothers and adoptive parents....[Click here for more]

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Ep 24. Joan Williams: What Elites Don't Get about the White Working Class

Ep 24. Joan Williams: What Elites Don't Get about the White Working Class

Joan Williams is a Distinguished Law Professor at the University of California Hastings and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law, which promotes gender and racial equality in the workplace. She’s written extensively on gender and work. We discuss her just released book, White Working Class: Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America...[Click here for more]

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Ep 17. Brad Harrington: Fathers at Home

Ep 17. Brad Harrington: Fathers at Home

Brad Harrington is Executive Director of the Boston College Center for Work & Family and leads research focusing on the changing role of fathers, career management, and work-life integration.  He recently completed a series of...[Click for Show Notes, Links, more]

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