Katrina was one of the deadliest hurricanes in American history, but hardly one of the strongest to hit the Gulf Coast or the city of New Orleans. Today, a look at the geography of poverty and how societal factors turn natural disasters into disproportionate catastrophes. Plus, a primer on gifted kids. Many parents try to nurture their child to bring out the very best, but some may be looking over signs that their child is truly exceptional. And, new research on an old question: do babies make new parents unhappy?
Listen to the full show.
Katrina and Disaster Profiteers
John Mutter is a geophysicist and professor at Columbia University, where he teaches environmental science and public affairs – his new book is called The Disaster Profiteers: How Natural Disasters Make the Rich Richer and the Poor Even Poorer.
Circle Food Store
The Circle Food Store in New Orleans’s 7th Ward is thought to be the city’s first African American owned and operated grocery. It started as an open air farmer’s market in 1919 and became a full food store in 1938, serving customers for decades until it was flooded after the levies broke following hurricane Katrina. Laine Kaplan-Levenson of WWNO visited the neighborhood just before the store reopened in January, 2014.
You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
Giftedness
Linda Silverman is a psychologist who has studied giftedness in children for over 35 years. She’s written several books on the subject, including Giftedness 101 and is the founder and director of the Gifted Development Center and Visual-Spatial Resource in Denver, Colorado.
Babies Make You Sad
Brett Berk is a longtime educator, author of The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting and a regular contributor to Vanity Fair, where we read his article “Babies Make You Sad and Other Bleak News for New Parents.”
Traditional Music Brought Alive in Newfoundland
Sail north along the eastern Canadian shore and you’ll reach the island of Newfoundland. It’s a place whose story is one of survival, and in whose songs the sea looms large. Matthew Byrne is one of many younger musicians keeping the traditional music alive … not for preservation for preservation’s sake, but for a love of the music. Producer Fiona Shea brings us his story.
