During the Depression, the face of hunger was easy to spot: gaunt, worn, and hollow-eyed. Today’s malnourished are tougher to spot. We’ll get a close up of the new face of American hunger. Plus, over 46 million Americans are on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The average daily benefit per person per day is four dollars. We’ll find out what living on a SNAP budget really looks like. And, how is America’s sweet tooth may be rooted in Prohibition?
Listen to the full show and Read more for individual segments.
The New Face of Hunger
Tracie McMillan is an author and investigative journalist who wrote “The New Face of Hunger,” a feature in National Geographic Magazine. The article explores the new face of hunger through several families who live with it, and explores current data on food costs, availability, policy, habits and growing obesity among America’s “food insecure.”
The Challenges of SNAP Budgets
Ellen Vollinger is the Legal/Food Stamp Director at the Food Research and Action Center. She spoke to us about the realities for people living with help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, plus the response to the SNAP budget challenge.
How Prohibition Gave Us A Sweet Tooth
While the rise of Big Ag, processed foods, and government subsidies have greatly contributed to American sugar consumption, our sweet tooth may have roots in a single event in American history. Word of Mouth producer Maureen McMurray talked with Nick Capodice, Education Associate at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in New York City, about how Prohibition altered America’s palette.
The Unwritten Rules of Baseball
Beyond the basics in baseball are layers of unwritten rules passed down through generations of players… known as “the code”, these rules are enforced by the players, not the umpires. Here to talk about some of these unwritten rules is Harry Cheadle, a writer at Vice and editor at Vice Sports. He wrote the article, “David Ortiz Flips His Bat, Pitcher Gets Mad, Everything is Stupid.”
The Importance of MLB Interpreters
Eric Benson spoke to us about the evolving role of interpreters in Major League Baseball. His article for Grantland, “Laughing With Yu Darvish” profiles Kenji Nimura, the trilingual interpreter for the Texas Rangers.
