EPPiC Broadcast

Thank you for listening to Season Three of the EPPiC Broadcast! Episode 21 with Shanta Trivedi marks the end of our third season, but we’ll be back soon with more interviews and more parental-rights focused content. 

The EPPiC Broadcast will return on February 7th, 2022 so mark your calendars. As always, new episodes air on Tuesdays at 2 PM Eastern Standard Time. 

In the meantime, you can catch up on our older episodes at parentalrightsfoundation.org/podcast. If you enjoy the show, how about leaving a review on Apple Podcasts? New reviews help listeners find our podcast and help us reach a wider audience. 

Thank you so much for listening, and we’ll see you again on February 7th, 2022. 

Support the show

Our child welfare system exists to protect children from harm. Yet, in most jurisdictions in America, courts fail to consider the trauma that children will suffer if they are removed from their parents. The best way to protect most children is to support their parents and families.
 
This week, Michael talks with Shanta Trivedi, an Assistant Professor of Law and the Faculty Director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children and the Courts, at the University of Baltimore School of Law. In 2018, Shanta published a law review article entitled “The Harm of Child Removal” that outlines the harm and trauma that children suffer when the child welfare system removes them from their families of origin. In this episode, Shanta walks us through how the removal process functions, and how we can do better for children and parents. 
 
This episode concludes the third season of the EPPiC Broadcast. We are taking a short break, and we’ll be back with more content for you in February, 2022. As always, thank you for listening!

Support the show

A new law in Virginia makes it illegal for parents to choose babysitters based on shared beliefs. Not only does this new statue violate previously existing law, it represents a dangerous threat to parental rights.

This week, Homeschool Legal Defense Association staff attorney Peter Kamakawiwoole, who has helped us to file suit against this law, joins us to explain how it violates Virginia state law regarding freedom of religion and disregards the traditional rights of parents. At HSLDA, Peter helps families across the country who encounter legal difficulties because of their decision to homeschool, and represents families before administrative tribunals, and in state and federal court.

Support the show

Our child welfare system removes minority children from their parents’ homes at a much higher rate than white children. What if there were a way to remove racial biases from CPS child removals and end the over-representation of black and minority children in our child welfare system? 

This week, Michael talks with Dr. Jessica Pryce, Director of the Florida Institute of Child Welfare. Jessica is a professor and a former social worker, and she’s the author and presenter of a TED Talk entitled “To transform child welfare, take race out of the equation”. Hear more about Jessica’s concept of blind removals in this week's episode.

Support the show

The 21st Century Children and Family Act, recently introduced into the House of Representatives, promises to reduce "legal orphans" in the foster care system by supporting families up front and keeping them together. Can we expect to see this change succeed?

This week, Michael talks with Andrew Brown, a distinguished senior fellow of child and family policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Andrew has advocated for parents and families as an attorney, and he’s an expert on issues surrounding child and family policy. Andrew explains how our foster care system came to be this way, and breaks down the details of this new pro-family bill.

Support the show

The recent Virginia gubernatorial election signaled a win for parental rights, arguably on a national level. Will the growing grassroots support for parental rights continue?

This week, Michael talks with Joel Grewe and Jeremiah Lorrig, director and deputy director, respectively, of Generation Joshua -- an organization dedicated to educating youth about the political process and helping them enter the political arena.

Join us for an in-depth breakdown of how parents rallied in Virginia to reject the establishment's anti-parent views. Can we expect to see similar victories for parental rights in the future?

Support the show

The EPPiC Broadcast  is taking an official, two-week hiatus. We’ll be back with more great content on November 11th. Coming up, we’re going to be talking with Shanta Trivedi, Assistant Professor of Law and the Director of the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Family, Children and the Courts, at the Baltimore University School of Law.

Another upcoming guest is Dr. Jessica Pryce, Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work at Florida State University and the Executive Director of The Florida Institute for Child Welfare.
 
In the meantime, you can find our back catalog of episodes at parentalrightsfoundation.org/podcast, and our facebook page at facebook.com/eppicbroadcast. Thank you for listening to the EPPiC Broadcast. We truly appreciate your support. Once again, we will return on November 11th! 

Support the show

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was passed in 1997 to keep children from languishing in foster care, but today this law gives state agencies a cash bonus for breaking up families. How did we get here, and what can we do to give families that encounter social services a fighting chance to stay together? 

This week, we talk again with Dr. Martin Guggenheim of the NYU School of Law. Marty tells us about how ASFA creates a ticking clock for families caught in the CPS system, and how he’s working to help reform this law. He also explains why it is usually in the best interest of children to reunite with their parents, rather than finding permanency in foster care. 

Support the show

This week, Jim talks again with Jerry Milner, former Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau in the US Department of Health and Human Services. Jerry now works with Family Integrity & Justice Works. Jerry explains why the Adoption and Safe Families Act, created in the 1980s, needs to be reformed to preserve families, rather than splitting them up unnecessarily.  He also tells us about the harms that the current mandatory reporting system causes, and what can be done to better protect children without removing them from their families. 

Support the show

In March 2020, we heard ominous warnings of ‘pandemic of child abuse’ accompanying the COVID-19 shut downs. Children went home, away from the watchful eyes of mandated reporters, and back to their families. 

But did cases of child abuse actually increase during the added stress of the pandemic? 

This week, Jim sits down with Anna Arons, a professor at the NYU School of Law. Anna has previously worked as a family defender at the Neighborhood Defender Services of Harlem, representing parents in child welfare cases.

Anna explains what actually happened in New York’s child protection agency during the pandemic and why the alarm about spiking child abuse during the pandemic has largely dissolved. 

Read more about Anna’s research in her recent law review article (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=38152170).

Support the show