Are you planning to retire early or late? What influenced your decision?

Many Americans face a huge decision in the years ahead: is delaying their retirement a realistic, practical and tenable option or should they work longer, in an attempt to be in better financial shape for their retirement?  Many policymakers think it is logical – almost inevitable – that Americans will delay retirement and spend more years in the paid labor force.

However, working longer is not a one-size fits all solution especially when you factor in economic and social inequalities, precarious working conditions, family caregiving responsibilities, poor health, and age discrimination. All of these make it difficult or impossible for many to consider working past the age of 65.  Marginalized groups in particular face special challenges and society’s legislative responses affect us all. Is there a way to find a path toward better working lives and improved retirement security for all Americans – and if so, what it is?

BETH TRUESDALE has been examining many of these considerations in her book Overtime: America’s Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer (co-authored with Lisa Berkman). 

Beth Truesdale is a sociologist whose research focuses on inequalities in work and aging, and the future of retirement. She is a visiting scientist at Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies, and a research fellow at W E Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

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Nearly every day, we see evidence further confirming that we are facing a mental health crisis, especially among our youth.  American society is beset by mass shootings and other acts of violence which serve to exacerbate the large-scale trauma already inflicted by the pandemic.  Only this week, the media highlighted the urgent issue confronting Generation Z’ers who lack the funds to pay for medications or mental health therapy.  Inadvertently, it seems, we are fueling rather than defusing the problem.  

Fortunately, there is affordable hope on the horizon.  EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) was discovered in 1987 by psychologist Francine Shapiro who found a novel method for aligning people’s “thinking brains” with their “emotional brains”, to help process traumatic events.  Since then, it has been providing hope and healing to countless sufferers of PTSD and other emotional and stress-related problems; these include depression, chronic pain, anxiety, phobias, substance abuse and addictions.  Studies demonstrate EMDR’s clinical effectiveness in dealing with trauma in a limited number of sessions and it is rated the most cost-effective treatment among the top 11 trauma therapies.

Deborah Korn, PsyD, an internationally renowned expert in EMDR, is the co-author of Every Memory Deserves Respect.  Dr. Korn, says, “EMDR helps individuals get better and it serves the greater good. I see my work as a form of social action—a way to contribute to ending the cycles of violence in the world.” 

Co-author Michael Baldwin is a branding and communication professional in New York, who credits EMDR with saving his life after decades of unsuccessful therapy. In the book, Baldwin shares the history of his childhood abuse and psychological challenges as an adult, before discovering EMDR.

Seaweed often gets a bad rap – maybe it just has the wrong name!  Many regard it as a nuisance – slimy, smelly stuff that mars our beaches, entangles us while swimming and not good for much, except of course making sushi.  But an increasing number of marine scientists, ecologists, entrepreneurs and foodies are beginning to appreciate seaweed’s remarkable properties. 

The benefits of seaweed are enormous and we are only starting to explore its myriad applications, from farming to pharmaceuticals, from food to packaging. Some species can take CO2 out of the atmosphere at 5 x the rate of land-based plants, and in addition to being a sustainable food source for humans and animals, it is one of the fastest growing plants. Nori provides more protein than soy, more vitamin C than orange juice and it is full of Omega 3s, iodine, zinc and magnesium – and it doesn’t require agro-chemicals, fertilizer or antibiotics!  Seaweed has been called the miracle crop because it can be cultivated easily, protects the planets by trapping carbon, it provides many foodstuffs, supplies jobs and generally does good.

Of course, in some parts of the world, like Ireland, farmers have been cultivating seaweed as an animal food and fertilizer for centuries.  Our discussion features experts around the world about why they are so excited about algae and how they became involved in this huge field of sustainable seaweed aquaculture.

Recorded May 17, 2022

Stefan Kraan is a Dutch marine biologist and founder of the The Seaweed Company in Galway, Ireland who specializes in high-quality, seaweed products that he produces in Ireland, India, Morocco and the Netherlands.  

Sean Barrett is the founder of Dock to Dish, an expansive network of small-scale community-based fishery programs, as well as The Montauk Seaweed Supply Company in Long Island. Sean is currently pioneering a “sea to soil” movement to revive an ancient symbiotic relationship between regional gardens, farmlands and local oceans.

Vincent Doumeizel is Senior Advisor for the UN Global Compact, Head of the Safe Seaweed Coalition and director of the food program at Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

It feels like a new Cold War is upon us – Russia poses an alarming extrinsic threat to the American concept of freedom, and to Western ideas of democratic values.  Russia’s terrible assault on Ukraine and the recent elections of pro-Putin regimes in Hungary and Serbia, coincide with a growing threat to American democracy from within its own borders.  

JOHN SHATTUCK, an international legal scholar and human rights leader, is currently Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at Tufts after a long and distinguished career in academia and government.  In the early post-Cold War years, he was responsible for coordinating and implementing U.S. efforts to promote human rights, democracy and international labor rights. The first U.S. official to reach and interview survivors of the genocide at Srebrenica, he helped negotiate the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and was instrumental in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He also served President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1998-2000.  

Holding Together: the hijacking of rights in America is co-authored by SUSHMA RAMAN, Executive Director and Mathias Risse, faculty director at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

Raman is the host of Justice Matters podcast and a contributor to Foreign Policy magazine; she brings two decades of experience in launching and leading social justice and human rights’ initiatives to her position as director at the Carr Center. 

Are you alarmed at the steady deterioration of common purpose among your fellow Americans or are you more concerned about the international disregard for human rights and democratic values, we have witnessed in Ukraine and beyond?  Join this spirited discussion to investigate what can be done.