This week, Baratunde digs into the world of Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income, in other words distributing money, much like we do when we subsidize farmers or oil companies, but instead to individual households. Where does this money come from? Who gets the money? Will people still work? What will people even spend it on? And how on earth does free cash help our economy? Baratunde sits down with Aisha Nyandoro to find out what exactly happens when you give people in extreme poverty a thousand dollars a month, no strings attached.  

Guest: Aisha Nyandoro - CEO of Springboard To Opportunities

Twitter: @aisha_nyandoro

Bio: Aisha Nyandoro is the Chief Executive Officer of Springboard To Opportunities. Springboard provides strategic, direct support to residents of affordable housing. The organization’s service delivery model uses a “radically resident-driven” approach designed to improve quality of life and end the generational poverty trajectory.

SHOW NOTES + LINKS

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We are grateful to Aisha Nyandoro for joining us! Follow Aisha at @aisha_nyandoro on Twitter and learn more about Springboard to Opportunities and Magnolia Mother’s Trust.

ACTIONS

PERSONALLY REFLECT 

Change the story

Consider the commonly told stories you’ve heard about poverty in America. Stories like “people are poor because of bad choices,” “poor folks are uneducated,” and “never give spare change to a homeless person because they’ll use it on drugs.” Now flip those stories. Think about the systems at play that keep people poor. Things like predatory payday lending, doctor-prescribed opioids, red-lining, social welfare programs with unrealistic thresholds, and drug-related incarceration rates for people of color. Who is benefiting from these misleading narratives, and keeping certain segments of society poor?

 

BECOME INFORMED

Look for other models

Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income has been tested in a few different countries, regions, cities, and towns. So do some reading, and find out what the economists say about these programs. Check out this article from Vox listing out everywhere that has tried these programs and what learnings came out of each program. You can also check out the results from the most recent UBI experiment in Stockton, CA that spanned the course of two years. Learn about it here. 

 

PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Donate to Magnolia Mother’s Trust

Got some capital you’re looking to liberate? This one is simple. Donate to Magnolia Mother’s Trust. Checkout springboardto.org/magnolia-mothers-trust/ to find out how. If you are sold on UBI as a part of the solution, get involved with others in the Income Movement and attend or sponsor a march near you planned for Sept 25th, 2021. 

If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com. Mention In People We Trust in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen. 

Visit the show's homepage - www.howtocitizen.com - to sign up for news about the show, to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more for your citizen journey.

Also sign up for Baratunde's weekly Recommentunde Newsletter and follow him on Instagram or join his Patreon. You can even text him, like right now at 202-894-8844.

CREDITS

How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart, and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohn is our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen. Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Stephanie Cohn. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.

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In July of 1985, Greenpeace sent a ship named the Rainbow Warrior to New Zealand, then to Moruroa to monitor controversial French nuclear tests in the area. However, the Rainbow Warrior never made it out of New Zealand -- instead, terrorists sank it. At least, that was the official story. Tune in to learn more.

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Could there really be groups of people conducting Satanic rites -- not philosophical stances, but actual devil worship via ritual or even sacrifice? Where are these groups, if they exist? Find out in this classic episode.

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Authorities in El Salvador are excavating a clandestine cemetery at the house of a former detective which is believed to contain as many as 40 bodies – most of them thought to be women. A fungi containing psilocybin could cause emerging cicadas to become hypersexual, spreading their infection. Convicted crime boss Sedat Peker has flung accusations of rape, drug dealing and suspicious deaths against officials close to Mr. Erdogan, shaking Turkey's government to the core.

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Firearms are banned in many countries across the world, and it is highly difficult to acquire one. That is changing. The combination of 3D printing technology and the Internet - for better or worse - is moving the power of weapons manufacturing to the public domain.

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Will we ever know the true purpose of the ancient, mysterious Gobekli Tepe? Are campus police using their authority to protect students -- or to protect their school's reputation? Ben and Matt reenact a dramatic reading of one listener's encounter with disappearing (and reappearing) objects. All this and more in this week's listener mail.

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Workers have long been excluded from financial gains when businesses become profitable, and wages are no longer a way to create stability and build wealth. Cooperatives were created to combat this very problem. This week features Jamila Medley, the former Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), a co-op OF co-ops. PACA works to support this business model across industries, from food, to banking, to electricity!

Guest: Jamila Medley - Former Executive Director of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance

Twitter: @PhillyCoops

Bio: Jamila Medley is a passionate advocate and educator for the advancement and growth of the cooperative economy. In her work with existing and start-up co-ops, she provides support for leadership development, cooperative economics education, navigating group dynamics, and creating adaptive systems to support group process and learning. 

SHOW NOTES + LINKS

Go to howtocitizen.com to sign up for show news, AND (coming soon!) to start your How to Citizen Practice.

Please show your support for the show in the form of a review and rating. It makes a huge difference with the algorithmic overlords!

We are grateful to Jamila Medley for joining us! Follow PACA at @PhillyCoops on Twitter, or find more of PACAs work at philadelphia.coop.

ACTIONS

PERSONALLY REFLECT 

How Do You Coop(erate)?

Just like Jamila’s experience growing up, cooperatives don’t always have to be formal organizations. What are some informal ways you have participated in collective stewardship? Perhaps a community garden? Local park clean-up? Or in church? Think about the ways you cooperate with your community, local and global!

 

BECOME INFORMED

Collective Courage

We’ve got some homework for you! Per Jamila’s suggestion, start with reading Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon Nembhard. Collective Courage chronicles Black cooperative business ownership and its place in the civil rights movement. A history that’s often forgotten when discussing coops. Purchase it from our online bookstore, and support local bookshops in the process. https://bookshop.org/shop/howtocitizen 

PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE

Join or Support A Coop Near You

You’d be surprised how many cooperatives are operating right around you. Look into either buying from a local farm or grocery coop, joining a local credit union which is a financial co-op, or even getting your power from an electric coop. The best way to find some is do an online search with the name of your city or state and the word cooperatives. We also encourage you to buy from cooperative businesses. Find a directory at the website USworker.coop/directory 

If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com. Mention Not Another Patchouli Soaked Co-Op in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen. 

Visit the show's homepage - www.howtocitizen.com - to sign up for news about the show, to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more for your citizen journey.

Also sign up for Baratunde's weekly Recommentunde Newsletter and follow him on Instagram or join his Patreon. You can even text him, like right now at 202-894-8844.

CREDITS

How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohn is our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen. Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Alie Kilts. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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How can we navigate conspiracies in a post-truth environment? Is it true that many conspiracy theories do, in fact, have a grain of truth at their heart? In today's episode, the guys join up with Langston Kerman, creator of My Momma Told Me, to discuss the world of conspiracies, their effects on communities, and how best to explore them.

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Sure, cults are weird. The doomsday prophecies, claims of superpowers and tendency toward brainwashing are all strange, but what if the situation got even weirder? What if intelligence agencies were secretly involved with everything from the Manson family.

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Real estate appraisers exhibit nation-wide, currently legal discrimination against homeowners based on the perceived skin color of the owners. People are dressing up in costume and attempting to "fight crime" for attention on social media. The Pentagon may release classified info on UFOs -- which they call Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAP -- next Tuesday (Ben doubts it). All this and more in today's Strange News.

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