Overdueing It: The Rhode Island Library Podcast

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Lauren Walker, Assistant Director at the Coventry Public Library, sits down with her husband, Nathan Walker, who works as a Key Production Assistant (PA) and has worked on several Hollywood productions filmed here in Rhode Island. Nathan talks about how to start a career in the film industry and what it’s like to work on set.

Music courtesy of Pixabay Music.

2021 was a year that brought on the automatic physiological reaction of the fight or flight response in our bodies. This accumulated stress has affected all of us. Patricia McLaughlin is a mindfulness instructor and talks with librarian Jessica D’Avanza about how we can combat this stressor and calm the nervous system through mindfulness.

Patricia answers the questions, “What is mindfulness” and “How can it help me?” She shares tips for ways you can find ease in the world and discover the possibilities that the new year can offer.

At the end of their conversation, Patricia offers listeners a guided mindfulness exercise. You are invited to stick around and practice what you learn in this episode or come back to the mindfulness exercise at any time you feel it could be helpful.

Patricia  McLaughlin, Esq., a professor of law, has been a member of the RI Bar for over 30 years and has held various leadership positions in  education. She is a certified yoga teacher and mindfulness instructor who teaches a variety of offerings of in-person classes and online courses in workplace sessions and community settings. She is also a facilitator for Meditate Together, hosted by Mindful Leader, a worldwide program that offers free live group meditation sessions, 24 hours a day, five days a week in an effort to help as many people as possible during these challenging times.

You can contact Patricia at [email protected] or visit her website at amindfulnessjourney.com.

Patricia’s Recommended Books on Mindful Living

Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Gunaratana

Mindfulness for Beginners by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Full-Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Wherever You Go There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn (for those looking to go deeper)

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Let's explore what happiness means to us! This episode is inspired by the book Layla's Happiness by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, the RI Great Reads selection for the 2021 National Book Festival. Kate Lentz, Director of the RI Center for the Book interviews Mariahadessa about her inspiration for the book and what happiness means to her. Senator Jack Reed shares an excerpt from the book, and the Rhody Radio team also shares what happiness means to us.  Visit the Library Of Congress to view the full reading by Senator Reed and the video of Kate and Mariahadessa's interview.  

(2021) Rhode Island: Layla's Happiness. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-9844/.

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Woonsocket Harris Public Library Teen Librarian, Ed Fuqua and guest Michaela talk about Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe in a segment of the library's 'Booktalking' series. Find more Book Talking with Ed and Michaela on the library's facebook page. 

Special thanks to WHPL for sending us this fun and engaging content!

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In honor of Thanksgiving Week, Rhody Radio contributor Nicolette Baffoni sat down with her father, Joseph Baffoni to discuss Baffoni's Poultry Farm in Johnston. Founded by Giuseppe Baffoni in 1935 and run by four generations of family, the farm raises chickens and turkeys, processes poultry in a USDA certified facility and sells poultry and eggs across Rhode Island. Visit Baffoni's Poultry Farm to learn more. 

Content warning: animal death. 

For more information on the Rhode Island Red, visit Rhode Tour: The Rhode Island Red Monument by Abilgail Ettelman .

For a comprehensive list of local farms, visit FarmFresh RI.

Episode Music Decision by MichaelKobrin from Pixabay

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This week we’re sharing an excerpt from an episode of Down Time with Cranston Public Library in which host Tayla is joined by Martha from the Auburn branch and Rachel Brian, author of Consent (for Kids!): Boundaries, Respect, and Being in Charge of YOU! to talk about her book and why it’s important to teach younger kids about consent. You’ll also hear our regular segment, The Last Chapter, where we discuss a library or bookish question. This week they answer the question:  would you rather bring any one character from a book into our world OR  live in a book’s world but never meet your favorite character?

Like what you hear? Listen and subscribe to Down Time on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice! If you’d like to submit a topic for The Last Chapter you can send your suggestion to [email protected]. Our theme music is Day Trips by Ketsa and our ad music is Happy Ukulele by Scott Holmes. Thanks for listening!

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Lauren Walker, Assistant Director at the Coventry Public Library, hosts this spooky episode featuring ghost stories from librarians across Rhode Island. Hear stories from Celeste Dyer, Director of the Cumberland Public Library; Natalie Coolen, Children’s Librarian at George Hail Free Library; Mary Anne Quinn, Reference Librarian at Warwick Public Library; and Stefanie Blankenship, Director of the North Providence Union Free Public Library. These librarians share eerie first-hand accounts of paranormal investigations, ghostly figures, and empty elevators moving on their own.

Music and sound effects courtesy of Pixabay Music and FreeSound.org, respectively.

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Breaking news from the BH&PS Action News Team on May 25, 1778, as an invading regiment of British and Hessian soldiers marched through Bristol, RI, setting fire to the homes of rebels and loyalists alike. This thrilling radio play, produced in the style of CBS Radio’s You Are There series from 1947-1957, takes you on location with reporter William J. Bell (portrayed by Christopher Lane) describing the scene and interviewing soldiers and citizens from the scene of the action.

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Rogers Free Library, the Bristol Historical and Preservation Society, the Barrington Public Library, and Rhody Radio. Script for the Burning of Bristol was written by Rei Battcher.

CAST:

Yankee Doodle performed by the Air Force Ceremonial Band, accessed via https://www.music.af.mil/Multimedia/Music/Public-Domain-Music/. Sound effects from https://mixkit.co/free-sound-effects/ and https://soundbible.com/.

We talk with Boston Athenaeum’s Assistant Curator, Virginia “Ginny” Badgett. She gives us a look at a  day in the life of a curator, and she interprets and shares some special pieces from their collection related to Rhode Island’s robust history.

Follow along with the links below:

Piece 1: Gilbert Stuart's 1826 portrait of William Smith Shaw

Piece 2: Diary of Kate Birckhead, 1865 August 5-1873 October 8

Piece 3: Elizabeth Goddard's 2006 monotype A Playful Sea II

Tochi Onyebuchi joined the Providence Community Library as part of  their PCL Reads series on Wednesday, February 10th to discuss Riot Baby,  a companion read for the 2021 Reading Across Rhode Island program.  Co-hosted virtually by Amy VanderWeele at South Providence Library and  Rhode Island Center for the Book, the conversation was moderated by  Jonathan Pitts-Wiley, the Artistic Director of Mixed Magic Theatre (MMT)  in Pawtucket.  To watch a recording of the interview, visit the Providence Community Library Youtube Page.

Find Riot Baby at your local library, as an ebook through RI's eZone, or contact Amy Vanderweele at the South Providence Library for multiple copies for a book club.

The music in this episode is Soft Inspiration by Scott Holmes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Tochi Onyebuchi is the author of Beasts Made of Night, its sequel Crown of Thunder, War Girls, and his adult fiction debut “Riot Baby,” published by Tor.com in January 2020. He has graduated from Yale University, New York  University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia Law School, and  L’institut d’études politiques with a Masters degree in Global Business  Law.  His short fiction has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction,  Omenana, BLACK ENOUGH: STORIES OF BEING YOUNG & BLACK IN AMERICA,  and elsewhere. His non-fiction has appeared in Uncanny Magazine, Nowhere  Magazine, Tor.com and the  Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. He is the winner of  the Ilube Nommo Award for Best Speculative Fiction Novel by an African  and has appeared in Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading list.

Born  in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, Tochi is a consummate New  Englander, preferring the way the tree leaves turn the color of fire on  I-84 to mosquitoes and being able to boil eggs on pavement. He has  worked in criminal justice, the tech industry, and immigration law, and  prays every day for a new album from System of a Down.

ABOUT THE BOOK  Rooted in foundational loss and the hope that can live in anger, “Riot  Baby” is both a global dystopian narrative and intimate family story  with quietly devastating things to say about love, fury, and the black  American experience.  Ella and Kev are brother and sister, both gifted  with extraordinary power. Their childhoods are defined and destroyed by  structural racism and brutality. Their futures might alter the world.  When Kev is incarcerated for the crime of being a young black man in  America, Ella―through visits both mundane and supernatural―tries to show  him the way to a revolution that could burn it all down.