EP 620 Women Gaining, But Still Behind, When It Comes to Managing Money
Historically, money management was thought of as man’s work, As 41 percent of MBA students are now women, this notion, like so many things that we previously accepted as reality, is being disassembled. And it’s about time. Women continue to control more wealth in our society and whether for reasons of greater knowledge, inheritance, or divorce, as examples, they want and deserve to control the purse strings. What is required is greater financial literacy and emphasis which to this point has been lacking. Cindy Couyoumjian, financial planner and author of “The Rise of Women and Wealth” sees a sea change coming in the relationship between women and money as a new wave of feminism sweeps over the land. Using historical reference points, inspiring prose and some practical tips, she provides a framework for a new paradigm that is emerging.
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The idea that someone who has the capacity to loan money to someone else to start a business or buy a house is really what fuels the consumer-based economy in America is indisputable. How that came about, the creative products developed, like a thirty year mortgage, and the safeguards that keep those commitments from running aground are fascinating when you stop and consider them. Often times there is no collateral to back them up and yet we enter into these arrangements, in effect, every time we swipe our credit card. Bruce Carruthers, a Professor Of Sociology at Northwestern University describes the complex arrangements that underpin and lubricate the economy in his book, “The Economy of Promises: Trust, Power and Credit in America”. As we consider what went wrong with the system in the financial meltdown of housing loans in 2009, we must marvel at how well the system generally works for many, though not all, in a society that prides itself on the concept of risk.
To many, America’s ‘public’ space program has seemed stalled in recent years. With many pressing problems on planet Earth, have we given up imagining the possibilities of space as the new frontier and left those dreams to to private entrepreneurs and George Lucas and other Hollywood types? The answer is a resounding ‘no’ as NASA gets set to embark on a different race back to the moon in order to use it as the platform for exploration of the deeper reaches in space. Astrophysicist, Joseph Silk, who teaches at Johns Hopkins University details the complex and vital scientific objects of going “Back to the Moon’ is his new book with that title. It’s fascinating to read about a lunar space station on the far side of the moon which offers a great picture into our world’s creation as well as whether, and what type of life, might exist elsewhere. It’s a race America does not want to lose, yet the competition, primarily from China, is fierce because the prize, including rare earth materials to be mined, is great.
No matter what measurement you use, the statistical one provided by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development or simply your own eyes as you walk the streets of major American cities, the issue of people who live on the streets with no permanent shelter is growing. Conservatives and liberals alike recognize the problem and yet we have not put together initiatives that can get at the root of the problem and provide people with dignity and hope for the future. America settled on a ‘housing first’ policy which in essence creates a large federal assistance program which is functionally equivalent to HUD Section 8 housing. However, mental health, drug addiction and the lack of affordable housing in some of the country’s largest cities combine to exacerbate the problems faced by individuals who have no stability in their lives. Dr. Robert Marbut a senior policy fellow at the Discovery Institute has worked on the issue of the homeless for decades as Chief of Staff for San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros and as a White House Fellow under George W. Bush. He was the Executive Director of the U.S. Inter agency Council on Homelessness from 2019 to 2021 under both the Trump and Biden Administrations. He joins us to discuss a concept being put forward in federal legislation to get at the broad suite of needs people on the streets generally exhibit and to attempt to find more long-term remedies.
There is an insidious new pollutant that is harmful on its own and contributes to climate change. However, given industry pressure and economics its impacts will be very difficult to reverse. It’s called microplastics. And if you want to break down the problem in a more granular way, it’s called nannoplastics. These are bits of synthetic materials that have infested the atmosphere and are falling out of the sky and accumulating on land, in rivers and lakes and the sea. It’s so pervasive because plastics are used to package most of our consumer goods and can be found in everything from tires and clothing to couches and flooring. Plastic creates mountains of polymers, almost none of which is recycled. It is broken into an incalculable horde of synthetic specks, which are actually visible if you look carefully through a window. We will leave it to Matt Simon, author of “A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies”, to lay out chapter and verse what is happening here and how much these plastics are affecting our environment–and what we must do to get a handle on this problem.
Every day, deep fake sex videos, leaked emails and stolen nude images are weaponized, causing lasting damage to people’s careers, relationships and self-expression. Every day, companies track our health, location, dating, and browsing habits and share them with law enforcement. And as the Supreme Court takes its own axe to privacy, incarceration for reproductive choices you make is a distinct possibility. Whether it’s a spurned boyfriend or an online company whose business model is over collection of data about you, the internet may be dangerous to the careful way that you try to position yourself in the world, making it a place where you no longer feel it is safe from harmful invasions of your intimate privacy. A leading expert in this field, University of Virginia Law Professor, Danielle Keats Citron, author of “The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age” is our guest today and she explains why it is so important for Americans to have a backstage where private moments remain just that. As you will learn in this podcast, that opportunity is threatened by vindictive actors and laws which protect internet companies more than users.
: COVID-19 killed more people than any war or public health crisis in American history. Given that we constantly tell ourselves that we have the best health care in the world, what explains the fact that over a million Americans and counting have lost their lives and many millions suffering with the effects of the virus? In a word-partisanship. This public health crisis took on a political caste early on that it could never quite shake and the effects were deadly. Research of how members of one political ‘tribe’ or another reacted to it are stark in revealing the impact. While this was not the only factor in our grim response, it along with the social and racial inequities in our health care system co-star in this American tragedy. We discuss ‘Pandemic Politics’, the subject and the book with co-author Shana Kushner Gadarian. She wrote the book along with Sara Wallace Goodman and Thomas Pepinsky.
There is a science behind the inherent resilience of species who are adapting to changing conditions around the world. You may not get that picture from news accounts that tell us that an abundance of the natural world is disappearing in this period of the Anthropocene as man makes the planet less habitable for himself and others. Yes, there is extinction taking place, but it might be less dramatic and more normal than reports would indicate. Our guest, Michael Mehta Webster, in his book “: The Key to Saving Life on Earth” sounds a more optimistic note about how adaptation in the natural world takes place and tells remarkable stories of species who use a range of approaches to survive. Some move. Others evolve. And some welcome immigrants in to bring new genetic diversity to a small population. It’s eye- opening material we provide on this podcast.
Walmart has spawned a range of controversies over its remarkable history from one small store in rural Arkansas as the brainchild of its legendary founder, Sam Walton, to the retailing behemoth it is today. Throughout that history one theme has been consistent—Walmart employees have never been treated as the valued associates they are said to be by management. They have fought for scraps off of a table of abundance. And while things have gotten better for employees, is the progress good enough? Rick Wartzman, author “Still Broke: Walmart’s Remarkable Transformation and the Limits of Socially Conscious Capitalism” explores the complex evolution of the company and where it’s practices stand today as it attempts to remake its image.
As Americans, the ethos of self- help permeates our lives in all kinds of ways, including our health. If we all thought we were in this together, that health is a team sport, we would not have passed one million persons dying from Covid-19 with barely a notice. And then having moved on, fixing nothing about our fractured public health system. In his book, “Me Vs. Us: A Health Divided”, Dr. Michael Stein, makes a compelling our argument that the disparities in health outcomes between Americans with means and those without must be addressed going forward or the many public health exigencies we face in the future will exacerbate problems that are worse here than in other advanced societies. Before you accept the trope that we have the best health care system in the world, consider the importance of, yet lack of attention to, the public health component as described on this podcast.