Puerto Rico Bankruptcy, Children and Disasters, Discovery

Puerto Rico Bankruptcy (1:02) Guest: Brook Gotberg, JD, Fellow of the BYU Law School Puerto Rico says it doesn’t have enough money to repay $73 billion dollars it owes bondholders. Since the island’s debt crisis became public in June, Congress has wrestled with what to do. A lot of Puerto Rico’s debt is owed by the territory’s public entities – like utilities. So one proposal would be to allow those entities to declare chapter 9 bankruptcy. Or, should Puerto Rico itself be allowed to declare bankruptcy? That’s what the Obama Administration has suggested and it’s got people pretty worked up. Counseling in the Wake of Disaster (22:43) Guest: David Schonfeld, MD, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician and Director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at the USC School of Social Work Disasters leave visible scars – charred homes, collapsed buildings, flooded streets. Too often, the mental and emotional scars go unnoticed and unaddressed – particularly among children, according to a new clinical report by the American Academy of Pediatrics. For example, after Hurricane Sandy, children whose homes had suffered even minor damage were five times more likely to feel depressed, nervous or afraid than children whose homes were undamaged. They were eight times more likely to have trouble sleeping. According to this new report, doctors and school counselors need to be on the lookout for the mental health of a child from the moment a disaster strikes to many months and years afterward. Ancient Mosaics Discovered in Galilean Synagogue (35:32) Guest: Matthew Grey, PhD, Area Supervisor on the Huqoq Excavation Project in Galilee and Assistant Professor in the BYU Department of Ancient Scripture Archaeologists excavating an ancient Jewish village off the Sea of Galilee over the summer made a surprising discovery. The village is called “Huqoq” and in it is a synagogue dating back to the fifth century. That’s not the surprising part, though. What really stunned experts is that in that Jewish synagogue, they’ve uncovered mosaics depicting non-religious images you’d expect in a Greek or Roman temple to the gods of wine, revelry and theater. The lead archaeologist on this discovery says it’s “the first time a non-biblical story has been found decorating any ancient synagogue.” The Chair (52:18) Guest: Galen Cranz, PhD, Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley As you read to this, chances are you’re sitting. Chairs are ubiquitous in American work and leisure. We sit while driving, eating, filing our taxes. They’re so common they’ve virtually faded into the background. But now they’re the enemy. You’ve seen the reports, right? About how sitting is the new smoking – it’s that bad for us? Unbroken (1:16:15) Guest: Laura Hillenbrand, Author of Multiple New York Times Bestsellers, including "Unbroken" and "Seabiscuit?" “Unbroken” is the story of Louis Zamperini - an Olympic runner whose record-breaking career is interrupted by World War II. The plane for which he’s a bombardier goes down over the Pacific and he’s marooned with two other crewmen for nearly two months, subsisting on rain water and fish. When a plane finally spots them, it turns out to be Japanese and rains fire down on their disintegrating raft. Finally he and one surviving crewmember are rescued by the Japanese and become prisoners of war. More horror ensues. Still Zamperini survives. And eventually, he even forgives. Laura Hillenbrand’s book, “Unbroken” is gripping, heart-wrenching and inspiring. And it took her nearly a decade to write because of her own suffering.