Top of Mind with Julie Rose

The current state of education in America is a troubling picture. Reading proficiency scores have reached historic lows. Chronic absenteeism is on the rise—more than a quarter of K-12 students miss at least 10% of the school year. And the achievement gap in test scores between the highest and lowest performing students has widened. On this podcast episode, we take a closer look at education reform in America. Would more students show up to school if they were learning material that felt applicable to their goals in life - instead of being funneled through a cookie-cutter system designed for the industrial era? How would a focus on increasing background knowledge, known as knowledge-building curriculum, help students develop their understanding of core subjects better than our current model of skills-based instruction? And how might school choice policies—like open enrollment, charter schools, and magnet schools—address rising levels of school segregation? Could racial and socioeconomic integration be the key to closing America’s persistent achievement gaps on standardized test scores? Guests: Cory Steiner, Superintendent of Schools for Northern Cass School District: https://www.northerncassschool.org/page/personalized-learning Jenee Henry Wood, Chief Learning Officer at Transcend and co-author of Extraordinary Learning for All: How Communities Design Schools Where Everyone Thrives: https://transcendeducation.org/resources/extraordinary-learning-for-all/ Russ Williams, Executive Director of Center City Public Schools in Washington, D.C.: https://centercitypcs.org/about/meet-our-team/#biokellydickens Kate Merrill, Managing Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Center City Public Schools in Washington, D.C. Halley Potter, Senior Fellow and Director of PK-12 Education Policy at The Century Foundation: https://tcf.org/experts/halley-potter/ Milly Arbaje-Thomas, President & CEO of METCO (The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) in Boston: https://metcoinc.org/about/ More Top of Mind epi

More Americans use cannabis every day, or almost every day, than use alcohol on a daily basis. That's in large part because marijuana is a lot more accessible than it used to be. More than half of us live in a state where marijuana is recreationally legal. Nearly 8 in 10 live in a county with a marijuana dispensary. But marijuana is still illegal in the eyes of the federal government, which means legalization is being managed almost entirely by a patchwork of state policies. Doctors and scientists are starting to worry about what that means for public health. Is marijuana legalization working out like we thought it would? And where do we go from here? Guests: Amber Post, realtor from Owasso, Oklahoma Yasmin Hurd, Director of the Addiction Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai New York (https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2024/09/to-protect-public-health-federal-government-should-provide-guidance-to-states-that-have-legalized-marijuana-close-hemp-regulatory-loopholes-create-public-health-campaign) Jonathan Caulkins, Professor of Operations Research and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/add.16519) 00:00 Introduction and Personal Story 01:31 Amber Post's Marijuana Journey 02:43 Health Issues and Discovery 05:20 Legalization and Public Perception 11:13 Medical and Scientific Insights 15:31 Cannabinoids and Their Effects 23:49 Policy and Future Outlook 25:15 The Impact of Potent Cannabis Products on Youth 26:00 The Role of Policy and Regulation in Cannabis Safety 26:51 The Need for FDA Regulation in Cannabis Products 28:21 Concerns About Vulnerable Populations 30:02 The Evolution of Cannabis Legalization in the U.S. 32:59 The Rise of Daily Cannabis Use 36:06 Challenges in Regulating Cannabis Products 43:57 The Future of Cannabis Legalization and Regulation 52:35 Personal Reflections on Medical Marijuana 53:26 Closing Remarks and Additional Resources

They started off as ideological enemies. Mark Rosenberg pioneered the public health approach to preventing gun violence and opened a branch of the CDC to fund that research. Jay Dickey, the "NRA's point man in Congress", pushed a ban on CDC funding for gun violence research that lasted 20 years – and got Rosenberg fired. On this episode of Top of Mind, we tell the unlikely story of their friendship and what it can teach us about reducing gun violence in America. Americans are split right down the middle on whether it's more important to control gun ownership or protect the right to own guns. But we agree that too many people die from firearms. They are the leading cause of death for children under the age of 19 in the United States today. Mass shootings are so common they barely capture headlines beyond a day. In 2024, about 40,000 Americans died from gun violence. More than half were suicides. If Mark Rosenberg and Jay Dickie could come to agree on the need to reduce gun violence, while preserving the rights of law-abiding gun owners, can we do the same? Podcast Guests: Mark Rosenberg, MD, public health researcher, former director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCPIC at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199310073291506) Jay Dickey, former Republican Congressman from Arkansas, gun rights advocate and sponsor of the “Dickey Amendment” (Dickey died in 2017 https://www.nwaonline.com/obituaries/2017/apr/23/jay-dickey-2017-04-23/. We hear archival tape in this episode) Betty Dickey, former Arkansas State Supreme Court Justice, Congressman Jay Dickey’s ex-wife Rachel Dickey Haithcoat, Congressman Jay Dickey’s daughter Garen Wintemute, MD, emergency medicine physician, director of the Violence Prevention Research Program, University of California at Davis Bindi Naik-Mathuria, MD, pediatric trauma surgeon, gun violence researcher

It’s been about two years since the public got a taste of ChatGPT for the first time. Now, artificial intelligence has seeped into nearly every aspect of our lives. You can use AI to check your grammar or to generate content for social media. Students use it to write essays. AI can also generate artwork, music or audio in seconds. We’re relying more and more on generative AI tools like MidJourney, DALL-E, Claude, Perplexity, and Copilot—and the more we use it, the better it gets. But can AI really be creative? What does it even mean to be creative in the age of AI? Guests: Kate Brunotts, freelance music producer (https://www.breakingsound.com/kate-brunotts) John Cockley, co-founder of the illustration agency, Handsome Frank (https://www.handsomefrank.com/) Lindsay Brainard, professor of philosophy at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (https://www.lindsaybrainard.com/home) Claire Silver, AI collaborative artist (https://www.clairesilver.com/selected-work) Links: Letter from the Artist Rights Alliance: https://artistrightsnow.medium.com/200-artists-urge-tech-platforms-stop-devaluing-music-559fb109bbac

A 2024 Knight Foundation report found one in four college students think schools need to protect students by banning speech they may find offensive or biased, the largest share of students to answer that way since the survey first asked the question in 2016. 2024 also set a record for the number of attempts to disrupt or disinvite speaker, cancel performances, take down art exhibits and prevent the screening of films on US college campuses, according to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). What do these competing interests--to encourage student wellbeing and protect free speech on campus--mean for students and administrators trying to strike a balance? Guests: Jillian Lederman, Joseph Rago Memorial Fellow at The Wall Street Journal, 2024 graduate of Brown University ( https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/03/opinion/antisemitism-jews-campus.html) Kaleb Bakari Autman, undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Emma Camp, assistant editor at Reason Magazine, 2022 graduate of the University of Virginia (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opinion/campus-speech-cancel-culture.html) Steve Bahls, president emeritus of Augustana College (retired in 2022), director of Presidential Mission and Vocation for the Council of Independent Colleges More 1st Amendment episodes from Top of Mind: Religious freedom: https://www.byuradio.org/top-of-mind-christian-or-not-unpacking-americas-religious-identity Free Speech: https://www.byuradio.org/d47c4b86-02d4-4a4d-997b-d1510ba9048b/top-of-mind-with-julie-rose-weighing-the-pros-and-cons-of-free-expression Free Press: https://www.byuradio.org/68e6b06a-73bb-4a0f-ace8-5f2b55bd066f/top-of-mind-with-julie-rose-can-the-news-be-trusted-americans-arent-too-sure Links: 2024 Knight Foundation Report on Free Expression: https://knightfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Knight-Fdn_Free-Expression_2024_072424_FINAL-1.pdf FIRE Databases: https://www.thefire.org/research-learn?_page=1&keywords=&_limit=6&resource_type=1562

In his parting prescription for the country, outgoing US Surgeon General, Doctor Vivek Murthy writes that he is worried about how exhausted and alone Americans are. Public health experts say loneliness has become an epidemic. Research shows social disconnection is about as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and more harmful than obesity. But loneliness in America is hardly new. Sociologists like Robert Putnam, author of the groundbreaking book Bowling Alone, have been sounding the alarm for nearly 25 years. In that time, loneliness has only accelerated, with online interaction replacing much of our face-to-face connection. What exactly is lacking for so many people in this country? What is the most useful way to think about this problem? And how can we solve it? Guests: Dr. Frank Clark, psychiatrist at Prisma-Health Upstate, clinical associate professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville ( https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/authors/frank-clark-md) Matt Fantastic, co-owner of Elm City Games in New Haven, Connecticut (https://www.elmcitygames.com/) Charlotte Donlon, spiritual director and author of The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other (https://charlottedonlon.com/the-great-belonging-book) Links: Dr. Vivek Murthy’s Parting Prescription for America: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/my-parting-prescription-for-america.pdf US Surgeon General’s Advisory Report on Loneliness: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

Why is insulting someone’s intelligence such a potent put down? It’s more than saying someone lacks knowledge or book learning. It’s a statement of a person’s worth – of their potential to be successful. And for that, we can thank the IQ test. In this podcast episode, we explore how the IQ test was created and continues to shape our collective understanding of intelligence and disability. We hear from a mother struggling with the pros and cons of having her daughter with Down Syndrome routinely IQ tested at school. A school psychologist tackles common misconceptions about the nature of IQ testing. And we consider how the IQ test’s narrow definition of “intelligence” affects people with dyslexia and autism, which have historically been conflated with intellectual disability. Guests: Pepper Stetler, professor of art history, Miami University, author of “A Measure of Intelligence: One Woman’s Reckoning with the IQ Test” (https://www.pepperstetler.com/) Terisa Gabrielsen, professor of school psychology at Brigham Young University (https://education.byu.edu/directory/view/terisa-gabrielsen) Quincy Hansen, neurodiversity and autism advocate, author of “Shake It Up: How to be Young, Autistic, and Make an Impact” (https://speakingofautismcom.wordpress.com/) Tim Odegard, Editor in Chief of the Annals of Dyslexia, professor of psychology at Middle Tennessee State University (https://dyslexia.mtsu.edu/staff/)

More than a quarter of Americans are estranged from at least one family member. Parent/child estrangement is the most common – especially between dads and their kids. There’s a lot about modern American life that has made family estrangement more common, and younger generations are more willing to talk about it on social media. But reconciliation happens more than you might think. On this episode of Top of Mind, we explore the reality of estrangement from both the parent and the child's perspective. And we hear what it takes to reconcile. Guests: Charlotte Gill, author of Almost Brown: A Memoir (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705633/almost-brown-by-charlotte-gill/) Sheri McGregor, author of Done with the Crying and Beyond Done with the Crying (https://a.co/d/93JwJ4C) Joshua Coleman, clinical psychologist and author of The Rules of Estrangement: Why Adult Children Cut Ties and How to Heal the Conflict (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622584/rules-of-estrangement-by-joshua-coleman-phd/)

Can America guarantee free expression of religion in public as an officially secular, but culturally Christian nation? Expressing religious faith in public is both protected by law and socially acceptable. As a secular nation, the US has no official religion, but since two-thirds of American are Christian, most of the displays of religion in public places we see represent one faith. For example, Christmas is the only religious holiday observed by the that’s also a federal holiday when all government services and most private businesses are closed. And some argue that, because of our history and founding, America was intended to be a Christian nation. On this episode of Top of Mind we explore how free non-Christians in America actually feel to express their religious identity and beliefs in public? What’s the fairest way to approach the topic of religion in public places? Did the American founders intend to establish a Christian nation - and what does that complicated history mean for freedom of religion in the United States today? Guests: Linda K. Wertheimer, journalist and author of Faith Ed: Teaching About Religion in an Age of Intolerance (https://www.lindakwertheimer.com/?page_id=722) Rim-Sarah Alouane, Ph.D. candidate in comparative law at the University Toulouse-Capitole in France (https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/the-weaponization-of-laicite) John Fea, professor of American History at Messiah University and author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction (https://www.amazon.com/Was-America-Founded-Christian-Nation/dp/0664235042)

The pandemic shook America’s trust, especially in vaccines. But it also taught us something about building trust in institutions. During the pandemic, Americans lost trust across the board. Today, trust in institutions like the media, the medical system, public schools, and all branches of government is at an all-time low. Before the pandemic, three in four Americans said science had mostly positive effects on society. Today, that's down to barely half. When it comes to vaccines specifically, fewer than half of Americans think childhood vaccines are "extremely important." That's the lowest level in 25 years. The pandemic also sparked new vaccine hesitancy, driven by shifting health guidelines and vaccination mandates that forced people to take a side. Plus, the COVID shot was developed faster than normal using new technology. On this episode of Top of Mind, we're taking a closer look at what happened to America's relationship with vaccines during the pandemic to see what we can learn about building - and maintaining - public trust. We'll hear a range of viewpoints exploring what it was like to gain trust, to lose it, and to try and foster it. This is not an episode about whether or not people should get vaccinated. Vaccines are just a useful lens to get at the deeper issue of how and why we trust institutions. Guests: Heather Simpson, former anti-vaccine influencer and co-founder of website "Back to the Vax" (https://backtothevax.com/) Maya Goldenberg, professor of philosophy at the University of Guelph and the author of Vaccine Hesitancy: Public Trust, Expertise, and the War on Science (https://upittpress.org/books/9780822966906/) Jennifer Sharp, filmmaker and director of the Anecdotals (http://www.jennifersharpfilms.com/) Bill Petri, doctor, scientist, and professor at the University of Virginia (https://dailyprogress.com/life-entertainment/local/wellness/dr-william-petri-lions-bears-and-covid-an-update-for-the-summer/article_e7747372-2422-11ee-a785-d3f1e0a035ef.html) Links: Top of Min

Care work is the labor essential to life. But two-thirds of caregiving goes uncompensated. What do we miss when we don’t value care work and how does this affect care workers? If we multiplied all the hours spent in a year on unpaid caregiving in America by the local minimum wage, it would be worth one trillion dollars. Yet none of it is accounted for in the official measures of the nation's economic health or productivity. And the vast majority is done by women. Meanwhile, the paid care sector has a critical shortage of daycare staff, home health aides and certified nursing assistants. America is in a care work crisis. In this podcast episode, we talk to a therapist and struggling mother about how she changed her mindset on care work. Then we talk to a former direct care worker about her experience in the field and her efforts to improve the paid care sector. Finally, we discuss the care economy with a mother and author who has struggled with her identity as a caregiver. Guests: - KC Davis, creator of the StruggleCare platform and author of How to Keep House While Drowning (https://www.strugglecare.com/) - Diondre Clarke, former direct care worker and field organizer for the National Domestic Workers Alliance (https://www.domesticworkers.org/) - Elissa Strauss, author of When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/When-You-Care/Elissa-Strauss/9781982169275)

There are more than 100,000 people on the waitlist for an organ transplant. Every day 17 of them die. Most organs for transplant come from deceased donors. But the organs in highest demand for transplantation are kidneys and livers – both of which can be donated while a person is still alive. So, we could save thousands of lives each year if more people were willing make a living organ donation. Some advocates say giving donors money would increase organ donations enough to eliminate the entire waitlist. But federal law makes it illegal to buy or sell organs. Ethicists have real concerns about coercion and exploitation, too. In this podcast episode, we're exploring America's organ shortage and asking whether paying donors could close the gap. Guests: David Galbenski, liver transplant recipient and co-founder of the Living Liver Foundation (https://livingliver.org/) Elaine Perlman, kidney donor, Executive Director of Waitlist Zero and leading advocate for the End Kidney Deaths Act (http://waitlistzero.org/) Kathleen McLaughlin, journalist and author of Blood Money; The Story of Life, Death, and Profit Inside America's Blood Industry Al Roth, Nobel-prize winning economist, Stanford University, expert in market design and game theory (https://marketdesigner.blogspot.com/)

Meet the teams behind Top of Mind and Uncomfy in this special crossover episode, where we share stories of sticking with a challenging perspective while working on the shows. We are exposed to a lot of nuanced viewpoints as we put podcast episodes together, which gives us the perfect opportunity to practice what we preach: choosing to lean into discomfort instead of lashing out or shying away. We’ve found clarity about our own beliefs, empathy for the people around us, and also developed the skills to tackle tough conversations. Tune in to Top of Mind to practice engaging with important, complicated topics. Check out Uncomfy, too, where we’re sharing stories of people choosing to engage in an uncomfortable moment instead of stepping back. And if you’ve had an “Uncomfy” experience lately, share it with us by emailing uncomfy@byu.edu. Guests: Top of Mind producers - Alayna Beck, Caleb Leach, Vanessa Goodman, and James Hoopes. Uncomfy producers - Samuel Benson and Henrique Prado. Find links to the podcast episodes referenced in this conversation below: What Does it Mean to Be White in America?: https://www.byuradio.org/top-of-mind-what-does-it-mean-to-be-white-in-america The Changing Ways We Decide Who Gets into College an Why it Matters: https://www.byuradio.org/top-of-mind-the-changing-way-we-decide-who-gets-into-college-and-why-it-matters Why We’re So Anxious About Retirement in America — And How We Can Fix It: https://www.byuradio.org/top-of-mind-why-were-so-anxious-about-retirement-in-america-and-how-we-can-fix-it What Can We Do About America’s Money in Politics Problem?: https://www.byuradio.org/top-of-mind-what-can-we-do-about-americas-money-in-politics-problem Spending a Day with People Who Think You Hate Them – Jefferson Shupe: https://www.byuradio.org/e14-spending-a-day-with-people-who-think-you-hate-them-jefferson-shupe

Only 44% of Americans say they have a "great deal" or "quite a bit of confidence" that the results of the 2024 election will be accurate. But party affiliation is a big part of the story. If you break down that 44%, only 1 in 4 Republicans have high confidence, compared to nearly 3 out of 4 Democrats. The reasons that so many Americans currently lack trust in elections differ on the political left and right, but a representative democracy like ours relies on all voters having a high level of confidence in the results of an election no matter who wins. Without it, people stop voting, losing candidates don't concede, winners can't lead effectively and the transition from one administration to the next is no longer guaranteed to be peaceful. In this episode, we hear what leads people on the left and right to lack trust in the integrity of U.S. elections. We meet a county clerk who ran for office because of his concerns about fraud and mail voting. Now he’s administering his first presidential election and trying to convince other voters to trust the system. Then we explore the recommendations of a group of Democrats and Republicans who came together in search of common ground around restoring trust in elections. Guests: Lenny Mirra, Republican former Massachusetts State Representative, “Red” member of the Braver Angels Trustworthy Elections Initiative leadership team (https://braverangels.org/trustworthy-elections/) Catherine Roeske, city clerk of Oak Creek, Wisconsin (https://www.oakcreekwi.gov/government/departments/clerk/elections) Aaron Davidson, Clerk of Utah County, Utah (https://vote.utahcounty.gov/home) Jay Young, Senior Director of Voting and Democracy, Common Cause (https://www.commoncause.org/issues/stopping-voter-suppression/) Reena Bernards, creator of Common Ground Workshop, “Blue” member of the Braver Angels Trustworthy Elections Initiative leadership team (https://braverangels.org/trustworthy-elections/)

Presidential elections in the US are twice as expensive as they were just a decade ago, and so are the most competitive Congressional races. Even state and local elections now routinely see record spending – typically from “outside groups” that have no restrictions on what they can raise or spend. The current state of money in politics is a rare point of bipartisan agreement in America. Overwhelming majorities of Republicans and Democrats think the cost of campaigns makes it hard for good people to run for office and that big donors and special interest groups have too much influence over politicians. Plus, political donors and special interest groups are more ideological than the average citizen, making political campaigns more polarized. In this podcast episode, we explore what’s changed in the last decade to dramatically increase the flow of money in US elections. And we look at a wide range of efforts underway to address the influence of money in politics. Guests: David Jolly, former Republican Congressman from Florida’s 13th District (https://davidjolly.com/) Jeff Clements, constitutional Lawyer and CEO of American Promise, sponsors of the “For Our Freedom Amendment” (https://americanpromise.net/) Ray La Raja, professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and co-author of “Campaign Finance and Political polarization: When Purists Prevail” (https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/h702q709t) Rene LeBeau, Democracy Voucher Program Manager for the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (https://seattle.gov/democracyvoucher) Alan Durning, CEO of Sightline Institute (https://www.sightline.org/)

A trial by jury is an important American right, enshrined in the 6th and 7th amendments of the constitution. But do jury trials work the way we want them to? Not all countries use citizen juries in their justice systems, and the ones that do generally don't give them quite as much power as America does. But juries are also becoming rare in the United States. Only 2% of criminal trials ever make it in front of a jury because prosecutors pressure defendants to take plea deals as a faster, cheaper alternative to trial. And most of us dread getting called to serve on a jury. Should America continue to lean away from juries, or press to make them more present in our system - and perhaps more just? In this podcast episode, we talk to someone who’s served on a jury, and someone who was wrongfully convicted by one. We'll also talk to experts about where juries fall short and what we can do about that. Guests: Kristen Cambell, CEO of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-jury-duty-yes-duty-changed-my-life-riyzc/) Herman Lindsey, executive director of Witness to Innocence (https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org/single-post/herman-lindsey) James Binnall, lawyer and professor at California State University Long Beach, author of "Twenty Million Angry Men: The Case for Including Convicted Felons in Our Juries" (https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12015) Valerie Hans, law professor at Cornell University (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4168115)

Why is it so hard to draw the line between what’s funny or offensive? We love to laugh and we prize a good sense of humor in ourselves and others. But the ancient Greeks – Aristotle and Plato – said humor was bad for society: they thought of it mainly as mockery and laughing was a loss of self-control. When you consider how quickly humor can go wrong in the hands of a bully or an edgy standup routine, you have to wonder - were the Greek philosophers right? In this podcast episode we meet a biracial standup comic who jokes often about race and thinks comedians should be able to joke about anything, so long as it’s funny, original and authentic to their experiences. We also consider the difference between racist humor and humor that’s racially insensitive or “merely racial” with a leading expert on the ethics of racial humor. And then we ask what it would take to maximize the benefits of humor in every day interactions, where you could argue the goals and rules are different. Podcast Guests: Isak Allen, Los Angeles-based standup comedian (https://www.drybarcomedy.com/isaka) Luvell Anderson, professor of philosophy at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Mike Cundall, a professor of philosophy at North Carolina A&T State University, author of The Humor Hack, and founder of Mirth Management consulting. (https://www.mirthmanagement.co/)

For a century, the ACT and SAT played a central role in filtering college applicants. Most colleges and universities stopped requiring standardized test scores during the pandemic; that change has turned into a permanent shift across higher education. A lot of people think that's for the better, particularly since the tests have long been shown to disadvantage students of color and those with fewer economic resources. But now a growing number of elite schools - including Harvard, MIT and Dartmouth - are reinstating the test requirement. Why are they struggling to make up their minds? Meanwhile, the Supreme Court outlawed another prominent filter elite schools have used to make admissions decisions - race. Now that test score requirements are in flux and affirmative action is illegal, how do we decide who gets into college? Guests: Emi Nietfeld, journalist and author of "Acceptance: A Memoir" Nicholas Lemann, professor at the Columbia School of Journalism and author of "The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy" and "Higher Admissions: The Rise, Decline, and Return of Standardized Testing" Alix Coupet, former admissions officer at Stanford and the University of Chicago, currently working in private admissions counseling Patricia Gandara, professor at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and a co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA

Most Americans are anxious about when – or even if – they’ll be able to retire. And we’re not wrong. Social Security is on shaky footing. Half of Americans on the cusp of retirement have no money saved for it. This isn’t how retirement in America was supposed to work. But 40 years ago, Congress shifted the US away from employer pensions and toward a do-it-yourself system based on 401K retirement saving plans. It’s not going well. In this episode we get to the bottom of why so many Americans are unable to retire comfortably and end up, instead, living in poverty or working well past age 70. And we’ll learn what we can do on an individual and national level to improve retirement in America. Podcast Guests: Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics at the New School for Social Research, author of Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy (https://teresaghilarducci.org/) Aubrey Johnson, 24, recent college graduate Heather Sheffer, 45, self-employed Mike Cundall, 50, philosophy professor North Carolina A&T State University Jaye Crist, 63, printing business employee, artist @jayecrist on Instagram Penny Pennington Weeks, 58, retired from Oklahoma State University faculty at age 55, posts garden and retirement content @pennypenningtonweeks on Instagram Cami (last name withheld), 38, full-time nurse, divorced mother of four kids Maryann O’Connor, 67, owner of Kindred Woman Travelers (https://www.kindredwomentravelers.com/) Elaine Jarvie, 68, retired, RV traveler

Compared to other wealthy nations, America has twice as many traffic deaths per capita. And in recent years, pedestrian and cyclist deaths have spiked. Experts say road design plays a big part in this. The most dangerous roads are “suburban arteries” that are often 5 or 6 lanes wide, with long distances between traffic lights where pedestrians can cross. On this episode of the podcast, we explore why American roads are designed almost exclusively for vehicles and what it would take to make them safer for people on foot and bicycle. Can streets allow good flow for vehicles, but still have bike lanes and safe crossing options for pedestrians? Cars these days are supercomputers on wheels – could technology solve this problem for us? Podcast Guests: Lizi Rahman, mother of Asif Rahman and member of Families for Safer Streets (https://www.familiesforsafestreets.org/) Angie Schmitt, author of “Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America” (https://usa.streetsblog.org/author/angie) Steve Morris, co-founder of the West Roxbury Safety Association (https://www.facebook.com/WestRoxburysafetyassociation/) John McElroy, journalist and president of Autoline (https://www.autoline.tv/)