Who counts as homeless in America? If you ask the Department of Housing and Urban Development, around 750,000 people are homeless in America. If you ask the Department of Education, that number shoots up into the millions. What does this discrepancy tell us?  And how do our cultural ideas about homelessness shape who we see as homeless, and who gets help? To find out, Brittany talks with <a href="https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/leadership/margot-kushel-md"target="_blank" >Dr. Margot Kushel</a>, Director at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, and <a href="https://www.mollykrichard.com/"target="_blank" >Dr. Molly Richard,</a> assistant professor in the Department of Public Health at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Health Sciences. Want more deep dives on cultural taboos?  Check out these episodes:<a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/02/25/nx-s1-5725495/the-truth-about-men-on-the-down-low"target="_blank" >The truth about men on the 'down low'</a><a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/04/27/nx-s1-5797834/why-cant-we-be-normal-about-polyamory"target="_blank" >Why can't we be normal about polyamory?</a> Support Public Media. <a href="https://plus.npr.org/"target="_blank" >Join NPR Plus.</a> Follow Brittany on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/bmluse/?hl=en"target="_blank" >@bmluse</a> For handpicked podcast recommendations every week, subscribe to NPR’s Pod Club newsletter at <a href="https://www.npr.org/podclub"target="_blank" >npr.org/podclub</a>. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. <a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

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