Fareed Zakaria: Why No One Is Thankful For The Federal Government
The most recent episode of Fareed Zakaria GPS began with “Fareed’s Take” on trust in government, particularly the federal government. Zakaria diagnoses the systemic and political causes for the near historic lows in confidence in the federal government and discusses solutions.
Here is a brief description of the segment:
Fareed Zakaria explains why Americans have reason not to be grateful for federal government this Thanksgiving.
A Look Inside Amazon on Cyber Monday
In anticipation of Cyber Monday, 60 Minutes ran a segment that took a look into how Amazon.com operates.
Here is how the story began:
There has never been a company quite like Amazon. Conceived as an online book seller, Amazon has reinvented itself time and again, changing the way the world shops, reads and computes. Amazon has 225 million customers around the world. Its goal is to sell everything to everyone. The brainchild of Jeff Bezos, Amazon prides itself on disrupting the traditional way of doing things. A few weeks ago the company announced it was launching Sunday delivery.
Tonight, for the first time, you will be introduced to perhaps Amazon’s boldest venture ever.
Sunday Funday: Teaching Scientists Social Skills
I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday!
This edition of Sunday Funday is features a short segment from NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday about BioToasters–a public speaking organization for scientists.
Here is how the story began:
About 20 scientists are clustered in a cramped conference room in San Diego, one of the country’s science hubs, but they aren’t there to pore over their latest research. Instead, this is a meeting of BioToasters — a chapter of the public speaking organization Toastmasters, geared specifically toward scientists.
“For a typical scientist, they will spend a lot of time at the bench, so they’re doing a lot of maybe calculations or lab work where they’re not interacting directly from person to person,” says BioToasters President Zackary Prag, a lab equipment sales rep.
But scientists still often need to be able to speak to a crowd: Academics give seminars; pharmaceutical researchers present results; and graduate students defend their work in front of their professors and peers. Prag says it’s important to learn to speak clearly and make small talk.
At a recent meeting, two other Biotoasters were doing just that. New member Gina Salazar gave a presentation on “meeting girls and guys — pickup for smart people.”
Salazar practiced with member Greg Mrachko. “You’re adorable! You really look like Michael J. Fox,” she said to him, as the rest of the club laughed. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Michael J. Fox?” he responded. “Probably because of my new haircut.”
Practicing these social graces leads to better public speaking, and that’s important for a scientist’s career, says Union College physics professor Chad Orzel.
“Part of the way you make a reputation within the field is by giving talks at meetings, and then people see you give the talk and say, ‘Oh, that person gave a really good talk. They must be really smart,’ ” he says.
Orzel says part of a science professor’s job interview is giving an hour-long seminar. “In academia, we’re hiring people who are going to be expected to teach classes as well, so it’s absolutely critical that you be able to give a good talk,” he says
For more public policy related video/audio, be sure to check out the SLACE Archive.
The Working Poor and Minimum Wage
The cover story this morning on CBS Sunday Morning was about the movement to increase the federal minimum wage.
Here is how the story began:
Twenty-seven-year-old Nancy Salgado’s sweet smile may be her most marketable asset in the fast food industry — that and her willingness to do just about any task . . .
“I work at grill, I fry products; making sandwiches, assembling the sandwiches,” she told Moriarty. “I work breakfast, lunch, dinner. I work cashier. I work drive-through. I do drink station. Throw away garbage. Pretty much that’s it.”
“Do you think [that] people run in to get their fast food, do they notice the person serving them?” Moriarty asked.
“No, they never notice. But I believe that’s my skill to be friendly. Even though I’m heartbroken, even though I have problems at home and I have to deal with them day by day, I would still give you a smile.”
And yet, after working for a decade at McDonald’s franchise restaurants in Chicago, she still earns the state minimum wage in Illinois — currently $8.25 an hour.
Salgado, a divorced mother of two, struggles to get by on little more than a thousand dollars a month, and that’s with no benefits. . . .
The Fair Housing Act: Then and Now
Last weekend, This American Life ran a fascinating episode on housing discrimination and the history of the Fair Housing Act.
The “Prologue” talks about the impact where children lives on their education. Here is a description:
Ira talks to 15 year old Jada who, when she was in third grade, moved from Akron Public Schools in Ohio, to the nearby Copley-Fairlawn schools in the suburbs. After two years, Jada was kicked out by administrators who discovered that her mother was using Jada’s grandfather’s address in Copley, instead of her own in Akron. Jada says that while the schools are only a few miles apart, the difference in education was astounding.
For more information about Jada and her mother, Kelley Williams Bolar, who spent 10 days in jail because she falsified documents so she could enroll Jada and her sister in the Copley-Fairlawn schools, you can go here. (5 minutes)
Both Acts One and Two discuss the history of the Fair Housing Act and housing discrimination in New York City today.
Act One, “Rental Gymnastics” is described as follows:
Reporter Nancy Updike talks to a group of New York City residents about their frustrating attempts to rent an apartment. With hidden microphones, we hear landlords and supers tell the apartment hunters that there’s nothing available. But that’s not necessarily true. Forty-five years after the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, ProPublica reporter Nikole Hannah-Jonestalks to Nancy about the history of racial housing discrimination in the United States and what has been done — and hasn’t been done — to rectify it. (31 minutes)
Here is a description of Act II, “The Missionary“:
Once the Fair Housing Act became law in 1968, there was some question about how to implement it and enforce it. George Romney, the former Republican Governor of Michigan and newly-appointed Secretary of HUD, was a true believer in the need to make the Fair Housing Law a powerful one — a robust attempt to change the course of the nation’s racial segregation. Only problem was: President Richard Nixon didn’t necessarily see it that way. With Nikole Hannah-Jones, Nancy Updike continues the story. (16 minutes)
Nikole Hannah-Jones’s investigative series on the history and enforcement of the Fair Housing laws — with more stories, research and interviews —is here.