January is peruse the vegetable seed catalog month. First, I take an inventory of my leftover seed and decide what I can use again this year. When in doubt, I do a seed germination test. If less than 80 percent of the seed sample germinates, I buy fresh seed.

Coast Guard active-duty personnel and their families are benefitting from local food banks as they deal with the financial uncertainty of the government shutdown.

Literacy. It's something many of us take for granted. The ability to read health forms, headlines, or the latest bestsellers. Yet, across the U.S., there are millions of adults who have difficulty reading. This hour, we find out why. We talk with literacy experts and advocates, and we also hear from you.

I once took guitar lessons with a small group of people who met two nights a week in the basement of a local elementary school. We spent most of each lesson practicing in little nooks and crannies we each carved out in the old room. I enjoyed picking out tunes in my own little corner at my own pace. It was all going so smoothly until... the instructor mentioned the final "concert."

The open enrollment period for 2019 health insurance in Connecticut wrapped up Tuesday. We're joined by James Michel, chief executive officer of Access Health CT, to talk about how things went – and the state of the state’s health exchange.

The new wave of progressive Democrats, both in the Connecticut General Assembly and in Washington, D.C., isn't waiting for the 2020 election to bring about big changes. In Connecticut, there is emboldened optimism for increasing the state's minimum wage, like Massachusetts just did and allowing early voting , like New York, which is on the verge of enacting.

The Noah Baerman Resonance Ensemble's The Rock & the Redemption is a jazz concept album of sorts that recasts the Sisyphus myth around the heroism of perseverance and persistence. Keyboardist and composer Noah Baerman joins us for the hour.

Governor Ned Lamont has announced a partnership with local banks that will see federal workers in Connecticut offered interest-free loans to help them during the government shutdown.

Dust is a fascinating substance. Our bodies are always shedding dust from our skin, hair, and nails, leaving little bits of DNA wherever we roam. Dust floats unseen through the air around us. It's light. It's hard to see unless it lands on a contrasting surface or crosses the path of a ray of sunshine. It can travel far and wide.

Shuttered national parks, TSA workers calling in sick, hundreds of thousands of paychecks missed. Americans around the country are feeling the impact of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. But it’s not just federal employees who are struggling. This hour, we find out how the shutdown is affecting some of the country’s most vulnerable residents.