By Jill Filipovic via New America

Excerpted from Ok Boomer, Let’s Talk, published by One Signal/Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.
It’s hard out there for a Millennial. Our earnings took a huge hit as a result of the Great Recession of 2008, from which we may never recover. Younger Millennials were at the dawn of their working lives and older Millennials were entering our prime earning years when we were slammed again, this time by a pandemic that plunged the economy into a recession that many fear could rival the Great Depression. Now, with massive unemployment projected to dog workers for years, there’s evidence that Millennials, and particularly Black and Hispanic Millennials, will bear the brunt of the 2020 economic crisis.
One of the reasons Millennials are so broke is that we are much less likely than our Boomer parents or Gen X siblings or even our Silent Generation grandparents to own our own homes – and we don’t own our own homes because we’re broke. Close to half of Boomers were homeowners by age 34; today, 75 percent are. By contrast, only 37 percent of Millennials owned a home by age 34. Today, only 32 percent of us are homeowners.

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Posted on August 24, 2020

By SIU Press

“This thrilling story of a daughter of America’s foremost industrialist, John D. Rockefeller, is complete with sex, money, mental illness, and opera divas – and a woman who strove for the independence to make her own choices. Rejecting the limited gender role carved out for her by her father and society, Edith Rockefeller McCormick forged her own path, despite pushback from her family and ultimate financial ruin,” SIU Press says.

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Posted on August 19, 2020

By Dan Falk/Undark

Since March or so, a running joke – or perhaps wry observation is the better term – has been that each month seems to last about a decade. In early spring, the COVID-19 pandemic came to utterly dominate the news cycle, only to be pushed aside by unrest in America’s cities as throngs took to the streets to express outrage over police killings of Black citizens. One could be forgiven for thinking that we might not make it to August.
And so it was somewhat surreal to be reading Toby Ord’s book, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, during this tumultuous time, because Ord’s concern is whether our civilization can hang on to last millions, or perhaps billions, of years.
Ord’s premise is straightforward: He believes that we are living in a unique moment in human history, and that the decisions we make in the coming decades will determine which of two fates awaits humankind.
In one scenario, our numbers diminish, our buildings crumble to dust, and eventually the Earth forgets that we were ever here.
In the other scenario, we continue to flourish, safeguarding what we have created against both natural and human-made risks so that we last as long as the planet itself; perhaps our distant future will see us populating the galaxy.

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Posted on August 14, 2020

By E.K. Mam

When I was 16, I had unusual ambitions: assuming political and popular power; kindling a cultural revolution; and overthrowing the remaining monarchies of the world, starting with the British (don’t ask). Like any power-hungry teenager, I consulted (quite ironically) Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Written in the 16th century by the Italian diplomat, the guide for assuming, using and maintaining power has been criticized for its brutality, immorality and despotic rage. Many are disgusted with the coolness and frankness Machiavelli deploys in this 71-page text, suggesting one do whatever is possible to maintain their power. Others, however, are refreshed by this text. Not because they’re relieved at finally having found a guide for themselves; rather because they’ve finally come across a political text that lays out the world as it is, not as it should be. Whether a cynic or not, even the most optimistic ones have to admit that dreaming for what can remain only in dreams becomes exhausting.

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Posted on August 11, 2020

By AP

‘Dubai-based fashion writer Hafsa Lodi takes a deep dive into the expectations and debate surrounding modest fashion.’

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Posted on August 10, 2020

By Elizabeth Svoboda/Undark

James Hamblin kicks off Clean: The New Science of Skin with a confession: He virtually stopped showering years ago.
Hamblin, a physician and staff writer for The Atlantic, still sprinkles water on his head from time to time, but shuns shampoos, conditioners, and the cavalcade of other products that march across American shower shelves.

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Posted on August 7, 2020

With Bill Moyers and Heather Cox Richardson

ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Moyers on Democracy.
If you want to understand this moment in American politics, here’s a suggestion for you: It’s the must-read book of the year – How The South Won The Civil War, by the historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Yes, the Civil War brought an end to the slave order of the South and the rule of the plantation oligarchs who embodied white supremacy. But the Northern victory was short-lived. Slave states soon stripped Black people of their hard-won rights, white supremacy not only rose again to rule the South but spread West across the Mississippi to create new hierarchies of inequality.
That’s the story Heather Cox Richardson tells in How The South Won The Civil War, with echoes resounding every day in the current wild and fierce campaign for the presidency. Here to talk with her about America’s ongoing battle between oligarchy and democracy is Bill Moyers.
BILL MOYERS: Heather Cox Richardson, thank you for joining me.
HEATHER COX RICHARDSON: Oh, it’s a pleasure to be here.
BILL MOYERS: Will you take us on that long but vivid arc of how we got from Abraham Lincoln, describing the end of the Civil War as “a new birth of freedom,” to Donald Trump describing America as “a land of carnage, a nightmare.” From Lincoln to Donald Trump in 2016, what happened?

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Posted on August 5, 2020

By Abigail Zuger/Undark

Do I dare to eat a Cheeto? I do not; I can’t even let one into the house. The same goes for its delectably plump twin, the Cheez Doodle; its tasty rotund cousin, the Cheez Ball; and its heavenly brother by another mother, that sandwich of two Cheezy crackers glued together with peanut butter. I dare not even walk down the supermarket aisle where this neon orange family lives, for while others may succumb to chocolate or pastry, my Waterloo is this cheesy goodness – let’s call it Cheez. One Cheez Doodle would lead to a bag, then to more bags, and then to the certain catastrophe of a larger, sicker me.
I know these delicacies are terrible for a person’s health. How exactly do I know that? It’s not because I’m a medical professional, that’s for sure; there were zero discussions of Cheez in our pre- or post-graduate training. I know because I just know, is all. Overprocessed chemical-laden stuff is bad for you; it’s pure malevolent junk. Everyone knows that.

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Posted on July 27, 2020

By Jill Barshay/The Hechinger Report

Literacy experts have long known that reading to toddlers, even babies, can make a big difference in children’s reading abilities later in elementary school. But does simply giving away free books to low-income families with young children help with early reading? An analysis of 44 studies of book giveaway programs concludes that free stuff does work.
Three researchers from the Netherlands and Australia looked for all the high-quality studies they could find on book giveaway programs, which reach millions of children under 5 in North America and Europe, and focused on the ones that compared the early literacy of children who received books with those who didn’t.
Despite the large number of studies that made the cut (44), only three giveaway programs were analyzed by all of them: Bookstart, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and Reach Out and Read. (Multiple studies of the same program tested how the program worked with different kids and in different places.)
The three programs are quite different. Bookstart, a program that originated in the United Kingdom, gives only one or two free books on one or two occasions. Imagination Library, launched by American country music star Dolly Parton, mails a new book a month from birth to age 5. Reach Out and Read uses health professionals instead of the postal service; pediatricians and nurses hand out books out during regular checkups and are trained to tell parents that reading is important for cognitive development. At some health clinics, volunteers model effective book reading strategies for parents. Some of the programs give books to all families who want them regardless of income, but the studies mostly focused on low-income children – the intended target audience.

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Posted on July 20, 2020

By Michael Sean Comerford

American Oz is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous story of life in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You’ll never see your state fair or steer fest the same way again.
Michael Sean Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working behind the scenes with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals.

He shares stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last King of the Sideshows. An insult dunk clown is shot. Masked gunmen rob his carnival. And a young showman friend dies on the road.
It’s a new classic American road story as he hitchhikes to shows in California, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia and Florida, where he works in a freak show.

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Posted on July 16, 2020