In today’s episode, we’re joined by Claudia Rowe, award-winning journalist and author of Wards of the State, a searing, meticulously researched account of the U.S. foster care system.

Over the course of a century, America’s foster care system has promised protection but often delivered pain. Through deeply human storytelling and journalistic rigor, Claudia exposes the system’s structural failures—and the children caught in its web.

We explore the hidden history of foster care, the emotional and ethical toll of reporting on vulnerable lives, and what real reform might look like. This is an urgent conversation on accountability, visibility, and justice.