In this episode, John White welcomes Andrea Carter to unpack how personal experience can radically reshape our understanding of poverty. Andrea reflects on her early years as a teacher, when she held common misconceptions about families in poverty, and describes how her own journey through situational poverty challenged and transformed those beliefs. Andrea shares how repeated judgment can create "forced helplessness" and offers practical advice: build real relationships, include those with lived experience in leadership, and move from "us versus them" to a true sense of shared community.