Where We Live

Many Connecticut families have faced a child care crisis during the pandemic and it hasn’t changed despite most schools opening. Remote learning during the school week has some parents struggling to balance work and child care.

This hour, we talk with Beth Bye, the state’s Early Childhood commissioner. How are you managing childcare and remote school while working? 

First, we talk with a Fairfield woman who ran for the Connecticut General Assembly in 2018 and wanted to use public election funds to pay for child care while she campaigned. A recent court ruling has sided with the former candidate. What does this mean for working parents in Connecticut who see child care as a barrier to running for elected office?

We also hear from the state's election enforcement commission about this new development.

GUESTS:

• Caitlin Clarkson Pereira - Former candidate for state representative in Fairfield
• Shannon Clark Kief - Legal Program Director for SEEC 
• Beth Bye - Commissioner for the Office of Early Childhood

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As the weather gets colder and more students go back to school, what do the next steps in reopening Connecticut look like? Will Connecticut need to even scale back reopening? This hour, Governor Lamont calls into the show to answer our questions and yours.  

And later, we’ll talk to members of the domestic violence prevention community here in Connecticut about how shelters have stayed afloat during the pandemic, and why we are hearing increased reports of domestic abuse.

What questions do you have for Governor Lamont? We want to hear from you. 

We want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

• Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (@GovNedLamont)
• Karen Jarmoc - CEO of Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (@CTCADV)
• Barbara Damon - Executive Director, Prudence Crandall Center (@PCC_CT)

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Today, we reflect back on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, 19 years ago. Nearly 3000 people died when hijacked passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another would crash into a field in Pennsylvania.

We hear about the health impacts first responders continue to face and the long fight to secure funding for their medical treatments.

Later, we look at the legacy of 9/11 on American foreign policy. Almost two decades after the attacks, how does that day shape our country’s foreign policy today? We talk to two international relations experts.

We want to hear from you, too. How were you impacted by the attacks on the World Trade Center?

GUESTS:

• Terry Sheridan - News Director of WSHU
• Caroleen Sayej - Associate Professor of Government and International Relations and acting director of the Global Islamic Studies program at Connecticut College
• Ilan Goldenberg - Director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security

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It has been over seven years since Sheryl Sandberg’s breakthrough book Lean In'' hit the shelfs and started a conversation about women leading in the workplace. But sexism is far from obsolete in today’s job market. 

The good news is, skills to thrive in the workplace can be taught long before a woman accepts her first job offer. This hour, what can we do to teach young girls confidence and resilience in tomorrow’s world? 

Marisa Porges, author of What Girls Need: How to Raise Bold, Courageous and Resilient Women joins us to talk about how parents and educators can help our children develop grit, audacity and self-confidence.

What about your daughter? We want to hear from you! Join us for this Girl Power conversation and tell us how you are working to build your daughters self esteem!

GUESTS:

• Marisa Porges, PhD - Head of The Baldwin School, and author of the just released book What Girls Need; How to Raise Bold, Courageous and Resilient Women. (@MarisaPorges)

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As the nation faces a public health crisis with the coronavirus pandemic, we are also amid a long overdue and urgent national reckoning with the ongoing effects of systemic racism.  And that also profoundly affects public health and the health of children.

Still, many parents struggle to talk about racial bias with their kids.  Coming up we explore why, and talk about preparing for these important conversations. Guest host Diane Orson speaks with a developmental behavioral pediatrician, and with a TV critic about ways media shape views of race.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Thyde Dumont-Mathieu - Developmental behavioral pediatrician at Connecticut Children’s and Associate Professor at the UConn School of Medicine
• Eric Deggans - NPR TV critic and author of Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation

Cat Pastor contributed to this program.

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This country has a long history of athletic protests.

This hour, we speak with athletes including former UConn Husky Renee Montgomery who sat out the WNBA season to focus on social justice issues. WNBA teams recently forgoed games last Wednesday and Thursday following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. 

We want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

• Renee Montgomory -  a 2x WNBA Champion with the Atlanta Dream (@itsreneem_ )

• Theresa Plaisance - forward with the Connecticut Sun (@tplai55)

• Molly Yanity, Ph.D. - Chair & Associate Professor, Journalism, Quinnipiac University (@mollyyanity)

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The U.S. Census Bureau will end its counting efforts early later this month. But in many of Connecticut’s large cities, half or more of all residents did not fill out the self-reported survey.

Today, we talk about what’s at stake if Connecticut doesn’t get an accurate headcount.

From political representation to federal funding, an undercount could put Connecticut’s most vulnerable communities at risk. We hear from community leaders in Waterbury and Bridgeport who are trying to mobilize despite the pandemic’s restrictions.

And we want to hear from you, too. Have you filled out your census survey? What questions do you have about this once-in-a-decade federal headcount?

GUESTS:

• MaLisa Blasini - Community Census Outreach Coordinator for the Waterbury Complete Count Committee
• Jeffrey Mervis - Senior correspondent for Science Magazine, where he covers the intersection of science and government
• Barbara López -  Director of Make The Road CT, an advocacy organization for immigrant, Latinx, and working class communities in Bridgeport and Hartford

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Have you ever heard of “philately?” Philately is the collection and study of postage stamps. Stamp collection dates back to the 19th century, as does the first United States Post Office Department, which is now just referred to as the United States Postal Service.

This hour, we’re doing a deep dive into the United States Postal Service. We’ll talk about how the United States Postal Service has changed over the years, the future of mail delivery and how the pandemic changed how postal work.

Coming up, we’ll also learn how Amazon and online shopping has affected  USPS, and how the postal service plans to handle election mail in November. 

We want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

• Daniel A. Piazza - Chief Curator at Smithsonian National Postal Museum
• Sarah Anderson - Global Economy Director at the Institute for Policy Studies 
• Vince Mase -  Director of Retirees at the Connecticut State Association of Letter Carriers and President of Branch 19 National Association of Letter Carriers.

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While most of Connecticut has seen a low rate of positive COVID-19 cases, the city of Danbury has become a concerning exception.

This hour, we talk to the city’s Mayor, Mark Boughton, to hear more about this local outbreak.

And later, contact tracing is a critical public health tool for containing the spread of COVID-19. But who are the people actually running Connecticut’s tracing efforts?

We hear from one of the state’s regional health directors.

And we check in across the Atlantic with a reporter in Germany, a place many point to as a model for public health response to the pandemic.

Do you have questions about contact tracing or how public health officials work to contain future outbreaks?

GUESTS:

• Mayor Mark Boughton - Mayor of Danbury, CT
• Jennifer Kertanis - Director of Health for the Farmington Valley Health District, which includes Farmington, Avon, Simsbury, Canton, New Hartford, Granby, Barkhamstead, Hartland, and Colebrook. She is also the President of the National Association of County and City Health Officials
• Lenora Chu - Berlin Correspondent for Christian Science Monitor

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Do you see bats where you live? These flying creatures play important roles in ecosystems around the world, from pest control to pollination.

But bats in Connecticut are in big trouble. This hour: bats in our state have been devastated by White-Nose Syndrome. We learn more about this deadly disease and talk about why we should be concerned that populations in Connecticut have been so hard hit.

Bats in China have made news because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hear why scientists have looked to these flying creatures to understand the origins of a number of deadly diseases.

And we talk with bat researchers about why--amid fears of a pandemic--bats need our support, not our fear, more than ever.

GUESTS:

• Jenny Dickson - Director of the Wildlife Division for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
• Dr. Kate Langwig - Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech; she’s a disease ecologist who studies bat diseases

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