Audiobooks by Alissa Quart

Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World's Richest Country

Going for Broke, edited by Alissa Quart, executive director of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, and David Wallis, former managing director of EHRP, gives voice to a range of gifted writers for whom 'economic precarity' is more than just another assignment. All illustrate what the late Barbara Ehrenreich, who conceived of EHRP, once described as 'the real face of journalism today: not million dollar-a-year anchorpersons, but low-wage workers and downwardly spiraling professionals.' One essayist and grocery store worker describes what it is like to be an 'essential worker' during the pandemic; another reporter and military veteran details his experience with homelessness and what would have actually helped him at the time. These dozens of fierce and sometimes darkly funny pieces reflect the larger systems that have made writers' bodily experiences, family and home lives, and work far harder than they ought to be. Featuring introductions by luminaries including Michelle Tea, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and Astra Taylor, Going for Broke is revelatory. It shows us the costs of income inequality to our bodies and our minds—and demonstrates real ways to change our conditions.

Alissa Quart, David Wallis (Author), Julienne Irons (Narrator)

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Squeezed: Why Our Families Can't Afford America

"Brilliant-a keen, elegantly written, and scorching account of the American family today. Through vivid stories, sharp analysis and wit, Quart anatomizes the middle class's fall while also offering solutions and hope." - Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed Families today are squeezed on every side-from high childcare costs and harsh employment policies to workplaces without paid family leave or even dependable and regular working hours. Many realize that attaining the standard of living their parents managed has become impossible. Alissa Quart, executive editor of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, examines the lives of many middle-class Americans who can now barely afford to raise children. Through gripping firsthand storytelling, Quart shows how our country has failed its families. Her subjects-from professors to lawyers to caregivers to nurses-have been wrung out by a system that doesn't support them, and enriches only a tiny elite. Interlacing her own experience with close-up reporting on families that are just getting by, Quart reveals parenthood itself to be financially overwhelming, except for the wealthiest. She offers real solutions to these problems, including outlining necessary policy shifts, as well as detailing the DIY tactics some families are already putting into motion, and argues for the cultural reevaluation of parenthood and caregiving. Written in the spirit of Barbara Ehrenreich and Jennifer Senior, Squeezed is an eye-opening audiobook. Powerfully argued, deeply reported, and ultimately hopeful, it casts a bright, clarifying light on families struggling to thrive in an economy that holds too few options. It will make listeners think differently about their lives and those of their neighbors.

Alissa Quart (Author), Carly Robins (Narrator)

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