What is Poverty?

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Every day, millions wake up to a cycle they didn’t choose—a system built to keep them struggling, surviving, but never truly living. Poverty isn’t just an empty wallet or a lack of opportunity. It’s a network of barriers: broken systems, historical injustices, and policies that perpetuate inequality.

Welcome to Survive Everyday Podcast and our new series, Spark of Change. Today, we begin our journey into the systems of poverty—how they’re built, who they impact, and why they persist.

In this series, we’re not just talking about the problem. We’re talking with the people who live it, challenge it, and shape the policies that sustain or dismantle it. From everyday individuals navigating poverty to the politicians who have the power to shape anti-poverty laws, we’ll bring voices from every side of the story.

Because to change a system, we first have to understand it. Let’s begin.

This episode of Spark of Change was written an edited by Adam Gercak

Music provided by Pixabay

Buy the book Poverty, by America written by Matthew Desmond

A special thank you to Matthew Desmond and his team who provided a copy of the book to use for this series. 

This has been a production of Survive Everyday Media, LLC

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