- Playing
- Money Stress
- From
- Radio Rookies
With joblessness at a 26 year high, many people across the country are getting a crash course in coping with the stress of not having a steady pay check. Rookie Reporter Erikka Diaz, like many of her neighbors in South Bronx, has lived in poverty her whole life. Her family knows well the anxiety that comes with constantly having to scrape enough money together to pay the rent, buy groceries, and have enough left over for all the things kids want, like going to the prom, or a new pair of sneakers.
More from Radio Rookies
Breast-Fed Language
(00:08:02)
From: Radio Rookies
About two thirds of New Yorkers are from immigrant families. And when parents - who came here from other countries - raise American children, they face all kinds of choices ...
Back to the Middle East
(00:07:51)
From: Radio Rookies
Radio Rookie Alexis Gordon's dad has been in the Army Reserves since before she was born. He served a tour in Iraq when she was in the 5th grade and was recently deployed ...
Interview With a Teenage Vampire
(00:07:27)
From: Radio Rookies
Just when you think the vampire craze might have run its course, a new book hits the stores or another TV show launches. Next week the latest Twilight movie opens nationwide, ...
Who's Going to Protect Me?
(00:07:04)
From: Radio Rookies
Civil rights groups are pushing the NYPD to change its stop and frisk policy and 17-year-old Radio Rookie Edwin Llanos thinks a change might help police gain more people's ...
The ABCs of Chinese Americans
(00:07:35)
From: Radio Rookies
Most New Yorkers know that over the past half century, Flushing Queens has transformed from a mostly white suburb to one of the largest Asian populated areas in the United ...
Level Up
(00:07:25)
From: Radio Rookies
Video Games! Millions of people play some form of them - from Farmville on Facebook to more complex games on consoles like the Xbox, PlayStation, and the most popular, Wii. ...
The Potential Diplomat
(00:06:32)
From: Radio Rookies
18–year–old Melissa Best has very high expectations for herself and so do her parents, but her friends wouldn’t describe her as a hard worker. She’s always dreamed of ...
Gamun-Pyul
(00:08:27)
From: Radio Rookies
18 year old Caribbean American, Rayon Wright, sets out to be a K-Pop producer.
Hip Hop Dedication
(00:06:07)
From: Radio Rookies
A lot of teenagers want to make it big as artists--whether acting in movies, singing ballads on American Idol, or making it in the hip hop world. That's what Radio Rookie ...
Nothing's Ever Permanent in Foster Care
(00:08:34)
From: Radio Rookies
When I first went into foster care, I just felt lost. My friends kept saying, “Yo, you’re changing. You’re acting like you’re depressed.” I used to bug out and say, ...
Related Pieces
Piece Description
With joblessness at a 26 year high, many people across the country are getting a crash course in coping with the stress of not having a steady pay check. Rookie Reporter Erikka Diaz, like many of her neighbors in South Bronx, has lived in poverty her whole life. Her family knows well the anxiety that comes with constantly having to scrape enough money together to pay the rent, buy groceries, and have enough left over for all the things kids want, like going to the prom, or a new pair of sneakers.
Broadcast History
WNYC Morning Edition - October 5, 2009
Transcript
HOST INTRO: With joblessness at a 26 year high, many people across the country are getting a crash course in coping with the stress of not having a steady pay check. Rookie Reporter Erikka Diaz has lived in poverty her whole life, like many of her South Bronx neighbors. Erikka's family knows well the anxiety that comes with constantly having to scrape enough money together to pay the rent, buy groceries, and have enough left over for all the things that kids want.
Narration: I live in a society where you have to be tough and get fresh--that means sophisticated, with clothes, cars, and phones or people will look at you like you're nothing. And this isn't Manhattan, where a Gatorade costs freaking three dollars. This is the South Bronx, where a lot of people live on minimum wage jobs or, like my family, on welfare.
Erikka: Darina, wake up, school.
Narration: Four of my mom's eight kids...
Read the full transcript
Additional Credits
Sanda Htyte, Associate Producer
Courtney Stein, Assistant Producer
Marianne McCune, Editor
Related Website
Of 4 purchasers of this piece...
- 4 also bought:Coming Out in The Age of Lady Gaga (00:05:05)
- 3 also bought:
Dia's Diary: My Mother (00:06:08) - 3 also bought:
Tupperware (00:05:47) - 3 also bought:
Memorial (00:05:51) - 3 also bought:
Forced Out (00:09:33)
jocelyn rivera
Posted on January 03, 2012 at 06:04 PM | Permalink
:)
This piece to me was very moving it made me really think about how fourtunate i am
i may not have every thing that i want but like erikkas mom ,my mom still tries to make things work
my mom is not so different from erikkas mom in the sense that she gets very upset and stressed over money problems and takes pills to put her to sleep at night though it has never got to the point were my mom was very sick and went to the hospital but theres always a chance .
i can really relate to erikka because she tries every thing to help her mom from selling candy to trying to find a job i do the same thing trying to find little jobs here and there to help my mom out in any way i can
i really loved that even through all of the things she goes through she still stays family orientated
all in all i think that this piece was very moving and interesting i really liked it