On Fireside Chats, Mike speaks with Monica about her reporting on poverty. Monica talks about intergenerational poverty in Kentucky, as well as working-class families living in motels in Denver. How can there be both a glut of foreclosed homes and a lack of rental apartments? They discuss how these families see themselves in the Great Recession, and why it’s expensive to be poor. Monica describes her experience on the ground reporting these stories, and explains the “last-mile problem” of designing effective welfare programs.