NPR Morning Edition host David Greene is bringing NPR Presents Family Matters to Pittsburgh, a live event that examines various topics affecting American families. So what‘s the focus this time? Personal finances.
Greene sat down with Essential Pittsburgh’s Paul Guggenheimer to talk more about the event.
“It’s really taking what we do on the air with the intimacy, the digging deeper into issues, just that feeling that public radio listeners, I think, rely on and bringing it into an event,” Greene said. “Almost feeling like we’re climbing out of the radio and bringing the audience into one of our stories on the air.”
The candid conversation will feature discussions among experts who will examine various finance issues from student debt to mortgages to retirement plans.
One area of focus will be on the “sandwich generation,” as Greene calls it. He says families are increasingly having more than one generation living under the same household as the elderly live longer and kids stay at home. This puts pressure on the parents to take care of both, resulting in additional money woes.
The experts will also concentrate on student debt. Greene said as the cost of college goes up, people are seriously examining what they’re getting out of a college experience. Some even question whether it is worth it to go to college at all.
Debt, Greene said, has been one of the biggest discussion points during past Family Matters. He says overall he sees positive feedback to the event.
“There was a kind of comradery and I think there was a sense of we’re sort of tackling these things together,” Greene said.
The event will be free and will be held on November 5 at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall at 7 p.m.
More Essential Pittsburgh segments can be heard here.
