Coming Up! May 6 to 10, 2013

Monday: Monthly Malloy
Keith Phaneuf of the Connecticut Mirror, the state “budget guru” has been pulling apart the budget problems the Malloy administration faces in an epic, three-part series. He says there are lots of reasons why Connecticut residents should be worried. As Malloy often points out, he inherited this mess from the previous administration, but his “fixes” have raised plenty of questions – including a promise of no more tax increases, and a reliance on an economic rebound which may or may not be coming. Today, where we live, Governor Dannel Malloy and his budget chief Ben Barnes join us in studio.

 Tuesday: Syria and Chemical Weapons, and More on the State Budget
The situation in Syria gets more confusing by the day. The Obama Administration is treading very cautiously around conflicting reports of who actually staged a sarin gas attack, the government of besieged President Bashar al Assad, or the rebels fighting to take over the country. The US backed Israel’s decision to make military strikes by air in Damascus – but there are questions over whether this might mean an escalation of tensions in the region. Senator John McCain, and others, have called for arming the rebels…but Senator Chris Murphy, who just returned from the region, has doubts. Today, where we live, Murphy will join us…and we’ll talk about the spectre of chemical weapons in Syria. We’ll also debrief with Keith Phaneuf…our budget guru from the Connecticut Mirror. Governor Malloy took him to task for his three-part series on the state budget yesterday on the show…we’ll hear Keith’s response.

Wednesday: Evolution, and Green Chemistry
In a follow-up to our recent Science show, we’ll revisit the topic of teaching science. This time, our focus is on evolution. Are some schools refusing to teach evolution? BrownUniversity professor Ken Miller, co-author of one of the most widely used high school biology text books, will discuss the topic. We’ll also be joined by  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette science reporter David Templeton and a retired Connecticut teacher who wasn’t allowed to mention Charles Darwin’s name in class. And, is it possible to design chemicals that aren’t hazardous to the environment? YaleUniversity’s Paul Anastas thinks so. He’ll join us to talk about “Green Chemistry.”

Thursday: Suicide and Mental Health
In a report released last week, the CDC says that more people aged 35-64 die from suicide than from car accidents, and they have been since 2009. Suicide rates have risen dramatically for middle-aged Americans in the last 10 years, and the highest jump is for men aged 50-54. But, while suicide prevention efforts in America have focused primarily on adolescents and older adults, we’ve not placed as much emphasis on the more settled middle-aged group of mostly baby-boomers. Today we talk about what might be causing this rise, and look at how Connecticut lags behind in mental health screening for children.

 Friday: What’s Up With Stuff?
Go to your local big-box retailer and you can buy a t-shirt for a few bucks. In today’s economic climate, it’s not surprising that it was probably made in China. But think about that – an item that was touched by dozens of hands (or machines) from around the world can be yours for next-to-nothing. NPR’s Planet Money team is reporting on apparel manufacturing by following the story of their Planet Money t-shirt. We’ll be joined by NPR’s Alex Blumberg to talk about this project and about what it tells us about where our “stuff” comes from.

 

Coming Up! April 29 to May 3, 2013

MONDAY: Covering Trauma in the News
The mass murder in Newtown Connecticut raised many questions about how the media covers traumatic events – and how those same events may traumatize reporters.  In early April, before the Boston Marathon bombings, John Dankosky brought together a conversation with journalists who’ve covered violence at Central Connecticut State University.  Bruce Shapiro, executive director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma was joined by Tina Susman, national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, who has covered war in Iraq, Somalia and Rwanda; and WNPR reporter Jeff Cohen, who covered the Newtown shooting and its aftermath for NPR.  Listen as they discuss the media’s role and its boundaries when reporting on tragic events. And, we will assess the impact of this work on the journalists themselves.

 TUESDAY: Connecticut Library Association
Today we broadcast LIVE from Cromwell at the 122^nd annual Connecticut Library Association Conference. We’ll talk about how libraries create community, and how they are keeping up with today’s changing world. It’s a library party!

 WEDNESDAY: Learning Disabilities
For a parent with a child who has a learning disability, it can be hard to navigate the “minefield” of services, programming and placement. There are ongoing disputes between parents and teachers, and a push to integrate special education students into “regular” classrooms. Today, we talk about how schools are taking care of students with learning disabilities, and how parents can better know their rights.

 THURSDAY: Brazil
This Saturday is the seventh annual Samba Fest, a Brazilian music festival on the Riverfront Plaza in Hartford. Today, we will be talking about the importance of Samba music in Brazilian culture as well as Capoeira, the Brazilian dance and martial art form. We will also be speaking with the Ambassador from the Brazilian Consulate here in Hartford, to talk about the issues facing Brazilian communities in Connecticut.

 FRIDAY: Magazine
As the United States brings two Middle Eastern wars to a close, we’ll talk with Ryan Crocker. He served in Iraq before becoming ambassador to Afghanistan – a job he wrapped up last year. He’s speaking at a World Affairs Council event about his experiences and what the future looks like in that tumultuous region. We’ll preview that conversation. And New York state medical director and chief psychiatrist Lloyd Sederer joins us to talk about his new book The Family Guide to Mental Health Care: Advice on Helping Your Loved Ones. We’ll also talk to Baratunde Thurson. The former Director of Digital for The Onion is at the CT Forum this weekend for a panel of Funny Smart People.

 

Coming Up! April 22 to 26, 2013

Monday: Reflecting on Boston
What a week it was. Today at 2:50, Boston and all of New England will observe a moment of silence for the lives lost in the Boston Marathon bombing one week ago. A shocking event that terrorized a city during one of its greatest celebrations. The week that followed was filled with tension as the FBI and local law enforcement searched for suspects, motives, some answers. Then, the first real break with the release of pictures, showing two brothers – Cambridge residents, ethnic Chechens as the suspects. We woke up Friday morning to stories of gun battles with police – another cop dead, one suspect dead, and terror and explosions in the streets of Watertown. A city shut down – silent for a day. Then, the dramatic capture of 19-year old Dzhokar Tsarnaev. Today, where we live, Colin Mc Enroe joins us to try to make sense of what we learned, and what’s next.

 Tuesday: Psyched About Science
How is science serving us? And how do we keep kids interested in the field? Those are the big questions we’re tackling today on the program with a panel of scientists and educators. Arturo Casadevall joins us to preview his upcoming talk about the role of science in our society. We’ll talk to a high school science teacher-of-the-year, as well as  “science evangelist”   Ainissa Ramirez, author of Save Our Science: How to Inspire a New Generation of Scientists.

 Wednesday: State Budget and Pensions
While some states prioritized the funding of public pensions to a level able to withstand the financial crisis of 2008, most states will have trouble covering the long-term costs of employee pensions and health care for public sector retirees as baby boomers retire. While states like Connecticut are slowly enacting reforms to meet these demands, questions remain over how we got to this point, and how best to move forward. Are pension benefits too generous or are states not adequately funding pension promises made long ago. Is there really a crisis and if so, why are some states faring better than others?

Thursday: What’s in a Brand?
In the last few weeks, UConn has announced a new branding initiative, including a revamped Husky logo. This new Jonathan is meaner and fiercer looking than previous incarnations. So this got us thinking: what is a logo or brand supposed to do? What does it say about the organization it represents? We’ll look at some examples – both successes and failures. What are some of your favorite logos?

 Friday: U.S. History Through our “Tapestry” (rebroadcast)
The presidency of Barack Obama has been a milestone in America’s history of race: from a country whose Founding Fathers owned slaves to a black man in the White House.But while the Obama’s are seen as the first African American “first family” – their own racial history is much more complex.NY Times reporter Rachel Swarns details the complexity of the first lady’s ancestral history in her book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama.Swarns told NPR about reaching out to the distant white relatives of Mrs. Obama.“You can imagine what it might be like if someone were to knock on your door and say, hi, I think your family owned the first lady’s family,” she said.We’ll talk with Swarns about her book and with NPR’s Michele Norris. She’s written a book about her own ancestry called The Grace of Silence. She also curates The Race Card Project, which gathers six-word submissions from people on race.The project started during the book tour for The Grace of Silence. “I knew that people are often uncomfortable with this subject, so I thought I would make it easier by quite literally playing the race card,” Norris said. She printed off postcards and asked people to share whatever they wanted about race. But they could only use six words.

Coming up! April 15 to 19, 2013

MONDAY: Health Equity
Connecticut – and the rest of the country – suffers from big disparities in health outcomes based on race and income level.  That was the topic of our first Health Equity Forum. We’ll listen to our conversation about inequalities in how health care is distributed in Connecticut, what can be done to resolve the imbalance in access and treatment – and why should this matter to us all?

TUESDAY: Tragedy at the Boston Marathon
Patriot’s Day in Boston is a regional holiday and a citywide celebration. Thousands line the streets between Hopkinton and the Back Bay….The Red Sox play a morning game at Fenway…and the Boston Marathon becomes the center of the sporting world. Today, it’s the center of a massive investigation into two bombings that took place only seconds apart – around 2:50 yesterday afternoon. What we do know is that more than 100 people were hurt – many very badly – by powerful explosions and shrapnel in the form of metal ball bearings. Some lost limbs…as of right now, 3 have lost their lives, including Martin Richard, an 8 year old from Dorchester. His mother and sister are among those wounded. Blocks of the city are a crime scene – The FBI is investigating and treating this as a case of terrorism. Right now, there are no suspects…no arrests.

WEDNESDAY: Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery
Human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar a year industry, and it’s prevalent all over the world. Today, we’ll look at trafficking abroad with the director of the new documentary Not My Life, which will be screened Tuesday night at the Mark Twain House.  We’ll also preview an upcoming talk at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center on how to recognize and report human trafficking in our communities. And we’ll talk to the Hartbeat Ensemble about their upcoming play Riding the Turnpike, based on interviews with victims of sexual trafficking on the Berlin Turnpike.

THURSAY: Roz Savage
Roz Savage was a successful management consultant, when she stepped back, took stock of her life and decided she needed a change. Now, she’s the only woman to have rowed – solo – across all the major oceans. She’s also a prominent advocate for global sustainability. We’ll talk with her about the environment, and her daring adventures, and we’ll meet other future global leaders from the Yale World Fellows Program.

FRIDAY: Boston Marathon Bombing, Continued Coverage
WNPR ongoing coverage of the investigation and manhunt for Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev. As the search takes over the greater Boston area, it also has implications for Connecticut residents.

Language, Accents & “Code Switching”

By Tucker Ives

NPR’s Code Switch logo.

NPR is launching a new race, ethnicity, and culture blog called “Code Switch.” You may have heard Colin McEnroe reference it during fundraising segments this morning.

The term “code-switching” is originally linguistic and it’s described as “mixing languages and speech patterns in conversation.” Here’s how NPR’s Gene Demby introduces readers to code-switching. 

So why is this the name of a blog on race, ethnicity and culture?

We decided to call this team Code Switch because much of what we’ll be exploring are the different spaces we each inhabit and the tensions of trying to navigate between them. In one sense, code-switching is about dialogue that spans cultures. It evokes the conversation we want to have here.

This reminded me of a conversation we had on Where We Live back in 2010 with the great linguist, David Crystal. He joined us to talk about his book A Little Book of Language and we focused on the linguistic aspect of code-switching (although I don’t think we called it that).

Crystal has a very noticeable accent and John Dankosky asked him where it comes from:

Sounds a lot like code-switching, right? As you probably know, JD is a native of Pittsburgh and every now and then you can hear the accent. It is especially noticeable when he’s talking to someone else from Pittsburgh, like WNPR host Lucy Nalpathanchil:

This may not fit exactly into “code-switching” since both JD and Lucy are from Pittsburgh. But it is a very noticeable change in speech from how they normally talk today so hopefully it illustrates how our speech can change.

I’ll leave you with one last gem from David Crystal. He says people of every language engage in baby talk. Adults generally speak very differently to babies than they do with other adults.

 

Coming Up! April 8 to 12, 2012

MONDAY: Let’s Get Creative (rebroadcast)
We talk about creativity here on Where We Live every so often… it’s one of our favorite subjects. In fact, this year we’ll be partnering with Connecticut Creates – a consortium of creative people around the state – to have more of these conversations. Today’s “creative conversation” is thanks to two dozen high school students from Watkinson School in Hartford, who are all pursuing a creative arts diploma in music, film, theater, dance, visual arts, or writing. They wanted to come by WNPR for a visit, and we invited them to do more than that… we asked them to be a part of a conversation that focuses on the questions that interest them the most. They want to know how they can use creativity in their lives, and how they might be able to make successful artistic careers. They also want to talk about what makes good art, and how to hone their skills. So we’ve assembled a panel of “creative experts” to talk about just that. This year, we’ll be partnering with Connecticut Creates, a new collective of thinkers and doers, who are striving to spread creative thought across our state. So, where do you think creativity comes from? How do you tap into it in your own life?

 TUESDAY: Magazine Show: A Look At Pool Safety / A New CT Office of Early Childhood? / Exploring X and the City
Legislation is in the works to change safety standards for swim classes after two high school students drowned last year. Today we’ll look back on the drownings and talk with the state representative sponsoring the bill. Also, leading up to the Week of the Young Child, we will be joined by state officials to discuss the Governor’s proposed Office of Early Childhood. And we’ll talk with the author of “X and the City,” John A. Adam, about how we can understand cities through mathematical modeling.

 WEDNESDAY: College Ready
About 2/3 of students entering our community colleges and 1/5 of those entering state universities are placed in remedial and developmental math and English courses. Last year Gov. Malloy signed a new law into effect, “An Act Concerning College Readiness and Completion.” Among other things, it will give support to graduating high school seniors, to help them better prepare for college or the workforce. Coming up, we’ll talk remediation and look at the ways students are falling behind when it comes to college prep. And we’ll look at some programs that have been working in schools for years, getting students interested early.

 THURSDAY: Health Care Losses
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget proposal would eliminate Medicaid coverage for thousands of poor parents through the HUSKY A program, eliminate the state-run Charter Oak Health Plan and slash payments to hospitals, largely in response to implementation of new federal health reform provisions scheduled to start on Jan. 1, 2014. While the Malloy administration says that fewer patients will be uninsured once health reform rolls out, hospitals say they will still face financial challenges because many of the newly insured will be covered by Medicaid, which tends to pay less than treatment costs. And, the Connecticut Hospital Association warns that implementation of these cuts will result in job loss and “immediate and lasting damage.” At the same time, Consumer Reports just came out with their updated hospital safety ratings and found that while some hospitals are doing a really good job, some still aren’t safe enough. And guess what, Connecticut is home to one of the best, and one of the worst.

FRIDAY: Religion Roundtable
Today we talk about the new Pope and the future of the Catholic Church with a panel of theological thinkers. Chris Doucot joins us from the Hartford Catholic Worker. We’ll hear from the Knights of Columbus, and Yale Divinity School feminist Teresa Berger.

Coming Up! April 1 to 5, 2013

MONDAY: Small Business After Hours: Workforce Training
President Obama in his State of the Union address challenged us to come up with new ways to educate people in high school so they’re ready for the workforce. Is Connecticut ready, or poised to fall behind? Coming up on the next Where We Live, we broadcast our live small business project event about workforce training.

TUESDAY: Mayor Segarra // Egypt
Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra joins us to talk about Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and how he’s working to advocate for gun restrictions. Also, Egyptian-American journalist Sharif Abdel-Kouddous sits down to talk about his reporting on political unrest in Egypt. He’s in town to speak at Trinity College.

WEDNESDAY: Gun Legislation Finally?
Connecticut lawmakers have been slowly trying to gain bi-partisan agreement on a series of gun control measures in response to the Newtown shootings. This comes despite a strong push from Governor Malloy, and the fact that other states have already passed gun laws. Now, with the release of more information about shooter Adam Lanza, the legislature is finally about ready to vote. We’ll look at what gun control will look like – and how it compares with plans in other states and in Washington.

THURSDAY: Redefining Disability
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, and it’s gone a long way to ensure that those with disabilities have equal accessibility and are not discriminated against. But what’s emerged is a new community of disabled people who want to see a more inclusive society that doesn’t discriminate – but also doesn’t single people out as disabled. We’ll look at changing perceptions, how media and news coverage affect our views, and what’s next in the way we think about disabilities.

FRIDAY: HartFolk Festival Preview
We’ll preview this weekend’s HartFolk Festival being held at the University of Saint Joseph. It will feature 10 artists and groups from the region and we’ll hear from a few of them, including The Sea, The Sea, André Balazs, and Zoë Sundra. We’ll talk about their music and hear a few songs. In addition to musical performances, HartFolk will feature workshops on everything from finger-style guitar to yoga!