Connections Podcast

Healthy, active, 46 years old: Sue Palmer thought she had a simple 24-hour bug. She wanted to stay in bed. She agreed to go to the hospital, which saved her life: Palmer was suffering from a heart disease known as "the widowmaker." Maybe you saw her story in the Washington Post; it's a reminder that heart disease can afflict anyone, at any age. Our guests discuss a wide range of issues related to heart disease, research, and prevention. Our guests: Dr. Timothy Malins, chief of medicine at Geneva

Is there a shortage of teaching jobs or a shortage of teachers? The answer is both, depending on where you look. A lack of teaching jobs or teachers varies state by state, but, on the national level, there’s a teacher shortfall fueled by a decline in enrollment in teacher preparation programs and high attrition rates in schools. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects nearly 1.9 million job openings in the field by 2024. But teaching has gotten a bad rap over the last few years. Many

SUNY Geneseo just completed its fourth annual Teachers Day -- it's essentially a day to teach the teachers. High school and middle school teachers come to campus to get up to speed on the best ways to teach American history and other kinds of history. This year, teachers learned about Native American history, for example. So are American middle and high schools teaching history effectively? Our guests: Joe Cope , professor of history and director of SUNY Geneseo's Center for Inquiry, Discovery

Celebrate City Living is coming back to Rochester, and in our preview, we explore what "city living" means from a wide range of angles. There's home ownership: what's available? How are neighborhoods growing and changing? What does it mean for people who have lived there for decades? There's homeless prevention and poverty. Our guests explore city living: Joel Kunkler, director of landlord tenant services and homeless prevention at The Housing Council at Pathstone Caitlin Meives, preservation

Weekend Connections is a collection of some of the most noteworthy moments from the week on Connections with Evan Dawson. This episode includes conversations about: How the wealthiest Americans use their money, with author Chuck Collins; International Women's Day, and how women of color suffer from unequal treatment in the criminal justice system; The story of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku; The deep emotions behind comedy.

Merriam-Webster and the Oxford Dictionaries have added more than 1,000 new words to their databases. Some of the words, like "microagression" and "safe space" have been used for years, but have gained enough popularity to be added now. Other words and phrases, like "humblebrag" and "face-palm" are raising questions because they seem trendy and like slang. We talk about the new words, take a quiz, and discuss the evolution of language. Our guests: Chris Fanning , director of communications for

Green Party candidate Alex White has joined the Rochester mayoral race. He's a contender, alongside county legislator James Sheppard, former journalist Rachel Barnhart, and Mayor Lovely Warren. We sit down with White to discuss his plans for Rochester, his thoughts on the Rochester-Monroe Anti-Poverty Initiative, and more.

In 1996, the Ecuadorian government gave concession of an oil block deep in the Amazon rainforest to a fuel company. The land was in indigenous territory, belonging to the Kichwa people of Sarayaku. The government didn’t tell the Kichwa about this decision. They didn’t ask permission. In fact, the Kichwa only learned that their land had been opened for oil exploration after they started seeing helicopters and men with guns in the jungle. Throughout the next 16 years, the people of Sarayaku fought

On Wednesday, a fierce wind storm caused by a unique weather combination shook the Rochester area. Hurricane-force winds caused the highest total number of power outages in the area since 2003. Many homes were damaged; some, destroyed. We discuss this once-in-a-decade type storm event, and take your calls and questions about what happened and why. Our guests: Scott Hetsko , 13WHAM meteorologist James Gilbert , WROC meteorologist Rick Herman, executive vice president of the Rochester Homebuilders

A recent CNN documentary explored the link between success in comedy and mental illness. Many of the most successful people in comedy have struggled with depression and other ailments. Our panel discusses how they choose -- or choose not -- to incorporate their own struggles into their work. Our guests are all stand-up comedians: Kelsey Claire Hagen Kyle Baker Andrea Springer