Glad You Asked

Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram is pretty sure she wants kids, but doesn’t feel like she has enough information to truly understand the impact of that decision. She’s not alone - even though the majority of American women do decide to have children, the number of births in the United States has been creeping downward, and women are having kids later and later in life. But while no one but you can answer if you want to have kids, join Cleo as she gathers more data and perspective on what it means to be a parent.

After the events of 2020, we are no strangers to stress and anxiety. But for Black and brown Americans, that stress was nothing new. Racial health gaps have always existed, and socioeconomics and racism within the medical system have long kept equal healthcare out of reach. But what kind of toll does the experience of racism itself have on your body? Glad You Asked host Christophe Haubursin wants to know.

Education in the United States is supposed to be meritocratic, meaning a student’s achievement is measured solely by their efforts. But how do class and privilege affect opportunity, and does everyone really get the same shot? Glad You Asked host Fabiola Cineas explores how the myth of meritocracy perpetuates racism while keeping the American dream achievable only for a privileged few.

Housing policy in the United States has a long history of deepening segregation. Redlining, exclusionary lending, and targeted zoning laws have all played a role in isolating minority populations while simultaneously privileging white residents. Glad You Asked host Lee Adams wants to know how this happened, and what effect residential segregation has on your future.

Many of us assume that tech is neutral, and we have turned to tech as a way to root out racism, sexism, or other “isms” plaguing human decision-making. But as data-driven systems become a bigger and bigger part of our lives, we also notice more and more when they fail, and, more importantly, that they don’t fail on everyone equally. Glad You Asked host Joss Fong wants to know: Why do we think tech is neutral? How do algorithms become biased? And how can we fix these algorithms before they cause harm?

This is a difficult question to ask yourself. But recent events and an increasing amount of research has shown just how much racial bias impacts our world. Before we can start the work of dismantling systemic racism, we have to first understand our own biases. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram explores if we can measure those biases, how we shine a light on them, and what to do about them.