Story Archives of 'Poverty'

Monday on Word of Mouth, we take a look at improving life on the ground for the 2.7 billion people in the world living on less than $2 a day.

Bicycle wheels that can thresh millet, Lego-like bricks created from soil, and electric generators hooked-up to irrigation pumps are simple projects that could go a long way toward improving the lives of millions of people in developing countries. That's the guiding principle behind a month-long summer workshop that just wrapped up at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The International Development Design Summit was initiated by Amy Smith, a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at MIT and the recipient of a 2004 MacArthur "Genius Grant." Smith joins Word of Mouth to talk about the ideas that came out of the summit.

(Photo by Niall Walsh)

On today's show, we take a look at your brain. Specifically, your brain at that maddening moment when you run into an old acquaintance, but just can’t place their name. Ben? Bob? Brian? You’ve got the “b” part, but the rest just seems to stick on the tip of your tongue. Science editor and writer Jonah Lehrer, became fascinated with this phenomenon, and he stopped by our studio to tell us more.

We also look at the possible links between childhood poverty and brain development. Dr. Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, studies how the stress of growing up in a lower socio-economic status may be damaging to how the brain develops, and is providing new insight into the age-old question of why poverty persists.

And we hear a story from public radio station KQED's QUEST about researchers at Stanford University using complex brain imaging to study how we make financial decisions. They’re finding that emotions play a pretty big role in everyday purchases. Andrea Kissic visited the lab to see what the scientists are coming up with.

(Photo by Piper Falk)

On Memorial Day, America has set aside a day to remember the men and women who died fighting its wars.

A group in Manchester hopes Americans will remember those vets who are fighting homelessness.

NHPR Correspondent Ellen Grimm has more.

Homeowners who live in mobile home parks are paying anywhere from 8-15% interest on their mortgages- way more than people who own other types of housing.

That only makes it harder to pay the bills for those homeowners who often live on moderate or fixed incomes.

But home mortgage giant Fannie Mae and local banks are starting to look at some of these communities in a new way.

New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports.