Year: 2015

U.S. Poverty Shifts Since 1960

“Since President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty 50 years ago, the characteristics of the nation’s poor have changed: A larger share of poor Americans today are in their prime working years and fewer are elderly. In addition, those in poverty are disproportionately children and people of any age who are black, Hispanic or both.

But perhaps just as striking is that the geographic distribution of the poor has changed dramatically, too. A new Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that the South continues to be home to many of America’s poor, though to a lesser degree than a half-century ago. In 1960, half (49%) of impoverished Americans lived in the South. By 2010, that share had dropped to 41%.”

Source: How the geography of U.S. poverty has shifted since 1960 | Pew Research Center

“The Question of What Come Next”

 

bigmagic

The author of Big Magic speaks with the writer, comedian, and prolific podcaster John Hodgman about the boredom of mastery and the thrill of self-reinvention. This is an installment of Magic Lessons by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Source: Ep. #10: John Hodgman on “The Question of What Come Next” — Magic Lessons — Overcast

Beautiful and short podcast on mastery, boredom, risk, and self-reinvention.

Those of us who have taken the leap know the exhilarating highs and the devastating lows involved in reinvention but also continuing to push yourself to be open to new paths to explore and thrive.

Make the leap.

Thanks for the share, Merianna.

Destroying Dura Europos

A Greek settlement on the Euphrates not far from Syria’s border with Iraq, Dura-Europos later became one of Rome’s easternmost outposts. It housed the world’s oldest known Christian church, a beautifully decorated synagogue, and many other temples and Roman-era buildings. Satellite imagery shows a cratered landscape inside the city’s mud-brick walls, evidence of widespread destruction by looters.

Source: Here Are the Ancient Sites ISIS Has Damaged and Destroyed

One of my biggest regrets in life is not making more of an effort to actually visit the site of Dura Europos (and Nimrud) before this bleak period in the area’s history. I’ll always have my memories from working with Yale’s collection of material from Dura, and my books, my journal articles, and my media clippings… but to have been there before ISIS…

carpe diem

Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale

Thomas Whitley and Sam Harrelson discuss the Prayer of Jabez, Sex and the Bible, pansexuality, the Pope’s new chair, and why Islam isn’t limited to the originating text.

Source: Thinking Religion: Jesus on the Kinsey Scale | Thinking.FM

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