Story Archives of 'Sociology'

You don't have to be a social scientist to see that the traditional American family is changing, and motherhood is changing right along with it. More and more women are choosing to have children without partners. The growth of groups like Single Mothers By Choice and the proliferation of books like Choosing Single Motherhood and Knock Yourself Up point to a generation of women who are choosing a new path. Technology, money and often the loud ticking of a biological clock is making single motherhood a good option for some women. Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott talks about this trend with Jean Railla, who wrote about it in the parenting magazine Babble. Her article is called Fatherless Brooklyn: Why Today's Women are Choosing to have Babies Alone.

Obviously, not all single mothers choose to raise their kids on their own, and when very young women -- like teenagers still in high school -- get pregnant, they can face many challenges. An unexpected pregnancy can throw a girl's life into chaos, and these young mothers can usually use all the help they can get. That's where the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers comes in. Along with the regular high school subjects of English, History and Math, the students at this school also attend parenting classes. Producer Sarah Elzas visited the school and produced this story. Sarah's story was produced with the help of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.

(Photo by waI.ti:)

Why do we jump at "buy one, get one free" deals, even when we don’t need the items in the first place? Or swear to start dieting and then find ourselves ordering a sticky bun at the coffee shop?

Behavioral economists have some ideas. They look at cognitive-psychology to understand how real people make economic choices. Fifteen years ago behavioral economics was a marginal endeavor. Now, it’s a burgeoning discipline that’s upending our traditional view of humans as rational actors.

Two new books look at the field, and Word of Mouth host Virginia Prescott spoke with science writer Jonah Lehrer about them. He's editor-at-large for Seed Magazine and runs the blog The Frontal Cortex.

Read more on the two books we reviewed:

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein








Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Choices that Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely

(Photo by Andrei Zmievski)

The news has been filled with apologies: former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer on his involvement with a prostitute, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for statements made by supporters, and, amidst this week’s 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King, John McCain’s mea culpa for originally opposing a national holiday for the civil rights leader. We talk with the author of a new book exploring the complexity, diversity and execution of the simple apology.

Guest

• Nick Smith, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire and author of I Was Wrong: The Meanings of Apologies

There's a cartoon from The New Yorker from way back in 1993, in which a dog sitting in an office chair, with his paw on a computer keyboard, looks down at another dog on the floor and says, "on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog."

But what does such anonimity allow? Who hasn’t dashed off the ocassional flaming e-mail or post without pausing to think of its effect?

We know that online stalking and bullying can lead to dangerous circumstances, but is the mask of the Internet making us ruder people? Mark Timney is associate professor of journalism at Keene State College, where he teaches courses on media ethics and society. He spoke with Word of Mouth about whether we as citizens have become coarser as on-line communication dominates our lives.

Thursday on Word of Mouth, we speak with Richard Florida, bestselling author of The Rise of the Creative Class. We talk with him about his latest book, Who's Your City? How the Creative Economy is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life. Florida says we all put lots of thought into what we want to do for a living and whom we want to spend our lives with, but we don't put enough thought about where we want to live. He says location is what really matters.

Do you agree? How much thought did you put into your current location? Did you just "find" yourself somewhere, or did you think carefully about where you wanted to live? Do you think Richard Florida is right? Do we put enough emphasis on where we want to spend our lives?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Read an excerpt from "Who's Your City?"

Find out which is your self-defined best city to live in

(Photo of Nashua by Tracy Lee Carroll)