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Michael Oher, the football star made famous in the book and movie The Blind Side, talks about rising above the circumstances of his youth. In I Beat the Odds, Oher looks back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, and looks at how he broke out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family.

Poverty is one of the most pressing and divisive issues of our day, and Democrats and Republicans have staked out largely different approaches to the increasing divide between the poorest members of the United States and the richest. With the economy central to the November elections, the wealth gap will likely only become even more talked about in the months to come. Peter Edelman, one of the most outspoken antipoverty advocates in the country, examines the current state of poverty in the country, and elaborates upon what can be done — and what hasn't.

All this week we’ve been taking a hard look at the financial realities for students graduating from college. But how about the difficulties facing students in higher education? According to a new report, the number of Ph.D and masters students on public assistance has tripled in the past two years. The report's author and a 51-year-old Ph.D student on food stamps and Medicaid join the program.

How do you compare the wealth of nations? An economics professor at Princeton University thinks such a big question has a bite-sized answer: buy a Big Mac. Orley Ashenfelter is the author of the Big Mac Index, which measures a country's wealth based on a McDonalds worker's average wage and the cost of a Big Mac.

More than 1.7 million New Yorkers were living in poverty in 2010 – marking the biggest increase the city has experienced in five years, according to a new report.

Tracie McMillan examines why we eat the way we do in America and how we can change it. She describes what it was like to work, eat, and live alongside the working poor to see how Americans eat when price matters. In The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Wal-Mart, Applebee’s, Farm Field, and the Dinner Table she links America’s approach to eating not just to farms and kitchens but to wages and work.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo tells the story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a slum in Mumbai, India. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity is based on three years of reporting, and it gives a glimpse into the lives of Annawadi residents, including Abdul, a Muslim teenager who scavenges for recyclables; Asha, who is seeking a route to the middle class through political corruption; and her daughter Manju, who will soon become Annawadi’s first female college graduate. When terrorism and the global economic recession shake Mumbai, suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal.

The ripple effect of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis and a chronically sluggish economy have changed the face of poverty in America. Sections of the population who never previously utilized the "safety net" have experienced long periods of under, or unemployment and struggled to get by. According to recent Census data, 47 million Americans now live below the poverty line. In 55 cities across the country, the new urban poor have responded by living in tent cities.

Mitt Romney has taken a lot of criticism for saying he wasn't "concerned about the very poor" in a post-Florida primary victory interview last week. But some middle-class Americans agree with Romney's sentiment. Kate, a Takeaway listener and delivery driver from Maryland, is frustrated with the very poor, who she believes abuse the system and take opportunities away from people like her.

Michael Oher, the football star made famous in the book and movie The Blind Side, talks about rising above the circumstances of his youth. In I Beat the Odds, Oher looks back on how he went from being a homeless child in Memphis to playing in the NFL, and looks at how he broke out of the cycle of poverty, addiction, and hopelessness that trapped his family.

Recap from It's a Free Country.

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country, we bring you the unmissable quotes from the morning's political conversations on WNYC. Today on the Brian Lehrer Show, Mitt Romney says if the safety net for the very poor needs repair, he'll fix it. Melissa Boteach, poverty expert and manager of the Half in Ten Campaign at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, offered suggestions on where to start.

Poverty and homelessness disproportionately effects those who have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and National Guard. While the reasons are diverse — the lack of perceived skills by civilian employers, physical and psychological injuries sustained during service, a sluggish economy — the reality is undeniable: veterans make up only ten percent of the population, yet seven percent of veterans live in poverty and one in five are homeless. Of those that have served, the group hardest hit have been National Guard veterans. 

On Tuesday evening following his Floriday primary victory, Mitt Romney told Soledad O'Brien that, "I’m not concerned about the very poor. We have a safety net there. If it needs repair I'll fix it." The following day, The Takeaway followed up with a segment about the changing face of poverty in America. As part of a continuing conversation about this topic, Ron Robinson joins the program. Robinson is a homeless father of twins who lost his job at AT&T in 2010, and has been moving his family in and out of homeless shelters in Detroit, Michigan ever since. Alex Kotlowitz, journalist, author of the book "There Are No Children Here," and producer of "The Interrupters" also addresses the subject. 

Even before the devastating 2010 earthquake, Haiti was known for its poverty and corruption. Laurent Dubois discusses the maligned and misunderstood nation that has long been blamed by many for its own wretchedness. In Haiti: The Aftershock of History, he shows that Haiti's troubles can only be understood by examining its complex past.

Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley have been outspoken critics of income inequality in America. The late aughts were shaped by the subprime mortgage crisis, subsequent stock market crash, international debt problems, and record levels of long-term unemployment. Between 2006 and 2010, there was a 27 percent increase of people living in poverty across the U.S. And despite signs of recovery, growth has been slow and decidedly uneven with Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and California hovering at 12 percent or higher unemployment rates.

In an article in The Nation, editorial director of Colorlines, Kai Wright, argues that poverty in The Bronx results from policy, not personal choice. 

In September, artist and graphic designer Megan Flood came on The Takeaway to discuss her senior project at the University of Michigan. Through audio and photographs, Living Without Doorknobs documents life in an Ann Arbor, Michigan homeless tent community called Camp Take Notice. One of the homeless men living in Camp Take Notice, Joe Gill, was a major focus of Flood's work, and his photographs of the tent community became an integral part of her project.

Mark Warren argues that community organizing is key to address the persistent failure of public schooling in low-income communities. A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School Reform, written with Karen L. Mapp, is based on a comprehensive national study, the book presents rich and compelling case studies of prominent organizing efforts in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, San Jose, and the Mississippi Delta. He’s joined by Desiree Pilgrim Hunter, board president and leader of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, one of the organizations profiled in the book.