A Deeper Look into the Opioid Epidemic

Bryce Covert and Zoë Carpenter discuss their recent pieces for The Nation: Covert’s “Will Red-State Protests Spark Electoral Change?” and Carpenter’s “These Kids Are Watching Their Parents Die.” Covert’s piece looks at how austerity measures across Republican-held states have not only gutted their social safety nets, but also hindered the states’ recoveries from the recession. Carpenter’s cover story focuses on West Virginia, an epicenter of the opioid crisis, and looks at the children growing up in the shadow of addiction, where public schools have become the safety net of last resort. She ties together disparate threads of disaster exacerbating the epidemic to show how an economy gutted by plant closures and a state-inflicted austerity regime have left towns hollowed out by drugs, with no social safety net left to mitigate disaster.

This segment is guest hosted by DW Gibson.