Where We Live

Another school year in a pandemic is winding down. That means parents have been thinking about summer plans like summer camps.

The Lamont administration has said it will invest COVID-19 relief money to make summer camp experiences accessible to all Connecticut students.

This hour, we talk with a camp director and hear from state agencies that serve kids.

What’s in store for summer 2021?

GUESTS:

• Kath Davies - Director of Camp Hazen YMCA, a summer camp in Chester, Connecticut
• Beth Bye - Commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood
• Chris Soto - Director of Innovation and Partnerships at the Connecticut State Department of Education

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Another school year in a pandemic is winding down. That means parents have been thinking about summer plans like summer camps.

The Lamont administration has said it will invest COVID-19 relief money to make summer camp experiences accessible to all Connecticut students.

This hour, we talk with a camp director and hear from state agencies that serve kids.

What’s in store for summer 2021?

GUESTS:

Kath Davies - Director of Camp Hazen YMCA, a summer camp in Chester, Connecticut

Beth Bye - Commissioner of the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood

Chris Soto - Director of Innovation and Partnerships at the Connecticut State Department of Education

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With no commute to work and no gathering with friends, how have you been spending time during this pandemic?

This hour, we talk about pandemic hobbies and the lifelong benefits of having a hobby. 

Whether you are baking sourdough bread, or learning a new language - we want to hear from you! What’s your pandemic hobby? 

Don’t feel like you have time to pick up a new hobby? It takes less effort than you think.

GUESTS:

• Tara Parker-Pope - Founding Editor for “Well”, The New York Times Consumer Health Section
• Brigid Schulte - author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time and director of the Better Life Lab at New America. She is also a long time journalist and former Washington Post staff writer 

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With no commute to work and no gathering with friends, how have you been spending time during this pandemic?

This hour, we talk about pandemic hobbies and the lifelong benefits of having a hobby. 

Whether you are baking sourdough bread, or learning a new language - we want to hear from you! What’s your pandemic hobby? 

Don’t feel like you have time to pick up a new hobby? It takes less effort than you think.

GUESTS:

Tara Parker-Pope - Founding Editor for “Well”, The New York Times Consumer Health Section

Brigid Schulte - author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time and director of the Better Life Lab at New America. She is also a long time journalist and former Washington Post staff writer 

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many days were you out of power last summer after Tropical Storm Isaias?

The outages last August impacted hundreds of thousands of residents. Some lasted more than a week.

This hour, we talk with Marissa Gillett, Chairman of PURA, Connecticut’s utility regulator. The agency investigated how the state’s two major electric companies dealt with the storm and issued a final decision.

What will it mean for consumers?

GUESTS:

• Patrick Skahill - Reporter for Connecticut Public Radio, covering science and the environment
• Marissa Gillett - Chairman of Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA)

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How many days were you out of power last summer after Tropical Storm Isaias?

The outages last August impacted hundreds of thousands of residents. Some lasted more than a week.

This hour, we talk with Marissa Gillett, Chairman of PURA, Connecticut’s utility regulator. The agency investigated how the state’s two major electric companies dealt with the storm and issued a final decision.

What will it mean for consumers?

GUESTS:

Patrick Skahill - Reporter for Connecticut Public Radio, covering science and the environment

Marissa Gillett - Chairman of Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA)

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, it affects virtually everyone in the state of Connecticut in one way or another, but it can be difficult to understand.  

The state budget decides how much we pay in taxes, and it helps determine the level of resources for important services like education, care for elderly people, and public health.  

We dive into the politics and process of funding state government.

What do you care about?

Sean Scanlon -- Democratic State Representative from Branford and Guilford and Co-chair of the General Assembly Finance Committee

Catherine Osten -- Democratic State Senator and Co-chair of the General Assembly Appropriations Committee

Keith Phaneuf -- CT Mirror budget reporter 

We want to hear from you.

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This hour, it affects virtually everyone in the state of Connecticut in one way or another, but it can be difficult to understand.  

The state budget decides how much we pay in taxes, and it helps determine the level of resources for important services like education, care for elderly people, and public health.  

We dive into the politics and process of funding state government.

What do you care about?

Sean Scanlon -- Democratic State Representative from Branford and Guilford and Co-chair of the General Assembly Finance Committee

Catherine Osten -- Democratic State Senator and Co-chair of the General Assembly Appropriations Committee

Keith Phaneuf -- CT Mirror budget reporter 

We want to hear from you.

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Insects are the most abundant group of animals on the planet. There are an estimated 10 quintillion of them on Earth.

But in recent years, scientists have found disturbing evidence that insect populations are on the decline around the world.

The environmental threats to insects are numerous: deforestation, pesticides, and climate change all seem to play a part in declining populations, a phenomenon UConn ecologist David Wagner and colleagues described as a “death by a thousand cuts” in a January 2021 special issue of PNAS dedicated to the issue of insect decline.

This hour, we talk with the scientists and journalists trying to make sense of the precipitous decline in insect populations around the world.  We hear from a Nevada researcher whose recent study in the journal Science helps pinpoint the role of climate change in disappearing butterfly populations across the American West.

And we ask: what does loss could mean for us, and what can we do about it?

GUESTS:

• Elizabeth Kolbert - Staff writer at the New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction. She wrote a cover story for National Geographic’s May 2020 issue about worldwide insect decline. Her new book is Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
• Dr. David Wagner - Entomologist and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn
• Dr. Matthew Forister - Insect ecologist at the University of Nevada, Reno

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Insects are the most abundant group of animals on the planet. There are an estimated 10 quintillion of them on Earth.

But in recent years, scientists have found disturbing evidence that insect populations are on the decline around the world.

The environmental threats to insects are numerous: deforestation, pesticides, and climate change all seem to play a part in declining populations, a phenomenon UConn ecologist David Wagner and colleagues described as a “death by a thousand cuts” in a January 2021 special issue of PNAS dedicated to the issue of insect decline.

This hour, we talk with the scientists and journalists trying to make sense of the precipitous decline in insect populations around the world.  We hear from a Nevada researcher whose recent study in the journal Science helps pinpoint the role of climate change in disappearing butterfly populations across the American West.

And we ask: what does loss could mean for us, and what can we do about it?

GUESTS:

Elizabeth Kolbert - Staff writer at the New Yorker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction. She wrote a cover story for National Geographic’s May 2020 issue about worldwide insect decline. Her new book is Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

Dr. David Wagner - Entomologist and Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UConn

Dr. Matthew Forister - Insect ecologist at the University of Nevada, Reno

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.