Where We Live

In 1999 the Columbine shooting shook the country and made everyone aware of the threat of gun violence in schools. As a result, schools made an effort to implement lockdown procedures as a way to keep students and staff safe.

But with the rates of shootings only continuing to rise, these threats of mass shootings are feeling too real, and the lockdowns that were meant to keep students safe are instead inflicting trauma. So what is going on in these lockdowns that are causing negative impacts and a decline in mental health?

Today we look at what is happening inside the school walls during these lockdowns and what it is doing to our students. A common solution that many schools have turned to is School Resource Officers or SROs.

What do you think should be done to protect our schools while minimizing trauma?

• Mo Canady: Executive Director of National Association of School Resource Officers
• Kate Dias: President of Connecticut Education Association and High School Math teacher in Manchester School District
• David J Schonfeld: Director, National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Stacey Addo produced this show that originally aired on July 28, 2023.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.

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The number of people who became unhoused in Connecticut increased by 13 percent between 2021 and last year.

And in most places around the country, cities rely on shelters to accommodate people who are unhoused. But those who’ve lived there say this model isn’t working. Families are separated. There’s a 90-day stay limit. There’s little to no security for personal belongings. And at dawn, everyone’s asked to leave, rain or shine.

Today on Where We Live, we hear from the founder of Rosette Village, a transitional housing community on Rosette Street in New Haven. It's a housing model where people live together with their families and stay for as long as they need to, which can improve health outcomes for unhoused people.

Their tents are provided with electricity. Everyone has lockers for personal belongings. And they say their health has improved. Residents are hoping to live in prefabricated tiny homes set up on site so they can live safely.Later, we talk about the health impact on people without housing.

GUESTS:

• Suki Godek: an unhoused activist living at Rosette
• Mark Colville: the housing activist behind Rosette Village
• New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker
• Dr. Caitlin Ryus: Instructor in Emergency Medicine and the Co-Director of the Yale Emergency Scholars Fellowship

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

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23% of the adult U.S. population cannot read above a third-grade level. Literacy isn’t limited to reading and writing, it can also refer to basic math, comprehension and critical thinking skills.

According to ProLiteracy, bringing reading levels up “would generate an additional $2.2 trillion in annual income. Today, we get a deeper understanding of adult literacy in our country and across our state.

There is no part of the U.S. population that isn’t touched by low literacy. And many people suffer from shame around the struggle to read and write.

GUESTS:

• Haleigh Guerrera: Basic Literacy Tutor with Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford
• Aliyya Swaby: Reporter for ProPublica
• Mark Vineis: President and CEO of ProLiteracy

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

Cat Shen contributed to this episode that recently aired April 7, 2023.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have estimated that more than half of wheelchairs break down in a typical six-month period. Many Connecticut residents say those repairs can take months.

This hour, we hear from local advocates with the Connecticut Wheelchair Reform Coalition about a recently-formed legislative task force and their goals for next session. In particular, they hope to study and set limits on repair turnaround times. UPitt researcher Dr. Lynn Woroby also shares her findings on the frequency of wheelchair breakdowns.

Plus, how does private equity impact health care? Private Equity Stakeholder Project is a nonprofit watchdog organization investigating this question.

The business model and priority for private equity investments is to maximize profit, Eileen O'Grady explains. "In order to produce those kinds of returns, it might mean cutting staffing, reducing training hours, or relying on staff or clinicians that have a lower level of licensure. It might also mean financial shenanigans, like adding lots and lots of debt to a company to pay their shareholders... All of these things can have really material impacts on the quality of care and on the quality of jobs."

GUESTS:

• Jonathan Sigworth: Member, CT Wheelchair Reform Coalition; Member, State Independent Living Council; Consumer Spokesperson, Connecticut Wheelchair Task Force; Co-Founder, CEO and President, More Than Walking
• Farrah Garland: Member, CT Wheelchair Reform Coalition; Member, State Independent Living Council
• Lynn Woroby: Research Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh
• Eileen O'Grady: Research and Campaign Director, Private Equity Stakeholder Project

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.

Virtually all Connecticut residents engage in the arts, culture and humanities, either formally or informally, a recent survey found. But attendance rates at many cultural organizations haven't quite returned to pre-pandemic levels.

This hour, we get the latest from Connecticut Humanities executive director Jason Mancini, and hear about a recent push for a "roadmap" that would better fund and link the arts, culture and tourism in the state. We also check in with the Maritime Aquarium, and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, formerly the Connecticut Historical Society.

Have you taken advantage of Connecticut's Summer at the Museum? Listeners this hour shouted out locations like the New England Air Museum, the Vintage Radio and Communications Museum, and more.

Plus, we preview early plans to highlight the state's revolutionary history in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country's founding. Former Secretary of State Denise Merrill spoke about the creation of the Connecticut Semiquincentennial Commission in advance of "America 250."

We also revisit a recent conversation on Connecticut Public's Disrupted with Maisa Tisdale, CEO and President of the Mary and Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community. The homes in Bridgeport are some of the last remaining structures of Little Liberia, one of the earliest settlements of free people of color in pre-Civil War Connecticut.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Jason Mancini: Executive Director, Connecticut Humanities
• Cyndi Tolosa: Development Director, Connecticut Humanities
• Denise Merrill: Former Connecticut Secretary of State
• Jason Patlis: President and CEO, Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk
• Robert Kret: CEO, Connecticut Museum of Culture 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.

Across Connecticut's thousands of farms, spanning nearly 400,000 acres, the average age of farmers is 58, just under the national average. Over 90% of senior Connecticut farmers don’t have a younger person tapped to take the reins, according to an American Farmland Trust study.

This hour, we dig into local and federal efforts to support new and young farmers with New Connecticut Farmers Alliance President Liz Guerra. Plus, federal policy reporter Lisa Hagen has the latest on the 2023 farm bill.

RELATED: Liz Guerra and her husband Héctor Gerardo were recently interviewed for a series about Connecticut's BIPOC farmers, and efforts to diversify the field in the state, which is 98% white.

We also spoke with Connecticut Department of Agriculture Commissioner Bryan Hurlburt, who stressed the need for stability and funding "safety nets" for local farmers, particularly during "a year like this year where you had a moderate winter, two pretty dramatic frost events, a drought" and, most recently, flooding.

Later, we'll learn more about 4-H, a nonprofit at the heart of harvest festivals where we live. Matthew Syrotiak, a 4-H alum, now works on a family farm. We hear from the "G.O.A.T. of goats," plus program leader Jen Cushman, about 4-H opportunities in Connecticut.

GUESTS:

• Lisa Hagen: Federal Policy Reporter, Connecticut Public and the Connecticut Mirror
• Liz Guerra: President, New Connecticut Farmer Alliance; Owner-Operator, SEAmarron Farmstead in Danbury
• Mary Claire Whelan: Coordinator, New Connecticut Farmer Alliance
• Bryan Hurlburt: Commissioner, Connecticut Department of Agriculture
• Matthew Syrotiak: 4-H Alumni; Dairy Farmer
• Jen Cushman: 4-H Program Leader, UConn Extension

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Connecticut rolled out a Black and Latino history elective this past school year, the first of several recent curricular updates and mandates to go live statewide. This hour, we hear from social studies teachers Daisha Brabham and Julian Shafer about how they worked with the curriculum offered by the state.

Plus, their students share their experiences. Students in Windsor recently led a push to offer the elective to ninth-graders. Brabham and Shafer also discuss an Educators Bill of Rights they helped draft, along with several educator organizations in the state.

According to PEN America, there have been 78 different legislative proposals since 2021 that are aimed at K-12 curriculum, referred to by the free speech org as "gag order bills." Connecticut is often seen as a kind of safe haven from these kinds of political or ideological attacks in the classroom, but we’ve seen a rise in debates over curriculum and book ban requests in our state too.

The Educators Bill of Rights calls for "learning spaces for students and working spaces for educators that are free from harassment and intimidation," and underscores the need "to teach in accurate and complex ways without censure or punishment."

GUESTS:

• Daisha Brabham: Teacher, Windsor High School
• Julian Shafer: Teacher, Danbury High School
• Sarai Pichardo: Student, Danbury High School
• Damela Seal: Student, Windsor High School
• Christine Palm: Democratic State Representative

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Since the start of the war in Ukraine, more than 280,000 Ukrainians have resettled in the United States. According to Integrated Refugee Immigrant Services, there is roughly 1500 Ukrainian refugees settled in Connecticut.

Elected officials here in Connecticut have shown their support for Ukraine. Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal has traveled several times since the start of the war to meet with President Zelensky. He has recently introduced a Senate resolution to address the threat Russia poses.

And some Connecticut residents have even gone to Ukraine to do what they can to aid the war effort.

Today, we talk to Larissa Babij. She is a Ukrainian American that grew up in Manchester, Connecticut. She lives in Kyiv, Ukraine working as a writer and translator. In her newsletter, “A Kind of Refugee” she writes about her life living in a war zone.

We also hear from Anna Koblyarz, a resident of Berlin, Connecticut and is raising money for the City of Goodness project, a shelter for women and children in need in Ukraine.

GUESTS:

• Anna Kobylarz: a resident of Berlin, Connecticut and president of the nonprofit Community Help. She is also the Director of the Humanitarian Mission of the Polish American Foundation of Connecticut.
• Larissa Babij: writer, translator and dancer living in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her newsletter is “A Kind of Refugee.”

You can find the Victoria Amelina poem "The Town of Women" here.

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.

Toys are occasionally marketed to "children of all ages." In recent years, market research has shown the number of toy-buyers over 12 years old is growing.

The demographic, sometimes called "kidults," now comprises a quarter of the annual toy retail market, and an impressive 60% of the market’s growth in the last year, according to market research company NPD Group.

Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University, discusses why familiar toys might appeal to us today, and the links between how we played as children and how we socialize now.

Plus, one California-based slime-maker is raking in millions from children and adults alike. There's even one slime product called "Clay-Doh."

What toy from your childhood still sparks joy? Connecticut Public staffers and listeners respond.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek: Professor of Psychology, Temple University; Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
• Olivya Soth: Co-Owner, OG Slimes

Cat Pastor contributed to this show which originally aired March 3, 2023.

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A Pew survey from 2018 estimated 13% of adults consult tarot card readers, astrologers or "fortune-tellers." But more recent market research shows sales for tarot card decks and psychic services are growing.

This hour, we explore the art of divination and "card-pulling" in Connecticut.

Hear from professional tarot reader Afton Jacobs-Williams, AKA Monty's Tarot Child. Plus, Chelsea Granger is a multidisciplinary artist who co-created Dirt Gems, a plant-themed oracle deck.

But first, hear more about the origins of tarot or "tarrochi." We preview some of the research going on at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, home to some of the oldest existing tarot cards.

GUESTS:

• Timothy Young: Curator, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
• Afton Williams-Jacobs: Monty's Tarot Child; Tarot Reader, Tea & Tarot
• Chelsea Granger: Multidisciplinary Artist; Co-Creator, Dirt Gems Plant Oracle Card Deck & Guidebook

Cat Pastor contributed to this show which originally aired June 1, 2023.

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