meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Explain It to Me

Who broke student loans?

Explain It to Me

Vox Media Podcast Network

Education, Politics, News, Society & Culture

4.47.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Last month, the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. Student loan debt these days weighs in at about $1.7 trillion. Leah Litman and Josh Mitchell join us on the latest episode of The Weeds to dive into the legal landscape and discuss how we got this student loan system in the first place. Read More: The Supreme Court’s student loan decision in Biden v. Nebraska is lawless and completely partisan | Vox The Supreme Court put itself in charge of the executive branch with its major questions doctrine | Vox Student Debt Relief Bad, Bigotry Good | Crooked Media Submit your policy questions! We want to know what you’re curious about. Credits: Jonquilyn Hill, host Sofi LaLonde, producer Vince Fairchild, engineer A.M. Hall, editorial director of talk podcasts Want to support The Weeds? Please consider making a donation to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This is the weeds. I'm John Cullin-Hell. About a month ago, the Supreme Court made its

0:07.2

decision in Nebraska v. Biden. Now, even if you aren't familiar with the name of the

0:12.7

case, there's a pretty good likelihood you know what it did. It blocked President Joe

0:17.9

Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. And the reason you probably know so much about

0:23.2

this case is because there's a good chance that you or someone you know has student loan

0:29.4

debt. It's true that most Americans don't have college degrees. According to the Census

0:34.8

Bureau, a little over 30% of adults aged 25 and older have bachelor's degrees. But for

0:42.5

those that have gone, there's a lot of debt. About one in eight Americans has student loan

0:49.6

debt. And that debt has added up to the tune of over $1.7 trillion. When the decision

0:57.4

was handed down, you could feel the disappointment emanating from people who are relying on it.

1:03.2

Like Tatiana Mendez. I'm 36 years old. I'm originally from Bogota,

1:08.0

Colombia and I currently live in Silver Spring, Maryland. And I work in the nonprofit sector

1:14.2

with refugees from Central America. My college career really started in Colombia. I graduated

1:21.2

high school in 2004. And I did two years of marine biology there. Then I was waiting for

1:27.3

the visa process to complete. It got a little delayed. So I stayed there for a little bit.

1:31.9

I went through some life changes and I changed careers and studied audiovisual media there.

1:37.6

And then just a year after I started that new career, I moved to the US. So when I got to the US,

1:45.5

I basically just kind of had to work in order to pay the bills. And I was working at a very

1:53.7

entry-level job for about four years. When I felt like I wanted to make some changes that I wanted

1:59.9

to do something else, I was in retail then. And then I started volunteering in nonprofits.

2:06.3

And I wanted to get involved in working for nonprofits.

2:09.9

Tatiana went to community college first. And after she got her associate's degree,

...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -570 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox Media Podcast Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox Media Podcast Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.