Millions of households in the United States struggle to maintain access to the energy necessary to heat and cool their home, to have power to cook and have hot water, and to literally keep the lights on. And a disconnection—or even the threat of having your power turned off—can be devastating. For this episode, Dr. Diana Hernandez and Dr. Jennifer Laird join us to discuss their new book, "Powerless: The People's Struggle for Energy." They share their research on the impact of energy insecurity and provide detailed policy and practice recommendations to address it.

Diana Hernandez is an associate professor of sociomedical sciences at in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, as well as co-Director of the Energy Opportunity Lab at the Columbia Center for Global Energy Policy. Jennifer Laird is an assistant professor in the department of sociology at Lehman College.