Business/Disrupted

With the stroke of a pen, a U.S. District Court Judge overturned the confirmed bankruptcy plan of Purdue Pharma, placing everything up in the air. What's at stake: $4.3 billion from Purdue's owners, the Sackler family, in exchange for the release of all claims against them from anyone, anywhere, for all time. Without those payments, no creditors other than the United States Government are likely to get anything at all - no opioid remediation and prevention programs; no payments to victims of the opioid epidemic; no states for having borne the costs of addiction; nothing. Plus, now bankruptcy courts don't have the authority they thought they had, so maybe we've broken the bankruptcy system. And what does this all have to do with Anna Nicole Smith??? We'll discuss this and more with one of the nation's foremost experts on bankruptcy.

Companion Dogs, Assistance Dogs, Seeing-Eye Dogs, Emotional Support Dogs - they seem the same to the uninitiated, but they're very different. We talk with two of the most respected leaders in the Service Dogs field about the business of making incredibly skilled canine companions - what goes into the breeding, the training, and the mating with a person in need. We'll explore the risks to the system, from un- and under-trained service dogs to outright fakes, and how our legal framework has evolved as the need for service dogs has skyrocketed.

Every day, prisoners are released from imprisonment back into society without so much as a thought as to what they do to become productive again. How do we help the newly returning citizens start being unincarcerated? How does the recently released get past the checkbox on a job application and become self-sufficient? What does prison do to your outlook and your view of your prospects? Our guest knows the answers to these questions well. The first black person to be elected District Attorney of the City of Philadelphia, R. Seth Williams pled guilty to one count of violating the Travel Act and was sentenced to five years in federal prison in 2017. Released in 2020, he set about rebuilding his life and is now Director of the Herbert J. Hoelter vocational training center in Philadelphia, where he leads the program's efforts at training newly returning citizens for a vocation that will make them self-sustaining and able to take control of their lives. Join us as we explore how small things can have a big impact in preventing crime, reducing recidivism, changing lives, families, and communities, and creating the one thing we all need - hope.