And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with

your host, David Axelrod.

Heather McGee is one of the most brilliant young policy minds in progressive politics.

As the president of Demos, she is a recognized expert on the burdens of debt and approaches

to dealing with it and has written on inequality and a range of other societal challenges.

Heather just finished a stint as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the University

of Chicago where we sat down to have this conversation about where we are in America and where

we're going.

Heather McGee, welcome.

Welcome.

Well, thank you for being at the Institute of Politics for being a fellow here.

This core, you've been a great presence around here.

It has been so great, David.

Just a phenomenal program you have here.

I joke that if I had this program when I was an undergrad, you know, I probably would

have run for office already and, you know, have my ducks all in a row.

Well, we got to get to all of that because we got to know where this is all going.

But I didn't realize that this was a homecoming for you coming back to the south side of Chicago.

You grew up here.

I was born on the south side of Chicago.

Whereabouts?

Um, when I was born, the apartment we lived in was an apartment building that my great-grandmother

...