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Story Archives of 'Society and Culture'
This 'n' That, and a "Who Dat" Congrats
By Robin Respaut on Monday, February 8, 2010.
Tonight a photo-exhibit opens at the University of New Hampshire Museum. The show features works by eight photographers who followed the war in Darfur, Sudan. The opening will be followed by an open house with speakers addressing Darfur today and the upcoming Sudanese elections. The exhibit is up through March 6.
Photojournalists' Exhibit on Darfur Opens at UNH Museum Feb. 8
New Orleans Gets Defensive About "Who Dat"
By Robin Respaut on Thursday, February 4, 2010.
The Super Bowl may be in Miami, but fans are flocking to New Orleans to take part in the festivities planned there. Locals report Super Bowl mania will out-do tourism from Mardi Gras later this month. One local told CNN, “Everybody, anywhere you go -- even in doctors' offices -- everybody's wearing black and gold and high-fiving people…you know whether we win or lose, the city has something to hold onto now.
Banking Translated
By Mayra Jimenez on Thursday, February 4, 2010.
Financial decisions are typically made by the head of the household. But for non-English speaking immigrant families, the job of translating finances often falls to their children. Reporter Mayra Jimenez was barely a teenager when she began helping her anxious parents with their checking and savings. She describes the experience in this story for Youth Radio.
Listen to the story on Public Radio Exchange.
Mobile Homes as Affordable Housing
By Emily Reddy on Thursday, February 4, 2010.
Mobile homes spot the landscape throughout much of rural America. They’re great for young couples, retirees on a budget, and low-income workers. But, reporter Emily Reddy discovered that mobile home occupants in rural pennsylvania are also quite satisfied with their choice of housing. She filed this story for Penn State's radio, WPSU.
Listen to the story on Public Radio Exchange.
Take-out Without
By Katrina Ingraham on Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
The restaurant business is not generally known as the greenest industry… according to cleanair.org, Americans toss out enough paper bags, plastic cups and utensils every year to circle the equator three-hundred times. That’s a lot of refuse for just take-out. A new online campaign seeks to get restaurants and consumers to reduce their waste. TakeOut Without asks people to refuse unnecessary packaging when ordering take-out and delivery.
Slow Down with GOOD Magazine
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
“Slowness” has become a big buzzword among the eco-minded set. It raises issues of sustainability and challenges the frantic pace of modern progress.
The winter issue of GOOD magazine is dedicated to the slow movement in all its incarnations – agriculture, design, music, urban planning, and more. Zach Frechette is the editor-in-chief of GOOD Magazine, and he gave us a run down on some of the ideas in the new issue.
Some GOOD Magazine Slow Issue highlights:
The Doggy Identity Crisis
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, February 3, 2010.
It's the age of the dog. Our four-legged friends have come a long way from the doghouse. There are canine bakeries, spas, vests, booties and even beds specifically designed for complete doggy bliss – or so it’s advertised.
Sure, some people think of caring for their dogs as practice for future children. Others don’t stop there. Studies report that 84 percent of pet owners consider their animals akin to kids. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Dogs have been called the wonder drug - reducing the likelihood of heart problems and stress in owners and increasing their empathy toward others. But are humans also rubbing off on dogs?
Canines are undergoing a kind of identity crisis, says Dr. James Serpell. He’s the head of the Center for the Interaction of Animal and Society and a professor at the University of Pennslyvania. And writer John Homans, whose article, "The Rise of Dog Identity Politics" is in this month’s New York Magazine.
(Photo by Emma Harper of Hancock, NH)
Vertical Farming Gets Real
By Robin Respaut on Monday, February 1, 2010.
Sometimes ideas that seem far out in the future come to pass much faster than we imagined. In late 2008 we talked to Dr. Dickson Despommier about "vertical farming" - urban skyscraper-type greenhouses that would replace traditional farms. Well, our discussion is now a blueprint for a federal project in Portland, Or.
According to The New York Times, the General Services Administration plans to cultivate a 200-foot-high garden on the western side of its main building. Advocates say the GSA building will use 60-65 percent less energy and save an estimated $280,000 dollars annually with the help of solar panels and recycled rainwater. But some Republicans balked at the $133 million price tag. Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn ranked Portland’s retrofit as number 2 on a list of the 100 worst stimulus-funded projects.
You tell us: What do you think of vertical vegetation in your neighborhood?
Brady Carlson Stops By To Talk About What's Awesome
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, February 1, 2010.
It’s hard to believe that it’s February. January turned into a busy news month, with big events each week. Even last week’s State of the Union address now seems a distant memory. Over the weekend, you might have been rediscovering the life of JD Salinger; reading about the Apple iPad’s big splash – or dull thud, depending on what you found. While you were contemplating the news, our internet sherpa and new-media coordinator Brady Carlson was posting his weekly Here’s What’s Awesome blog... And is here to clue us in.
(Illustration courtesy of hartboy via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Crazy Like Us
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, January 25, 2010.
It’s not just fast food, rap music and western fashion that are making their way across the globe. America is exporting our mental disorders as well. Western doctors and pharmaceutical companies are introducing our culture’s understanding of brain and the self to the rest of the world. Depression, PTSD, anorexia and schizophrenia now appear to be spreading across cultures with the speed of contagious diseases.
Reporter Ethan Watters has spent the past few years traveling the world and found that America’s biologically-based ideas of mental illness has crept across borders, often displacing traditional, community-based treatments. His findings are collected into a new book, Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche.
The New York Times Magazine: The Americanization of Mental Illness
Read an excerpt from Crazy Like Us
