Where We Live

Today is Juneteenth, a holiday that marks the day that slavery finally ended in Texas--two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

We don’t often think of Connecticut as a slave state, and often celebrate the role of Connecticut’s abolitionists. Yet American slavery was not just confined to the South.

There were an estimated 5100 slaves who lived and worked right here in Connecticut. 

And, moreover, Connecticut’s economy was deeply intertwined with the institution of slavery in the American South and West Indies. It’s an economic legacy that is still with us as a state today. 

As we commemorate the Juneteenth holiday and reflect on the legacy of slavery in this country, we wanted to share with you a conversation Lucy had a few years ago with Jenifer Frank, co-author of Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery.

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We have spent the last few months bringing you coverage on COVID-19. This hour, we’re going to talk to someone who was diagnosed with coronavirus, and recovered. For those that survive the virus, the recovery process is not easy. Many have long-lasting side effects from having the virus, including permanent damage to the heart and lungs. And later, we learn those who have survived the virus can donate blood and help others defeat the virus with convalescent plasma. We will also hear how physicians are using plasma transfusion to treat the seriously ill.

GUESTS:

• Professor Richard Gard - Yale University Director of Music at St. Thomas More Chapel, and a lecturer of musicianship and analysis.
• Dr. April Pruski - Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Neurology The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Dr. Suzanne Rose - Director of Office of Research at Stamford Health

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A greater portion of COVID-19 tests have come back negative in Connecticut compared with other states, which the Governor’s team says is a good sign.

But who should be getting tested as the state rolls out its phase two reopening on Wednesday?

This hour, we talk with Governor Lamont’s Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe about this latest phase of reopening Connecticut's economy. And we hear from Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin about the state's latest testing guidance for city residents. We ask: should asymptomatic people get a COVID-19 test?

Later in the hour, we also hear a story from Connecticut Public reporter Frankie Graziano, about grieving the loss of a loved one during a pandemic.

GUESTS:

• Josh Geballe - Chief Operating Officer of the State of Connecticut, also the Commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services
• Mayor Luke Bronin - Mayor of Hartford
• Frankie Graziano – Reporter for Connecticut Public Radio

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Father’s Day is this weekend. How will you spend Father’s Day? Will you have a socially distant celebration with your Dad? What is it like being a dad in 2020? On the next Where We Live, we’ll talk about social expectations for fathers as caregivers, and the impact an involved father has on the entire family, emotionally and financially.  

GUESTS:

• Brad Harrington - Executive Director and Research Professor at the Boston College Center for Work & Family (@DrBradH)
• Tony Judkins - Program manager for the Connecticut Fatherhood Initiative
• Perry Thompson - Waterbury, CT resident; he completed the Connecticut Fatherhood Initiative program at New Opportunities in Waterbury

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When your home becomes your new office, it can be hard to set boundaries between work and personal life. This hour, we continue our series on The Future of Work by discussing the benefits, and drawbacks, of working from home full time. 

Coming up we’ll speak with some experts on the importance of setting work/life boundaries, managing flextime and what the future of the workplace might look like.

During the pandemic, what has it been like working from home for you? Are you enjoying spending more time at home or do you miss the defined separation between your office and your home?

Where are you working? Do you have a defined workspace, or is it wherever you can set your laptop down? How have your work hours changed?

GUESTS:

• Kate Lister - President of Global Workplace Analytics
• Maura Thomas - Productivity Expert and author of The Downside of Flex Time
• Alexandra Mateescu - Researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute

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This is part of a series of shows from Where We Live about the future of work after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has caused major disruptions for workers' careers, but the latest numbers show women have been hit particularly hard.

Women, and especially women of color, are bearing some of the largest economic impacts of the pandemic, from facing higher rates of unemployment to holding the majority of frontline essential jobs.

This hour: how will COVID-19 worsen gender inequality in the workplace?

We talk about how societal expectations around child care duties affect parents’ careers especially when schools have been closed.

And later, what's the latest with the rollout of Connecticut's Paid Family and Medical Leave? We hear from the CEO of the authority in charge of the program.

GUESTS:

• Jocelyn Frye - Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress who specializes on women’s economic security and women’s rights, focusing particularly on issues facing women of color
• Kharlene Whonder – Personal Care Assistant (PCA) for 11 years, she is from New Haven and works with a client in Ansonia
• LaToya Brown-Clayton - Family child care provider in Hartford 
• Andrea Barton Reeves - CEO of the Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Authority

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Essential workers provide much needed services to the general public but at what cost to their physical and mental health?

This hour, we continue our series on The Future of Work by talking to people who never stopped going to their jobs.  

Essential workers aren’t just healthcare professionals. They’re frontline workers like grocery store staff, your local delivery person, and daycare providers. 

Although many essential workers have the benefit of receiving hazard pay, a temporary raise given to those exposed to a greater risk of illness or injury during the pandemic, many companies like Starbucks and Target are winding this down. But the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.

Essential workers of all professions are burning out. Anxiety and post traumatic stress are predicted to be the next public health crisis amongst healthcare professionals. 

We want to hear from you. Are you considered an essential worker?What has life been like for you over the last 3 months? Do you feel like you are experiencing burnout? Call us to share what this time has been like for you.

How do you want your boss or manager to respond to your needs and the needs of your co-workers?

GUESTS:

• Dr. Faiqa Cheema - Infectious Disease Specialist, Hartford Healthcare (@HartfordHealthC)
• Ace Ricker - Front End Supervisor at Stop And Shop in West Hartford
• Karen Alter-Reid - Clinical Psychologist, Fairfield County Trauma Response
• Patrick Gourley - Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Business Analytics at the University of New Haven (@UNewHaven)

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This is the first part in a series of shows from Where We Live about the future of work after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many Connecticut residents are used to spending a lot of time commuting, whether driving on a highway, riding on a train to the city or taking the bus across town. But the number of drivers and ridership across all modes of transportation have dropped dramatically with stay-at-home orders and the closing of non-essential businesses.

This hour, with Connecticut beginning to reopen, what will the “new commute” look like?

Telecommuting has grown. Will remote work likely continue to expand beyond the end of the pandemic?

And we look at the impact of the public health crisis on public transit, including on residents who don’t have a car to get to their job.

Were you able to telecommute and do you hope you will be able to continue as the pandemic eases?

GUESTS:

• Russell McDermott - Program Director for CT Rides, a free program of the state Department of Transportation to help commuters find other options beyond driving solo to get to work or school 
• David Lewis - CEO of Operations, Inc., a statewide human resources consulting firm *This note: Connecticut Public is CT Public Radio’s parent company. Its HR department has a contract with Operations Inc.
• David Dudley - Editor at Citylab

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There’s a few popular phrases being passed around right now: “You’re not alone.” And, “we’re all in this together.” They’re necessary sentiments. With the recent death of George Floyd, and the continuing COVID-19 crisis, people are feeling lonely. And for those living alone amid the pandemic, the isolation can be really difficult. This hour, we discuss how loneliness affects our mental and physical health. Coming up we hear from those that have experienced periods of solitude, and what they did to fight off the loneliness. 

We want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

• Jamie Aten  - a psychologist and Founder and Executive of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute, Blanchard Chair of Humanitarian and Disaster Leadership (@WheatonHDI)
• Aspen Matis - author of Girl in the Woods and Your Blue is Not My Blue
• Dr. Shelley Best - entrepreneur and ordained minister (@RevShelley)

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Residents across Connecticut continue to protest and speak out in response to the police killing of George Floyd by a Minnesota police officer.

This hour, as residents demand police accountability, how should they also work towards dismantling systemic racism in our state?

We talk with State Representative Robyn Porter, who has worked on police accountability legislation. We find out what more needs to be done to reform police departments and how it ties into addressing the underlying structural inequalities in Connecticut.

And we hear from a criminal justice thinker who asks us to consider: what are police for in the first place?

We want to hear from you. Have you participated in a protest in the last week?

GUESTS:

• Representative Robyn Porter - State Representative for New Haven and Hamden; she is a member of the Connecticut General Assembly Judiciary Committee
• Tracey Meares - Walton Hale Hamilton Professor at Yale Law School; Founding Director of The Justice Collaboratory; in 2014, she was a member of President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing
• Godfrey L. Simmons Jr. - Artistic director of HartBeat Ensemble in Hartford

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