{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Sociology","slug":"new-books-in-sociology-671620","podcast_index_feed_id":671620,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT3382719913","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/f7161e82-f346-11e8-a8a3-a3d2f039e6d2/image/b6e67e348fe6c83f677a9dc9bd7ac1fe.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":1000,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: ⁠https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/⁠ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620"},"episode":{"title":"Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia","slug":"fighting-for-a-foothold-how-government-and-markets-undermine-black-middle-class-suburbia","published_at":"2026-05-07T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620/fighting-for-a-foothold-how-government-and-markets-undermine-black-middle-class-suburbia","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK8995440293.mp3?updated=1777961756","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK8995440293.mp3?updated=1777961756","summary":"Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a suburban jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the highest concentration of Black middle-class residents in the United States. As such, it is well positioned to overcome white domination and anti-Black racism and their social and economic consequences. Yet Prince George’s does not raise tax revenue sufficient to provide consistent high-quality public goods and services. In Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia (Russell Sage Foundation, 2026) sociologist Angela Simms examines the factors contributing to Prince George’s financial troubles. Dr. Simms draws on two years of observations of Prince George’s County’s budget and policy development processes, interviews with nearly 60 Prince George’s leaders and residents, and budget and policy analysis for Prince George’s County and its two Whiter, wealthier neighbors, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia. She argues legacy and ongoing government policies and business practices—such as federal mortgage insurance policy prior to 1968, local government reliance on property taxes, and private investment patterns—have resulted in disparities in wealth accumulation between Black and white Americans, not only for individuals and families but local jurisdictions as well. Fighting for a Foothold is an in-depth analysis of the fiscal challenges experienced by Prince George’s County and by the suburban Black middle-class and majority-Black jurisdictions, more broadly. The book reveals how race, class, and local jurisdiction boundaries in metropolitan areas interact to create different material living conditions for Americans. Our guest is: Dr. Angela Simms, who is Assistant Professor of Sociol…","meta_description":"Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a suburban jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the highest concentration of Black…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4167,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-sociology-671620/episodes/fighting-for-a-foothold-how-government-and-markets-undermine-black-middle-class-suburbia/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-sociology-671620/fighting-for-a-foothold-how-government-and-markets-undermine-black-middle-class-suburbia.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}