Where We Live

As non-profit, tax-exempt institutions, colleges and universities are often seen as a source of public good. For example, a recent New York Times Magazine article celebrated a bustling New Haven arts scene that has arisen "both because of and despite Yale."

Author and historian Davarian L. Baldwin describes a "public good paradox," calling for a "broad examination of higher education's growing for-profit influence on our cities."

This hour, the Trinity College professor joins guest host John Henry Smith to discuss his latest book, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities. He touches on Yale University in New Haven, as well as his own employer, noting its "ambivalent relationship with its location" in Hartford.

Baldwin writes that Yale is one "extreme" example of how "colleges and universities come to significantly dictate the terms of urban living, from a city’s housing costs and wage ceilings to its health-care standards and even policing practices."

Baldwin discusses his work organizing around various institutions of higher learning through the Smart Cities Lab he founded and directs at Trinity College.

He tells John Henry Smith, "We're talking about suppressed wages of faculty, service workers, graduate students. We're talking about tax exemptions; we're talking about unaccountable policing; we're talking about questionable health care practices. So for me, higher education, the notion of the 'ivory tower,' is dead. Some of the major struggles over the future of our democracy are being played out in concentrated form on our America's campuses."

We also hear from Eddie Camp, an organizer and research director with UNITE HERE Local 34, who has worked with community organization New Haven Rising to push for Yale to "pay its fair share." He discusses Yale's recent commitment to increase its voluntary contribution to the City of New Haven.

Camp helped to research segregated development in 2020, finding "striking" overlaps between mortgage rates, life expectancy, unemployment, foreclosures and COVID-19 rates in New Haven. Find out more about that research and campaign.

GUESTS:

• Davarian L. Baldwin: Author and historian Davarian L. Baldwin, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies, Trinity College; Founding Director, Smart Cities Research Lab; Author, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities
• Eddie Camp: Research Director, UNITE HERE Local 34

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Journalist Erik Hesselberg has covered Connecticut’s waterways for decades. This hour, we preview his new book about the vibrant history of steamboats in our state, taking a trip on Night Boat to New York.

"For more than a century, overnight and day-excursion steamers had plied the route between Hartford and New York," writes Hesselberg, "carrying passengers, mail, and goods on regularly-scheduled runs. More than just transportation, a trip on a river steamer was an adventure in itself."

Hesselberg explains that through much of the 1800s, the steamboat was a social phenomenon at the center of a recreational revolution, drawing wide swaths of the public to commune with nature and, eventually he says, to the seashore.

GUESTS:

• Erik Hesselberg: Journalist; Author, Night Boat to New York; Editor, Voices on the River

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The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projects a shortage of up to 48,000 primary care physicians by 2034.

This hour on Where We Live, we take a deep dive into why primary care is the barometer of the healthcare system, and how the practice landscape — including hospital acquisitions of physician practices, low reimbursements to primary care physicians, and the proliferation of urgent care centers — is affecting doctors and patients.

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Statistically, more than 98% of Connecticut’s farmers are white.

Today, we’ll talk with BIPOC farmers and hear from a grower about her journey, and the challenges facing farmers of color. Gaby Pereyra, a Co-Director at Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust joins us.

We’ll also talk about how working in agriculture impacts mental health and hear from Joan Nichols. She’s executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau Association.

If you work in agriculture, we want to hear from you.

GUESTS:

• Gaby Pereyra - Land Network Weaver and Land Network Program Co-Director at Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust
• Joan Nichols - Executive Director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau Assocation

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Half of the world’s population is made up of women. And by 2025, the number of postmenopausal women is expected to rise to 1 billion, according to the North American Menopause Society.

Despite the $600 billion global market, menopause is still a taboo topic.

But new scientific research on menopause on the heels of previous studies show how and where we must invest in women’s health.

This hour on Where We Live, we learn more, and we talk to a “menopause doula” about treatment, gaps in care and myths. We also examine findings from new studies on the impact of trauma, disparities, and workplace policies on women’s bodies in midlife.

Find a North American Menopause Society-certified OBGYN, NP, or other practitioners here.

My Menoplan is a resource created by doctors and university-based menopause scientists who have worked together for over 25 years. This tool, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was designed so that women have a place to go to get accurate, up-to-date, science-based, unbiased, and personalized information about what treatments work and what treatments don’t work.

And, for a good laugh, head to The Palace Theater in Stamford for Menopause, The Musical, April 8.

GUESTS: 

• Nathalie Bonafe: Menopause doula. Founder, Cafe Menopause Connecticut. Practitioner accredited by the North American Menopause Society
• Dr. Melissa Pearlstone: North American Menopause Society-accredited OBGYN, Westwood Women's Health, Waterbury
• Debbie Dickinson: Founder and CEO, Thermaband Inc., incubated at Yale and currently in the Harvard iLab and Harvard Alumni Accelerator program

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This hour, we explore the "mysterious Internet phenomenon" known as ASMR, autonomous sensory meridian response. According to physiologist and ASMR researcher Dr. Craig Richard, it's a relaxing reaction to various "triggers," including whispers.

Hear from Dr. Richard about how "brain tingles" became a scientific term, and what he's observed in his ongoing ASMR study. Plus, we meet Olivia, a local ASMRtist who gained thousands of followers – or as she calls them, "dreamers" – just this month.

Insider reporter Dan Whateley digs into the business side of TikTok, where ASMR is taking off.

GUESTS:

• Dr. Craig Richard: Physiologist; ASMR Researcher; Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences, Shenandoah University; Host, Sleep Whispers Podcast
• Olivia AKA @sweetdreamerlivv: "ASMRtist" on TikTok
• Dan Whateley: Reporter, Insider

Cat Pastor contributed to this episode which originally aired March 31, 2022.

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What are some issues with homestay services like AirBnB? And what’s being done to address them?

Today, we hear from travelers about their experiences with short term rentals.

We'll hear from an attorney representing clients with complaints about AirBnB.

And later, we learn how these short term rentals impact the housing and rental markets in our state.

What questions do you have about the safety and ethics of homestay services?

GUESTS:

• Andrea Sachs - Washington Post Travel Writer and Journalist
• Christina Conte - Food and Travel Writer
• Jesse Danoff  - Attorney at the Mitchell and Danoff law firm in Hollister, California 
• Jocelyn Ayer -Director of the Litchfield County Center for Housing Opportunity

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South Asians have the highest death rate from heart disease in the U.S. compared to other ethnic groups. Globally, 60% of patients with heart disease are South Asians.

Cardiovascular risk in South Asian Americans – Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi immigrant populations – leads to the early onset of plaque in arteries, compared to other groups. That’s what the 12-year long Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America – or MASALA study – has found. And now, the study is expanding to include the children of South Asian immigrants who participated in the first round.

This hour on Where We Live, we’ll discuss the scope of the study: By 2024, the MASALA cohort will include around 2300 participants in California, Illinois, and New York, whose health will be tracked over the next several decades. The goal? To understand the factors leading to heart disease in South Asian Americans, how to prevent it, and how to treat it.

Findings to date include the link between ectopic fat and cardiac health; a plant diet on heart health; and Coronary artery calcium incidence and changes using direct plaque measurements: The MASALA study. 

And, researchers offer Health Tips to South Asians, including a carb counting tool for traditional South Asian foods and healthy vegetarian keto recipes.

This show was produced by Sujata Srinivasan, with help from talk show intern Mira Raju. 

GUESTS: 

Dr. Nilay Shah: Cardiologist and epidemiologist, faculty at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Co-Investigator at the MASALA Study.

Krishnendu Ray: Associate Professor of Food and Nutrition Studies, New York University. Author of The Migrant's Table: Meals and Memories in Bengali-American Households.

Shraddha Chaubey: Dietitian and Nutritionist, and founder of NutriPledge, LLC. President of the CT Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.  

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The number of homeschoolers in Connecticut has increased since the start of the pandemic.

The Connecticut State Department of Education reported a "slight decrease" in students returning to public school in 2020, "attributed to an increase in homeschooling.

"Families are asked to log their "exit" from public school with the state agency. There were 550 exits reported in 2019, and that number rose to "around 3,500 in 2020." By 2021, that number was at 2,300, though the Department of Education notes "students who have not returned to school by October 1 could still have returned to school any day after that for the remainder of the year."

This spike is well above the AP's recent calculation for "18 states that shared data through the current school year," where overall "the number of homeschooling students increased by 63% in the 2020-2021 school year" and "fell only by 17 percent this school year."

While the pandemic was a major factor driving families to consider homeschooling, parents also responded to the national "reckoning with race." As one testimonial explains, "For many parents of color, this included questions about whether it would be healthier for their child to be educated outside a system they viewed as replicating injustices."

This hour, we learn about one approach to "unschooling" in our state."

It takes a village to raise free people," says Connecticut parent and social liberation "eduvist" Chemay Morales-James. She founded My Reflection Matters in 2016 "to provide the tools necessary to support and nurture the development of healthy racial and ethnic identities of Black and Brown children and older youth."

The My Reflection Matters Village launched in 2020, a co-learning membership co-op "for caregivers whose families have opted out of traditional education and are walking the path of liberated, self-directed education."

We hear from Morales-James as well as education consultant and community organizer Dr. Vanessa Liles. Plus, Sylvia Maribei shares her experience as a parent in the Village.

GUESTS:

• Chemay Morales-James: Social Liberation Eduvist (Education Activist); Founder, My Reflection Matters; Co-Chair, Waterbury Bridge to Success
• Dr. Vanessa Liles: Education Consultant and Community Organizer; Partner, My Reflection Matters; Co-Project Director, PT Partners
• Sylvia Maribei: Parent; Member, My Reflection Matters Village

Cat Pastor contributed to this episode which originally aired June 3, 2022.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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In light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on abortion, some companies are announcing their commitment to cover abortion care and travel costs for employees. But what other changes can we expect?

Mike Golden, a corporate law expert, says we could start to see employers covering the cost of abortion care and provide childcare benefits as a competitive talent acquisition tool.

Today, we explore the ways our workforce will change in coming years, and consider how companies will have to alter their employee benefits and health care plans in a post-Roe world.

GUESTS

• Rachel Dowty Beech - Assistant Professor of Emergency Management and Coordinator of Masters Program in Emergency Management at University of New Haven
• Mike Golden - Lecturer and Director of Advocacy at The University of Texas School of Law and corporate employee law expert
• Isabela Burrows - employee at PetSmart in Michigan
• Beth Silvers - co-host "Pantsuit Politics" podcast and co-authored Now What? How to Move Forward When We’re Divided (About Basically Everything)

Where We Live is dedicated to exploring the issues and impact of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe. We wanted to create a space to make it easy for our listeners to find all of this content with one click. Visit ctpublic.org/PostRoeWorld for easy access to our ongoing coverage.

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