Studying oysters can help us understand how Connecticut’s shoreline is changing. Studying lizards can help us understand the history of life on our planet. Biologists research living organisms. And in doing so, they help us understand not only ourselves, but also the way our lives are intertwined with those of every other species.

This hour— Connecticut biologists tell us how their work helps us see what’s going on in the world around us. We'll discuss everything from how someone growing up in New York City could become fascinated by nature to the impact of federal funding cuts on research.

GUESTS:

• Martha Muñoz: Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum and recipient of a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship.

• Maria Rosa: Assistant Professor of Biology at Connecticut College.

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This hour, we talk to two Connecticut artists whose work reflects on the impact we have on our communities.

Photographer Bill Graustein’s exhibition, “Traces,” features vast western landscapes that represent different moments in Bill’s life, but it’s not just about Bill. It also includes question prompts that give viewers a chance to reflect on how the photos relate to their own lives.

Artist Katharine Owens makes life-sized portraits of animals, includes ones that she created with help from the general public. The portraits are made by sewing plastic packaging on to canvas, and they bring awareness to the way pollution impacts wildlife.

GUESTS:

• Bill Graustein: Photographer and community leader. His exhibition, “Traces,” is on view at Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT) in New Haven until July 26th. Bill has also worked as a research scientist.

• Katharine Owens: Artist and Professor in the Department of Politics, Economics, and International Studies at the University of Hartford. Her series of life-sized portraits of animals is called "Entangled and Ingested.”

Special thanks to our interns Coco Cooley and Isaac Moss.

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Many people think of movies as an escape from reality. But even when they transport us to a different time and place, movies can help us think more deeply about our present. This year, those thought provoking films have included Sinners, The Phoenician Scheme and Mickey 17.

For our third annual summer movie panel, we’re breaking down recent films to see what they say about the world we live in today. We’ll cover everything from politics to artificial intelligence.

GUESTS:

• James Hanley: one of the founders of Cinestudio in Hartford.

• Alissa Wilkinson: Movie Critic at The New York Times. Her latest book is We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine.

• Walter Chaw: Senior Film Critic for FilmFreakCentral.net, author of A Walter Hill Film: Tragedy and Masculinity in the Films of Walter Hill and film instructor at the University of Colorado Denver.

Movies mentioned in this episode:

• Alissa's recommendations: Seek out exciting, funny, exploratory documentaries in your local cinema. (You can find more of Alissa's documentary recommendations in her writing for The New York Times)

• Walter's recommendations: Eephus, Misericordia, April, Sharp Corner

• James' recommendations: No Other Land, Lee, Blitz

• Films that help us think about artificial intelligence: Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, M3gan 2.0, Mickey 17, The Social Network, Soylent Green, S1m0ne, A.I. Artificial Intelligence

• Other films discussed: Sinners, The Phoenician Scheme, Jaws, Superman, 2001: A Space Odyssey

• Every other film mentioned: The Substance, Fatal Attraction, Jurassic World Rebirth, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Sugarland Express, The Wizard of Oz, The Exorcist, Star Wars, The Shining, Gattaca, The Truman Show, Friendship, Citizen Kane

For more on Jaws, you can listen to CT Public's piece on its 50th anniversary.

You can also listen to Disrupted's previous summer movie panels from 2023 and 2024.

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Megan Greenwell's new book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, tells the story of four people whose lives were upended by private equity. This hour, we learn about the business of private equity, and how companies that many people don't understand play a big role in our lives.

GUEST:

• Megan Greenwell: Freelance journalist and author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream.

This episode was produced with help from interns Coco Cooley and Isaac Moss

Disrupted is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

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1963 changed the course of U.S. history.

It included the assassinations of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and President John F. Kennedy.

1963 was also the year of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech that day. Future congressman John Lewis also spoke.

This hour, we’re breaking down a pivotal year in the civil rights movement with Peniel E. Joseph.

GUEST:

Peniel E. Joseph: Professor of History; Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution.

Coco Cooley and Isaac Moss contributed to this episode. 

Disrupted is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

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While many Black Americans have been celebrating Juneteenth since 1865, the holiday has often been overlooked by non-Black Americans. This hour, we look at the tradition of the holiday and recognize its importance as a time to learn more about Black history in the U.S.

Alliah L. Agostini is a mom and children’s book author. Her books The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States and The Juneteenth Cookbook teach the history and joy of Juneteenth.

Distinguished Professor Dr. William Darity explains the history of reparations and today's racial wealth gap.

GUESTS:

• Alliah L. Agostini: children’s book author - The Juneteenth Story: Celebrating the End of Slavery in the United States and The Juneteenth Cookbook

• Dr. William Darity: Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Duke University. Co-author, From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century

This episode originally aired on June 19, 2024. 

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Historian Martha S. Jones was looking through a book one day when she found a section mentioning her grandfather. It referred to her grandfather as white. But in reality, her grandfather’s father was a free man of color, and his mother was born enslaved. This wasn’t the first time her family’s racial identity was questioned, so she started writing down her version of her family’s history. It's that history, and her family's relationship to racial identity, that she explores in her new book The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir.

GUEST:

• Martha S. Jones: The Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor, Professor of History and Professor at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her latest book is The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir.

Special thanks to our interns Angelica Gajewski and Kathy Wang.

This episode originally aired on March 28, 2025.

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We hear a lot about politically engaged college students, but we don’t always hear about politically engaged high school students.

This hour, we learn how high school students past and present have fought for change in their communities. We talk to two current students at University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford about testifying before lawmakers to increase their access to transportation. We'll also hear about high school activism of the 1960s and 1970s, including how the FBI monitored students.

GUESTS:

• Nariyah Lindsay: High School Senior and President of the Social Justice League at University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford

• Oluwaseyi Oluborode: High School Junior and Vice President of the Social Justice League at University High School of Science and Engineering in Hartford

• Aaron G. Fountain Jr.: Historian who researches high school protests. His book High School Students Unite! Teen Activism, Education Reform, & FBI Surveillance in Postwar America comes out in December.

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It has been five years since a Minneapolis Police Officer murdered George Floyd and the massive protest movement that followed. This hour, we’re reflecting on what has and has not changed in those five years.

We'll look at the protests in historical context to try to understand the ways they succeeded and failed. We’ll also talk about whether have been changes in the rate of police violence since 2020.

GUESTS:

• Alvin Tillery Jr.: Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University

• Jamiles Lartey: Staff writer at The Marshall Project. He is primary author of their weekly "Closing Argument" newsletter. His work focuses on the criminal justice system.

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Student journalists have been in the spotlight in recent years. In 2024, amidst massive on-campus protests, people turned to student outlets like Columbia University’s WKCR for the most up to date reporting. But practicing journalism as a student comes with risks.

Those risks have become even more clear in recent weeks. Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained in March after the Trump administration revoked her visa. U.S. District Judge William Sessions ordered her release on May 9th, saying the only evidence given for her detention was an op-ed she had written for her school paper.

This hour, we’re talking about the role student journalists play in covering campuses and the communities around them. We discuss the risks student journalists face and they way their role is sometimes overlooked.

GUESTS:

• Gary Green: Executive Director of The Student Press Law Center, an organization that supports first amendment rights for student journalists

• Anika Arora Seth: Editor in Chief of the Yale Daily News from spring 2023 to spring 2024

• Maria Shaikh: Managing Editor at The Retrograde, an independent student newspaper at the University of Texas at Dallas

• Macy Hanzlik-Barend: News & Arts director at WKCR, Columbia University’s independent student-run radio station

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