Where We Live

For the first time under a new law, the state’s budget is required to justify how spending would help reduce socioeconomic and racial inequities where we live.

The budget law was passed last spring, calling for a quote "explanation of how provisions further the governor’s efforts to ensure equity in the state," helping to "identify and remedy past and present patterns of discrimination."

According to the Economic Policy Institute, "Connecticut ranks #3 of the 50 states in income inequality."

The United Way of Connecticut projects the basic "survival budget" for a family of four exceeds $90,000 per year, reports Keith Phaneuf, the Connecticut Mirror's budget reporter. Even prior to the pandemic, the organization projected 38% of Connecticut residents were living paycheck-to-paycheck, or falling behind, Phaneuf writes.

So how did Governor Lamont’s $50.5 billion budget meet this new mandate? And what’s missing? This hour, we examine where critical items like housing, health care and higher-education come in.

GUESTS:

• Lisa Hagen: Federal Policy Reporter, Connecticut Mirror
• Dan Haar: Associate Editor, Hearst Connecticut Media
• Jonathan Wharton: Professor of Political Science at Southern Connecticut State University; Associate Dean at the School of Graduate and Professional Studies
• Ginny Monk: Children’s Issues and Housing Reporter, Connecticut Mirror
• Jennifer Ludden: National Correspondent, NPR

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Governor Lamont recently signed legislation to extend Connecticut’s free school lunch program through the academic year, with a $60 million price tag. Today, we talk about what free lunches mean for students. How will they benefit, what are the costs?

Marlene Schwarts of UConn joins us. She says students should never have to worry about being hungry at school.

The USDA recently announced new standards for nutrition in schools, including eliminating trans fats, and lowering sugar and sodium content in school lunches.

Healthier lunches means increased costs in a time where we are already seeing food shortages and increased costs in labor.

GUESTS:

• Lonnie Burt: Senior Director of Food & Child Nutrition Services at Hartford Public Schools
• Marlene Schwartz: Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Health at UConn
• Dr. Melissa Santos: Division Chief of Pediatric Psychology and Clinical Director for Pediatric Obesity at Connecticut Children's

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Connecticut joined every other New England state in logging the warmest January on-record this year. Areas like Bridgeport are seeing record-low seasonal snowfall, while still logging more than five inches of rain according to the National Weather Service.

You may have already heard unusual bird calls, or noticed your crocuses have cropped up early. Still, there have been two arctic blasts between these unseasonable temperatures, and another "cool-down" expected ahead. So how are these fluctuations affecting the local ecology?

Forest ecologist Dr. Susanna Kerio touches on the critical role trees play, and DEEP wildlife biologist Jenny Dickson discusses how a wide variety of animals are affected. Plus, a warning from the state’s main tick-tracking center and an update from the Connecticut Audubon Society.

How has the unseasonable warmth affected wildlife where you live?

GUESTS:

• Dr. Susanna Kerio: Forest Ecologist, Dept. of Environmental Science and Forestry at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
• Jenny Dickson: Wildlife Division Director, Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection
• Dr. Goudarz Molaei: Research Scientist, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station; Director of the Tick and Tick-borne Diseases Surveillance Program, Center for Vector Biology and Zoonotic Diseases
• Tom Anderson: Director of Communications and Community Outreach, Connecticut Audubon Society
• 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!

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Emily Wicks with UConn's Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry noticed the pandemic-era disruptions to kids' social-emotional learning and development, and reached out to Sandy Chafouleas at the university's Neag School of Education.Together they developed Feel Your Best Self, a puppet-centered program aimed at helping "strengthen the emotional well-being of elementary-aged children."This hour, we hear from Wicks and Chafouleas about their hopes for the toolkit's application where we live.Through a series of videos, kid puppets CJ, Nico and Mena help children acknowledge that they have complex emotions, modeling how to express and process them.UntitledThe Feel Your Best Self team is working with the Connecticut's Statewide Family Engagement Center to help bridge the divide between the home and classroom.Veronica Marion with the Center says the program is a "win-win" at a pivotal moment. "We see the numbers currently in regards to social-emotional learning, it’s off the charts. Students are really in the need of something."With puppets in the room, Marion says, "children will talk more, they will open up more, just the fact that there’s a distraction, just the fact that there’s something else that they’re focusing on."Plus, we hear from Ximena Marin, a teacher at Natchaug Elementary School in Windham who piloted the program in her bilingual classroom.GUESTS:

• Emily Wicks: Co-founder, Feel Your Best Self Collaborative Project; Manager of Operations and Collections, University of Connecticut's Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
• Sandy Chafouleas: Co-founder, Feel Your Best Self Collaborative Project; Neag Endowed Professor, Department of Educational Psychology at UConn's Neag School of Education; Co-Director, UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health
• Ximena Marin: Third-grade Teacher, Natchaug Elementary School
• Veronica Marion: Manager of Family-School Partnerships, Connecticut's Statewide Family Engagement Center

Cat Pastor contributed to this episode which originally aired January 6, 2023.

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It’s been almost four years since Connecticut lawmakers required schools to offer students a Black and Latino studies class. The requirement was signed into law in June of 2019 and it went into effect last fall. It’s required that every district offer Black and Latino studies, but that doesn’t mean every child in Connecticut takes the course.

First, the class is an elective. And second, the Connecticut department of education says that some school districts haven’t introduced the course yet due to there not being enough kids enrolled into the curriculum.

And as children in our state have begun to take the class, other states are rejecting curriculum inclusive of people of color. According to Education Week reporter Eesha Pendharkar “Florida is one of 18 states that have passed laws restricting some lessons on race and racism.” She’ll talk to us about how race is being debated in schools across America.

Are you concerned about the curriculum where you live?

GUESTS:

• Eesha Pendharkar: Staff Writer for Race and Opportunity Ed Week
• Dr. Bilal Sekou: Hillyer College Associate Professor of Politics and Government, University of Hartford
• John Craven: News 12 Connecticut political reporter

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Elizabeth Nelson, a associate professor of history at University of Nevada Las Vegas, has examined the "hidden history of Valentine’s Day." Beyond the pressures of consumer culture, or any outsized emphasis on romantic love, she says there's been a yearning for something more sincere "from the very beginning."

This hour, Nelson digs into the history of this holiday, helping distinguish tall tale from true story.

Plus, one writer and poetry-lover has meditated on the potential the holiday holds for us today, and the many forms love takes. Lindsey Weishar joins us.

GUESTS:

• Elizabeth Nelson: Associate Professor of History, University of Nevada Las Vegas
• Lindsey Weishar: Freelance Writer, The Catholic Post, Ploughshares, and Stamford-based Verily; Poet

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Joan Donovan is the Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and author of the book Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.
Today, we talk about the evolution of memes as political devices, and how it shaped the far right.

We hear from Joan and learn about her journey to mapping out the darkest corners of the world wide web.

What questions do you have about memes, meme culture and how it shapes the internet?

GUEST:

• Joan Donovan: Research Director for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University and author of the book Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.
• Dr. Evan Perkoski: Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut

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In one episode of the docu-series Reciprocity Project, Connecticut-based educator and member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe Chris Newell teaches acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma a pow-wow song. Together, they play at sunrise, "singing up the sun" in the tradition of the Wabanaki or People of the Dawnland, a confederation of four tribes in Maine including Passamaquoddy.

This hour, we hear about this film series from Newell and executive producer Tracy Rector, and about the increasing urgency of centering Indigenous perspectives on our planet and the climate. The series is intended to inspire conversation and action on climate; "to create a paradigm shift that reframes our relationships to the Earth, other living beings, and one another."

Plus, a conversation on the Native food movement with Navajo journalist and podcaster Andi Murphy.

GUESTS:

• Chris Newell: Co-Founder and Director of Education, Akowmawt Educational Initiative; Member of the Passamaquaddy Tribe; Museum Educator; Children's Book Author
• Tracy Rector: Managing Director of Storytelling, Nia Tero; Executive Producer, Reciprocity Project
• Jennifer Krausberg: Composer; Member of the Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina
• Andi Murphy: Navajo Journalist; Host, Toasted Sister Podcast

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We are hearing a lot more about hate crimes against members of the AAPI community - that’s the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. The recent shootings in California are only one of many acts of violence carried out against this population.

Acts of physical violence aren’t the only thing we’re seeing. According to a study in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, “one-third of Asian respondents report bias victimization during the pandemic.”

Today, we talk about how these incidents are impacting the mental health and collective trauma of this community.

We will hear from activists within the AAPI community in Connecticut. And we want to hear from you too.

GUESTS:

• Christine Kim: co-founder of aapiNHV
• Quan Tran: Senior Lecturer in Ethnicity, Race and Migration, Acting Director of Undergraduate Studies at Yale University, and a member of Asian Pacific American Coalition
• Mike Keo: Founder of #IAMNOTAVIRUS

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Ten states and Washington D.C. currently support medical aid in dying for terminally-ill patients. Advocates and lawmakers like Public Health Committee Co-Chair and State Sen. Dr. Saud Anwar are hoping Connecticut is closer than ever to becoming the eleventh state to adopt a medical aid-in-dying law.

Connecticut Public health reporter Sujata Srinivasan spoke with Sen. Anwar about the plan to include additional restrictions around age limits and physician sign-offs, that he hopes will help the bill pass the Judiciary Committee, where a similar bill stopped last session.

Aid-in-dying bills have been proposed in Connecticut more than a dozen times over the last thirty years.

Longtime NPR host and journalist Diane Rehm has touched on her mother's death and her late husband's battle with Parkinson's Disease, setting out to explore the issue of patient autonomy in her book, When My Time Comes: Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right to Determine When Life Should End.

This hour, Rehm and Srinivasan will join us to discuss the right-to-die movement where we live, along with CT News Junkie editor-in-chief Christine Stuart. Plus, a preview of the biennial state budget with Stuart and News 12 political reporter John Craven.

GUESTS:

• Diane Rehm: Host, On My Mind with Diane Rehm; Author, When My Time Comes: Conversations About Whether Those Who Are Dying Should Have the Right To Determine When Life Should End
• Sujata Srinivasan: Health Reporter, Connecticut Public
• Anita Hannig: Cultural Anthropologist; Author, The Day I Die: The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America
• Christine Stuart: Editor-in-Chief, CT News Junkie
• John Craven: Political Reporter, News 12 Connecticut

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