DiscoverThe Impact
The Impact

The Impact

Author: Vox

Subscribed: 10,281Played: 75,457
Share

Description

In Washington, DC, the story often ends when Congress passes a law. For us, that’s where the story begins. We examine the consequences of what happens when powerful people act — or fail to act. This season, Jillian Weinberger explores the big ideas from the 2020 presidential candidates: how their ideas worked, or didn’t work, in other places or at other times. Produced by Vox and the Vox Media Podcast Network.

34 Episodes
Reverse
The Toll

The Toll

2020-06-1025:462

In this bonus, chat episode of The Impact, Jillian is joined by Vox's Matt Yglesias and Course Correction's Nelufar Hedayat to talk about how the data collected on Covid-19 deaths will help shape our world, now and in the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Fabiola Cineas talks with Nkechi Taifa, the founder and director of the Reparation Education Project, about the history of the fight for reparations in America. Though they came to the forefront during the 2020 election in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, activists have been fighting for repayment for slavery since the practice was abolished. This is part of 40 Acres, a four-part series examining reparations in the United States. This series was made possible by a grant from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9 Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox Guest: Nkechi Taifa, founder and director of the Reparation Education Project References:  WMUR, 2019: Joe Biden discusses China-US trade talks, gun violence The N'COBRA movement and HR 40 Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: The Truth Behind “40 Acres and a Mule” Summer of Change: The Civil Rights Story of Glen Echo Park Los Angeles Times, 1995: Inspired by Marcus Garvey, Audley Moore has struggled to lift up African Americans The Republic of New Africa The Atlantic: Martin Luther King Makes the Case for Reparations HR 442 — Civil Liberties Act of 1987 HR 40 — Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act Pew Research Center: Black Americans Have a Clear Vision for Reducing Racism but Little Hope It Will Happen Gallup polling on American attitudes and race Belinda Sutton and Her Petitions No Pensions for Ex-Slaves: How Federal Agencies Suppressed Movement To Aid Freedpeople Wall Street Journal, 2019: "Reparations Ray" Blazed Lonely Trail Associated Press, 2019: New Orleans mayor to apologize for 1891 lynching of 11 Italian Americans NPR, 2009: Senate Apologizes For Slavery ABC News: Advocates call on Biden to act on reparations study by Juneteenth NPR, 2006: COINTELPRO and the History of Domestic Spying Washington Post, 2000: In Aetna's Past: Slave Owner Policies New York Times, 2016: Insurance Policies on Slaves: New York Life's Complicated Past   We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback This episode was made by:  Producer: Jonquilyn Hill  Engineer: Patrick Boyd Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Paying the price. One of the typical questions asked during conversations about reparations is how to pay for them. Fabiola talks with economist William “Sandy” Darity and folklorist Kirsten Mullen about how reparations could be executed. The husband-and-wife team lays out a comprehensive framework in their book, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century, for who would qualify and how the federal government would afford the $14 trillion price tag. This is part of 40 Acres, a four-part series examining reparations in the United States. This series was made possible by a grant from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9 Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox Guests: William “Sandy” Darity and Kirsten Mullen, authors of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century References:  From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen (The University of North Carolina Press; 2020) Homestead Act (1862) Disparities in Wealth by Race and Ethnicity in the 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve; 2020) Evanston is the first U.S. city to issue slavery reparations. Experts say it's a noble start. (NBC News; 2021) The Root of Haiti’s Misery: Reparations to Enslavers (New York Times; 2020) ‘We’re Self-Interested’: The Growing Identity Debate in Black America (New York Times; 2019)   We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback This episode was made by:  Producer: Jonquilyn Hill  Engineer: Patrick Boyd Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why slavery? Marxist scholar Adolph Reed argues that Jim Crow — not enslavement — is the defining experience for Black Americans today. Reed recounts his childhood in the segregation-era South in his book The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives. Fabiola speaks with Reed about his experience, his argument that reparations aren’t necessarily a healing balm, and what policies and resources are needed to create a more equitable society. This series was made possible with support from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9 Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox Guest: Adolph L. Reed Jr., author of The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives References:  The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives by Adolph L. Reed Jr. (Verso, 2022) The Marxist Who Antagonizes Liberals and Left (New Yorker) Black Americans’ views of reparations for slavery (Pew Research) Library Visit, Then Held at Gunpoint (New York Times, 2015) The Racial Wealth Gap Is About the Upper Classes (People’s Policy Project, 2020) Income Inequality and the Persistence of Racial Economic Disparities (Robert Manduca, 2018) We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback This episode was made by:  Producer: Jonquilyn Hill  Engineer: Patrick Boyd Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What good are piecemeal reparations? From Georgetown University, where school leadership once sold enslaved people, to Evanston, Illinois, where redlining kept Black residents out of homeownership, institutions and local governments are attempting to take reparations into their own hands. But do these small-scale efforts detract from the broader call for reparations from the federal government? Fabiola talks with Indigenous philanthropist Edgar Villanueva, founder of the Decolonizing Wealth Project and creator of the Case for Reparations fund, about the reparatory justice efforts underway across the country and the role that individual donors might be able to play in reparations. Fabiola also speaks with activist Kavon Ward, who worked to restore Bruce’s Beach, waterfront land in California, to the descendants of Black families who were pushed off the land by eminent domain. (Ward’s work was funded by Villanueva’s organization.) They discuss how jurisdictions are repaying Black people for what was taken from them — and if that repayment can be considered reparations at all. This series was made possible with support from the Canopy Collective and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. To provide feedback, please take our survey here: https://forms.gle/w9vYsfFGvdJLJ3LY9 Host: Fabiola Cineas, race and policy reporter, Vox Guest: Kavon Ward, founder, Where Is My Land; Edgar Villanueva, founder, Decolonizing Wealth Project References:  Decolonizing Wealth, Second Edition: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance by Edgar Villanueva (Penguin Random House, 2021) How a California beachfront property now worth millions was taken from its Black owners (CBS, May 2021) Governor Newsom Signs SB 796, Authorizing the Return of Bruce’s Beach (California state Sen. Steven Bradford, September 2021)    How Black activist Kavon Ward found her calling in the fight for Bruce’s Beach (Orange County Register) 272 Slaves Were Sold to Save Georgetown. What Does It Owe Their Descendants? (The New York Times, April 2016) In Likely First, Chicago Suburb Of Evanston Approves Reparations For Black Residents (NPR, 2021) We want to hear from you! Take Vox’s audience survey today: vox.com/feedback This episode was made by:  Producer: Jonquilyn Hill  Engineer: Patrick Boyd Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: A.M. Hall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Introducing The Impact

Introducing The Impact

2017-10-0900:501

The Impact is a show about how policy affects people. In Washington, the story often ends when Congress passes a law. For us, that’s where the story begins. We follow the choices that legislators, leaders, and researchers make out into the real world where they have human consequences — both positive and negative, expected and unexpected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How does a Band-Aid wind up costing so much money? Why are American health care prices so incredibly high? Vox’s new podcast, the Impact, explores how policy affects real lives. This season, we’re focusing on healthcare, and we wanted to begin with one of thorniest questions in the American healthcare system: prices. In this episode, we look at how the American decision not to regulate health care prices leads to $629 Band Aids and $3,170 fees just for visiting the emergency room. We talk to doctors who think these prices are totally justified – and a health economist who doesn’t buy it. And we take a trip to the drug store to find out how much a Band-Aid should really cost. Email us your feedback to impact@vox.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Central line infections can be deadly. And they used to be extremely common: just a decade ago, hundreds of thousands of patients got them every year. Now, that number is closer to 9,000 annually. That's still high, but it's a dramatic drop in just ten years. So how did that happen? On this episode of the Impact, we talk to the doctor who discovered that central line infections are, in nearly all cases, completely preventable. Physicians just need to follow a checklist to make sure the line stays safe and sterile. And we’ll explore why, if this infection is preventable, some hospitals still have several cases of them each year. This episode includes content that might be upsetting for listeners, so please be aware. Many thanks to Vox's Johnny Harris, who originally recorded footage for this story. For more on this topic, read Sarah’s story on central line infections from 2015. Please subscribe, leave us a rating and a review, and email us your feedback at impact@vox.com.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why are fax machines still such a staple of American health care? We talk to a pair of policy makers who hatched a plan to replace paper files and fax machines with electronic medical records. We explain why that plan backfired. And we go into clinics to understand why the fax's continued use isn't just annoying, but also sometimes harmful for patients' health. For even more fax facts, check out Sarah's text version of this story. You can send us feedback at impact@vox.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
There's a well-known narrative about the opioid epidemic: pharmaceutical companies and dirty doctors pushed misinformation and addictive drugs on patients. But there's also a policy story here, about well-meaning doctors who tried to find the best solution for their patients in pain. These doctors developed and spread new policies that urged their peers to treat pain as a vital sign and measure it at every visit. That policy change helped create the nationwide opioid epidemic we’re dealing with today.  Please, subscribe and leave us a review! You can email us at impact@vox.com, or send an ER bill at erbills.vox.com Music in this episode by Podington Bear and Chris Zabriskie, with sound effects from Berlin Atmospheres.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
On this episode of The Impact, we’re looking at a possible future for pain treatment. It’s an idea known as “pain acceptance,” and in the wake of the opioid epidemic, it is gaining traction among American doctors. Music from Podington Bear, Kevin MacLeod and Chris Zabriskie.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
American women are changing up their birth control. The use of IUDs and implants has increased 6000% in the United States since 2002.  That's the result of specific policy choices made in Washington and in state houses. These policies have reduced the teen pregnancy rate. They have cut the abortion rate. But they’re also at risk right now.  In this episode, we’re going to tell you how those policies came to be, how they're helping women access birth control -- and why, at this very moment, they are facing serious threats. Music in this episode by Podington Bear and Kevin MacLeod.  Email us feedback! We're at impact@vox.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The black robe effect

The black robe effect

2017-11-2739:573

What is the best way to care for patients with severe mental illness? The United States has struggled with this question for decades. In 1963, President Kennedy signed a law that was supposed to transfer patients with severe mental illness out of hospitals and back into their communities -- into outpatient treatment. That effort hasn't really worked. A lot these patients end up homeless. Many are in prison or jail. One recent study found that more than half of all inmates have some kind of mental illness. Summit County, Ohio, thinks it has a solution: court-ordered outpatient treatment. It’s often called Assisted Outpatient Treatment, or AOT for short. That’s sort of what President Kennedy hoped for: treatment outside of the hospital, in the community. But the treatment is enforced by the courts -- and that’s what makes it so controversial. We had music on this episode from Blue Dot Sessions, Chris Zabriske, Kevin MacLeod, and Poddington Bear. Please email us your feedback to impact@vox.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The United States has an astoundingly high maternal death rate. It is three times higher than the UK, eight times higher than Norway, and still climbing. But California does way better than the rest of the country. Over the last decade, doctors in the state have banded together and worked to bring their maternal death rate down. Today on The Impact, we'll tell you the story of that effort, and show you how it helped save one woman's life. One of our health care reporters, Julia Belluz, has done some amazing in-depth reporting on this issue. You can read her story here. Music in this episode from Chris Zabriskie. This is the last episode of this first season of The Impact. Please send us your thoughts, and your ideas for next season. We can be reached at impact@vox.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Help us make season 2!

Help us make season 2!

2018-01-0801:12

We're making season 2, and we need your help! We want to know about local policy experiments from around the country. These can be at the state, county, or city level, and can cover any kind of policy—environmental or housing or criminal justice.  Send us your suggestions at bit.ly/voximpact  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Impact’s second season focuses on states and cities as laboratories of democracy. Unlike our gridlocked Congress, local governments are constantly implementing exciting new policy. This season, the team crisscrossed the country to find the most interesting policy experiments and see how they are changing lives. Season two starts Friday, November 2. In the meantime, be sure to check out the first season, and email us with thoughts and questions at impact@vox.com.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Seattle is running the country’s most radical experiment to fix campaign finance. Last year, the city sent every resident $100 that they could donate to the local campaign of their choice. Seattle flooded its election with small donations to try to drown out the influence of big money in politics. In the first episode of our second season, we set out to discover if Seattle’s experiment made a difference for who decides to run for office, how candidates interact with voters, and who donates to campaigns. We also come across some talking dogs.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A decade ago, South Carolina was one of the most dangerous places in America for a baby to be born. But now, it’s taking an unconventional approach to fixing it: having pregnant women sit in circles with other pregnant women and...talk. The early evidence from this experiment suggests that these group sessions might be leading to better birth outcomes, and giving South Carolina babies a healthier start to life. In this episode, we’ll try to understand what it is about these workshops that works… and why this low-tech intervention might be just what the doctor ordered.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
While the federal government is trying to deport as many immigrants as possible, Oakland, California, is running a policy experiment to help immigrants stay in their communities. The city is giving as many immigrants as possible attorneys in court, free of charge. In this episode, find out how Oakland pulls this off when the federal government is against them — and how immigrants’ lives change when they get representation. * For more on this topic, check out Dara Lind’s coverage on Vox, including: what it means to give immigrants attorneys in immigration court; Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s role in immigration cases; deportations under Presidents Trump and Obama.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Food fight!

Food fight!

2018-11-1639:32

22% of New Yorkers are obese. In Chicago it is more than a quarter of the city. Obesity puts people at risk of diabetes, heart disease, even certain kinds of cancer. A couple of years ago, both cities decided to do something about it. But the policies they implemented were incredibly different. New York made healthy food more accessible. Chicago made sugary beverages more expensive. On this episode of the Impact: Which approach works best?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
loading
Comments (10)

Leah Fuller

listening from Toledo!!!!

Jan 4th
Reply

James Michael Thaxton, CST

New to the podcast and its Host. I absolutely love it. Also, her personality AND VOICE are fine. Making me have to say, her voice is fine, in the first place...is making me feel stupid as heck. To make such lame remarks are asinine to me and I'm just trying to make you realize that, you... Initial commenter, are in fact the lame one. NEGATIVELY MOTIVATED COMMENTS TOWARDS PEOPLE YOU CAN NOT SEE, FACE TO FACE, IS COWARDLY AND THEY MAKE YOU APPEAR TO BE....WELL, FRANKLY? A PUSSY! YES, THE TASTE OF YOUR OWN VITRIOLIC HUMOROUS BILE IS NOT VERY GOOD IS IT? THE PUBLIC COULD DO WITHOUT THE CRAP. STICKS AND STONES? IT'S BULLSHIT. WORDS HURT IN A WAY SO MUCH MORE PAINFULLY THAN A SAMURAI SWORD, AND ARE POWERFUL ENOUGH FOR SOMEONE TOO LEAP OFF A 100 STORY HIGHRISE. IN TURN, A CASCADE EFFECT ENSUES. FAMILY'S SUFFER, MONEY IS SPENT UNNECESSARILY AND NETWORKS LIKE NETFLIX, END UP MAKING SHOWS THAT SUCK... LIKE 13 REASONS WHY.

Jul 9th
Reply

Toni Diane

Wow. This is weird. I have chronic pain and am a disabled vet but don't take any opioids. It's crazy to think that ppl should just accept their pain and meditate or do yoga. Who even has that kind of time regularly? Imagine if we were told to just accept our depression.

Nov 13th
Reply

April Poglese

can I get the contact information for the emergency bills again. I would like to take this to Norther Michigan University's campus and try to get students interested in this study

Nov 1st
Reply

Maggie Rymer

hi

Oct 31st
Reply

Iron Beast

I really like the concept, just wish the host would work on her delivery. The way she ends each sentence is tough on the ears. Sounds like a high school girl trying to sound cool...

Oct 19th
Reply (3)

Pablo Estrada

can't wait:)

Oct 15th
Reply
Download from Google Play
Download from App Store