captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> sreenivasan: good evening. i'm hari sreenivasan. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill in elkhart indiana. on the newshour tonight: gwen sat down with president obama to talk about the economic recovery and politics, among other things, followed by a town meeting. we'll have a preview of the exclusive interview. and, getting humans to mars-- a new inflatable space pod could be a big step in any mission to the red planet. also ahead, could you afford $400 in an emergency? judy woodruff talks with writer neal gabler about americans' financial fragility. plus, when a major earthquake in nepal took 8,000 lives, it also destroyed some of the country's history. a look at the clashes over saving nepal's monuments and

temples. >> sreenivasan: all that and more, on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> ♪ love me tender ♪ love me true we can like many, but we can love only a precious few. because it is for those precious few that you have to be willing to do so very much. but you don't have to do it alone. lincoln financial helps you provide for and protect your financial future, because this is what you do for people you love. lincoln financial-- you're in charge. >> you were born with two stories. one you write every day, and one you inherited that's written in your d.n.a. 23andme.com is a genetic service that provides personalized

reports about traits, health and ancestry. learn more at www.23andme.com. >> fathom travel, offering cruises to cuba and the dominican republic. travel deep. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history. >> bnsf railway. >> genentech. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

>> sreenivasan: president obama launched an election-year effort today to undercut republican claims that the country is in decline. he said it's not borne out by the facts, but he acknowledged americans are feeling stressed. he spoke in an exclusive interview with gwen ifill, at a pbs newshour town hall in elkhart, indiana. >> when we've gone through a tough time, and we went through worst financial crisis in our lifetimes, in most people here, then you feel nervous. a lot of times, it's easy for someone to come up and say, "if we deport all the immigrants, build a wall, or if we cut off trade with china or if we do x or y or z, that there's some simple answer and suddenly, everything's going to feel secure." >> sreenivasan: the town hall will air this evening in a pbs newshour special.

and, we'll have an extended excerpt of our interview with the president, after the news summary. in the day's other news, the presidential race was dominated by questions about trump university, donald trump's defunct real estate seminar business. two lawsuits charge it defrauded customers, and newly released court documents include instructions to trump employees to use high-pressure tactics. in newark, new jersey today, democrat hillary clinton charged it's more evidence that the republican nominee-to-be is a fraud. >> he is trying to scam america, the way he scammed all those people at trump university. it's important that we recognize what he has done, because it's a pretty good indicator of what he will do. >> sreenivasan: trump did not immediately respond, but he has said that most people who took the seminars were satisfied. he's also accused the san diego judge who released the documents of being hostile to him. that judge now says some of the material was released by mistake, and must be resealed

until sections can be blacked out. flooding fueled by heavy rain swept across more of the texas countryside today. several rivers surged over their banks, and evacuation orders went out to a series of towns. houston's southwestern suburbs braced for the worst as the brazos river hit record highs-- and kept going. >> very scary just watching the water rise so fast. i mean it was so fast. i couldn't believe it. >> sreenivasan: entire communities and their roadways are now submerged by the flooded river, and many homes have been turned into islands. hundreds of people who live in them have been forced to flee, but others are cut off. officials have carried out more than 120 boat rescues across fort bend county, including this one in rosenberg. police in the nearby city of richmond warn there's more to come. >> this river is going to stay high throughout the rest of the week and into the weekend. so we're going to have some um, this is going to be awhile. >> sreenivasan: at the same time, major flooding has paralyzed parts of north texas.

the trinity river is on the rise at dallas. floodwaters have also engulfed granbury, outside fort worth. now, with up to ten more inches of rain in the forecast, much of texas is under a flash flood watch. from flood to fire: the people of fort mcmurray, canada began returning home today, for the first time since a wildfire roared through one month ago. a trickle of traffic brought evacuees back into the town in alberta today. they were told to bring up to two weeks of supplies, as basic services have yet to be restored. the fire destroyed 2,400 buildings-- about 10% of the city-- and forced 80,000 people to flee. a french company says its search vessel has picked up "black box" signals from an egyptair plane that crashed last month. they came from deep in the mediterranean sea, near the plane's last known location, north of alexandria, egypt. the flight disappeared on may 19, with 66 people on board. search teams have found debris, but the cause of the crash remains unclear. the u.n. children's fund warned

today that 20,000 iraqi children are caught in the fighting at fallujah. they're among some 50,000 civilians trapped there. the warning came as government forces ran into fierce resistance from islamic state militants. prime minister haider al-abadi visited the front line, and said the military is trying to safeguard fallujah's people. >> the enemy has been denied most of the chances to flee. but many civilians are still there. ed main target of the operation now is to reduce the number of victims among civilians and also to decrease losses among our armed forces. we may raise the iraqi flak inside fallujah in the coming few days. >> sreenivasan: despite that prediction, it's widely expected that the fight for fallujah could go on for some time. in somalia, islamist al-shabab militants stormed a hotel in mogadishu, killing at least six people and taking a number of hostages. the dead included two members of parliament. the attack began when a suicide

bomber blew up his vehicle in front of the hotel's entrance, leaving burning wreckage. several gunmen then stormed in. it's the latest in a series of such attacks. back in this country, federal officials announced they won't charge two minneapolis policemen with civil rights violations, for killing a black man last november. 24-year-old jamar clark was shot during a struggle with the white officers. it sparked weeks of protests, with demonstrators claiming clark was handcuffed when he was shot. but the u.s. attorney says the evidence suggests he was not. >> given the lack of bruising, the lack of mr. clark's dna on the handcuffs and the deeply conflicted testimony about whether he was handcuffed, we determined that we could not pursue this case based on a prosecution theory that mr. clark was handcuffed at the time that he was shot. >> sreenivasan: earlier this year, a state prosecutor also declined to file charges in clark's death. meanwhile, in oklahoma, a former volunteer sheriff's deputy faces four years in prison for fatally

shooting an unarmed suspect last year. robert bates is 74. he was sentenced tuesday in tulsa, for second degree manslaughter. bates killed eric harris during a sting involving illegal gun sales. he has said he meant to use a stun gun, but grabbed his handgun by mistake. wall street struggled today to eke out small gains. the dow jones industrial average was up just two points to close at 17,789. the nasdaq rose four points, and the s&p 500 added two. and, an excavation in london has unearthed the oldest handwritten document ever found in britain. the roman tablet dates from 57 a.d., just 14 years after the city was founded. it turned up during construction of a new headquarters for media giant bloomberg. in all, more than 400 wooden tablets were found, including one with the earliest written reference to london. the records refer to everything from beer deliveries to legal rulings. still to come on the newshour: gwen ifill sits down with the president and we get the analysis of mark shields and david brooks; a nasa mission to create an inflatable space pod; why nearly half of americans don't have $400 for an emergency, and much more.

>> sreenivasan: now, back to gwen in elkhart, indiana. here's more from her wide- ranging interview with the president: people including probably some folks in this room think the deficits have gone up and the john its rate has gone up. and the fact that their lives have not improved. how-- in fact, we have the nominee for the presumptive nominee for the republican party saying, donald trump, saying america say third world nation. how do you persuade or how does your likely democratic successor, possible, persuade anybody that's not true. >> well, it's important you said my successor. because michelle would be very upset if she thought i was running again.

look, you just look at the evidence here in elkhart, as you mentioned in the introduction. when i took office, this was its first city i came to. and unemployment about a month after i took office, month and a half after i took office was almost 20%. one out of ten people were behind on their mortgage or in foreclosure. today the unemployment rate is around 4%. it's only about one in po people who are behind on their mortgage. now the rv industry which is central to elkhart is on track to break records in terms of sales. and so that doesn't mean that folks aren't struggling in some circumstances. and within of the things that i have emphasized is that there are some long-term trends in the economy that we have to tackle in terms of wages not going up as fast as they used to smrks some big costs like college

costs or health-care costs that are still a challenge. people still worries about retirement. and so we're going to have to make sure that we make some good decisions going forward. but the notion that some how america is in decline is just not born out by the facts. >> ifill: but it resonates. there are a lot of aggrieved people voting in big numbers for donald trump. >> look, i think that what has always been true in the american politics is that when we have gone through a tough time and we went through the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes. i'm looking around. and i think it's safe to say that it's been the worst in the lifetimes, or memories of most people here. then you feeler in vowses. people lost homes. people lost savings.

people were worried about whether or not they could make ends meet. and so even though we have recovered, people feel like the ground under their feet isn't quite as solid. and in those circumstances, a lot of times it's easy for somebody to come up and say you know what, if we deport all the immigrants and build a wall or if we cut off trade with china or if we do x or y or z, that there is some simple answer and suddenly everything's going to feel secure. >> ifill: why don't you mention donald trump by name? >> you know, he seems to do a good job mentioning his own name. so i figured, you know, i will let him do his advertising for him. >> ifill: do you consider any of the attacks are backlash against you personally? >> here is the thing i would

saivment i just spoke about this at the local high school. i think trump is a more colorful character than some of the other republican elected officials. but a lot of the story that he's telling is entirely consistent with what folks have been saying about me or the general story they've been telling about the economy for the last seven and a half, the last ten, the last 20, the last 30 years. >> sreenivasan: and, we pick it up from there with newshour regulars, syndicated columnist mark shields and "new york times" columnist david brooks. >> what struck me was the president was making the case for his eight years in office that the change had been improvement. implicit is a recognition that donald trump's candidacy is not simply a rejection of president's obama's two years, it would be a repudiation of him. and even though with g-wen's

baiting he wouldn't say his name or was very reluctant to say donald trump a name, i think the president recognizes that. and i think he is chomping at the bit to get in the campaign. >> first on the repudiation point, david axelrod, his former strategist made this point months ago, each election people have a psychological shift to the opposite personality type. so we went from george w. bush, gut, to the head from obama and now from obama we're going to from the whereever donald trump. so sa so there are radically different personality types. and i think there is something for axelrod's point, people do look for something different. on the economic point, i think he's right and wrong. he's right about the gross numbers that the unemployment rate is coming down, job creation has been pretty good. but it say two tier thing. if you look at manufacturing, especially over the last 19 months, it's been hit by week demand, from abroad, so many company countries in recession, hit by the high dollar. those sort of industrial places

like elkhart, michigan, upstate new york, central pennsylvania, those manufacturing sectors have been worse off now than they were even a couple of years ago because of sort of weak manufacturing. >> sreenivasan: what about this idea there is a disconnect. we had it on the website from the different people in this townhall. that the president can lay out his case and hear all the economic numbers, here are the facts, here is what your unemployment was, here is what st now. but you had somebody stand up and say i used to work at the manufacturing plant. my job is gone. what are you going to do about it? >> that's right, carrier air conditioning which donald trump played to a fairly well, quite honestly, and understandably, that they are leaving indianapolis and going to mexico and taking the jobs with it. i thought he made a better case. it's a sense of trying to remind people, but it comes down to how do you feel. i mean president obama has

a-- surprisingly good job rating. david mentioned george w. bush. george w. bush in the fall of 2008 when john mccain was trying to win another term for the republican white house, had a 25% favorable rating. the president is over 50. i mean he's got a higher job rating. but people don't feel good about the direction. country. and i think that's real. and that's partly washington. it's partly wall street. things aren't working, that nobody really cared that the top 1 percent-- i think there is a whole host of factors that contribute to that. but the president is, he is cerebral. he makes a cerebral argument. at a gut level. it probably isn't-- is persuasive. >> it's so regional. if you go to the industrial midwest, yeah, it feels like that. it feels bad. you go to the bay area, they're adding jobs at a great way. you go to nashville, orlando is

back, phoenix is back, houston is exploding. and so the sun belt is back. and the sun belt was so badly hit in 2008 but it's back. the industrial midwest is almost in another downward hickup. >> events like this, i mean there was a specific reason he chose elkhart? this was the first place he visited after his presidency began. he wants to, this is a kind of legacy solidifying look at how much this place has improved since i have been in office, right? but it almost feels like as mark said, almost a campaign style event to solid fie the legacy. just reminder, i was pretty good for the country. >> yeah. it is not the right moment for that, probably. this is a moment when pessimism is just in vogue. he's got numbers on his side overall, as i said, but the country is not in a mood to think it's heading in the right track. there is an almost near consensus that we are not. >> those numbers are impressive. 19.6% unemployment in elkhart when he first went down, down to

4%. it is, once again, as it claimed to be, the rv, recreation vehicle capitol of the world. the mortgage and people who are behind in their mortgage payment facing foreclosure t was one out of ten in 2009. now it's one out of 30. i mean those are all improvements. those are all-- you could say well, it would have happened anyway. it could have happened in spite of. but he took some real actions that were controversy that cost him politically to do it. and you know, i think he's entitled to take some credit for the improvement. >> there were e-mails going around today saying you know what, the people of elkhart succeeded in spite of the president. >> i think that was governor mike pens up for election this year. the test to me whether the president is in good shape or bad shape is that joe donelly, the democratic senator was there at the event.

he's up for re-election next year, not this year. but i mean if you really think that somebody is tie foid mary, politically, you can think of greater reasons not to be there. there are some committee assignments that you will keep you busy. but the fact that he was there with the president probably indicated to me that he felt that the president would be a help rather than a hindrance to his own career. >> despite the fact that the president would not prefer to name donald trump outloud, it is almost like he is like the harry potter character volumed mortgage or something. -- voldemort or something. he is right in the news. here we have a possibility that the democratic and republican committee nominees could have legal clouds hanging over them or at least an investigation hanging over them as they become the nominees and representatives of the party for the presidency. >> trump, my newspaper had a good story on the trump

university.o we sort of had the outlines of the story but i think what was fresh in some of the new documents that we now have access to ised way that professors at trump university were really pressuring people to get out their credit cards to get multiple credit cards, to max out their credit cards to give all this money to trump university and give all these people high and dry and deeply in debt offering them little in return, so it was the machinations of scamming these people that we learned today. >> sreenivasan: fair that hillary clinton says this means that my competitor, my opponent is a fraud? >> well, if you listen to the plaintiffs, i mean donald trump did a classic donald trump defense which is to attack the judge who didn't bring the case, who's hearing the case. the judge isn't the plaintiff, the judge isn't saying he was scammed or billked. the judge gonzalez happens to be of latin desent. donald trump accused him of

having a ven debta. he is a native of indiana. you know, this is classic trump. david's former employer "the wall street journal" editorial page today took him on as the politics of personal grieveance, that he has an ability to personalize things, in addition to this legal case today, i think it is quite unparalleled in presidential nom neems. >> sreenivasan: mark shields, david brooks, thanks so much. >> sreenivasan: the first inflatable room in space was attached to the international space station by nasa on saturday. it's the beginning of a two-year test period for this expandable habitat. correspondent miles o'brien reports on this new frontier in space travel as part of our weekeries about the "leading edge" of science. >> reporter: nasa just added some space to the space station, and it is 16 cubic meters like

no other. inflated carefully with short spurts of air, it is an expandable module, the first designed for human habitation ever to reach low earth orbit. it's a big step on the long road to building spacecraft and habitats for human missions to mars. expandables allow engineers to color outside the lines-- beyond the diameter of the nose cone of the rocket called the fairing. that's the constraint when launching a module made of rigid aluminum. it's sort of like carrying a tent to space. jason crusan is nasa's director for advanced exploration systems. >> expandables allow you to pack up whatever your habitat is and fit in more potential volume in the same fairing volume. so that's the key advantages, the volume advantage.

>> reporter: it's called "beam," an acronym for bigelow expandable activity module. it's a technology demonstrator-- an experiment to see how well it performs in space. the man behind beam, robert bigelow, watched it all unfold in the viewing room overlooking the space station flight control room in houston. his company, bigelow aerospace, is based in north las vegas. bigelow made his fortune in real estate, contracting and extended stay hotels. he is now pursuing a lifelong passion for space. he believes expandables are game changer. >> it's that dramatic. it's that huge in terms of concept change. we didn't invent the change. this is a nasa idea. >> reporter: it is an idea as old as the space age itself. in a seminal series on space exploration in collier's magazine in 1954, legendary rocket scientist wernher von braun envisioned humans flying

to, and living on, mars in inflatables. the first communications satellites, echo 1 and echo 2, launched in 1960 and '64 respectively, were inflatable, metallic balloons-- passive reflectors of microwave transmissions. at about the same time, nasa pondered several early space station designs with expandable modules. and in the 1990's when the international space station was becoming a reality, the agency designed an expandable called transhab that would have replaced the u.s. crew quarters. expanded, it would have twice the diameter, and three times the volume, of the rigid aluminum structure currently in use. but amid cost overruns, congress cancelled transhab. and bigelow aerospace obtained the patents from nasa. >> when i saw that architecture and that whole idea, i was enchanted by that concept, and i thought, that's something that

really looks cool and seems to have a lot of value. >> reporter: in 2006 and 2007, bigelow successfully deployed two expandable structures slightly smaller than beam in low earth orbit. both are still in space, and still filled with air. >> there are a lot of fans of this kind of architecture. so, i think they're applicable anywhere in low-earth orbit and on the surface of another body, whether it's the moon or perhaps even mars, and certainly for any kind of deep space mission. you want to have a lot of room for people. people need to have a lot of space. they don't want to be cramped up for long periods of time. >> reporter: bigelow took me on a tour of his huge, pristine facility filled with full sized mockups of his expansive vision for space. so, welcome to olympus! a lot of volume here. >> yes, this could be anything that you could imagine. >> reporter: olympus would have twice the volume of the entire international space station, and yet could be delivered to orbit

in one launch, albeit on a super heavy rocket still on the drawing boards at nasa or space-x. still, bigelow has some big ideas for this very big space. so is it an entertainment center? is it a command and control center? is it a hospital? are you growing food? is it a hydroponic center? is it a dormitory? is it a manufacturing facility for making all kinds of things, or an assembly facility where you are assembling satellites and launching them out the airlock? >> reporter: but before olympus becomes a reality, bigelow would like to attach a module like this one to the international space station. he'd also like to build his own space station, which could orbit the earth, moon or mars. he envisions his expandables as orbiting timeshares that can be used for manufacturing and science and as a destination for emerging nations hoping to fly their own astronauts.

oh, and don't forget tourism! he is, after all, a hotel guy. >> if somebody wants to use it for a hotel purpose, that's fine. we will lease that to them and then they can sublet and sub- rent that out to whomever. >> reporter: beam and all the rest of bigelow's expendables are made of several layers of vectran-- a material stronger than kevlar, which is used in bulletproof vests. over the next six months, astronauts will only venture into beam periodically to glean data on the air quality, temperature, condensation, radiation and possible micrometeoroid and orbital debris impacts. >> but to be honest actually, just the whole process of developing and extension are even more critical in using this in the first place. >> reporter: beam will remain on the international space station for two years. bigelow is seeking permission from nasa to sell access to the craft to commercial, educational and scientific customers. >> some people may think, "well,

that's not any big deal." well, it is. it is a start of something. mcdonald's started with one burger somewhere, someplace. it has to have a beginning. this is what beam is for us, is it's a beginning even if it's on a very small scale. >> reporter: bigelow clearly believes the work in low earth orbit is just the beginning of creating a viable industry in space, which in turn, could help nasa's goal to land and sustain humans on mars. the universe is ever expanding, and so will the spacecraft designed to explore it. miles o'brien, the pbs newshour, north las vegas, nevada. >> sreenivasan: stay with us. coming up on the newshour: rebuilding nepal's historic temples destroyed by a catastophic earthquake; and how parents can prepare for the worst without scaring their children.

but first, financial fragility. most american households did slightly better economically in 2015 than 2014, according to a recent survey by the federal reserve. 69% said they were "living comfortably" or "doing okay," up from 65%. but 31% said they were either "struggling to get by" or "just getting by," a figure that includes millions of middle class americans. in fact, it can be surprising to learn just which americans continue to struggle. judy woodruff has the latest in our series with the atlantic. >> woodruff: by almost any measure, neal gabler has led a successful life. he's published well-received biographies of walt disney, barbara streisand and walter winchell; written for leading newspapers and magazines; taught at prestigious universities. he's a husband and the father of two daughters, now launched in their own successful careers. he lives in the hamptons, a

place of natural beauty and mecca for wealth and celebrity. and yet, for years, neal gabler harbored a mortifying secret. >> it's very difficult. i'll tell you what it's really been difficult on is my wife. >> woodruff: being the writer that he his, gabler decided to come to terms with his secret by writing about it. >> i never write about myself. so i didn't embark on this project saying, "oh gosh, i can't wait to write about my own failures," which is basically what the article is about. but really the spring of this piece was reading a news item about the federal reserve household economic survey in which they asked the question, if you had a $400 emergency, could you meet that emergency? and 47% of the respondents said that they couldn't meet that emergency without either having to borrow money or to sell something. and i read that item and i said to myself, "who knew?"

but of course i knew. because many, many times in my life, and not just in the distant past, but in the unfortunate present, i couldn't afford those $400. >> woodruff: and that's the hard truth: despite all his outward signs of success, neal gabler is frequently broke. his recent story in the "atlantic magazine" brought widespread attention to that fact. did you hesitate at all about baring your personal life? >> very much so. i'm not the kind of person who really likes to expose himself. but then that reluctance became part of the article itself. because i coined the term in the article, "financial impotence." and it struck me that talking about our financial situation is very much like men not wanting to talk about sexual impotence. it's just not something you do. it's an embarrassment; it's a shame; it's a humiliation.

and financial problems are exactly the same thing. you are humiliated, you're so i thought my reluctance is very much a part of the story i want to tell. and if i can overcome my own reluctance, perhaps i can help those people who feel shamed and embarrassed and humiliated and show them, "look, i'm willing to do this. i'm willing to expose all of my faults, all of my mistakes, all of my failures. you're not alone." >> woodruff: gabler knew he wasn't alone, even before writing the article, due to weekly chats with brian brunjes, an east hampton butcher. >> brian the butcher is my friend, who i see every he's a wonderful easy guy to talk to, and gradually over time, we would start getting into something more than chit- chat. we'd talk about our financial situation. very, very rare, particularly among men. and i remember one day especially, this was one of those periods where i didn't have the $400, and unfortunately they come all too frequently. and he said, "i'm going to tell you something. i've been in the same situation,

i've got this expense and that expense. if anybody tells you that they're sailing through, they're lying. everybody's in trouble." >> everybody struggles. i have a child with autism. he was diagnosed 20 years ago. my wife had to stop working. became a one-income family. we accumulated a lot of outside expenses. so i struggled. but you know what, i've got to do what i've got to do. >> and that was almost the final push to write the piece. because, you know, he's right. there's so many people in trouble. they won't talk about it. brian is one of the very few who would be open with me, and i was able to be open with him as a result. so we were able to share this. >> it kind of like, took a weight off my shoulder knowing that a guy like neal, he's got a house in east hampton, you figure, you know, he's doing all right for himself. but he's not.

everybody's struggling. it's tough. >> the middle class is in desperate straits. >> woodruff: edward wolff is a professor of economics at new york university. >> today, the average family has enough financial reserves to keep going for about three weeks. that's it. that's middle income. if you go further down the ladder, basically financial reserves are-- can keep the family going for a couple days at most. these financial reserves are just completely evaporated; it's incredible. >> we came up with this word, financial fragility, when we thought of looking at the capacity of families to bear a shock, to face a shock. >> woodruff: annmaria lusardi is an economist at george washington university. >> and the way we formulated the question is, "how confident are you that you could come up with

$2,000 if an unexpected need arose within the next month?" and what we found is 40% of families could not come up with $2,000 in 30 days. so it's important to recognize that, that the financial fragility is just so widespread. >> the main reason is that we've had a long period of wage stagnation in this country, even going back, even to the mid- 1970's. so in the face of stagnating incomes, what did families do? well for a while they did accumulate wealth, and this was buoyed by the housing price boom of going forward until 2006, and then suddenly the housing market collapsed, and so did net worth >> woodruff: how much of what you would describe as your

financial condition is due to decisions that neal gabler made, and how much of it is due to outside circumstances beyond your control? >> that's a great question, and i want to take responsibility. i don't want to put everything off on these larger financial forces. i chose to become a writer. this is the most financially perilous profession that one can possibly imagine, except possibly being an actor. i chose to live in new york city because i thought i needed to be close to magazines and publishers i was going to-- that i needed for my writing career. so i did that. and new york is expensive. i chose to have two children. children are expensive. i made the choice to send them to expensive colleges, and so those were all choices that i made, that had serious financial consequences, but again, those choices were what i call life.

>> woodruff: so many young people today are told find your passion and follow it. it sounds like that's what you did. >> that's exactly what i did. i followed my bliss, and i'm happy i did. it's more than a passion, it's an addiction. there is nothing that i would rather do than get up to my desk and write. so i accept responsibility. on the other hand, since roughly half of americans are suffering the same sort of financial fragility and are in the same sort of predicament i'm in, we can't say that they're all imbeciles. >> woodruff: let me ask you a couple of other questions about personal decisions you made. the decision to live here, we're in east hampton. people think, living in the hamptons? that's a really expensive part of america. >> when people hear that i live in the hamptons, the first thing they say to me is, "oh my gosh, you live in the hamptons." what they don't really understand is that there are two hamptons-- there are the people who live here full time, as i

do, who are not wealthy; and there are the people who come here during the summer who are. so, yes, i do live in the hamptons, but when i bought this house, i could afford it. it wasn't exorbitantly expensive. i was able to afford it for a very long time. this is all cedar, but you can see how many shingles are missing here. >> woodruff: these days, though, the house has fallen into disrepair. it's in desperate need of a new roof. floorboards are rotting. it has not seen fresh paint in many years. >> if i had $100,000 i could get all this done. >> woodruff: did you ever think about moving to a less expensive part of the country? >> we did. and we've talked about that. but here's the catch-22 of that. if we were-- once the recession hit, the house lost its value, as it did for most americans. so now the house is deteriorating, it's lost its

value. so if i had the resources to fix up the house to sell it, i wouldn't need to sell it. that's the catch-22. i am a financial illiterate, and financial illiterates pay a heavy price for their financial illiteracy. >> woodruff: gabler is not using the term "financial illiteracy" loosely. it's a phenomenon economists say is a key factor in the current fragility of the middle class. >> we measure financial literacy by looking at basic financial knowledge. we are experiencing much more complex financial markets, much more complex financial products than in the past. and the knowledge of people has not kept up. >> half of america will have to compromise on their dreams. there's one statistic that cite in the piece from a "usa today" survey, which i think is fascinating. and that survey determined what it would cost to live a middle-

class existence, using kind of typical benchmarks. and what they determined was that a middle-class existence in america would cost $130,000. >> woodruff: a year. >> a year. the median income in america is somewhere around $50,000. so a middle-class existence was more than two times as great as the median income. and what that tells you is that the face of financial fragility is the face of the college- educated as well as those without a high school diploma. it's the face of white america as well as the face of minority americans, who obviously suffer much greater. this is an equal opportunity situation, financial fragility and financial impotence. it affects so many of us. and it's a sadness to think-- that people feel compelled to give up their dreams of what they thought a modest middle- class life would be. but they have. they have. even i have.

>> sreenivasan: now, restoring ancient cultural treasures in earthquake ravaged nepal. a little more than one year ago, a magnitude 7.8 tremor took 8,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands. it also destroyed historic temples and religious monuments that are classified as world heritage sites. as part of our culture at risk series, special correspondent fred de sam lazaro reports from kathmandu. >> reporter: until now, the major concern in nepal has been the humanitarian response and the slow pace of rebuilding, as hundreds of thousands of quake survivors remain in flimsy, temporary shelters. but for historians, archeologists and even tourism promoters, the earthquake did extensive damage to nepal's

historic temples-- structures anywhere from 200 to 1,400 years old. >> the temples of nepal are absolutely unique; they are inscribed on the world heritage list. you will find such a dense concentration of cultural heritage in almost no country of the world. also it is an exceptional mix of religions. many temples are hindu and buddhist at the same time. >> reporter: hinduism has deep- and intersecting-roots here with buddhism, whose founder, gautama buddha, was born in what today is nepal-- some 2,600 years ago. the rich cultural heritage is also a living one, says christian manhart, of the united nations cultural organization, unesco. >> so it is not just beautiful monuments which are there for tourists but they are used. >> reporter: and that adds more complication to the rebuilding efforts, already slowed by bureaucracy and political

instability. it's a clash between western aesthetics and local priorities. >> we don't have this romanticism with historical patina. so this is you know a different way of looking at the monument between a westerner eye and the local people here. >> reporter: rohit ranjitkar heads a non-profit organization called the kathmandu valley preservation trust. he says for most nepalis, these historic sites are first and foremost, places of active worship. >> basically they have the attachment with the god and the place with the religious activities, not with the architecture. you know, for them, whether the temple will be rebuilt or not rebuilt, it does not make any difference. >> reporter: ranjitkar's group has been rebuilding temples here for more than two decades, with funding mostly from private western donors. he says the trust's work likely helped some structures withstand the quake.

much of this complex in patan neighborhood of the capital survived, and it's become a shelter for antiquities salvaged from destroyed temples. so these are all rescued from the rubble? they are among thousands of icons, statues and timbers now housed in makeshift storage until they can be restored to their original homes. >> this is the oldest part of the palace, from 1627. >> reporter: the temples and monuments-- often part of royal palace complexes. it's here that the delicate balancing act between western or international norms and local concerns comes into play. so this is about 300 years old and this is-- >> last year. ( laughs ) >> reporter: here, ranjitkar explained they decided to repair weathered 300-year-old architectural elements with brand new work-- going against the grain of many art historians who would have left the old damaged structure as it was. >> the people who still do that,

we need to promote them. if we don't do that, then this skill will also be lost. >> reporter: he says one priority is to preserve the skills and artisanship-- handed down the generations over centuries but disappearing in a modern world economy. it took him three days to do this? wow. the craftsmen mainly come from lower socio-economic classes or castes, and have not enjoyed high social standing. many have gone into other work, notably as laborers in oil rich gulf states. there's also a shortage of recorded information to guide a rebuilding that's faithful to the original temple design. shukra sagar shrestha, a retired archeologist, spends much of his time gathering old photographs, documents an drawings to help the artisans. and he studies the ancient inscriptions and intricate carvings on these temple icons. this series, for example, is a kind of do's and don'ts, he

says-- the path to heaven or hell in one's next life. >> ( translated ): because you gave your daughter to marry but you accepted money. >> reporter: so he has been put into a cauldron of boiling water because he accepted a dowry for his daughter? >> ( translated ): exactly. >> reporter: nepal's government says work will begin in the next few months on rebuilding major sites that were destroyed with a target to finish in five to seven years. unesco's manhart is not sure. >> we were quite optimistic. directly after the earthquake there was so much solidarity from the international community. we thought in six years we would be able to do it, but now we are tapping for ten years to reconstruct most of this heritage, if, of course, the funding is available. >> reporter: all told, about $205 million will need to be raised, he says, and there's more than enough to start. for his part, ranjitkar says he

leans toward a more western or international preference: repairing a lot of the woodwork instead of replacing it. >> the local people, they don't like it. in our religion we don't worship image which is broken or chipped out. so when you have some damage in the image, people normally replace it with a new one. >> reporter: as the rebuilding gets into full swing, ranjitkar plans to spend time with worshippers, trying to convince them of the virtue of the ancient artisanship, especially to another set of pilgrims to the temples: tourists. their reverence is mainly for the historic architectural patina and their dollars are a critical engine in the local economy. for the pbs newshour, this is fred de sam lazaro in kathmandu. >> sreenivasan: fred's reporting is a partnership with the under-told stories project at the university of st. thomas in minnesota. a version of this story aired on the pbs program "religion and

ethics news weekly." >> sreenivasan: the u.s. state department yesterday warned travelers of the potential for terror attacks in europe this summer. but for many americans, the fear of terrorism is not limited to threats abroad. national security expert juliette kayyem has this essay on how parents and children can feel safer at home in the face of growing anxieties. >> "what am i supposed to say?" a close friend asks me after her daughter approached her with the question: "mom, is isis in new york city?" why me? my friend is looking for a confidante, but also for any confidence i can deliver from a professional vantage point as an homeland security expert-- it doesn't hurt that i'm also a mother of three. she wants me to tell her

everything is going to be ok. and i get it. i get that irrational fear in the back of our minds, that "what if," that "yes, i know the chances of some random act of violence or terror is unlikely, but still..." i get it. even a .0001% statistical likelihood still means someone falls within it, and what if that's my child? so here's the truth, brutal and liberating: there is no such thing as perfect security, no white flag that will be raised, no future world filled with unicorns and rainbows. no homeland defense apparatus is going to make perfect security attainable. government certainly has the responsibility to protect us, but in this day and age of globalism, where we enjoy the flow of people and goods and ideas, we will never get the risk to anywhere near zero. simply put, stuff happens. now, embrace it. and move on to what you can control. as a responsible parent, you purchase that car seat. you buy a bike helmet, make your kids wear their seatbelts, talk to them about texting and driving, and bullying.

you minimize their risks and maximize their defenses. and yet, somehow, terror seems different, so random, uncontrollable. that distinction is of our own making. there should be a comfort in knowing that basic precautions can go far to give you grip and control. the general rule of thumb, assuming you have the resources to pay for these purchases, is that every home should be prepared for basic needs for three days without outside help. in the field, it's called "72 on so first, go to your convenient supermarket or warehouse store and get the following: drinking water and non-perishable food, flashlight, batteries, candles, matches or a lighter; extras of special needs such as medicines or diapers, and a first aid kit. that's it. seriously. there is always more you could get to make life better; we've added vodka and diet coke and red vines to our stash, given my family's bad habits. but don't let the perfect be enemy of the prepared. then, make copies of essential papers. mail them out-of-state or save a photo of them to the cloud. finally, have a conversation at home about contingency planning, with a focus on family unification, should there be a

crisis. factor in the likelihood that cell service could be down. map out backup plans and contingencies. addressing these risks isn't going to shock your older kids; they already saw it all on twitter. manage your and their fears. prepare for when the bad thing might happen. as parents, the more we can maximize our own preparedness, the less we will feel that we have no grip over the mayhem that exists out there. professionally and personally, i would like nothing more than to be able to answer the question "is isis in new york city" with an absolute "no." but, failing that, why not have a backup plan? own it. then move on. >> sreenivasan: and remember, gwen ifill is in elkhart, indiana with a preview of tonight's newshour special on pbs. gwen? >> ifill: thanks, hari.

stay tuned to watch the full hour of my interview with president obama, followed by a town hall where the president takes questions from the people of elkhart. that's coming up tonight, here on pbs. hari? >> sreenivasan: if you won't be in front of a tv later, you can also watch the pbs special on our u-stream or youtube channels, on our facebook page or on our website at www.pbs.org/newshour. we'll also have a version program running in spanish. plus, find more of our in-depth coverage on elkhart and the president's visit. also online, what's one of the best ways to protect the family finances? put mom in charge, says author kimberly palmer. she explains why more women need to be managing their money and offers steps to get started. all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. on thursday, the debate over affordable housing in the high-cost san francisco bay area. i'm hari sreenivasan. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> you were born with two stories. one you write every day, and one you inherited that's written in your d.n.a. 23andme.com is a genetic service that provides personalized reports about traits, health and ancestry. learn more at www.23andme.com. >> bnsf railway. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> md anderson cancer center. making cancer history. >> fathom travel, offering cruises to cuba and the dominican republic. travel deep. >> genentech. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org.

>> supported by the rockefeller foundation. promoting the wellbeing of humanity around the world, by building resilience and inclusive economies. more at www.rockefellerfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good. kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. e-trade. and, cancer treatment centers of america. >> proper nutrition can help maintain your immune system during cancer treatment. that's why here, dietitians are part of every patient's comprehensive care team. integrative cancer care lives here. learn more at cancercenter.com.