A Union of Care: Moving Toward a Better Safety Net

I spoke with Dr. Jess Calarco about her recent book, Holding It Together: How Women Became America's Safety Net . In the first half, which posted in the previous episode, Dr. Calarco shared how there are many labor-intensive tasks that are required for society to run in its current form and structure. But rather than ensure that those necessary tasks are done and paid for by the society that demands them, we dump them onto women, in the process limiting their ability to fully participate in society. In this episode, we continued to speak about why that is a problem, the ways that it manifests as such, and how we might build something better for everyone. Other resources recommended by Dr. Calarco: Crawling Behind: America's Childcare Crisis and How to Fix It by Elliot Haspel The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America by Ai-Jen Poo Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land Also available as a Netflix show: Maid: Season 1 Trailer 9 to 5 starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin Music is by Evan Schaeffer.

You can listen to A Union of Care: Moving Toward a Better Safety Net online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

A Union of Care: Moving Toward a Better Safety Net is an episode from DIY Democracy by Steven Nelson.

This episode is 35:10 long.

This episode was published on Aug 28, 2025.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from DIY Democracy when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.