This week, we tackle a subject close to Brie's heart, and by heart, we mean the amygdala, where anger is born: Student debt. Conversations about student debt are often stuck in the primordial stage. We spend so much time going back and forth with Pete Buttigieg types and their bad faith attacks that it's hard to get to the interesting questions: Why do we have a hierarchical higher education system to begin with? Why do we expect high school to be free but not college? What would it actually cost to cancel all student debt, and what perverse incentives exist for debt holders who profit off of America's students?

We get into it all with debt aficionado, Current Affairs editor, and attorney with Equal Justice Works Sparky Abraham. We're also joined by Bridget Read, journalist at The Cut and author of recent pieces on the movement to cancel student debt, and the ongoing political battle over the $15 minimum wage.

We close the episode by catching up on the fight for fifteen and the latest Kardashian news.

Read Sparky's articles on student debt at Current Affairs Magazine:

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/01/what-a-better-biden-would-say-about-student-loan-debt

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/11/if-you-want-to-enact-free-college-cancel-student-debt-immediately

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/02/student-debt-forgiveness-lets-do-some-math

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2019/04/the-case-for-free-college

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/06/how-student-debt-is-worsening-gender-and-racial-injustice

Listen to the referenced episode of Current Affairs podcast with Astra Taylor and Liz Breunig here: https://cloudutil.player.fm/series/current-affairs/medical-debt-special-with-astra-taylor-and-elizabeth-bruenig

Read Bridget's latest on the fight for $15 here: https://www.thecut.com/2021/03/pramila-jayapal-interview-minimum-wage-filibuster.html

And her interview with Astra Taylor and Kendra Brooks here: https://www.thecut.com/2021/02/joe-biden-can-cancel-all-student-debt-he-just-wont.html

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Produced by Ben Dalton (@wbend).

Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).