The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI, Newly Expanded to Two Hours, Examines Ending Poverty in America

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI will feature a stimulating two-hour roundtable discussion on poverty as the centerpiece of its first new show of  the year on January 10, 2014.

The roundtable will lay out many important policy issues surrounding poverty and discuss a solution-oriented agenda that includes grass-roots activism.  The panelists for the discussion are:

• Greg Kaufmann, contributor to The Nation magazine and to BillMoyers.com
• Sasha Abramsky, senior fellow at Demos and author of The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives
• Jessica Bartholow, legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty
• Amy Sosa, an unemployed mother of three who is struggling to makes ends meet

The discussion coincides with the 50^th anniversary of the War on Poverty, the informal name of several legislative initiatives proposed by President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. 

The Tavis Smiley Show's new two-hour format is an extension of the eponymous host's commitment to conversations of importance to America. The show continues to focus on a wide range of issues including politics, business, health, sports, arts and culture, and will feature a broad spectrum of newsmakers and commentators.  

"I'm excited about our expanded format," says Smiley, "because it allows us to examine important issues, like the growing poverty crisis, in more depth and with a greater focus on what's happening in neighborhoods all across the country."

Tavis is also launching an exciting new feature called Five Things You Should Know About..., which will debut on The Tavis Smiley Show on January 17. In this regular series of interviews, Tavis will ask experts for their top five tips on a wide range of issues. Listeners will hear advice on everything from navigating the workplace to avoiding Internet scams to keeping heating bills down. Each segment will be linked on Twitter from @TavisSmiley. Five Things You Should Know About... promises to be provocative, funny, enlightening and most of all solutions-oriented.

The Tavis Smiley Foundation recently announced ENDING POVERTY: America's Silent Spaces,  a $3 million, four-year national initiative to examine barriers and identify solutions to alleviate poverty in the United States.

About The Tavis Smiley Show 


The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI is a blend of substantive and provocative discussions on a wide range of topics including: politics, health, finance, sports, technology and pop culture. An insightful exploration of the issues that matter from fresh, diverse points of view is the show's hallmark. The Tavis Smiley Show is produced by Smiley Radio Properties, Inc. in partnership with Public Radio International (PRI) and is hosted by Tavis Smiley. Smiley is the first American ever to simultaneously host signature talk shows on both public television and public radio. He has been honored by TIME magazine as one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People." The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce recently announced that Smiley will be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 24, 2014.

SOURCE The Tavis Smiley Show