New Podcast and Newsletter Launch!
"We Can Do Better"—Ending Poverty in Our Time
This piece originally appeared on Fran Quigley’s Substack We Can Do Better: Ending Poverty in Our Time on June 4, 2026.
I am excited to announce that, after three and a half years and 130 articles as a newsletter entitled Housing is a Human Right, we are expanding both our scope and our medium. Our new podcast and newsletter are both titled We Can Do Better.
As all of you who have kindly subscribed to the newsletter Housing is a Human Rightknow, I am a law professor who goes with my students every week to eviction court, where we represent people facing forcible removal from their homes.
They are among the tens of millions of people in the U.S. who are behind on their rent or already homeless, who are forced to skip filling prescriptions, and who often go hungry—despite living in the richest nation in the world.
We can do better.
Other nations already do far better, and the U.S. has often done better in the past.
So we will be lifting up the many people and organizations working to make housing, healthcare, and a decent life all enforceable human rights.
Our movement has a lot to build on. Polls show a strong majority of Americans believe housing, healthcare, and food are human rights. Other nations have proven for years that it is completely possible to ensure every person has a safe, secure home and has the healthcare and food they need. Every religious and moral tradition holds that making this happen is a sacred duty.
Early episodes of We Can Do Better will include:
“Ending Poverty in California–And Beyond, “a conversation with Devon Gray, the president of End Poverty in California, EPIC. In this episode, we talk with Devon about EPIC’s work to change the narrative about poverty, focusing on amplifying the voices of workers through its #Listen2Workers campaign.
Check EPIC’s website and social media, @EndPovertyCA, for direct conversations with fast food workers, child care providers, gig drivers, etc. Devon tells us about his journey from Stanford Law to working with Stockton, CA mayor and EPIC founder Michael Tubbs, who created successful guaranteed income and student scholarship programs.
We discuss EPIC’s Blueprint to End Poverty, and the legislation they push, including a $21 minimum wage for healthcare workers, corporate transparency, and limitations on renter security deposits. We talk about the lessons for ending poverty that EPIC has learned that apply to all states, including the red ones.
This episode is published now, and you can find it on:
In the coming weeks, you can listen to:
“Giving Up Billionaires for Lent,” a conversation with Sister Emily TeKolste of NETWORK Advocates and Lobby for Catholic Social Justice. Sr. Emily tells us how “giving up billionaires for Lent” is part of the program linking multi-faith values to direct advocacy to lawmakers, an agenda that was a key part of the abolition movement, the civil rights movement, and creating and defending the Affordable Care Act.
“How the Arms Industry is Robbing the Working Class of a Better Life,” a conversation with Stephen Semler, an arms industry expert and data journalist. Stephen explains how military contractors have used piles of campaign money to take over U.S. budgets via Congress and Presidential administrations, and the opportunities we have lost—in housing, healthcare, and beyond—as a result.
“Hungry People are Being Denied Help,” a conversation with Catlin Nchako of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the topnotch research and policy institute documenting the devastating impact of the Trump/Republican “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The law has pushed millions of people off of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) aka Food Stamps program through red-tape work requirements and shutting off eligibility for lawful immigrants.
We are grateful to all of these amazing folks for talking with us so we can share the conversations with you. Extra special thanks to Jack Quigley for using his expertise to guide this launch in a myriad of ways.
Please contact me directly, fwquigley@gmail.com, with any podcast or article ideas. We are always looking for inspiring campaigns and activists to highlight!
Because We. Can. Do. Better. Thank you for reading—and listening.
