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20 Minute Video of Charles Schulz Drawing Peanuts  

https://kottke.org/24/04/20-minutes-of-charles-schulz-drawing-peanuts-comics?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

FACT SHEET: Your 2024 Tax Receipt

The average taxpayer was forced to subsidize military contractors at the expense of human needs. Here’s an item by item look.

Lindsay Koshgarian & Alliyah Lusuegro - National Priorities Project - 04-09-2024

bit.ly/3xHZH6o

Condor-Inspired Retrofit Boosts Wind Turbine Energy Production by 10%

by Paul McClure - NewAtlas.com - 04-03-2024

bit.ly/4ay3a6i

Women Rarely Die from Heart Problems, Right? 

New book traces how medical establishment’s sexism focus on men over centuries continues to endanger women’s health lives

by Elizabeth Comen MD - Harvard Gazette - 04-11-2024

Excerpt - All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today 

bit.ly/3VXhron

Religious Change in America

2023 survey of more than 5600 US adults about their experiences with religion

PRRI Staff - 03-27-2024

https://www.prri.org/research/religious-change-in-america/

What the Evidence Says about Social Media’s Impact on Teens’ Mental Health

Did smartphones actually “destroy” a generation?

by Eric Levitz -Vox.com - 04-12-2024

https://www.vox.com/24127431/smartphones-young-kids-children-parenting-social-media-teen-mental-health

Indoor Farms Are Remaking the Produce Market — at a Cost to the Planet

Amid drought and record heat high-tech greenhouses and vertical farms boast of being a more climate-friendly way to grow. But they come with an environmental toll.

by Anna Phillips - WashPost - Updated 03-28-2024 

https://wapo.st/3PWEkET [Free gift article]

Birthrates Tumbling Worldwide, Forcing Hard Choices on Societies

by Simon Montlake - Christian Science Monitor - 03-29-2024

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2024/0329/Birthrates-are-tumbling-worldwide-forcing-hard-choices-on-societies

GPT-4 is 82% More Persuasive Than Humans and AIs Can Now Read Emotions

by Loz Blain - NewAtlas.com - 04-02-2024

bit.ly/43YdhyI

Pfizer’s Massive Tax Dodge

The pharma giant received billions in federal funding and raked in huge profits but owes nothing in 2023 income taxes thanks to legal loopholes and Trump-era tax cuts.

by Freddy Brewster - The Lever - 04-12-2024

https://www.levernews.com/pfizers-massive-tax-dodge/?utm_source=newsletter-email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter-article

MARK ROBERT RANK, the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University in St. Louis, has devoted much of his career to issues of poverty, inequality, and social justice. He’s developed a website, confrontingpoverty.org, that explores the life course risk of poverty and its consequences. Rank has authored ten books, including Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes; One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All; THE POVERTY PARADOX; POORLY UNDERSTOOD; and his latest, THE RANDOM FACTOR: How Chance & Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us

Why Are So Many Americans Poor? Because We Allow It, Two Books Argue.

Sociologists Mark Robert Rank and Matthew Desmond examine the attitudes and policies that keep poverty entrenched.

by Timothy Noah – WashPost – 03-16- 2023 

https://wapo.st/3TVO57s [Free gift article]

Confronting Poverty - Poverty Facts & Myths

https://markrank.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/CP_Facts_All.pdf

Rich and Successful? It’s Likely You’re Just Lucky

by Mark Rank – Globe & Mail – 02-21-2024

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-rich-and-successful-its-likely-youre-just-lucky/

Five Myths about Poverty

by Mark Rank – WashPost – 03-26-2021

https://wapo.st/49ARjDb [Free gift article]

Five Myths about the Safety Net

Welfare programs aren’t the answer to poverty. But fraud isn’t widespread either.

by Mark Rank – WashPost – 04-17-2020

https://wapo.st/4cSSAZ4 [Free gift article]

March Madness Has Less Luck Than You Might Think

by Neil Schoenherr – Washington University in St. Louis – 03-06-2024

https://brownschool.wustl.edu/2024/03/washu-expert-march-madness-has-less-luck-than-you-might-think/

Expanded Child Tax Credit Would Ultimately Save Money, Reduce Poverty

by Neil Schoenherr – Washington University in St. Louis – 01-23-2024

https://brownschool.wustl.edu/2024/01/washu-expert-expanded-child-tax-credit-would-ultimately-save-money-reduce-poverty/

Upcoming on Free Forum

Podcast + Streaming on Progressive Voices Network on TuneIn  

Chuck Collins, Inequality and the Common Good

Astra Taylor, The Debt Collective; Insecurity; Solidarity

Damon Centola, Change: How to Make Big Things Happen

Richard Kahlenberg, Excluded: NIMBY & the Walls We Don't See

Richard Cizik, Evangelicals for Democracy

On Free Forum we explore the lives, work and ideas of individuals I suspect hold pieces of the puzzle of a world that just might work. We look at new, innovative and provocative approaches to business, environment, health, science, politics and media. These days we also focus on resistance to Trump and moving toward the just and healthy society we need. It's all based on the fact that I believe we can do better and I want to find out how.