 Well, hello and welcome everyone to the year end wrap up of the crisis conversations live from the better life lab. I'm Bridget Schulte, the director of the better life lab. And today we reflect when we started the these weekly live interactive conversations. It was at the beginning of the pandemic. No one had any idea what was going to happen how long it was going to last. I anticipated we would do six. I thought we would do six episodes. And today this is our 26th. So the crisis continues the pandemic drags on. And what we wanted to do when we started these conversations was to create space. We all felt so isolated and the changes were happening so rapidly and so much was being disrupted in work and care. That we wanted to create space to come together and share stories to understand what was really happening to real lives. And what we needed what we were learning and what we needed to do to not only survive this pandemic, but really to help all working families thrive. How could we have real work, family justice and gender equity in the pandemic and beyond. So with that, what we've done is we've listened to all of these episodes and we've come together based in the stories that we heard, and we put together what we're calling a bold agenda for work, family justice and gender equity in the pandemic and beyond. We're releasing that today. And we're really excited to be able to share that. But what we wanted to do today was to have a minute to a minute to kind of talk about well what have we learned over the past year so this is a better life lab roundup. And let me turn it over and have every team member introduce himself so Vicki let's start with you. Sure. Hi, I'm Vicki Shabo senior fellow for paid leave policy and strategy at the better life lab. Hi, I'm Robin Miller and the policy analyst for the better life lab. Hi, my name is Josiah St. Julian and I'm a research associate at the better life lab. Hi, my name is Emily Halgren I'm a PhD intern working on our better life lab experiments project. Hi, my name is Stavrula past and I am a PhD intern working on our communications. All right, so what I've asked everyone to do is to bring a clip an actual clip or a story that really stuck with them that can really help us understand where we are and I want to begin by grounding us in the moment, because here we are nine months into the pandemic. I'm sitting here I, you know, I've had COVID and recovered I've given plasma I don't think I've worn shoes in nine months. But at the same time, you know jobless benefits are at their highest levels in a long time cases are rising again hospitalizations are rising. There's so many programs that were designed to help work and family. And I'm going to combine it that are expiring if Congress does not act in the next week paid leave paid sick days unemployment protection student loan protections all are expiring unemployment protections have already expired in July childcare, which we've talked a little bit about which is an enormous crisis before COVID and certainly in COVID. It got $3 billion in March advocates and economists and lawmakers have said it needs $50 billion just to survive, and it's never happened, we've got one week. Congress does not act. There's a world, you know, things could go from bad to worse. So to really ground us in what people are really experiencing. Let's start with the clip from an episode where we featured a number of parents and we had Justin Rubin, who's with parents together a group of parents from all walks of life. So let's hear what Justin had to say. This is the hardest thing that's happened to families in 80 or 90 years right so absolutely parents feel abandoned and desperately in trouble right now, either because in some cases they don't have enough to eat but they can't make rent, or they've had to cut back on work or quit work entirely to do childcare or because they're doing remote learning and it's not going well or the kids are getting the services they need or they're just doing remote learning and it's going okay but it's still breaking them all this incredible squeeze total desperation and frustration. So Vicki, let's start with you. You've been really active, you know, with what's happening. We've got one week and these emergency paid family leave and paid sick days bills. You know, these programs are expiring. You know, talk a little bit about what's happening and what you're hearing and really what's at stake. Yeah, I mean, what's happening in Congress right now is a mess. There is, you know, there's an effort earlier this week to reach a bipartisan agreement starting last week into this week to reach a bipartisan agreement. And even within that framework of the agreement, these key essential, very inexpensive provisions that guaranteed up to 10 paid sick days for workers that had to quarantine or self isolate, or get a COVID diagnosis or care for a family that they did, and a total of 12 weeks to care for a child who was out of school or doing virtual school or child care was closed. These provisions were in the act that were passed in March, but they expire at the end of this year. If you think back to that time in March, who would have known that we would still be in essentially the same place that we are that cases would be rising that parents would have dropped out of the workforce in record numbers to be able to care for their children, they just didn't know. Those provisions they were in the family's first Coronavirus Response Act, they were imperfect. I did only limited paid sick time and almost, you know, no paid family and medically for serious health issues they carved out about half of the workforce, but they were something and for people who they have helped and businesses who received reimbursement they were a lifeline. Those provisions run out at the end of the year and what that means if Congress doesn't act is that about 87 million workers that received protections or should have received protections through the emergency paid sick and family leave provisions will not have those guarantee that guaranteed leave anymore. There's about 60 million private sector workers whose employers were also getting help by getting reimbursed for that time. 31 million parents of an estimated 50 million children. Wow, access to that emergency paid leave, according to Sarah janglin at the Center for American Progress. And so what we're doing is cutting off a policy that has been proven by researchers academic researchers to prevent about 15,000 COVID cases per day. cases are rising. We're cutting off benefits to parents who are still at home who are running out of time if they've used it. And who need more, while their kids are still virtually schooling or virtually schooling again as schools that had kids go in person are starting to shut back down. And what this does is push people into the unemployment system. Again, those provisions to are expiring, although hopefully they will be part of a package they're not guaranteed. It pushes people into other programs that are funded through either federal state or local revenues which are starting to dry up. It pushes people into precarity with respect to food and homelessness, and those provisions to and so what we're doing is through an action really defining down what it is that we expect people to be able to make do with. And for women and for communities of color in particular this is devastating these are the communities that have been hardest hit by COVID. These are the communities that are most in need of paid leave but may not have it through an employer. And these are the folks who are most likely to be hurt as this pandemic continues and until we have a vaccine that's available to everybody. Yeah, you know, you were talking about how, you know, this is a this has been a lifeline for so many families, and it wasn't perfect. One of the clips that we brought is of Marissa Corbell she is a lawyer in Portland, Oregon, and she felt like she was about to, you know, she couldn't do it all and so what she described was that this paid leave was a was a lifeboat. So let's hear what she had to say. I had to realize for myself is that me not taking this leave isn't going to fix that for anybody else. So it's not like by taking this leave that means that, you know, some working single mother doesn't get to take it. It's really, they're sort of independent problems. And it's frustrating and terrible that we have a system that would create a lifeboat that really only helps people who are somewhat privileged. Which the point she was making just the point that you had made that there were these carve outs for so many, so many workers if you worked for a large company that had over 500 employees. You, you were not covered by this if you work for a small company there were all sorts of exemptions you could claim. And what so much of the research showed is that the people who were carved out were the very essential workers who worked at, you know, large big box real retailers and people who were out there all the time. And most exposed to the virus, they were the ones that did not have access to this paid paid leave. So we're talking about, can we, can we even protect this, this imperfect program, but what are the prospects for for fixing this for really making paid leave really work. Well, I mean before the pandemic we were seeing tremendous momentum in Congress on the issue of universal paid family and medical leave program similar to what exists and now, soon to be 10 states. One of the good things that happened in 20 in 2020 was new state, so two new states got their programs up and running another new state Colorado past its program in the 2020 election through the ballot for the first time ever. Congress was looking at this I think the other interesting thing is that organized business groups are starting to think that it might be better to have a national standard as well. There's a lot of a lot of daylight between what a strong universal comprehensive affordable and accessible paid leave program would look like that guarantees a baseline to everybody. And what some of the other alternative proposals look like the fact that there is cross you know business and consumer and advocacy conversations. But there is some interest on the Republican side, although I would say that this this series of negotiations that happened has really to me shown a light on you know the difference between lip service to an issue and actually being willing to provide support families by providing paid leave. We haven't seen a Republican step out to champion the extension of this family's first emergency paid leave notwithstanding the lip service that some paid when that they voted for and that some paid when a lot first past. So, you know we need a national paid family medical leave program that guarantees leave to all working people no matter where they live or work or the job that they have or whether they're a traditional employee or an independent contractor. We need access to paid sick days in normal times for things like the flu or to go see the doctor to get preventive care, as well as for pandemic paid sick days or emergency health paid sick days that get baked into any kind of permanent loss so that we're not in this position again. The states that had paid leave in place actually were able to handle people's needs much better at the beginning of this pandemic than every other place. And there's fascinating research that shows that people who you know what in places that did have universal paid sick days. The number of cases was actually much lower so that it was actually good for everyone it was a good public health benefit. So I want to just really briefly play a clip of Maryland Washington she was that she's a home health aid she's 71. And when I had this interview with her I her comments have just stayed with me all through the pandemic. Just heartbreaking let's let's listen to. So Maryland did not have any access to paid leave. She was exempted from the paid sick days proposal. And this is what she faced every day. Nick you feel like you just we're not worth it. We out there going to take care of people that are sick to make sure that they'll be able to you know to do since they can't do for they self that we have to go out there do it but oh well as we get sick you know just like oh well you know that that's your job as a health care worker you have to go out and take care of the people. Even if it means you're risking your own health and and you know potentially your own life. Yeah. So that's just it's one of those it's just one of those comments it just as as hung with me. Ross let's turn to you you tell us about the clip that you introduced the clip that you want to play and then we'll listen to it and talk some more. It's interesting to see how benefits social policy benefits have actually been able to support people and looking at the ones that are going to expire at the end of the year. One of two benefits expiring our pandemic unemployment benefits and pandemic emergency unemployment compensation. So Latrice Wilson was a furloughed payroll supervisor and advocate for unemployed action who spoke on our crisis conversations podcast and her story just really resonated with me so we can play that clip. So I think it's interesting to hear from Congress stating that it would keep people from going back to work. Well I don't have a choice but to wait because I am furloughed unless I choose to go find another job and lose my health care benefit. And that I need medication for my autoimmune disorder. So I have a choice but I don't have a choice. Right now about 20 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment benefits and about half of those people will lose benefits at the end of the year when these programs expired and we know that that's going to have huge equity implications as well with black unemployment rate changing at almost twice at almost twice percentage points for every one percentage point change in national unemployment rate. You know the thing that struck me so much about Latrice is she was really stuck. So she had been furloughed which means she could not go and look for another job. And she had an autoimmune disorder so she needed medication. And so she had to end up paying her portion of her health care that her employer would normally pay if she were employed. So she's picking that up and then she had that the $600 supplement $600 week supplement that helped her do that. And then she was already worried that expired in July and she was already starting to dip into her savings. So here's somebody like Latrice who was in a you know in a real dire situation in August. And now the supplement has gone and like you say these extended benefits are gone that also cover gig workers. You know so you know talk a little bit about kind of what we need to what are we learning from this that that not only do we need this short term. You know some kind of response but but what do we need in the long term. And, and we know that like the average American family can't afford $400 and emergency expenses so this $600 at unemployment is really important. And the short term we definitely need to extend and expand emergency unemployment benefits and longer term we need to work on looking at the unemployment system as a whole and the infrastructure for which we used to support families. We heard from Violet Moya, who was a retail worker in the beauty industry. She was part of a mass firing she called 800 times to try and get someone on the phone to get these unemployment benefits which she needed immediately. And a lot of that is the tech infrastructure so long term we really need to invest in how we deliver these benefits how we implement them to make sure that we have equitable access to all communities. You know, I'm really struck, you know, so Vicki one of the things that you were talking about is, you know, some of what the sticking points are. The Republicans want to take out aid to state and local governments and yet just braslin to your point. So many we heard from so many people who came on and shared their stories that the technology is, you know, it is kind of old and doesn't work all that well and so many of these state and unemployment systems were just overloaded. And so you did have stories of people calling hundreds of times and still not getting through. You know, in interest of time, let me move on to Jezaya. Jezaya talk a little bit about the clip that you brought today. Yeah, so the clip that I brought today is from Dr Michelle Holder, who is a labor economist and when she came on to the show it was for the episode around why we need to center women of color when we're thinking about the pandemic and we're thinking about policy solutions to help workers and families. And so she shared her story about what it was like to grow up in New York City and watching her own mother struggle to make ends meet in a nation that had more than enough wealth so if we could just share her story really quickly. That'd be great. I basically watched her struggle in a country with so much wealth, and I was really trying to understand why public policy seemed to be failing my family, especially a woman who wanted to work who did work, but because she didn't have a college degree she didn't make very much. And because she had three children she also had caregiving duties so sometimes she lost the job because she had to take care of a sick child. So to say, you know, we did, we've had an episode around why we need to center relief, you know, on women of color. We've had episodes really looking at racial justice reckoning. You know, and that's a big part of the bold agenda that that you and Rosslyn helped put together and we put out today. So, so talk a little bit about sort of what we've learned and what we need to do now. And also what we need to do moving forward, you know, to really center equity in these in these work family justice conversations. Right, definitely. So I think something that we've all learned, and something that the pandemic has revealed is really the disparate economic and social outcomes that are most harmfully impacting people of color and women of color. And very clear ways in which we can see this during the pandemic is just the mere fact that the brunt of the unemployment numbers have been impacting not only women but women of color who are in sectors that are most impacted by you know the pandemic in terms of service sectors and food sectors. And you think about the people who are on the front lines and those people being disproportionately again, women of color and so they're either losing their jobs, or they're, you know, exposed to the virus in unprecedented ways. And so that is really just forcing us to think about okay so when we're thinking about policies like paid sick leave and paid family leave. And we're thinking about the fact that millions are excluded. You have to wonder who's being excluded and it's women of color. And the thing is, you know, these exclusions from public policies that should be benefiting everyone have been impacting women of color. Historically, this isn't necessarily a new phenomenon, but it's something that we're being exposed to and we're being forced to reckon with. And so when Dr. Holder is talking about watching her mother, you know growing up in Bedford, New York, and just seeing not only her mother but a neighborhood of women struggling to make it. It is because those public policies that we're talking about today, we're also failing women of color in the 70s and the 80s and the 19th century right and it's let's think about for example the unequal pay right women of color making less money than their white and male counterparts thinking about the racial wealth gap what should be helping people, you know, stay afloat during this pandemic savings assets income which helps fuel wealth and people of color coming short each and every time. Thinking about Latrice Wilson and unemployment extensions and supplements the $600 that is supposed to help her right make ends meet and supposed to, you know, try to address the compounding effects of racial inequity, as it pertains to what it looks like in the labor market what it looks like in the housing market, which you know informs wealth. And so these policies really are about economic justice at the end of the day they're about racial justice at the end of the day. And so I think that's a really crucial part of the conversation that Dr. Holder was, you know, drawing our attention to is this is an opportunity for us with immediate legislation and long term legislation to address inequity across craze, excuse me, craze class and gender. Yeah, so I think that's like a huge takeaway point. Yeah, that's so important. You know and that's been our mission all along, you know to have really focus on equity across race class and gender as you say. And I think it's, you know, as horrible and as miserable as this year has been and so, you know, so many people have been under such struggle. It has really laid bare so many cracks in the system. And you know I said once I don't think we can unsee what we've seen. I hope that's true. You know, I hope that it doesn't, we don't kind of fall back but at this moment we are seeing, I think we are seeing the reality for so many people so much more clearly, and we're seeing so much more clearly what we really need to do to really support we say we're a nation of family values what we really need to do as Vicki says to really make that real more than lip service. So, another thing that's also become very, very clear and I think all of us it's with our work we know this but Emily, talk a little bit about the the clip that you've chosen and why and then we'll play that quickly. Yeah, thank you. So, it was actually in early April that there was a crisis conversation looking at how the pandemic has affected the balance or the imbalance of labor at home household labor. And so, I chose a clip featuring Eve Robsky the author of the book Fair Play which talks a lot about, you know how families can create systems to fairly balance the the labor in their home care work housework and it just really spoke to this sort of crisis of invisible labor and how invisible labor can no longer remain invisible right and that this unprecedented time is really is really pointing that out so should we go ahead and play it. Yeah. The core premise you brought up before was really important because while we're all fighting over from guys jackets who's picking up the you know the broken beer bottle or the sponge in the sink, or who's setting the table for dinner. The small details right now are the dirty dozen are causing huge problem, but the real finding of Fair Play and it's really more important even now was this idea that society and men view women's time as as infinite, like Sam, and we view society view men's time as finite like and we know that the people pay because even in the same job right women are paid less, especially women of color, but what about women. So this is what I want to say to any women who are on this fall. It was women who were devaluing their time the most. You know, I'm struck by that, you know that that was, you know, the whole idea that for, you know, for so long we've thought of women's time as as not as important as not as value. It's also true with care, we have not valued care in a way that the pandemic has really shown us is so short sighted and how how central time and support for care is for making everything else work. So, staff, let's let's let's let's go to you for the final clip, because it's really right at the center of care and making time for what for making time for what matters with family and also supporting that. Oh, yeah, that sounds great. And essentially, yes, that's why I picked this quote. I think this quote kind of encapsulates a lot of the problem for me in the sense that, you know, a lot of people don't even think about care in their day to day lives, despite the fact that you know, I think about 21% of Americans are in fact caregivers. I think this quote does such an excellent job of showing that discrepancy I suppose. Let's go ahead and play it and then I'll comment. Okay, great. We think of caregivers as a critical element for our social sector, our healthcare sector, and yet we don't see very many opportunities where the caregiver is the center of that conversation. They're usually the afterthought. So that that was Jennifer Olson. She's the executive director of the Rosalind Carter Institute where they do a lot of work for on supporting family caregivers. You know, so staff, you know, what struck you about that this, you know, this is family caregivers are often invisible, you know, and especially during the pandemic when there have just been so many health issues. They've really been under a lot of pressure without a lot of support. I actually picked that quote because in some ways it relates to my own life and I think I think a little bit about the caregiving that I've seen in my own life and I don't think that I realized how important it was until my grandmother who passed away last year. My grandmother was really doing a lot of the work and taking care of her throughout the rest of her life and, you know, for me it wasn't afterthought to until it became something personal. You know, and she also talks a little bit about how complicated some of the tasks are in caregiving and how we're not really addressing any of this, you know, when my grandmother was ill I mean my dad would go there to her house, two or three times a week he would drive her house, you know, he would make sure her groceries were done he would make sure the lawn was mowed all these types of things, but he would do a lot of more complicated things one of them was making sure there was no kind of tax fraud and my grandmother's identity wasn't stolen. It's very difficult work and, you know, it's kind of unbelievable that we don't even think to address it in a lot of public policy considering the reality of the matter is that many caregivers don't even have time to work. You know, I picked the quote because there's some amount of I suppose it's somewhat personal but it's also just like, wow I can't believe this this major phenomenon that many of us go through at some point in our lives isn't even part of the conversation and I think this kind of encapsulates some of the problem our economy was never structured around understanding care should be at the center it was never structured to allow for that. And I suppose if there's one thing I think I and I think I'd like to think we'd all we all hope is that coven 19 at least brings us a new opportunity to discuss this and say look. There needs to be restructured so that care actually can be centered more meaningfully in public policy but also in public life it's unbelievable to me that I wasn't treated to take it. You know that seriously until it happened to me and my family so that's really all I have to comment on it. Yeah. That's probably a great place to leave it we try to keep these to 30 minutes because we know that everyone's busy and we respect their time. And so I think, you know, the sort of the big takeaway for me and I think from our conversations from many of you is, is really just how central care is and how central it is to not only our lives what makes life worth living, but it is central to a healthy economy central to families central to communities. And so now is really the time, you know, can we learn this lesson can we can we make these changes quickly. And in the in the immediate moment, and can we all work together for real equitable work family justice and gender equity moving forward. So with that, I want to thank all of my wonderful better life lab team. I also want to recognize that our wonderful deputy director is out on paid sick leave so she needed it and thankfully we were able to help give her the support that she needed to while she's working. But I want to thank the better life lab team thank you all for being part of this and for being so wonderful to work with. It's just a place that I'm excited to work every day and honor to be working with you. I want to thank David showman our amazing producer who's really made these crisis conversations podcasts happen, even in the craziest times when we have people calling in in the middle of the show and I have to use my phone and the technology falls apart. It's been amazing. Thank you to the new America events team who have really helped us through all of this and they're juggling a million different things and they've made time for us. You know, thank you to the people who tune in and give us, you know, ask us questions and share stories. And I want to thank all of you for for listening. So please take some time to rest and reflect at the end of the year. Wash your hands where a mask and recognize. We'll get through this together and let's work together for work family justice in the coming year. So we'll see you next year. Thanks everybody.