Cultured Media

Fifty-seven million Americans are too poor to be considered middle class and too wealth to qualify for government assistance. A sociologist describes the housing, education, health care, and debt challenges facing families living on the financial edge.

The main gist of this book is that a single mother cannot support four children on $30K per year, especially if they have medical conditions or mental disorders. This is the near-poor that does not want to be on government assistance, but is financially on par with the working or non-working poor due to their circumstances.

Katherine Newman: The Missing Class on the Diane Rehm Show

If only people spent as much time considering who they are marrying as they do choosing the hors-d’oeuvre at the reception, maybe more marriages would be successful.

In Rebecca Mead’s book, The Perfect Day, Mead focuses on the consumerism that has taken over the American wedding. She says that one clergy she interviewed said that he’d would rather oversee a funeral because at a funeral at least people are focused on what they should be focused on rather than what the brides dress looks like. He felt that he was religious decoration. The average American wedding is around $28,000 and has the possibility of 46 professionals being involved.

She says that the wedding is much less significant in the lives of those getting married due to cohabitation and the increase in the average age of the bride’s age to 26. Because we all know a perfect wedding means a perfect marriage.

Interview on Diane Rehm

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the U.S. became the world?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s greatest super power. Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor for President Carter, offers an in-depth analysis of how each of our presidents since 1991, George H.W Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, has performed in this unprecedented role.

Listen now to Zbigniew Brzezinski discuss his book, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìSecond Chance?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

Zbigniew Brzezinski, counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, professor of foreign policy at The Johns Hopkins University. His many books include,?¢‚Ǩ¬ùThe Choice,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe Grand Failure?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe Grand Chessboard,?¢‚Ǩ¬ù and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìSecond Chance.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù He served as national security adviser to former President Jimmy Carter.