Erika Beras

Reporter

SHORT BIO

Erika Beras is a former reporter at Marketplace. She has covered wealth & poverty, aging and other beats for Marketplace's programs.

Latest Stories (345)

Millions of workers don't do 9 to 5. So where's the child care?

Jan 14, 2019
There's a growing need for round-the-clock child care centers.
Erika Beras/Marketplace

Flu season could be less damaging, experts say

Jan 8, 2019
During last year’s season, an estimated 80,000 people died.
A sign advertising flu shots is displayed at a Walgreens pharmacy on Jan. 22, 2018 in San Francisco, California. 
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Early admissions gets a second, and sometimes third, round

Jan 7, 2019
This fall saw college applications go out, and for some lucky students, early admissions letters came in. If students accept, the contracts are binding. The rest of the applicants? They have to wait until the spring to find out their fates. But increasingly, colleges have a second round. Click the audio player above to hear […]

NYC traffic fatalities fall to an all-time low

Jan 2, 2019
The city's Vision Zero program has cut road deaths by a third over five years
Traffic moves across the Brooklyn Bridge, Aug. 2, 2018 in New York City. 
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

As box office sags, Netflix reports an online hit with "Bird Box"

Jan 2, 2019
While moviegoers were busy saying “meh” to a couple of new Hollywood offerings (“Vice” and “Holmes & Watson”), at least 45 million of them caught most of Netflix’s “Bird Box.” (That’s how many users the streaming service reports watched at least 70 percent of the horror film.) How is Netflix doing in the battle for our […]
Courtesy of Netflix

Creditors may go easy on workers caught in the government shutdown. Or not.

Dec 28, 2018
The hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are not getting paid because of the partial government shutdown got a little advice from the government’s Office of Personnel Management today. Tips include how to talk to credit card companies, mortgage lenders and landlords about not being able to pay their bills. The OPM put out […]

Rising costs will continue to hit homebuilders

Dec 26, 2018
New home sales have been slipping most of the year for a variety of reasons
A worker builds a new home at the Pulte Homes Fireside at Norterra-Skyline housing development on March 5, 2013 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Seniors are still struggling to recover after the financial crisis

Dec 19, 2018
The number of seniors filing for bankruptcy has nearly doubled since 2007 to a record high of 12 percent, part of it driven by the financial crisis; another part by mounting debt for things like medical care, mortgage loans and credit card bills.
Kathy Stevens, 67, plays bridge with friends at Riverview Towers in Pittsburgh. Stevens lost about a third of her savings during the financial crisis in 2008. It set off a decade of scaling back and she now lives in subsidized senior housing.
Erika Beras/Marketplace

5G promises an interconnected world, but at what cost?

Dec 18, 2018
Fifth-generation technology is designed to be faster and to connect more devices at once. The hope is that it may spur new ways of communicating person to person, but also between devices, enabling things like autonomous vehicles. AT&T says it is starting its 5G rollout with a dozen cities where it has a strong client […]

Google’s CEO could face tough questions on Capitol Hill about the company's data practices

Dec 11, 2018
Privacy, money and data promise to all be topics of discussion.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai delivers the keynote address at the Google I/O 2018 Conference at Shoreline Amphitheater on May 8, 2018 in Mountain View, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images