Listen now (68 min) | This week I’m honored to have the distinguished Robert Woodson on the show. Since joining the civil rights movement as an activist and organizer in the ‘60s, Bob has dedicated himself to finding solutions to the problems of poverty and dysfunction in America. Through the Woodson Center, Bob helps fund and advise programs that are on the ground and working to solve some of the toughest problems in American communities. He’s got more awards and achievements than I can possibly list here, and there’s no telling how many lives he’s changed over the years.
I wondered if there is anyway to find out the sources Robert used when he illustrated his points. I was particularly interested in the family, schools and the terrible suicide rate of kids in Silicon Valley - but I want to know more.
I took notes while listening. Thank you Loury and Woodson. Two days ago, a sidewalk drug dealer was escalating his anger because InIgnored his words while walking by. A day prior my neighborhood friend threatened by homeless person blocking doorway to his building. Thank you Mayor Breed for destroying SF.
Within 2 minutes, via Google- I was able to discover that United States Bowling Congress (USBC) sets standards for manufacture and weight of bowling balls and game rules. Yet the person and organization that handed the “Equity” rules to Breed on Oct 01, 2018 is unknown. On Google- all I find is financial equity standards and oversight.
On Woodson discussion- very informative. Glenn seeks a sentence worded as “FY 2020/2021 - Fed Agency ABC funded $500K to organization X that subsequently delivered 2,000 units of service to 4,000 unduplicated clients from MMYYYY to MMYYYY.”
For relevant history of “unhelpful help” as I call it; consider AIDS education or AIDS prevention industry during mid-1990’s; where lesbian organizations continually targeted the lowest risk group; female-to-female sex. Also consider the denial within organizations to acknowledge that despite increased education, risk behavior remained stubbornly high. AIDS Drug development rescued us from an efficacy reckoning about strategy selection. And then the big research institutions promised that if we only fine-tuned studies just one more time(or two), that ground-breaking discovery about human behavior was inevitably “right around the corner.” Many never came to acknowledge organizational shortcomings, profiteering and other human conditions.
Such a great episode of the Glenn Show - and blessed relief after its predecessor.
I loved hearing about Woodson Center's work with mothers from very different parts of our vast nation whose children died needlessly - not to mention the "pillar saint" (or rather rooftop saint!) of Chicago and the cleaned-up ex-cons helping to improve their own communities.
Inspired by Glenn's generosity, I've just made a small donation of my own to the Woodson Center.
What a fascinating and moving conversation. I really enjoyed this one. It's inspiring to hear about the work being done and the potential solutions to problems that may seem, at times, frustratingly insurmountable. Thank you for hosting Mr. Woodson and for your ongoing contribution to his centre.
After hearing Sylvia Bennet Stone on the Glenn Show several months ago, I sent Voices of Black Mothers United what was for me a very large donation. I also find Woodson’s grass roots approach to be far more effective than top-down welfare state models. Glenn’s (and Josh’s) opinions have been a great source of inspiration for me in these racialist, identitarian times.
However, I’m a white gay atheist. Most religions have been demonizing and oppressing gay people for centuries. In Iran and other countries they throw gay men off roofs, or hang them. In other countries they stone them to death, all in the name of religious “spirituality”. In traditionally Christian countries like the U.S., it’s not as bad, but even here, fundamentalist Christianity is the inspiration, the mother-load, for violent hate crimes against gay people. Before gay marriage became legal nationwide, black churches were on the forefront in Oregon of defeating a pro gay marriage referendum.
I’m very conflicted about giving money to organizations that are in fact effective at solving important issues, but which are based on religions who say I’m going to hell or am a second class citizen or even a criminal. This is a BIG PROBLEM for me.
Glenn, for Christ’s sake: you have a gay son! And you say you’re no longer a believer. WTF? Please justify how you, a non-believer, support religious organizations based on an ideology that demonizes your own son!
Thank you very much for this episode. Bob Woodson is an amazing and visionary leader. I also appreciated the mention of Pastor Corey Brooks and Project H.O.O.D., and look forward to you having him on The Glenn Show. Finally, bravo for tithing 10% of your proceeds to The Woodson Center! That money will not only pay off in the near term, but the lives changed will in turn have an exponential impact, as they change lives in the medium to long term.
I recently read A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell and he broached a lot of the topics that Dr. Woodson discussed. We often prescribe policy intervention as the most effective avenue to construct social change without acknowledging the limitations of governmental structures. Additionally, Rob Henderson has a fascinating philosophy on what he coins as "luxury beliefs"; he argues that it's easy to embrace some of these progressive policies on crime when you don't inhabit the areas that would most affected by these nascent ideas.
I loved it when Dr. Woodson said something that needs to be said repeatedly.
And he said it with the proper critical nuance: "Poor People" DO NOT ALL FALL INTO THE SAME BASKET. (For that matter, NO group of millions of people fall neatly into one basket.) This is something the right, the left, AND the center keep missing--or so it seems.
Yes. SOME people are just broke. They lost a job, a breadwinner, or whatever. They find themselves in a terrible spot. They're competent. Willing to do whatever they gotta do. For them, welfare is clearly an emergency ambulance service and not a public transportation system.
Now for some, getting out of this mess is easier than others. But THIS subgroup is a far cry from those who were born into a revolving environment of perverse incentives.
Nevertheless, I do have a complaint, Dr. Woodson (if you're out there somewhere): We need percentages, sir. You say there are four different categories of urban poverty, as it were? Okay. Well then, how does that pie split? Has that split changed over the years/decades?
Exactly where are we today? Does political party really matter in your field? It seems to me this is about serious people versus unserious people. Not Dem v GOP. Yes? No?
I’m in my religious studies class at Subiaco Academy. Kid named Keon who was there on a basketball scholarship asks the teacher, “my cousin is in jail for shooting a four year old in a drive by, what kind of God allows something like that to happen?” I don’t remember the teacher’s answer, but I remember that question. I also remember everyone resenting Keon for being there on a basketball scholarship as opposed to academic merit, myself included. The left makes athletic scholarships in the NCAA sound like plantation slavery. My grandfather was the first in his family to go to college on an athletic scholarship, and his kids had the kind of money to afford Subiaco Academy. My grandfather was also a football coach. Had players write him letters about how he was the first white person they had ever met, and it changed their perspective on everything. These players were the first in their family to go to college, just like my grandfather was. When the left calls this plantation slavery they are sensationalizing American history to compensate for the fact that they don’t watch sports and resent the hype, as well as damaging their own institution’s contribution to positive social change to sell an edgy headline. My grandfather also quit an administrator’s job because of nepotism, so I’m not saying the NCAA is perfect. The real victory is at smaller schools, as usual.
The late Hitchens kicked that bar and Bible studies question’s ass years ago. The bottom line is read books. If that person looks like me, and it’s a gay bar crowd or the Westboro Baptist Church? Cherry picking sure. Lets cherry pick something to read. Christians are fine, I like Dostoevsky as much as anyone. But by all means get people into Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Joyce by showing all the fart and dick jokes. Everyone knows kids love fart and dick jokes. We can give the feminists a chance. It’s not a mystery why WAP was a hit. Moralizing is going to push kids further into counter culture, highlighting the counters of culture makes them real, and approachable. Reading is reading.
Word. Very inspiring to hear of the testimony of Mr. Robert Woodson. I read two of his books last year about how he was inspired by the biblical story of Joseph to found his organisation that has inspired multiple people for over four decades now to transform their communities with the little they have. May God bless his work and all those who collaborate with him. Thank you Prof. Loury for pledging to support Mr. Woodson with your show!
When I was a family caregiver, one of the neighbors of the child's natural father, told me she overheard the dad trade in his food stamps for the month in exchange for crack. Meanwhile, I heard via the natural mother, that the dad bragged about putting on an act for a DCF social worker by hiding crack and pot under the sofa. Social workers and police should try smelling the air in the homes they investigate. They really need to use their senses and not be focused on just one or another expectation. Asthma, SIDS, infant seizures, and otitis are all causally increased in homes where the air and surfaces have smoke. Infants do not have the enzymes to metabolize cocaine inhaled or consumed from their hands after touching surfaces with cocaine on them. Progressive social workers and drug court magistrates and judges leave kids with no protection and assume, falsely that pediatricians have the courage and training to, specifically, confront crack, fentanyl, or meth using parents. Some of the symptoms children have are similar to the symptoms from legal smoke exposure, unless the child has a seizure. Even after a cocaine induced seizure, the child might not be tested for drug exposure. The doctor might assume the child has a seizure disorder. Healthcare and limitations placed by health insurance regarding diagnostic testing, and best practices guidelines, can all limit a doctor's ability to identify substance exposure related child endangerment. I would like to point out that a famous recreational drug use promoting professor from Columbia University, fails to warn people about the inability of infants to metabolize cocaine via smoke. Children have been known to have seizures from fentanyl and other drugs, too. Progressives put children last and hedonistic adults first in their list of priorities. https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/education/bcr/addiction-research/pediatricians-prevent-substance-use
Meanwhile, smoke is one of the most common environmental risk factors for chronic secondary bacterial infections when a child has a viral respiratory infection. Our country has a problem with overuse of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. All types of smoke in the home make is much more of a long struggle for small children, with this narrow eustachian tubes, to recover from respiratory infection. They recover from the virus, but the secondary, smoke exacerbated, bacterial infections can persist for months. Parents are usually clueless, even when they actually care about their children because pediatricians do not always counsel the parents about it. It is considered best practices, though. Our culture just does not make the effort to take a hard look at the 'LIVED EXPERIENCE' of the children of fentanyl, meth, crack, pot, alcohol, opiate, and tobacco addicts.
Wow, Bob Woodson and Amy Wax almost back to back on the Glenn Show. For me it doesn't get much better than that. While some may not realize it, both Bob and Amy have similar messages. They both argue for the need to revitalize our commitment to traditional American values in order to address the problems that are besetting us.
Bob's argument about the ineffectiveness of welfare expenditures is also spot on. I doubt that anyone can name a well managed government mega program whether social, military or infrastructure. Huge amounts of waste, theft and graft are forever rampant and just get worse as our Government tries to do more and more. It only changes for the worse in spite of Inspector General reports and congressional hearings. Just look at the 1.9 trillion dollars that were approved by Congress for Covid relief just 9 months ago. Money was supposed to be spent on vaccine accessibility, school opening improvements, therapeutics, hospital readiness, health care delivery...... And here we are in this newest wave with all the same shortcomings being blamed for our lack of ability to deal with it. And then there is the billions of dollars in assistance payments that were stolen. The answer isn't more government programs, it's less.
I am not a Christian, nor am I religious but I am a regular contributor to the Woodson Foundation and Pastor Corey Brooks. Inspired by Glenn's largesse I am making another contribution to the Woodson Foundation as soon as I finish this comment.
Thank you for this discussion. I absolutely agree that our country has a moral and spiritual crisis. Mr. Woodson is an inspiration and doing amazing work. America is a country of faith and resilience and I echo his sentiment that if we stopped looking at everything through a race lens, we can come together with solutions. Happy New Year!
I’m saddened by the rampant crime in urban centers. It’s seems like the left (mostly elite white—-I’m white)writes it off as ether a trade off for past wrong doings, or to show that they’re not going to punish criminals for any past racial disparities. Should we instead examine class disparities and bring back tougher policing?
I wondered if there is anyway to find out the sources Robert used when he illustrated his points. I was particularly interested in the family, schools and the terrible suicide rate of kids in Silicon Valley - but I want to know more.
I took notes while listening. Thank you Loury and Woodson. Two days ago, a sidewalk drug dealer was escalating his anger because InIgnored his words while walking by. A day prior my neighborhood friend threatened by homeless person blocking doorway to his building. Thank you Mayor Breed for destroying SF.
Within 2 minutes, via Google- I was able to discover that United States Bowling Congress (USBC) sets standards for manufacture and weight of bowling balls and game rules. Yet the person and organization that handed the “Equity” rules to Breed on Oct 01, 2018 is unknown. On Google- all I find is financial equity standards and oversight.
On Woodson discussion- very informative. Glenn seeks a sentence worded as “FY 2020/2021 - Fed Agency ABC funded $500K to organization X that subsequently delivered 2,000 units of service to 4,000 unduplicated clients from MMYYYY to MMYYYY.”
For relevant history of “unhelpful help” as I call it; consider AIDS education or AIDS prevention industry during mid-1990’s; where lesbian organizations continually targeted the lowest risk group; female-to-female sex. Also consider the denial within organizations to acknowledge that despite increased education, risk behavior remained stubbornly high. AIDS Drug development rescued us from an efficacy reckoning about strategy selection. And then the big research institutions promised that if we only fine-tuned studies just one more time(or two), that ground-breaking discovery about human behavior was inevitably “right around the corner.” Many never came to acknowledge organizational shortcomings, profiteering and other human conditions.
Such a great episode of the Glenn Show - and blessed relief after its predecessor.
I loved hearing about Woodson Center's work with mothers from very different parts of our vast nation whose children died needlessly - not to mention the "pillar saint" (or rather rooftop saint!) of Chicago and the cleaned-up ex-cons helping to improve their own communities.
Inspired by Glenn's generosity, I've just made a small donation of my own to the Woodson Center.
What a fascinating and moving conversation. I really enjoyed this one. It's inspiring to hear about the work being done and the potential solutions to problems that may seem, at times, frustratingly insurmountable. Thank you for hosting Mr. Woodson and for your ongoing contribution to his centre.
After hearing Sylvia Bennet Stone on the Glenn Show several months ago, I sent Voices of Black Mothers United what was for me a very large donation. I also find Woodson’s grass roots approach to be far more effective than top-down welfare state models. Glenn’s (and Josh’s) opinions have been a great source of inspiration for me in these racialist, identitarian times.
However, I’m a white gay atheist. Most religions have been demonizing and oppressing gay people for centuries. In Iran and other countries they throw gay men off roofs, or hang them. In other countries they stone them to death, all in the name of religious “spirituality”. In traditionally Christian countries like the U.S., it’s not as bad, but even here, fundamentalist Christianity is the inspiration, the mother-load, for violent hate crimes against gay people. Before gay marriage became legal nationwide, black churches were on the forefront in Oregon of defeating a pro gay marriage referendum.
I’m very conflicted about giving money to organizations that are in fact effective at solving important issues, but which are based on religions who say I’m going to hell or am a second class citizen or even a criminal. This is a BIG PROBLEM for me.
Glenn, for Christ’s sake: you have a gay son! And you say you’re no longer a believer. WTF? Please justify how you, a non-believer, support religious organizations based on an ideology that demonizes your own son!
Thank you very much for this episode. Bob Woodson is an amazing and visionary leader. I also appreciated the mention of Pastor Corey Brooks and Project H.O.O.D., and look forward to you having him on The Glenn Show. Finally, bravo for tithing 10% of your proceeds to The Woodson Center! That money will not only pay off in the near term, but the lives changed will in turn have an exponential impact, as they change lives in the medium to long term.
I recently read A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell and he broached a lot of the topics that Dr. Woodson discussed. We often prescribe policy intervention as the most effective avenue to construct social change without acknowledging the limitations of governmental structures. Additionally, Rob Henderson has a fascinating philosophy on what he coins as "luxury beliefs"; he argues that it's easy to embrace some of these progressive policies on crime when you don't inhabit the areas that would most affected by these nascent ideas.
I loved it when Dr. Woodson said something that needs to be said repeatedly.
And he said it with the proper critical nuance: "Poor People" DO NOT ALL FALL INTO THE SAME BASKET. (For that matter, NO group of millions of people fall neatly into one basket.) This is something the right, the left, AND the center keep missing--or so it seems.
Yes. SOME people are just broke. They lost a job, a breadwinner, or whatever. They find themselves in a terrible spot. They're competent. Willing to do whatever they gotta do. For them, welfare is clearly an emergency ambulance service and not a public transportation system.
Now for some, getting out of this mess is easier than others. But THIS subgroup is a far cry from those who were born into a revolving environment of perverse incentives.
Nevertheless, I do have a complaint, Dr. Woodson (if you're out there somewhere): We need percentages, sir. You say there are four different categories of urban poverty, as it were? Okay. Well then, how does that pie split? Has that split changed over the years/decades?
Exactly where are we today? Does political party really matter in your field? It seems to me this is about serious people versus unserious people. Not Dem v GOP. Yes? No?
I’m in my religious studies class at Subiaco Academy. Kid named Keon who was there on a basketball scholarship asks the teacher, “my cousin is in jail for shooting a four year old in a drive by, what kind of God allows something like that to happen?” I don’t remember the teacher’s answer, but I remember that question. I also remember everyone resenting Keon for being there on a basketball scholarship as opposed to academic merit, myself included. The left makes athletic scholarships in the NCAA sound like plantation slavery. My grandfather was the first in his family to go to college on an athletic scholarship, and his kids had the kind of money to afford Subiaco Academy. My grandfather was also a football coach. Had players write him letters about how he was the first white person they had ever met, and it changed their perspective on everything. These players were the first in their family to go to college, just like my grandfather was. When the left calls this plantation slavery they are sensationalizing American history to compensate for the fact that they don’t watch sports and resent the hype, as well as damaging their own institution’s contribution to positive social change to sell an edgy headline. My grandfather also quit an administrator’s job because of nepotism, so I’m not saying the NCAA is perfect. The real victory is at smaller schools, as usual.
The late Hitchens kicked that bar and Bible studies question’s ass years ago. The bottom line is read books. If that person looks like me, and it’s a gay bar crowd or the Westboro Baptist Church? Cherry picking sure. Lets cherry pick something to read. Christians are fine, I like Dostoevsky as much as anyone. But by all means get people into Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Joyce by showing all the fart and dick jokes. Everyone knows kids love fart and dick jokes. We can give the feminists a chance. It’s not a mystery why WAP was a hit. Moralizing is going to push kids further into counter culture, highlighting the counters of culture makes them real, and approachable. Reading is reading.
Nice work.
Word. Very inspiring to hear of the testimony of Mr. Robert Woodson. I read two of his books last year about how he was inspired by the biblical story of Joseph to found his organisation that has inspired multiple people for over four decades now to transform their communities with the little they have. May God bless his work and all those who collaborate with him. Thank you Prof. Loury for pledging to support Mr. Woodson with your show!
When I was a family caregiver, one of the neighbors of the child's natural father, told me she overheard the dad trade in his food stamps for the month in exchange for crack. Meanwhile, I heard via the natural mother, that the dad bragged about putting on an act for a DCF social worker by hiding crack and pot under the sofa. Social workers and police should try smelling the air in the homes they investigate. They really need to use their senses and not be focused on just one or another expectation. Asthma, SIDS, infant seizures, and otitis are all causally increased in homes where the air and surfaces have smoke. Infants do not have the enzymes to metabolize cocaine inhaled or consumed from their hands after touching surfaces with cocaine on them. Progressive social workers and drug court magistrates and judges leave kids with no protection and assume, falsely that pediatricians have the courage and training to, specifically, confront crack, fentanyl, or meth using parents. Some of the symptoms children have are similar to the symptoms from legal smoke exposure, unless the child has a seizure. Even after a cocaine induced seizure, the child might not be tested for drug exposure. The doctor might assume the child has a seizure disorder. Healthcare and limitations placed by health insurance regarding diagnostic testing, and best practices guidelines, can all limit a doctor's ability to identify substance exposure related child endangerment. I would like to point out that a famous recreational drug use promoting professor from Columbia University, fails to warn people about the inability of infants to metabolize cocaine via smoke. Children have been known to have seizures from fentanyl and other drugs, too. Progressives put children last and hedonistic adults first in their list of priorities. https://www.hazeldenbettyford.org/education/bcr/addiction-research/pediatricians-prevent-substance-use
Meanwhile, smoke is one of the most common environmental risk factors for chronic secondary bacterial infections when a child has a viral respiratory infection. Our country has a problem with overuse of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. All types of smoke in the home make is much more of a long struggle for small children, with this narrow eustachian tubes, to recover from respiratory infection. They recover from the virus, but the secondary, smoke exacerbated, bacterial infections can persist for months. Parents are usually clueless, even when they actually care about their children because pediatricians do not always counsel the parents about it. It is considered best practices, though. Our culture just does not make the effort to take a hard look at the 'LIVED EXPERIENCE' of the children of fentanyl, meth, crack, pot, alcohol, opiate, and tobacco addicts.
Wow, Bob Woodson and Amy Wax almost back to back on the Glenn Show. For me it doesn't get much better than that. While some may not realize it, both Bob and Amy have similar messages. They both argue for the need to revitalize our commitment to traditional American values in order to address the problems that are besetting us.
Bob's argument about the ineffectiveness of welfare expenditures is also spot on. I doubt that anyone can name a well managed government mega program whether social, military or infrastructure. Huge amounts of waste, theft and graft are forever rampant and just get worse as our Government tries to do more and more. It only changes for the worse in spite of Inspector General reports and congressional hearings. Just look at the 1.9 trillion dollars that were approved by Congress for Covid relief just 9 months ago. Money was supposed to be spent on vaccine accessibility, school opening improvements, therapeutics, hospital readiness, health care delivery...... And here we are in this newest wave with all the same shortcomings being blamed for our lack of ability to deal with it. And then there is the billions of dollars in assistance payments that were stolen. The answer isn't more government programs, it's less.
I am not a Christian, nor am I religious but I am a regular contributor to the Woodson Foundation and Pastor Corey Brooks. Inspired by Glenn's largesse I am making another contribution to the Woodson Foundation as soon as I finish this comment.
Thank you for this discussion. I absolutely agree that our country has a moral and spiritual crisis. Mr. Woodson is an inspiration and doing amazing work. America is a country of faith and resilience and I echo his sentiment that if we stopped looking at everything through a race lens, we can come together with solutions. Happy New Year!
I’m saddened by the rampant crime in urban centers. It’s seems like the left (mostly elite white—-I’m white)writes it off as ether a trade off for past wrong doings, or to show that they’re not going to punish criminals for any past racial disparities. Should we instead examine class disparities and bring back tougher policing?