Working Poor, Low-Head Dams, Colorado River

The Working Poor (1:04) Guests: Scott Sanders, Ph. D, Assistant Professor of Sociology at BYU Work and poverty are Top of Mind today. The U.S. Census reports that 45 million Americans are poor. That word invokes a stereotype held by many that people are poor by choice – they’re lazy or would rather be on welfare than work, oeven that they’re gaming the system. Research done recently by BYU sociology professor Scott Sanders and his co-authors at Louisiana State University and Cornell University finds the reality of poverty in America is in stark contrast to that stereotype. The majority of America’s poor live in a household where someone works and that a large number of poor Americans are in fact “playing by the rules” but find themselves unable to escape poverty. Older Workers and the Job Search (21:50) Guest: Darla Hamann, Ph. D., Professor of Human Resource Managment at the University of Texas, Arlington Let’s turn now to the challenges facing people over 55 who find themselves out of work. They were hit especially hard during the 2007 financial crisis, and they now continue to have more difficulty finding a job than younger displaced workers. Dr. Darla Hamann is part of a team of researchers studying why this is the case. Dr. Hamann is a professor of human resource management at the University of Texas, Arlington. She co-authored “Age and Reemployment Success After Job Loss” a study published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. Dangers of Low-head Dams (37:16) Guest: Rollin Hotchkiss, PH. D, Department of Engineering at BYU Just last month, two kayakers on a river in Ohio died while trying to cross over a small dam. These “low-head” dams—usually no more than two feet high—don’t block water altogether, instead they limit the height, usually for irrigation purposes. Yet even though they may be small, they create inescapable currents that have killed more than 450 people in the past 50 years. There have been fatalities in almost every state, even as most people aren’t aware of the danger of what—on the su