The Spark

Inflation is at its highest rate in 40 years. Gas prices are setting all-time records. Even though jobs are plentiful and wages and consumer spending are up, Americans are struggling in many ways financially.

Wednesday is the 100th stock market trading day of 2022. The year has not been a good one. According to Dow Jones Market Data, the S&P 500 index and the Dow are on track for the worst first 100 trading days since 1970. And for the Nasdaq 100, it’s the worst ever.

Most of us are not daily traders on Wall Street, but the markets do have an impact on several aspects of our lives – including retirements savings.

What strategies can we use to weather the storm?

Bradley Newman is the Lead Financial Advisor at Fort Pitt Capital Group LLC in Harrisburg and is with us on Wednesday’s Smart Talk.

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Many school boards across the country – including in central Pennsylvania – have been called on to take certain books out of school libraries.

Often, the complaints are that the books are obscene with too much sex, the books contain stories of same-sex relationships or that they promote racial stereotypes or are critical of a race.

Some of the books that are called into question are considered classics.

When the book Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was challenged in Elizabethtown, a group of women formed Freedom Readers – a club to read banned books and eventually provide reviews or summaries on their Facebook page.

Freedom Readers Judi Grove, former teacher Liz Lewis and former school principal and administrator Becky Hostetler join us on Tuesday’s Smart Talk.

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So many illnesses and health conditions were neglected or didn’t get a lot of attention in the past two years during the covid-19 pandemic.

In a country where obesity was common before the pandemic, it has increased even more.

Obesity is a condition that can negatively affect health in several ways, including heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.

What changes do we have to make to maintain a healthy weight and why is it so important?

Appearing on Tuesday’s Smart Talk to discuss the obesity epidemic are Dr. Taraneh Soleymani – obesity medicine specialist, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Dr. Marsha Novick – director, Health Weight Program for Children and Teens, Penn State Health Children’s Hospital.

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Pappus House in York County is unique in Pennsylvania. It describes itself as “a warm, safe, reassuring, family-centered place to live… a home exclusively dedicated to care for dying people and their families.”

What it isn’t is a hospice, although residents can select an outside hospice agency.

Pappus House provides meals, bathing, grooming, personal safety, ambulatory assistance and light housekeeping who may not have a family, a home or caregiver.

We’ll learn more about Pappus House on Monday’s Smart Talk from Executive Director Amy Jansky and Alexandra Chiarutinni, who had a family member at Pappus House.

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More than 107,000 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S. last year. That’s a 50% increase over 2019, which indicates the COVID-19 pandemic was deadly in more ways than one. Those statistics come from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Pennsylvania, 5,162 people died of drug overdoses in 2020 and the incomplete numbers from 2021 show 5,224 were killed by overdoses.

Most of the overdose deaths were linked to fentanyl — the synthetic opioid that 50 times more powerful than heroin.

Many drugs purchased on the street are laced with fentanyl, without the buyer knowing it, so the user is gambling they haven’t taken a lethal dose of fentanyl.

With so much attention focused on the pandemic, the opioid epidemic has flown under the radar. What can be done to stop it?

Joining us on Monday Smart Talk is Steven Ross, Special Assistant to Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Thursday is National Mental Health Action Day.

Experts estimate one in five Americans experience a mental illness each year. The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased anxiety, stress, loneliness, panic attacks and more. As a result, more people have focused on their mental health and perhaps that has lessened some of the stigma attached to mental health.

That stigma has often kept those suffering from mental illness from seeking treatment or getting help.

UPMC is offering a free mindfulness seminar Friday designed to provide tools to alleviate stress and anxiety.

Dr. Matthew Hurford, Vice President of Behavioral Health at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Insurance Services Division is on Thursday's Smart Talk with more information about mental health.

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Less than 10 percent of airplane pilots are women. If you discount student pilots, about six percent of pilots are women.

The average pilot today is a white man in his early 60s.

Boeing's workforce outlook says 612,000 new pilots will be needed in commercial aviation alone over the next 20 years.

That’s why it’s notable that three women pilots graduated last week from Eastern Mennonite University’s Lancaster campus with Bachelor of Science degrees in Leadership and Organizational Management with an Aviation Concentration.

Two of them are on Wednesday’s Smart Talk. Ivy Kreiser and Noelle Yorgey have earned their private, Commercial and Flight Instructors certificates, with Instrument and Multi-engine ratings..

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Almost 60 years after his death, President John F. Kennedy continues to fascinate and be looked upon with admiration and even reverence.

Kennedy’s personal traits have to be one reason – his youth, oratory skills, ability to inspire and family all contribute to how he is remembered. Myths about Kennedy have grown throughout the last six decades as well.

A new book – Incomparable Grace – JFK in the Presidency by presidential historian Mark Updegrove takes a deeper look into Kennedy as president.

It describes a president who may not have been ready for the White House into one who grew into the job.

Mark Updegrove, who has authored five books on the presidency, is president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation and the presidential historian for ABC News, is with us on Wednesday’s Smart Talk.

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Ten people were killed in a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York Saturday. The victims were Black and investigators say the shooter was motivated by racial hatred.

The Buffalo shooting was one of four nationwide this past weekend.

For many years, criminologists Jillian Peterson, Ph.D., and James Densley, Ph.D., have studied mass shootings and the people who carry them out.

Their research has shown and they point out in their 2021 book THE VIOLENCE PROJECT: How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic is that those who carried out mass shootings share four common characteristics, including grievances and exposure to violence.

Dr. Peterson and Dr. Densley appear on Smart Talk Tuesday to offer insights into their research and a hopeful look at stopping the violence before it happens.

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Almost all Americans should be able to able to dial 9-8-8 on their phones in the future if they are someone close to them is in a crisis.

The 988 hotline is scheduled to go live in mid-July and for many mobile phone users, it's live already and calls are coming into crisis intervention centers.

However, they're facing challenges in getting 988 up and running. That includes people to staff intervention centers and answer the phones, paying for 988 hotlines and just the infrastructure needed.

WITF's Transforming Health reporter Brett Sholtis has investigated the rollout of 988 and is on Tuesday's Smart Talk with details.

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