Where We Live

The iconic Mr. Potato Head from Hasbro is now simply the gender neutral Potato Head. Also this year, LEGO, WildBrain, and Mattel launched the Everyone is Awesome set, the Teletubbies Pride collection, and UNO’s Play with Pride deck in celebration of Pride Month.

This hour on Where We Live, we discuss diversity and inclusion in the toy industry, and its impact on child development.

We hear from experts on the trends and changing norms in the understanding of gender and how diversity must go beyond tokenization by toy manufacturers.

GUESTS:

Diane Gervais: Owner, Amato’s Toy and Hobby Middletown 

Jeffrey Trawick-Smith: Professor Emeritus, Center for Early Childhood Education, Eastern Connecticut State University, and Author of Young Children’s Play: Development, Disabilities, and Diversity 

Ellen Lambert: Advisor – Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity, the Toy Association and the Toy Foundation

Eileen Foley: Toy Curator and Owner, Little Acorn Learning LLC, Redding, Connecticut

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Attorneys General across the country are demanding change from the big social media companies.

This hour, we talk to Attorney General William Tong about his recent meeting with TikTok over disturbing trends happening on the platform.

And later, Wall Street Journal tech reporter Georgia Wells walks us through some of the key takeaways from a recent Senate Hearing with Instagram head Adam Mosseri. We hear about some bipartisan efforts to regulate social media.

Can the government make social media safer for children?

GUESTS:

• Connecticut Attorney General William Tong
• Georgia Wells - Tech Reporter at the Wall Street Journal
• Michael Robb - Senior Director of Research Common Sense

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Should a statue of Connecticut Colony founder John Mason, who led a massacre of Pequot people in the 1600s, be removed from the State Capitol Building? That’s the question before the State Capitol Preservation and Restoration Committee after weighing public input, with a vote expected Tuesday. This hour, hear the perspectives of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, and the State Historian. How can we better understand our shared history, and the monuments to it?

Plus, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona weighs in on what rising Covid-19 infection rates means for schools; and school safety, student loan debt, and more.

GUESTS:

• Rodney Butler - Chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
• Walter Woodward - Connecticut State Historian
• Miguel Cardona - U.S. Secretary of Education

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Nursing shortages are being reported across the country, but there’s also rising interest in this critically important profession.

This hour, hear from nurses entering the field in our state, and from nursing educators and experts about why the term “burnout” doesn’t capture what’s driving the shortage. University of Saint Joseph professor Heather Evans prefers the term “moral distress.”

Nurses are by nature the noticers, the canaries in the coal mine, but the conditions of the pandemic have prompted reports of higher-than-average nurse-to-patient ratios, exacerbating a long-looming shortage. As nurse and author Theresa Brown wrote, "nurses are not an infinitely elastic resource; they’re people, many of whom are exhausted, traumatized, barely holding themselves together. It’s time to really see and care for them."

What are the barriers to keeping new nurses in the field?

GUESTS:

• Theresa Brown, PhD, BSN, RN - Nurse; Author, “Healing: When A Nurse Becomes a Patient” (2022)
• Heather Evans, Ph.D., RNC-MNN, CLC - Nurse; Assistant Professor of Nursing, University of Saint Joseph
• Victoria Rufo, RN - Nurse; Student, University of Saint Joseph
• Tori Johnston, CNA - Nurse; Student, Quinnipiac University

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Homework is a part of every student’s curriculum. But how much homework is too much? Experts say high school students can receive up to two hours of homework every night!

Cathy Vatterott joins us. She’s Professor Emeritus of Education at University of Missouri St Louis and the self proclaimed “Homework Lady.”

How much homework does your child get?

First, long time education reporter Kathy Megan joins us today to discuss Connecticut Supreme Court’s landmark decision Sheff v O'Neill. A recent Connecticut Public documentary focuses on the people impacted by this decision decades ago.

GUESTS:

• Kathy Megan - Associate Producer and Reporter on Connecticut Public documentary CUTLINE Special | Sheff v. O’Neill: Striving Toward Education Equity
• Henley Solomon - teaching assistant at Conard High School in West Hartford
• Kate Dias - Connecticut Education Association State President and high school math teacher from Manchester, Connecticut
• Cathy Vatterott - Professor Emeritus of Education at University of Missouri St Louis. Author of Rethinking Homework: Best Practices that Support Diverse Needs

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Manufacturing jobs like industrial engineering and mechanical engineering technicians are projected to increase between 15% and nearly 30% by 2026, fetching an annual salary of around $65,000, according to the Connecticut Department of Labor.

These jobs don’t require a traditional four-year college degree. And there are opportunities for students to go to trade school while they’re finishing high school.

The drumbeat from employers and local leaders has been how to attract and train new workers to support a key sector in the state economy. There’s money pouring in to enable this.

This year, Connecticut was one of only five states to receive a U.S. Department of Labor $10 million State Apprenticeship grant.

The Connecticut Manufacturing Innovation Fund Advisory Board recently approved $8.3 million to support new and established programs in Connecticut’s manufacturing sector, including an advertising campaign to highlight career opportunities in manufacturing.

And, the Connecticut Small Business Development Center, hosted at the UConn School of Business, received one of four federal grants, to operate a national Advanced Manufacturing Center. The $2 million grant will give assistance to minority-owned businesses to help them expand.

This hour on Where We Live, we hear from a high-school student who’s earning college credits in manufacturing, a young woman who's working on the shop floor, a manufacturer, academia, and the state. And, we find out more about what’s being done to attract more women to the industry, including minority owned businesses.

GUESTS:
Anya Santa Lucia: Manufacturing Program Student at Goodwin University, and High School Student at the Connecticut River Academy

Sara Langevin: CNC Machinist, Trumpf Inc.

Matthew Dadona: Assistant Superintendent of Pathways and Partnerships, Goodwin University Magnet School Systems

Keri Valente: Manufacturing Apprenticeship Representative at the Office of Apprenticeship Training, State of Connecticut

Christine Benz: Head of Training Services, Trumpf Inc.

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This hour Where We Live, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont answers your questions.

Connecticut's Covid-19 positivity rate is back above 5%. With Omicron's detection over the weekend, we discuss the latest on the local response, and whether statewide restrictions could return.

GUEST:

• Ned Lamont - Governor of Connecticut

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Next month a task force will release its recommendations about so-called magic mushrooms.

Did that get your attention?

Today, we learn why lawmakers and others have been studying the effects of psilocybin, the main ingredient in magic mushrooms.

Alex Kwan, an associate professor of psychiatry from the Yale School of Medicine joins us to talk about clinical trials happening in Connecticut.

Could magic mushrooms be the next big antidepressant?

Later, speaking about seeing colors, we hear about a special exhibit happening at the Florence Griswold Museum featuring the prints of Currier and Ives.

GUESTS:

• State Representative Josh Elliott, D-Hamden
• Bill Yule - amateur mycologist and retired teacher 
• Alex Kwan - Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale Medicine
• Amy Kurtz Lansing - Curator at the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut

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More than $100 million in federal infrastructure funds will go towards protecting and preserving Long Island Sound. Hear from Soundkeeper Bill Lucey about spending plans, Save the Sound's priorities, and why oysters are so unique.

Plus, Norm Bloom of Copps Island Oysters explains why conservation is his business; and Tessa Getchis with the Connecticut Sea Grant and UConn Extension Program provides an update on the Shellfish Restoration Project.

GUESTS:

• Bill Lucey - Long Island Soundkeeper, Save the Sound
• Norm Bloom - Owner, Copps Island Oysters
• Tessa Getchis - Aquaculture extension specialist, Connecticut Sea Grant and UConn Extension Program

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Scientists have warned us: since 1970 nearly 3 billion North American birds have disappeared.

This hour, ornithologist Pete Marra, from Georgetown University joins us to talk about how to reverse this troubling statistic.

And later scientist Brooke Bateman explains how climate change affects birds and talks about natural climate solutions.

Today, the Connecticut Audubon Society releases its latest State of the Birds Report. What birds are at risk where we live?

GUESTS:

• Dr. Peter Marra - Laudato Si Professor of Biology and the Environment at Georgetown University and the director of The Earth Commons: A Georgetown University Institute for Environment and Sustainability
• Dr. Brooke Bateman - Director of Climate Science at National Audubon Society
• Tom Andersen - Director of Communications at the Connecticut Audubon Society

To read the Connecticut Audubon Society 2021 State of the Birds Report visit ctaudubon.org.

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