Joblessness

Wednesday, September 17 2008
Joblessness

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William D. Lewis

Wall Street firms are in a freefall, and unemployment rates have now jumped to a five-year high.

When William D. Lewis lost his job, his life went spiraling out of control. He was fired from his position as a pharmaceutical representative, lost his personal car wash business, then watched his investments dry up. His wife left with the kids and his house went into foreclosure.

William talks with Dick Gordon about the day he was found sleeping in his storage unit and why he enrolled in college to pull himself out of homelessness.

• Learn more about William's life and work

Thursday, September 11 2008 - Flying with Bullets

Thursday, September 11 2008 - Flying with Bullets

Pastor Phillip Miles

In the 7 years since 9/11, much has changed in the United States and abroad - especially when it comes to air travel. Virtually all passengers know what it's like now to take off their shoes, get rid of their bottled water, and wade through long checkpoint lines.

Pastor Phillip Miles has gone to the Russian city of Perm off and on for the past 10 years. At the last minute before his most recent rip, Pastor Miles packed a box of bullets in his luggage as a gift. He got permission to fly with the bullets by airport security in South Carolina, but authorities in Moscow arrested him and charged him with smuggling. Pastor Miles was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison.

He talks to Dick Gordon about what life is like inside a Russian prison and how it felt to win his release.

• Learn more about Pastor Miles's return to the US

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Thursday, September 04 2008 - Bedside Comfort

Thursday, September 04 2008 - Bedside Comfort

Sandra Clarke, Del Townley, and Jim Clark

Every day, patients die alone in hospitals without family or medical staff to comfort them. Nurse Sandra Clarke decided to do something about this. She once had a dying patient who asked her to stay with him but she couldn't. When she returned to the room, he was dead.

Sandra talks to Dick Gordon about how she turned her guilt into a hospital vigil program - and how she convinced her co-workers to volunteer between shifts so patients wouldn't die alone.

Del Townley and Jim Clark also join the conversation. They are hospital maintenance workers who will sit at the bedsides of dying patients. They tell Dick why they joined the program and what keeps them volunteering.

• Learn more about Sandra's vigil program, No One Dies Alone

• Start a No One Dies Alone program
  

• See photos of Sandra and her volunteers

Music in this story: "Bedside of a Neighbor," Dixie Hummingbirds, The Best of the Dixie Hummingbirds

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