Dinosaurs, Homeownership

Dinosaurs (1:15) Guests: Brooks Britt and Rodney Scheetz, paleontologists in the Department of Geological Sciences Dinosaurs are the single obsession of so many 6 and 7 year olds—and of Hollywood. Tell me you’re not looking forward to the new Jurassic Park movie this summer.  They fascinate and terrify us and quite frankly, we can’t get enough. So the next hour is all about dinosaurs with BYU paleontologists Brooks Britt and Rodney Scheetz. Homeownership and the American Dream (51:50) Guests: Mechele Dickerson, a nationally recognized bankruptcy law scholar and a global media expert on consumer debt. She teaches at the University of Texas-Austin school of law and is author of the 2014 book, “Homeownership and America’s Financial Underclass: Flawed Premises, Broken Promises, New Prescriptions” Eli Spivak (1:15:23), owner of Orange Splot, a housing development company providing non-traditional housing options to people who might otherwise not be able to afford a home in Portland, Oregon. The narrative goes something like this: get a college degree, get a full-time job, get married and buy a house. Homeownership has long been the pinnacle of American success—a symbol of adulthood, financial success and stability. Decades of government policies were built on that ideal and yet, Americans are changing. They’re graduating from college with far more student debt than their parents. They’re struggling to find work and more likely to jump from job to job, city to city. They’re marrying later—if at all. Mechele Dickerson says it’s time for a new housing conversation that stops focusing on ways to justify homeownership subsidies and stops assuming that owning is always better than renting.