The Wheelhouse

Gen Z has grown up in an age of school shootings, climate anxiety, the pandemic and the algorithm.

With all that they’ve gone through, how is Gen Z engaging with media and with politics?

Today on The Wheelhouse, we’re looking at the forces shaping Gen Z in Connecticut and across the nation. We’ll explore how this generation votes at the ballot box and ask what their future role may be in American democracy.

GUESTS:

• Rachel Janfaza, associate writer, CNN Politics
• Elena Moore, reporter, NPR’s Washington desk
• Christian Paz, senior politics reporter, Vox

Coco Cooley and Isaac Moss assisted in the production of this episode.

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Legislation seeking to address Connecticut’s affordable housing crisis was vetoed earlier this year by Gov. Ned Lamont. But, the proposal could soon come back in a special session. 

If it does, state lawmakers face a question: can they craft an affordable housing plan that satisfies both the governor and local leaders? 

Opponents of the original bill say it was pushing quotas on cities and towns. Local leaders said it hampered their ability to make planning and zoning decisions.

But supporters say the law was a “meaningful step” forward in a state plagued by high rents and too little housing. 

Today on The Wheelhouse, what’s next for affordable housing legislation in Connecticut?

GUESTS:

• Rep. Jason Rojas, majority leader, CT House Democrats
• Sen. Tony Hwang, Republican representing Easton, Fairfield, Newtown
• Abby Brone, housing reporter, Connecticut Public
• Ginny Monk, children's issues and housing reporter, Connecticut Mirror
• Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, investigative reporter, CT Insider

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President Donald Trump’s massive tax-and-spending package is officially the law.

The legislation provides tax cuts for some Americans. But it could raise costs for some of the country’s poorest households. That’s due to reductions in Medicaid and food assistance. The legislation Republicans are calling the “big beautiful bill" seeks to cut Medicaid and food stamps by more than $1 trillion.

Today on The Wheelhouse, we’ll dig deeper into how the bill will impact SNAP and Medicaid benefits in Connecticut.

GUESTS:

• Andrea Barton Reeves, commissioner, Connecticut Department of Social Services
• Sujata Srinivasan, senior health reporter, Connecticut Public
• Amari Brantley, policy coordinator, End Hunger Connecticut!

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Connecticut lawmakers passed some of the most ambitious housing legislation in years this session. The bill looked to address affordable housing, zoning and parking.

But then, Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed it.

The Democrat is now inviting lawmakers to make a new proposal, which he hopes to pass it later this year in a special session.

Today on The Wheelhouse, we’ll speak to the governor live in-studio, asking about that veto. We’ll also get his thoughts on running for a third term.

GUESTS:

• Ned Lamont, governor, state of Connecticut
• Mark Pazniokas, capitol bureau chief and a co-founder, CT Mirror
• Liz Kurantowicz, Republican analyst and co-owner, The Drury Group
• Bilal Sekou, associate professor of political science, University of Hartford

The Wheelhouse is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, A

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This fall, students at Yale University will take a course called “Bad Bunny: Musical Aesthetics and Politics.”

Bad Bunny, born on the island of Puerto Rico as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, isn’t the first Latino musician to weave activism into his work. Regarding the Yale class, Bad Bunny told Rolling Stone magazine “I have in the back of my mind that I want to do big things and make a difference, but I do it for myself.”

“I don’t do it hoping that at some point, they’ll offer classes about me at universities,” he said.

Today on The Wheelhouse, how politics and music intersect on the island next door.

GUESTS:

• Albert Laguna, Associate professor of American Studies, Yale University
• Rachel Iacovone, Puerto Rican communities reporter, CT Public
• Petra Rivera-Rideau, Associate Professor of American Studies, Wellesley College
• La Gata, Multimedia Artist and Historian
• Charles Venator Santiago, Associate professor in the departments of political science and El Instituto, University of Connecticut

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Connecticut has hundreds of miles of shoreline, extending from Greenwich in the west to Stonington in the east.

Many of these coastal communities have found ways to exclude certain people. There’s actually a long history of segregation on our shores, dating back decades.

This hour, we’ll look at past and present beach access in Connecticut.

Plus, we’ll look at who does — and does not — get access to quality public spaces like parks.

GUESTS:

• Andrew Kahrl: Professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Virginia and author of Free the Beaches: The Story of Ned Coll and the Battle for America’s Most Exclusive Shoreline

• Dr. KangJae Lee: Associate professor in the Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism, University of Utah

Hear more from Andrew Kahrl in this episode of Disrupted.

This episode originally aired on July 5, 2023 and was produced by Meg Dalton. Our technical producers were Catie Talarski and Cat Pastor. Robyn Doyon-Aitken edited the audio.

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

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Connecticut lawmakers recently cemented their priorities for the next two years with final passage of a $55.8 billion budget.

At the end of the 2025 legislative session, they were able to find money for Medicaid programs and invest in our children’s future, especially young children.

But some – mainly the minority in the state legislature – say that it comes at too high of a cost.

Today on the Wheelhouse, the “fiscal guardrails” have been breached and lawmakers will press forward amid a foggy federal funding landscape.

GUESTS:

• Rep. Jason Rojas, Majority leader, CT House Democrats
• Rep. Vin Candelora, Minority leader, CT House Republicans
• Alex Putterman, Reporter, CT Insider
• Michayla Savitt, State government reporter, CT Public

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The 2025 legislative session in Connecticut started with lawmakers facing an uncertain future clouded by potential federal funding cuts.

The end of the session is nigh in Connecticut.

Amid these murky days, we know that local lawmakers have taken drastic measures to shore up state Medicaid funding. But how far are they willing to go to secure a new two-year budget deal?

Today on the Wheelhouse, a preview of the last day of regular lawmaking in Connecticut.

GUESTS:

• Mark Pazniokas, Capitol bureau chief, CT Mirror
• Susan Raff, Chief political reporter, WFSB News Ch. 3
• Ebong Udoma, Senior reporter, WSHU
• Beth Bye, Commissioner, CT Office of Early Childhood
• Eva Bermudez-Zimmerman, Coalition director, Child Care for CT

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State lawmakers are foregoing budget caps to fund Medicaid.

But with Medicaid relying on two primary funding sources–and U.S. lawmakers poised to pass President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”--the future of low-income healthcare programs is uncertain.

Today on The Wheelhouse, America’s brittle social safety net hangs in the balance.

GUESTS:

• Lisa Hagan, Federal Policy Reporter, CT Mirror and CT Public
• Joan Alker, Reporter, Georgetown University
• John Henry Smith, Host, All Things Considered, CT Public

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George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in 2020 inspired police reform in America.

Five years ago this week, Americans took to the streets amid a global pandemic to protest Floyd’s murder.

Chants of “Black Lives Matter” reverberated throughout Connecticut. And then, two months after Floyd’s death, Connecticut was one of the first states in the nation to enact police reform legislation.

“I don’t think this day happens without the connection between what’s going on on the streets and why the people are in the building fighting the way they are,” Democratic lawmaker Gary Winfield said after the bill passed through his state senate chamber on July 29, 2020.

Today on the Wheelhouse, an update on police reform – what stuck, and what still needs to be done to protect Black lives…five years after George Floyd.

GUESTS:

• Jeffrey A. Fletcher, Owner and Collector, Ruby and Calvin Fletcher African American History Museum
• Brakkton Booker, National Political Correspondent, Politico 
• Lorenzo Boyd, Professor of Criminal Justice and Community Policing, University of New Haven
• Elizabeth Hinton, Professor of African American Studies, History, and Law, Yale University

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