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Penn State Harrisburg Reads

A guide to enrich the campus experience of reading each year's Penn State Harrisburg Reads Selection

Recommended Podcasts

America Dissected with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed

  • Cradle and All
    • Content warning: Discussion of racism
    • "Today, many of us can take it for granted that our grandparents will live through our childhood—and that our children might get to meet them. Not that long ago, though, that wasn’t so common. Not just because our grandparents didn’t used to live that long, but because so many babies died before their first birthday. In most American communities, infant mortality is a thing of the past. But not in all of them. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed takes us to Detroit to dissect American life expectancy— to understand why it’s declining and why it may never have been as high as it should have been in the first place."
  • Pharmageddon
    • "The United States is on the cutting edge of prescription drug research and development, so why are we overpaying for life-saving drugs? How did we get to this point? Dr. Abdul El-Sayed explores the history of the Hep-C drug Sovaldi and inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry, investigating the glaring flaws in the system."

Bad with Money with Gaby Dunn

  • Economics of Eating Disorders (feat. Stephanie Beatriz, Dr. S Bryn Austin)
    • Content warning: Discussion of eating disorders
    • "Gaby talks to Harvard's Dr. S Bryn Austin of STRIPED about the economic costs of eating disorders and how much revenue 'the obesity epidemic' has generated off of disordered eating and fatphobia. Then, they have a vulnerable conversation with their friend, actress Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn 99, In The Heights) about her own disordered eating and the financial costs it has had on her real life."
  • The LGBTQ Economy (feat. MV Lee Badgett)
    • Content warning: Discussion of homophobia, transphobia, bullying, suicide
    • "Gaby talks to professor, economist and author Lee Badgett about the financial and economic case for LGBTQ equality, the harmful myths about queer people and money (and the choice to focus all research on white, cis, gay men)."
  • COVID's Economic Impact on Tribal Lands (feat. Karen Diver)
    • Content warning: Discussion of racism
    • "Gaby speaks with Karen Diver, appointee of President Obama as the Special Assistant to the President for Native American Affairs. They discuss tribal economies, the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, how Native American nations have been handling the spread of the virus and the ways the federal government has failed the tribes during this pandemic and beyond."
  • Buying Your Health (feat. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed)
    • "Can good health be bought? We flashback to when Coronavirus cases were newly emerging in the states. Gaby revisits an interview she did with public health expert Dr. Abdul El-Sayed about what compels us to invest in wellness trends and how much it actually costs to be healthy. And later, how are health scams working in the midst of COVID-19?"

 

Freakonomics Radio

  • Is Income Inequality Inevitable?: "In pursuit of a more perfect economy, we discuss the future of work; the toxic remnants of colonization; and whether giving everyone a basic income would be genius -- or maybe the worst idea ever."

 

Planet Money

  • Two Indicators: Women And Work: "Women start a lot of businesses, but when it comes time for them to grow, many hit a wall, or the women founders end up losing control. Why? We bring you two indicators on women and work from our daily podcast The Indicator."
  • The Lost Archives of Sadie Alexander: "The Work of our first Black economist was lost to history. Professor Nina Banks set out on a quest to find it."
  • Mobile Home Parked: "We find out what happens when big investors spend billions of dollars buying mobile home parks and make them less affordable for the people who live there. Then we learn how the government helps them do it, with super low-cost loans that were meant to support affordable housing."