Where We Live

Conley Monk Jr. came home to Hamden in 1970 after serving in the Vietnam War. His discharge was prompted by a PTSD-induced altercation in Okinawa, and categorized within the military as "other-than-honorable." Mr. Monk spent decades trying to access basic benefits like disability coverage, until  his appeal in 2015  ultimately changed how these kinds of cases are heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals...

While contestants with Connecticut ties have appeared on the reality competition series RuPaul's Drag Race in the past, the Season 15 premiere on MTV marks the first time more than one Connecticut drag queen has been represented. Robin Fierce from Hartford, Loosey LaDuca from Ansonia, Amethyst from West Hartford and Jax from the Bronx, raised in Connecticut, comprised this season's Connecticut con...

How are museums where we live faring in returning sacred Indigenous objects and human remains, more than thirty years after a federal law mandated "repatriation"? The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, was passed by Congress in 1990. It called for federal agencies and federally-funded museums to repatriate Native American cultural items, including sacred objects and...

Today on Where We Live, Governor Ned Lamont joins us for an in-depth conversation on the 2023 legislative session and what’s happening around our state. We hear about his priorities for his second term in office. We’ll talk about housing, road safety, healthcare, and all the issues that are impacting us where we live. And we want to give you the opportunity to ask our state’s top official your que...

A new docuseries called  Stepping Into the Shade  is in the works, digging into Connecticut's history of shade tobacco farming. A team at Eastern Connecticut State University, along with host and producer June Archer, tell a kind of oral history of the influence of the seasonal workers on these farms, and their influence on diversity where we live as well as the Civil Rights Movement. This hour, w...

Connecticut author and lawyer Anne Howard  is known for her work writing true crime, but her recent book is a departure from her prior work. Today, we talk about her new book that she worked to translate, entitled  Escape from Mariupol: A Survivor's True Story.   Anne first met Adoriana Marik through mutual friends. They exchanged letters, and Adoriana sent her hand-drawn cards and other artwork o...

The American Library Association released their  annual tally for book challenges in 2022  on Thursday. There were more than 1200 demands to censor library books and resources last year. That’s the highest number they've reported since they began reporting more than 20 years ago, and nearly double the tally in 2021, when the ALA told us those numbers were  "unprecedented." Librarians where we live...

The Peace Corps has evolved over years,  faced controversy  and has made an international impact on poverty. Today, we talk to one of the  architects of the Peace Corps living in Connecticut . After hearing President John F. Kennedy speak about the Peace Corps, Dan Sharp was inspired to join. He became instrumental in establishing diplomatic relations between other countries and making the Peace C...

Connecticut’s waste management crisis is already a top-ticket item for lawmakers. Before the latest legislative session began, newly-appointed Environmental Committee Chair State Sen. Rick Lopes told the CT Examiner he was focused on finding solutions. The State Dept. of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) has been sounding the alarm since 2020 , when Commissioner Katie Dykes said the dwind...

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 se...

Willard Correctional Institution in Enfield will be the third prison in Connecticut to close in two years. Connecticut Mirror's Jaden Edison  reports  that prison admissions have decreased by more than 11,600 people since 2013. "The most recent increase came in the last fiscal year, when admissions rose by more than 4,300 people," Edison says, "though the numbers are far below pre-pandemic levels....

Connecticut is in the midst of a housing crisis. About 34 percent of residents are paying more than a third of their income to housing costs. That’s according to the Connecticut Mirror. From subsidizing construction to studying rent stabilization, lawmakers are currently figuring out how to best address the state’s housing crisis. Rent caps were one of the many housing-related policies being debat...

Where do our clothes come from? According to the Textile Exchange,  52% of our clothes are made from polyester. Fast fashion is  an enormous industry,  allowing us to purchase low cost clothing quickly and efficiently. But the  toll these companies take on the environment is significant, and the workplace conditions for the factories  that create these products are questionable at best. Building s...

Some 2,500 local newspapers have closed in the United States since 2005, 55 of which were in Connecticut. Researchers at the Northwestern Medill Local News Initiative have  mapped out gaps in local coverage , marking "news deserts" across the country, including our own Tolland County, Connecticut's "quiet corner." Still, there are 20 online news organizations, 13 ethnic media outlets, and five pub...

After collecting oral histories from generations of women in her family in "My Little Red Book," Rachel Kauder Nalebuff created  Our Red Book , an extended project reflecting the experience of people of all races, ages and genders around the world. But there’s so much stigma and misinformation around periods. This hour, three Connecticut-based contributors featured in her book join us, breaking do...

When you’re searching for personal care products, whether a bar of soap or a bottle of lotion, are you reading the ingredients label? What harmful ingredients should be avoided? A  recent study from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute  found potential links between the regular use of hair straightening products like relaxers that contained "formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing chemical...

After losing the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump made false claims about voter fraud, reigniting efforts from Republicans to restrict voting access across the country. States like Florida, Texas, and Georgia all have passed sweeping voting restrictions. But here in Connecticut, the opposite has been true. There's been a push to   expand voting access, after residents voted overwhelmingly...

Eric Jacobsen is completing his  final season with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony.  Today on Where We Live, we talk to Eric about his work as a conductor and we’ll also hear about the search for the  next Greater Bridgeport Symphony conductor. The performing art took a huge financial hit during the pandemic, but the Greater Bridgeport Symphony  found a way to gather and perform during this time....

Pay transparency is a growing movement across the United States. Connecticut adopted its own legislation in the form of “An Act Concerning the Disclosure of Salary Ranges,” which went into effect on October 1, 2021.Today we talk about the types of pay transparency, the challenges that come with it, and what companies are doing to lessen the anxiety of talking about pay. We hear from the VP of Comp...

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 prof...

he rate of deaths caused by domestic violence in Connecticut hasn't changes much over several decades, averaging 14 intimate partner homicides per year. What has changed is the  degree of lethality of these events.  When they do occur, they are more aggressive and have an increased risk of being fatal. This hour, we’ll hear from the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence. We’ll learn abou...

There have been more than 80 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year, according to the  Gun Violence Archive . But gun violence isn’t just limited to mass shootings. Every day,  hundreds of Americans  are shot in murders, suicides, and more. In Connecticut, there are some of the strongest gun laws in the U.S. Yet gun violence continues to rock communities across the state. While Governor Ned L...

The Environmental Protection Agency recently launched  a new office  dedicated to environmental justice and civil rights. EPA administrator Michael Regan says the 200-person office was needed to elevate the fight for overlooked communities, who are too-often left vulnerable to pollution, contamination, or as one guest notes, "food apartheid." There are plans to distribute $3 billion in grant money...

We just passed the one marker of the war in Ukraine. President Biden’s recent trip abroad  signified the United States’ support of Ukraine, but experts are saying that the end of the war is not in sight.  Americans are divided on how involved our country should be in the war effort.  Would you like to see the United States increase military aid for Ukraine? Today, we talk to members of the Ukraini...

Of the millions of people working in STEM fields in the U.S., only 9% are Black,  according to the Pew Research Center.  Those numbers are "unchanged" since 2016. How can efforts around “inclusivity” in these fields go farther? Environmental scientist Dr. Nyeema Harris has written about the importance of Blackology. “Blackologists are not simply scholars that are Black but, rather, are scholars wh...