The American Dream in Crisis, National Parks

The American Dream in Crisis, National Parks

Top of Mind with Julie Rose

  • Apr 10, 2015 9:00 pm
  • 1:53:56 mins

The American Dream in Crisis (1:05) Guest: Robert Putnam, author of “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” and the Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University The American Dream—the notion that anyone, with enough hard work and gumption, can find success in America today. Noted Harvard researcher Robert Putnam says the American Dream is in Crisis for Our Kids, which is the title of his latest book. It’s a mix of intimate and often heart-breaking stories about the lives of many youth living in America today, interspersed with hard numbers and charts that show a recurring “scissor” effect. Picture an open pair of scissors, or the gaping maw of a crocodile, and you’ll pretty much get just how much kids from affluent backgrounds are pulling further and further ahead in society. Putnam’s central thesis is that “in recent decades the challenges and opportunities facing rich and poor kids have grown more disparate.” National Parks (51:34) Guest: Kurt Repanshek, a veteran journalist and founder and editor-in-chief of National Parks Traveler—the top-ranked website dedicated to daily coverage of national parks Are national parks a part of your vacation memories? Do you want them to be? We talk about how they came to be, their status today and get some tips for visiting the nation’s parks like a pro. Who better to talk us through all of that than the man who wrote “America’s National Parks for Dummies”?