The Uncertain Hour
News

The Uncertain Hour

by Marketplace

Each season, we explain the weird, complicated and often unequal American economy — and why some people get ahead and some get left behind. Host Krissy Clark dives into obscure policies and forgotten histories to explain why America is like it is.

The latest season examines the “welfare-to-work industrial complex” and the multi-million dollar companies running today’s for-profit welfare centers.

52 episodes
EN language
All Episodes
1
Integration Generation (bonus episode from “Unlocking the Gates”)
22:50 Mar 7, 2025
2
The $80 Million Acre (from “How We Survive”)
33:10 Nov 14, 2023
3
Chapter 6: The Welfare to Temp Work Pipeline
55:29 Apr 26, 2023
4
Chapter 5: Profits and Perverse Incentives
49:21 Apr 19, 2023
5
Chapter 4: The Battle of Newburgh
35:37 Apr 12, 2023
6
Chapter 3: Race and rumor
36:10 Apr 5, 2023
7
Chapter 2: The compliance machine
54:03 Mar 29, 2023
8
Chapter 1: The dream
44:55 Mar 22, 2023
9
Season 6: The Welfare-to-Work Industrial Complex
4:23 Mar 15, 2023
10
25 years after welfare reform, let’s revisit “the magic bureaucrat”
41:07 Aug 20, 2021
11
My boss is an app
46:29 Mar 24, 2021
12
Inside baseball
44:15 Mar 17, 2021
13
Big Boss, Little Boss
33:14 Mar 10, 2021
14
To catch a chicken
36:42 Mar 3, 2021
15
The liquid workforce
38:44 Feb 24, 2021
16
“To suffer or permit to work”
47:47 Feb 17, 2021
17
Who’s the boss?
44:40 Feb 10, 2021
18
Congratulations! You’re an entrepreneur now
41:44 Feb 3, 2021
19
‘The Uncertain Hour’ is back!
4:15 Jan 27, 2021
20
Answering your “History of Now” questions
28:03 Jun 17, 2020
21
Without a home in a pandemic
43:01 Jun 11, 2020
22
There are cracks in the foundation of our housing system
31:56 Jun 3, 2020
23
Unemployment benefits are hard to get. That’s on purpose.
34:38 May 27, 2020
24
An unequal history of quarantines
27:02 May 20, 2020
25
You’re an essential worker. Do you get essential protections?
29:51 May 13, 2020
26
A History of Now: The Trailer
3:36 May 6, 2020
27
A new piece of the opioid crisis origin story, revealed
15:42 Dec 19, 2019
28
George Bush’s infamous crack speech, 30 years later
45:37 Sep 5, 2019
29
Kicking the habit
49:28 Apr 18, 2019
30
Supply
40:36 Apr 11, 2019
31
Welcome to Wise County
35:55 Apr 4, 2019
32
Sentencing
48:12 Mar 28, 2019
33
What happened to Keith?
32:38 Mar 22, 2019
34
George H.W. Bush and his baggie of crack
45:37 Mar 21, 2019
35
The Uncertain Hour Season 3: Inside America’s Drug War
2:27 Mar 7, 2019
36
“A mosquito in a nudist colony”
1:19:08 Mar 8, 2018
37
Law and Odor: a crime story about orchids, pig smell, refineries and you
1:08:57 Jan 26, 2018
38
Who’s regulating whom?
45:34 Jan 5, 2018
39
Your regulations questions, answered
27:28 Dec 21, 2017
40
The sentence that helped set off the opioid crisis
1:05:19 Dec 13, 2017
41
The peanut butter verdict
38:31 Nov 22, 2017
42
The Peanut Butter Wars
37:37 Nov 10, 2017
43
The Peanut Butter Grandma goes to Washington
33:26 Oct 26, 2017
44
The Uncertain Hour dives into red tape
4:10 Oct 3, 2017
45
The Album, “Work Makes the Difference”
14:08 Aug 17, 2016
46
The road not taken
43:05 Jul 7, 2016
47
“Pregnant? We can help.”
26:30 Jun 23, 2016
48
Everything but the kitchen sink
23:55 Jun 9, 2016
49
What’s love (styles) got to do with it?
34:23 May 26, 2016
50
White gloves, aluminum cans and plasma
34:01 May 11, 2016
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