Rhode Island Report

It’s been more than three years since the US pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban took over. Now, it’s the only country in the world that bans girls from going to school after sixth grade.

Khadija Nazari escaped Afghanistan in 2021. Now she’s a Brown University student working to help the women who got left behind. She’s teamed up with a group of Rhode Islanders to run a secret school for girls back in Kabul. Nazari and one of her board members, Anne Sliney, join us to talk more about Afghanistan and the school. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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Ed Fitzpatrick sits down with the Globe’s Steph Machado and Jim Hummel, the host of “A Lively Experiment” on Rhode Island PBS, to debrief the election results. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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Last week, the Rhode Island chapter of the American Federation of Teachers elected Maribeth Calabro as their new president. She now heads the largest teachers union in the state. It represents 12,000 members in districts such as Providence, Cranston, Warwick and Pawtucket. Steph Machado spoke with Calabro for an episode for RI PBS Weekly. This is an extended version of their conversation. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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With the election less than a week away, misinformation, conspiracy theories, and deepfakes are raging online. University of Rhode Island Professor Sara Sweetman is working to help young people sort fact from fiction. She finds they are often better at reading and interpreting visual data than the generations who came before them. There's a lot that we can learn from them, Sweetman says. She joins host Ed Fitzpatrick to talk more about bringing media literacy to Rhode Island’s students.

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Last week, Senate President Dominic Ruggerio issued a statement endorsing Democratic Majority Whip Valarie Lawson to replace the current majority leader, Ryan Pearson. How did this rift begin and what will happen next? Senator Ryan Pearson joins us to tell us his side of the story. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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In this presidential election, there’s a lot of concern about threats to democracy. But we’ve been here before.A new book by Brown University Professor Corey Brettschneider titled The Presidents and the People profiles five past presidents who expanded their power and tried to overturn democratic principles. Brettschneider tells host Ed Fitzpatrick that the hope for our future lies not with courts or politicians, but with “we the people.” Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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Aquaculture. Pipe fitting. Firefighting. These are just a few of the careers high school students can learn in hands-on courses across the state. Our very own Steph Machado's most recent story in collaboration with "Rhode Island PBS Weekly" is about the growth of career and technical education programs - or CTE - which have more than doubled since 2017. She joins Ed to dig into how this approach is changing the landscape for Rhode Island’s students. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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As president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, George Nee has been one of the main labor leaders in the state for decades. Now at age 75, he’s getting ready to retire. Nee joins Ed to talk about his long career in labor organizing - including a stint as Cesar Chavez’s bodyguard, and a brief brush with organized crime. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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Who should have access to the shore in Rhode Island? It’s an escalating fight between property owners, towns, and the public, more than a year after the passage of the state's landmark shore access law. Isabella Jibilian, a producer at Rhode Island PBS Weekly, and Alex Nunes, the South County bureau chief at The Public’s Radio, recently collaborated on two episodes about this topic. They join Ed in the studio for an overview of what they found. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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The Economic Progress Institute prides itself on being the people’s lobbyist, among dozens of lobbyists representing corporations and powerful interests at the Rhode Island State House. EPI advocates for laws that improve the lives of low- and modest-income Rhode Islanders. Ed talks to EPI Executive Director Weayonnoh Nelson-Davies about their wins and losses in this year’s state budget, and their priorities for next year. Tips and ideas? Email us at [email protected].

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