Beat Check podcast Today 7:00 AM
Beat Check with The Oregonian is a weekly podcast produced and hosted by reporter
Beat Check with The Oregonian is a weekly podcast produced and hosted by reporter
Andrew Theen | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Nicholas Kristof didn’t have to escape Yamhill, Oregon, on his way to some of the world’s most prestigious universities and eventually a vaunted columnist gig at the New York Times.
Kristof came from a family with tons of human capital – parents with good jobs, who instilled the importance of education in him from an early age.
But many of his friends and classmates weren’t so lucky.
“Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope,” a new book by Kristof and his wife, fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sheryl WuDunn, describes the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yamhill and elsewhere in the United States -- one not so different from those the journalistic power couple have covered internationally.
On the latest episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, Kristof and WuDunn explain why they decided to focus on Kristof’s childhood town and why they still have hope for an American revival despite the abundant evidence of societal strife they documented.
Many of the dozens of kids who rode his Number 6 school bus to the rural country school Kristof attended, are gone. And the blame for their deaths of despair – by drugs, depression, suicide or obesity, Kristof and WuDunn argue –should be shared by the country of their birth.
Their parents lost blue collar jobs amid an ever-changing economy. A toxic combination of drugs and alcohol, domestic violence, school dropouts and unexpected children led to what amounts in some cases to generational family tragedies. In their book, they argue that the social safety net has failed generations of Americans and that society has turned its back on millions, casting blame at their feet.
We also talked about The Oregonian’s Samantha Swindler’s coverage of a U.S. Bank employee, and her supervisor, who were fired for helping a customer who was waiting on funds to become available by bringing him $20 hours before Christmas.
Here’s the full episode:
You can subscribe to Beat Check with The Oregonian on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen
Nicholas Kristof didn’t have to escape Yamhill, Oregon, on his way to some of the world’s most prestigious universities and eventually a vaunted columnist gig at the New York Times.
Kristof came from a family with tons of human capital – parents with good jobs, who instilled the importance of education in him from an early age.
But many of his friends and classmates weren’t so lucky.
“Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope,” a new book by Kristof and his wife, fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sheryl WuDunn, describes the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yamhill and elsewhere in the United States -- one not so different from those the journalistic power couple have covered internationally.
On the latest episode of Beat Check with The Oregonian, Kristof and WuDunn explain why they decided to focus on Kristof’s childhood town and why they still have hope for an American revival despite the abundant evidence of societal strife they documented.
Many of the dozens of kids who rode his Number 6 school bus to the rural country school Kristof attended, are gone. And the blame for their deaths of despair – by drugs, depression, suicide or obesity, Kristof and WuDunn argue –should be shared by the country of their birth.
Their parents lost blue collar jobs amid an ever-changing economy. A toxic combination of drugs and alcohol, domestic violence, school dropouts and unexpected children led to what amounts in some cases to generational family tragedies. In their book, they argue that the social safety net has failed generations of Americans and that society has turned its back on millions, casting blame at their feet.
We also talked about The Oregonian’s Samantha Swindler’s coverage of a U.S. Bank employee, and her supervisor, who were fired for helping a customer who was waiting on funds to become available by bringing him $20 hours before Christmas.
Here’s the full episode:
You can subscribe to Beat Check with The Oregonian on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.
-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen
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