Podcasts: Hunger and juvenile prisons

Two new podcasts from Truthdig discuss hunger in America and the ways juvenile prisons could be better.

Truthdig's podcasts feature in-depth interviews with newsmakers and commentary from a progressive point of view. Regular panelists include Truthdig editor Robert Scheer and contributors James Harris and Josh Scheer, also a CIR researcher.

Fighting Crime in Juvenile Hall: This week Truthdig talks to Sheerly Avni and Omar Turcios from The Beat Within, a magazine written by and for the troubled kids in juvenile prisons. Such facilities could be “recruiting grounds for crime fighting,” argues Avni, and that’s in our self-interest.

“If you want to stop crime—very simple. You look at a bunch of 5-year-old kids in the ghetto. Ask yourself: ‘Do I want them to be criminals or not in 10 years? What’s that going to do to the value of my home?’”

Breadline USA: Sasha Abramsky discusses his new solution-oriented book about the millions of Americans who work 40 hours a week and still go hungry, “these forgotten communities and these forgotten families who are doing everything they’ve been told they need to do to survive and ... they’re still being pushed backward by economic forces that they really don’t control.”