Some things change. Some stay the same. Since 2009, the cost of living has risen 20%. But the federal minimum wage hasn't budged — it has sat at $7.25 an hour. After taking control of the White House and Congress, President Joe Biden and Democrats are pushing to more than double the rate to $15. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reports it will lift nearly 1 million people out of poverty and give another 26 million a raise. However, it could cause businesses to lay off about 1.4 million workers. University of Denver economist Jack Strauss explains the potential impact of an increase, explores alternatives and assesses the future of the U.S. workforce.

The U.S. faces a growing threat of domestic extremism, embodied by the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. We wanted to know what it actually means to be an extremist. Is a certain type of person drawn to extremism? What convinces someone to join an extremist group? And how might our own friends or neighbors go down that path? Rachel Nielsen is the director of the Colorado Resilience Collaborative, which focuses on combating violent extremism. She sheds some light on these questions and more.

President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday, Jan. 20, will mark the last stop on the transition of power, which has been marked by distrust, misinformation and riots. As he becomes the nation's 46th president, Biden not only faces a deeply divided country but one facing an economic crisis, as well as the deadly coronavirus pandemic. But he’s not the first president to walk such a treacherous path. Noted University of Denver historian Susan Schulten shares some tales from inaugurations past that help us frame and add context to the first days of a new presidency.

On election night, as voters watching the presidential race tensed up, Jennifer Greenfield breathed a sigh of relief. Colorado voters resoundingly passed Proposition 118, which provides at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave to most employees in the state. Though a federal leave law has been on the books since 1993, Colorado joined a list of states pushing the envelope to expand the scope of benefits. An expert in social policy, DU's Jennifer Greenfield, explains how the system works, how it compares to systems in other states and why the United States lags behind the rest of the world in family leave policy.

In just seven days, voters will cast their final ballots in the 2020 presidential election, and we’ll finally — fingers crossed — learn whether Joe Biden or Donald Trump will be the country's next president. Seth Masket, political science professor and director of DU's Center on American Politics, joins RadioEd to chart all the twists and turns, and explore what post-2020 politics might look like.

As we approach the one-year mark of the coronavirus outbreak, the race for a vaccine is in full swing. Researchers around the world are rushing to find a solution in record time, raising serious ethical questions about distributing a vaccine fairly across the globe. Law professor Govind Persad breaks down the major ethical concerns, the legality of a vaccine mandate and consequences the U.S. may face by not joining the World Health Organization’s global vaccine agreement.

On Nov. 3, experts predict the presidential election will produce the highest voter turnout in at least a century — but a significant chunk of those voters won't be casting their ballot at a physical polling place. Safety concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic have shined the spotlight on the United States Postal Service and its financial struggles, raising questions about whether it can handle an increased load of mail-in ballots. Will it be able to deliver results on time, free of fraud? Management professor Michael Nalick, an expert in the intersection of business and politics, shares his greatest concerns and explains how the post office became a political issue in the first place.

The U.S. criminal justice system is under scrutiny as calls for reform grow. In this episode, we take a closer look at the death penalty. We talk its evolution and how the U.S. compares to the rest of the world on capital punishment. University of Denver criminology and sociology professor Scott Phillips shares insights from his latest research on the subject and reveals what his team found about the death penalty as it relates to race and gender.

Since Donald Trump's upset victory in the 2016 election, skepticism of political polls has grown steadily. After all, the numbers showed Hillary Clinton in the lead from start to finish. Pollster and political analyst Floyd Ciruli talks to us about what happened four years ago, the likelihood of the president eking out a similar victory on Nov. 3, and what it all says about the state of the country and democracy worldwide.