The current state of education in America is a troubling picture. Reading proficiency scores have reached historic lows. Chronic absenteeism is on the rise—more than a quarter of K-12 students miss at least 10% of the school year. And the achievement gap in test scores between the highest and lowest performing students has widened.
More Americans use cannabis every day, or almost every day, than use alcohol on a daily basis. That's in large part because marijuana is a lot more accessible than it used to be. More than half of us live in a state where marijuana is recreationally legal. Nearly 8 in 10 live in a county with a marijuana dispensary.
Most Americans are anxious about when – or even if – they’ll be able to retire. And we’re not wrong. Social Security is on shaky footing. Half of Americans on the cusp of retirement have no money saved for it. This isn’t how retirement in America was supposed to work. But 40 years ago, Congress shifted the US away from employer pensions and toward a do-it-yourself system based on 401K retirement saving plans. It’s not going well. In this episode we get to the bottom of why so many Americans are unable to retire comfortably and end up, instead, living in poverty or working well past age 70. And we’ll learn what we can do on an individual and national level to improve retirement in America.
Compared to other wealthy nations, America has twice as many traffic deaths per capita. And in recent years, pedestrian and cyclist deaths have spiked. Experts say road design plays a big part in this. The most dangerous roads are “suburban arteries” that are often 5 or 6 lanes wide, with long distances between traffic lights where pedestrians can cross.
What does it mean to be a father in 2024? In most U.S. households today, the role of fathers is changing. The “primary breadwinner dad” is increasingly rare, while the "primary caregiver dad” is becoming more common. One-in-five stay at home parents in the US is a father.
More than two-thirds of children under the age of 6 in the U.S. live in a household where all available parents work. But in most communities, there’s a shortage of slots in childcare centers and home-based providers. Because of unreliable childcare, as many as 100,000 Americans are forced to stay home from work at least once a month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Americans have a perplexing perception of crime. One in three Americans report watching, listening, or reading true crime on a weekly basis. But our fixation on crime goes deeper than entertainment. Both Republicans and Democrats consider violent crime an increasing problem. But most of us are safer today than we’ve ever been. Violent crime in America is down 50% since the 1990s. What’s driving the disconnect in our perception of crime? And what consequences does it have for our communities? Where might be a better place to direct our attention?
These days anything that's widespread might be called an "epidemic." Violence, obesity, opioids, even loneliness. But in the public health space, the label "epidemic" carries special significance beyond that - it's a disease that's widespread - and usually contagious, too. How does thinking about social issues as epidemics change the way we approach them? We'll explore the pros and cons with first responders on the front line of each of those epidemics: What changes if we think of opioid addiction as a disease rather than a crime or character flaw? In what ways is loneliness like a disease - and what's the prescription? Obesity got official epidemic status in America in the '90s. And yet, obesity rates have only increased, so what's to gain by viewing violence as a disease epidemic?
Since 2020 — when George Floyd's murder was seen around the world and protests for racial justice swept the country — many Americans with white skin have begun to think explicitly about race and its consequences. What does it mean to be white in America? What’s it like to be not-white-enough? Or to not have your racial identity reflected on official government forms? How did white become the default against which all other skin colors are measured?
We’re in between episodes this week on Top of Mind. In the meantime, we’ve got a story for you from a podcast we think you’re really going to like. It’s called When the People Decide, a podcast from the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. The podcast traces the stories of Americans who are getting their hands dirty doing the hard work of democracy.