Memorial Day, Emotional Disconnect, K-12 Financial Education

Restoring the Meaning of Memorial Day (1:03) Guest: John Raughter, national communications manager for the American Legion  AAA projects holiday travel this weekend to be the highest in a decade. That’s what Memorial Day’s all about, right? A kick-off to summer. Barbecues and campouts and picnics.   Of course we know Memorial Day has deeper meaning as a time to honor fallen service members. But it’s clearly lost some of that significance in America. That has prompted some to call for the holiday to be moved so it’s not on a Monday and thus always part of a three-day weekend, which makes recreational activities so tempting.   Meet Your Future Self (15:22) Guest: Hal Hershfield, social psychologist at UCLA Anderson and his research focuses on how human behavior can be modified by bringing people closer to their future selves  If you could hop in a time machine, go 40 years into the future and spend an hour with your future self—how do you suppose your behavior today might change? Would you start taking care of your body better? Tuck more money away for retirement?  Probably so, according to researchers at UCLA Anderson who’ve been conducting experiments in which they introduce people to a version of their future selves.   Disabilities (35:43) Guest: Gloria Krahn, the Barbara Emily Knudson Endowed Chair in Family Policy Studies at the College of Public Health at Oregon State University  People with disabilities face myriad health challenges related to their conditions—but that doesn’t account for the unusually high rates of preventable diseases like diabetes, heart disease and obesity they experience, says public health policy expert Gloria Krahn. Her recent article in the American Journal of Public Health makes the case for a more systematic approach to improving the health of Americans with disabilities, which trails other segments of the population, despite some $400 billion a year spent on their medical care and long-term services.  K-12 Financial Education (51:12) Guest: Janneke Ratcliffe, Assistant