The Spark

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Book challenges in America aren’t new — but over the past year, they’ve reached a peak. In particular, Pennsylvania is second on a PEN America list of states with the highest number of banned books. In Pennsylvania, there are 456 bans across nine districts and the school district with the most bans across the nation can be found in the state as well.

Professor Quinn Yeargain, Assistant Professor of Law at Widener University,

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, black mothers in particular, disproportionately experience a number of barriers to breastfeeding.

Black women have the lowest breastfeeding initiation rate of all racial groups at less than 70 percent.

In honor of Black Breastfeeding Week . which ran through Thursday and ends today, Charlotte Dorsey, Community Progress Council’s Women, Infants, and Children Education Manager

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[box] Listen to Smart Talk every weekday at 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. on WITF 89.5 & 93.3. You can also stream WITF radio live on our website or ask your smart speaker to “Play WITF Radio.” [/box]

The Pennsylvania Department of Aging will expand a pilot program to form an investigative unit to probe financial exploitation cases involving older adults. Joining us is Denise Getgen, our director of Protective Services for the Department of Aging.

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According to National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, more than four times as many people died from drug overdose than from homicide in the first month of 2021. There were over 96,000 drug overdose deaths that were reported from March 2020 to March of last year.

Opioids kill more than 136 Americans every day, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics.

International Overdose Awareness Day is on Wednesday and Dr. Bonnie Milas, Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine for the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and Dr. Patti Anewalt, Director of Pathways Center for Grief & Loss joined us on Tuesday's Smart Talk to spread awareness of the drug overdose epidemic and provide resources that for victims and families.

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Airdate: Monday, August 29, 2022

A new report finds that those living with a disability faced bigger challenges and hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report – “COVID-19 Health Care Barriers Among People with Disabilities – is the first part of a multi-year effort funded by the CDC’s COVID-19 Health Disparities Grant to improve health equity.”

The ARC of Pennsylvania provides services and advocates for Pennsylvanians living with disabilities. We’re joined today by The Arc’s Executive Director Sherri Landis and Emma Nolan, the manager of health initiatives.

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Last week President Joe Biden took action to cancel up to 20 thousand dollars of debt for those who took out loans to pay for their college educations. Since then, much of the national conversation has been what it will mean for the middle class to not be burdened with as much debt, the fairness of the debt relief and the cost of higher education. But what do students and their families hear about the financial aspects of college even before they start classes? We discuss preparing and planning financially for higher education on today’s program with Emiyaril Alvarez, Director of Financial Aid, Millersville University and Dr. Stacy Mastriola, Associate Professor of Accounting ,Bucknell University.

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We all climbed trees as kids. Often, our parents would warn “get down from there, you’re going to fall.” They probably didn’t know there are proper and safe ways to climb trees and that one could make a career out of climbing trees. Penn State University has a one-of-it’s kind tree climbing school that trains would-be climbers in safety and the fundamentals of tree maintenance. It is in Harrisburg for the first time. Jim Savage, an Assistant Professor of Arboriculture at Penn State has been teaching tree climbing for 28 years and is with us on today’s Smart Talk.

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