#5SmartReads - August 25, 2022

Hitha on Medicaid, the impact of Magnolia Mother's Trust, and Mindy Kaling

August 25, 2022

Expanding Medicaid has been one of the most impactful measures for healthcare access in this country - and unfortunately, a highly partisan one.

But that seems to be changing for the better.

Ballot initiatives expanded Medicaid in Nebraska, Utah, Idaho, Missouri, and Oklahoma in the past four years, and is on the ballot this November in South Dakota. And in states that have yet to expand Medicaid, proponents are finding support across the aisle to help make it a reality.

If you live in one of these states, Medicaid expansion is up to your state legislature and it’s worth calling your state representatives regularly to voice your support.

“When I write shows about Indian women and what they're interested in, I want to do something original, but I also don't want to shy away from things that I've seen before: obsession with success; elitism about schools. Those are things that were real in my family, and I've been dealing with that. But also what's really important was destigmatizing mental health.”

That the triple threat on Netflix in August was 3 South Asian-created and starred projects (Wedding Season, Never Have I Ever, Indian Matchmaking) has a lot to do with Mindy Kaling. Not just because she’s the co-creator of one of the projects (and the third season of NHIE was perfection), but because she’s been doing the work for decades now.

Everything about this cover story was fantastic - the interview, the photography, and the styling (it was also the first look we got of Live Tinted’s new products!) I highly recommend watching the video at the end, if only to listen to Mindy opine about how pleasures should never be guilty and the sexist connotations of that, and her apparent love for Jack Harlow.

Never have I ever been more inspired to show up as my whole self - especially when I’m the first to be in those rooms.

““I think [Magnolia Mother’s Trust] is one of the most important experiments with unconditional cash happening right now in the United States,” Castro said. “It’s not the largest. But that’s not the point.” Instead, the program’s biggest strengths are its location and population served — Black mothers in the South.” 

While guaranteed minimum income lacks the recognition that UBI (universal basic income) has, Magnolia Mother’s Trust has shown the impact of the program. And the arguments against programs like these and the child tax credit expansion - that it’ll reduce workforce participation or reduce consumer spending - are moot when you look at the actual data.

Unemployment rates did not change for the third cohort of Magnolia Mother’s Trust, despite over 51% of the members having lost their jobs during the program. They were able to find new work while receiving the payments. Similarly, 76.2% of the members reported that they spent some of the money granted to them on extracurricular activities, trips, and school supplies.

The ROI on a guaranteed minimum income program like this, or making the child tax credit permanent, is solid. In the case of the former, a program like this is more likely to happen at the local and state level - but only if you call on your representatives to advocate for them. As always, you can find easy-to-use scripts from my friend Emily’s pinned Instagram posts - just swap out her specific call-to-action with something like “I’m calling to voice my support for a guaranteed minimum income program in our state, to help our most vulnerable.”

I honestly clicked on this article expecting a singular, negative point-of-view from all the people interviewed for this piece.

I was quickly reminded that making assumptions only makes me a bit of an ass and is incredibly limiting, and I found the range of experiences and answers from these teens enlightening and empathetic.

I think a lot about how my kids will react to their lives being shared online, and it’s something Rho and I do talk about a lot (he has this little vlogging camera and has his intro and outro down perfectly). Given how decidedly offline my childhood was, it’s fascinating to see how childhood has changed so much in 3 decades.

In ‘legal news stories that read like a John Grisham novel’ (apparently it’s becoming a weekly thing here on #5SmartReads), I give you the commonwealth of Pennsylvania and two judges who are just evil.

THOUSANDS of children - now adults - were detained for months and years, sentences that do not fit the fairly minor crimes of these first-time offenders.

News like these don’t come as a surprise to me anymore - it’s far more common than we realize. Eliza Orlins is a public defender in New York City who shares a lot about her experiences in the justice system, and is definitely worth following to learn more.

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