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The Rational Middle

Dec 15, 2021

Ring out the old! Ring in the new! In our last episode of 2021, Rational Middle Podcast hosts Gregory Kallenberg, Loren Steffy, Chris Lyon, and Melissa Brannan reflect on the year (almost) behind us, the year (nearly) upon us, and what it will take to remain optimistic about immigration reform.


Dec 8, 2021

Julia Gelatt, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, sits down with host Chris Lyon for a conversation about the economic effects and social causes of America's demographic shifts, as well as the historic entanglement between immigration and anxieties about the make-up of the nation.


Dec 1, 2021

Julie Sugarman, Senior Policy Analyst for PreK-12 Education at the Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, takes us through the ins and outs of immigrant children's rights to education, the legal frameworks that enshrine these rights, and what challenges still exist.


Nov 24, 2021

Joy Olson, former Executive Director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), returns to the Rational Middle—this time to discuss the under-represented phenomenon of migrant kidnappings: what it is, how it works, and the policies that make it worse.


Nov 17, 2021

What is it about immigration that attracts extremist speech? What even is extremism? Mark Potok, seasoned expert on the American radical right, takes us on a tour of nativism and the roots of immigration misinformation in this wide-ranging conversation with host Loren Steffy.