Where We Live

Every winter in Connecticut, the snowy owls will pass through our state and can sometimes be spotted at the Connecticut shoreline. But they are just one of many owl species to look out for where we live.

Some cultures see owls as deeply spiritual creatures and as symbols of wisdom. Others see them as bad omens and as signs of impending doom.And that’s definitely impacting their populations.

Today, Author Jennifer Ackerman joins us to talk about her new book What the Owl Knows: The new science of the world’s most enigmatic birds and we explore the world of these incredible birds.

GUEST:

• Jennifer Ackerman: author of What the Owl Knows: The new science of the world’s most enigmatic birds

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For decades, there were cities and towns that were all-white on purpose. These communities are known as "sundown towns." Because this practice was both formal and informal, researchers put together a database of these laws, customs and firsthand accounts, under the leadership of the late sociologist and civil rights champion James Loewen.

At the peak of the exclusionary practice in 1970, an estimated 10,000 communities across the U.S. kept out African-Americans through "force, law, or custom." Many sundown suburbs also excluded Jewish and Chinese Americans, and other minority groups.

There are 40 towns listed as possible past sundown towns in Connecticut. This hour, we hear about this history and what it can tell us. You can add to this research too.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Stephen Berrey: Assistant Professor of American Culture and History, University of Michigan
• Logan Jaffe: Reporter, ProPublica
• Paul Saubestre: Volunteer Researcher, Hamden Historical Society

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For a Connecticut family of four, it costs over $126,000 just to meet their basic needs, according to a recent United Way report. That’s more than four times the federal poverty level.

Food insecurity is a big part of the problem, affecting more than 1 in 10 Connecticut residents, according to Connecticut Foodshare. A new report from the United States Department of Agriculture found the national rate of food insecurity jumped by more than 2% from 2021 to 2022, now 12.8% of U.S. households.

This hour, UConn's Dr. Caitlin Caspi joins us to address some of the misconceptions around food insecurity.

"Food insecurity isn't happening in a vacuum," she says. "It's really intersecting with a lot of other challenges that people face," including stable housing, health insurance, job security, disability, and other factors. "Food insecurity isn't primarily a story about food," says Dr. Caspi. "It's about many facets of economic instability."

Plus, we'll discuss some of Connecticut Foodshare’s efforts to address food insecurity where we live, including an income-based grocery store coming soon to Hartford, where food insecurity rates are highest in the state.

Hartford High School just launched the Grub Pub, an in-school pantry. Principal Flora Padro joins us later in the hour, describing the "new normal" she envisions.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Caitlin Caspi: Associate Professor, University of Connecticut's Department of Allied Health Sciences; Director of Food Security Initiatives, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health

• Jason Jakubowski: President & CEO, Connecticut Foodshare

• Ben Dubow: Executive Director, Forge City Works

• Flora Padro: Principal, Hartford High School

Cat Pastor contributed to this episode which originally aired October 26, 2023.

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Approximately half of U.S. adults reported experiencing loneliness, even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The issue recently moved U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to issue an advisory around the "loneliness epidemic" in America.

Soon after, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy introduced a bill that would launch an Office of Social Connection Policy, and fund CDC research to "better understand the epidemic of social isolation and loneliness."

While on The Colin McEnroe Show in July, Murphy said the move was "part of a broader exploration for me of what is eating in America... I have come to the conclusion that there's a lot of new and unique things that are hurting Americans and making them feel unhappy today," chief among them loneliness or "aloneness."

This hour, we explore how loneliness, isolation and social disconnection are being addressed where we live. Deb Bibbins and Gary Sekorski founded For All Ages, and more recently, the Connecticut Collaborative to End Loneliness, to help bolster and centralize resources.

How does loneliness or isolation affect you?

GUESTS:

• Deb Bibbins: Co-Founder and Chair, For All Ages; Co-Founder, Connecticut Collaborative to End Loneliness

• Gary Sekorski: Co-Founder and Chair, For All Ages; Co-Founder, Connecticut Collaborative to End Loneliness

• Connie Malone: Canton Resident

• Siri Palreddy: Senior at Amherst College

• Dr. Sowmya Kurtakoti: Chief of Geriatric Medicine, Hartford Hospital

Cat Pastor contributed to this episode which originally aired September 18, 2023.

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Declining college enrollment has opened up a bigger conversation about the value of a college degree. From 2010 to 2021, undergraduate enrollment dropped by 15%. This declining trend in college enrollment was magnified by the pandemic, when perceptions of the value of a degree really began to shift.

The decision making process for potential college students has become more personalized. Potential students have access to alternative pathways, and the ones that do go to college have needs that aren’t often met by the current model of college education. High costs, conflicting work schedules, and concerns ROI are barriers that affect a person's decision.

This shift away from degree requirements, restarting financial aid payments in October 2023, and the social conversations about college undoubtedly cause us to wonder who should go to college.

Today, we talk about the college conversation.

GUESTS:

• Steve Schneider: High School Counselor at Sheboygan South High School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin

• Katharine Meyer: a Fellow in Governance Studies and Higher Education Researcher at the Brookings Institution.

• Courtney Brown: Vice President of Impact and Planning at Lumina Foundation

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

Connecticut Public Talk Show Intern Joey Morgan produced this broadcast.

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How do museums act as places of discovery, dialogue, and healing?

These spaces engage with critical, often complex, issues important to the communities they serve. For two weeks, we're spotlighting two museums where we live doing just that, and speaking with Dr. Macushla Robinson about the power of art and curation.

Last week, we took a tour of Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge. It’s the first museum in the country centering Palestinian arts and culture, with a mission of humanizing Palestinian people.

This hour, we’ll spend time at the Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford, a teaching museum where artifacts and photography help center Jewish history and culture.

Amy Weiss, the museum's director, explains that personal narratives help tell the complex history of American Jews, a group that is not monolithic. "The overarching message is the importance of democracy and the fight against fascism," she says.

What role do museums play in your community?

GUESTS:

• Dr. Macushla Robinson: Assistant Professor in Residence, University of Connecticut; Director, Contemporary Art Galleries at the University of Connecticut
• Amy Weiss: Director, Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies; Maurice Greenberg Chair for Judaica Studies; Director, Museum of Jewish Civilization; Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies and History

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

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There have been a lot of things that have revolutionized how educators teach in the classrooms. Things like Wikipedia, Google and even calculators have caused temporary panic in the education space. 

Now that ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools are becoming a central part of our everyday lives, some educators are scrambling to rethink their curriculum. If you ask the artificial intelligence app, ChatGPT, to write you a 500 page essay on the themes in Moby Dick, in a matter of seconds, you’ll have a well written paper.

Even further, you can even tell ChatGPT “write me a 500 word essay on the themes of Moby Dick, in the voice of a 10th grader” and the essay will reflect the tone and language of the average 15 year old.

When ChatGPT was first released, we took a deep dive into AI ethics and learned how it might education. And today, we get an update and we talk to teachers around the state and hear how they are actually utilizing AI in the classroom.

GUESTS:

• Jeff Young: Editor of EdSurge, an education journalism initiative

• Tom Deans: Professor of English and Director of the University Writing Center at the University of Connecticut

• Erica Strong: Literacy Coach at Lebanon Middle School

• John Allen: Social Studies Teacher  at Putnam High School

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

Cat Pastor contributed to this show which originally aired September 15, 2023.

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Social studies education in Connecticut public schools has been getting a major revamp. It’s something we’ve covered on this program. This includes the statute requiring local Indigenous history that rolled out this year, and a statute in 2022 calling for Asian American and Pacific Islander studies, rolling out in the fall of 2025.

The state legislature combined many of these mandates in 2021, calling for a "model curriculum." This curriculum should include Native American studies and AAPI studies, the bill stated, in addition to LGBTQ studies, climate change, financial literacy, military service and veterans, civics, media literacy, the principles of social-emotional learning, and racism.

It was a long list and a tall order, and prompted the Connecticut State Department of Education to gather a group of experts on all of these fronts, and construct a new set of social studies standards. This hour, we hear from some of them and preview that document.

GUESTS:

• Steve Armstrong: Social Studies Advisor, Connecticut State Department of Education; Past President, National Council for the Social Studies

• Tony Roy: President, Connecticut Council for the Social Studies; Social Studies Teacher, Bloomfield Public Schools

• Dr. Brittney Yancy: Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies, Illinois College

• Dr. Michael Bartone: Assistant Professor, Central Connecticut State University's Department of Literacy, Elementary, and Early Childhood Education

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It has been just over one month since the Israel-Hamas war began, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians and a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The images and reports coming out of this region are dire. Many have been left traumatized from witnessing the atrocities of this war up close and from afar

Some experts say this war alone will create a generation in trauma. That’s on top of the trauma that’s already been experienced by children in the region. Children impacted by trauma can experience long term side effects and regression in their development.

Humanitarians are not just addressing the physical needs, providing food, water, medical care and shelter, but themental health needs of the children experiencing acute traumatic stress.

Experts say addressing the mental health needs in this region will require a long term strategy and the time to address mental health needs is now.

When a disaster of this scale happens, it can impact a lot of people — and not just those directly affected. Secondary trauma can occur simply by hearing about someone else’s trauma. People working with these traumatized populations are at high risk for this type of trauma, as are those of us a world away. Doom-scrolling can cause numerous negative mental health outcomes and symptoms of secondary trauma including compassion fatigue.

This can be exacerbated for those that have ties to the region. What's happening now in Israel and Gaza can be a constant reminder of atrocities that have impacted generations of peoples. For both Israelis and Palestinians, collective trauma, and in some cases, intergenerational traumamakes breaking the cycles of violence even harder.

Trauma has layers. Trauma is complicated. And trauma ripples. In today’s show, we’re examining all the layers of trauma.

If you need to talk to someone, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). It’s free, confidential and available 24/7.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Julian Ford: a clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Law at the University of Connecticut Health Center
• Rabbi Debra Cantor: spiritual leader of the Congresgation B’nai Tikvoh-Sholom Synagogue
• Steve Sosebee: President and Founder of the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund
• Dr. Taline Andonian: Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Founder of the Resonance Center for Psychotherapy & Healing Artsin West Hartford

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How do museums act as places of discovery, dialogue, and healing?

These spaces engage with critical, often complex, issues important to the communities they serve. This includes, for some, the current war between Israel and Hamas, and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

This week and next, we’re going to bring you to two museums to explore that question, and speak with Dr. Macushla Robinson about the power of art and curation. Next week, we’ll spend time at the Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford, a teaching museum working to tell the stories of Jewish people and how they lived.

This hour, we take a tour of Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge. It’s the first museum in the country centering Palestinian arts and culture, with a mission of humanizing Palestinian people. Hear from the museum's founder and executive director, Faisal Saleh.

"Art speaks to the heart, politics speak to the mind," says Saleh. "You don't need to translate anything, because it's a universal language of the art."

What role do museums play in your community?

GUESTS:

• Dr. Macushla Robinson: Assistant Professor in Residence, University of Connecticut; Director, Contemporary Art Galleries at the University of Connecticut
• Faisal Saleh: Founder and Executive Director, Palestine Museum US

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.