Until June 2024, the Social Security Administration was denying disability claims on the grounds that applicants could work as pneumatic tube operators — a job that functionally disappeared decades ago. The agency's catalog of occupations hadn't been updated since 1991. Congress noticed. Courts complained. The agency issued two emergency messages. The fix removed 114 jobs nobody was citing anyway and added a documentation requirement to 13 jobs people were. The vocational expert who cited pneumatic tube operator last year can cite it again next year, as long as they say an extra sentence.

That catalog isn't the problem. It's the symptom. In this episode, Gwen and Marc walk through what Social Security disability adjudication actually looks like when you run it two and a half million times a year:

• The five-step sequential evaluati ...