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About Stephen Pimpare

Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire. He is the author of The New Victorians (New Press, 2004), A People's History of Poverty (New Press, 2008), Ghettos, Tramps & Welfare Queens (Oxford, 2017), and Politics for Social Workers (Columbia, 2021).
Stephen Pimpare is a Senior Fellow at the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire
Stephen's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Stephen:

Public Policy May 11, 2023

Organizing for Power and Empowerment

The Fight for Democracy

Jacqueline Mondros and Joan Minieri

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Jacqueline Mondros and Joan Minieri's book Organizing for Power and Empowerment: The Fight for Democracy (Columbia UP, 2023) draws on extensive research to portray how social-action organizations have evolved over the …
Public Policy March 29, 2023

The Poverty Paradox

Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity

Mark Robert Rank

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
The paradox of poverty amidst plenty has plagued the United States throughout the 21st century--why should the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rates of poverty among …
Public Policy March 5, 2023

The Rise of a New Left

How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics

Raina Lipsitz

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
The mushrooming rolls of the Democratic Socialists of America, Marxist explainers in Teen Vogue, and the outsized impact of the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, all herald …
Public Policy March 2, 2023

What Things Cost

An Anthology for the People

Rebecca Gayle Howell, Ashley M Jones, and Emily J Jalloul

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
What Things Cost: An Anthology for the People (UP of Kentucky, 2023) is the first major anthology of labor writing in nearly a century. Here, editors Rebecca Gayle Howell & …
Public Policy March 1, 2023

Unequal Cities

Overcoming Anti-Urban Bias to Reduce Inequality in the United States

Richard McGahey

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Cities are central to prosperity: they are hubs of innovation and growth. However, the economic vitality of wealthy cities is marred by persistent and pervasive inequality—and deeply entrenched anti-urban policies …
Public Policy November 21, 2022

Eating While Black

Food Shaming and Race in America

Psyche A. Williams-Forson

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
In Eating While Black: Food Shaming and Race in America (UNC Press, 2022), Psyche A. Williams-Forson offers her knowledge and experience to illuminate how anti-Black racism operates in the practice …
Public Policy November 15, 2022

Mass Incarceration Nation

How the United States Became Addicted to Prisons and Jails and How it Can Recover

Jeffrey Bellin

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
The United States imprisons a higher proportion of its population than any other nation. Mass Incarceration Nation offers a novel, in-the-trenches perspective to explain the factors - historical, political, and …
Public Policy November 8, 2022

Who Cares

The Social Safety Net in America

Christopher Howard

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Societies are often judged by how they treat their most vulnerable members: the poor and near poor. In the United States, this responsibility belongs not only to governments, but also …
Public Policy September 20, 2022

Retail Inequality

Reframing the Food Desert Debate

Kenneth H. Kolb

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate (U California Press, 2021) examines the failure of recent efforts to improve Americans' diets by increasing access to healthy food. Based on exhaustive …
Public Policy June 23, 2022

City of Refugees

The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town

Susan Hartman

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
City of Refugees: The Story of Three Newcomers Who Breathed Life into a Dying American Town (Beacon Press, 2022) paints an intimate portrait of the newcomers revitalizing a fading industrial …
Public Policy June 22, 2022

Yes to the City

Millennials and the Fight for Affordable Housing

Max Holleran

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
The exorbitant costs of urban housing and the widening gap in income inequality are fueling a combative new movement in cities around the world. A growing number of influential activists …
Public Policy May 17, 2022

Wicked Problems

The Ethics of Action for Peace, Rights, and Justice

Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Douglas Irvin-Erickson, and Ernesto Verdeja

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
The ethics of changemaking and peacebuilding may appear straightforward: advance dignity, promote well-being, minimize suffering. Sounds simple, right? Actually acting ethically when it really matters is rarely straightforward. If someone …
Public Policy April 22, 2022

The Fundamental Institution

Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms

Megan Birk

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
By the early 1900s, the poor farm had become a ubiquitous part of America's social welfare system. Megan Birk's history of this foundational but forgotten institution focuses on the connection …
Public Policy April 8, 2022

Fixing Social Security

The Politics of Reform in a Polarized Age

R. Douglas Arnold

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Since its establishment, Social Security has become the financial linchpin of American retirement. Yet demographic trends—longer lifespans and declining birthrates—mean that this popular program now pays more in benefits than …
Public Policy March 22, 2022

American Exceptionalism

A New History of an Old Idea

Ian Tyrrell

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Today I talked to Ian Tyrell about his book American Exceptionalism: A New History of an Old Idea (U Chicago Press, 2021).The idea that the United States is unlike every other …
Public Policy February 9, 2022

Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education

Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector

Rebecca S. Natow

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Rebecca S. Natow's book Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector (Teachers College Press, 2022) provides a comprehensive description of the federal government's relationship …
Public Policy February 7, 2022

Homelessness is a Housing Problem

How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns

Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
In Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns (U California Press, 2022), Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern seek to explain the substantial regional variation in …
Public Policy January 12, 2022

Disorder

A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine

Peter A. Swenson

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Tracing the dramatic conflicts both inside organized medicine and between the medical profession and the larger society over quality, equality, and economy in health care, Peter A. Swenson illuminates the …
Public Policy December 10, 2021

How the Other Half Eats

The Untold Story of Food and Inequality in America

Priya Fielding-Singh

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Inequality in America manifests in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more than in how we eat. From her years of field research, sociologist and ethnographer Priya Fielding-Singh brings us into …
Public Policy December 8, 2021

Choose Your Medicine

Freedom of Therapeutic Choice in America

Lewis A. Grossman

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Throughout American history, lawmakers have limited the range of treatments available to patients, often with the backing of the medical establishment. The country's history is also, however, brimming with social …
Public Policy December 6, 2021

The Privatization of Everything

How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back

Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
As people reach for social justice and better lives, they create public goods--free education, public health, open parks, clean water, and many others--that must be kept out of the market …
Public Policy October 21, 2021

The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans

For Union Organizers and Employees

James W. Russell

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
James Russell’s The Labor Guide to Retirement Plans: For Union Organizers and Employees (Monthly Review Press, 2021) is a helpful how-to for workers navigating their retirement and pension options, from …
Public Policy September 14, 2021

Free to Discriminate

How Realtors Conspired to Segregate Housing and Divide America

Gene Slater

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
Gene Slater's book Free to Discriminate: How Realtors Conspired to Segregate Housing and Divide America (Heyday Books, 2021) uncovers realtors' definitive role in segregating America and shaping modern conservative thought. Gene Slater follows …
Public Policy September 3, 2021

Can Fixing Dinner Fix the Planet?

Jessica Fanzo

Hosted by Stephen Pimpare
How can consumers, nations, and international organizations work together to improve food systems before our planet loses its ability to sustain itself and its people? Do we have the right …