Disrupted

In recent years, politicians across the U.S. have been debating what history should be taught in the classroom. Connecticut is no exception to these debates— a 2022 press conference announcing a planned Native Studies curriculum in Connecticut's public schools turned tense when questions around the specifics of the program came up. This hour, we’re talking to historians and educators t...

The Disrupted  team is welcoming the new year by choosing a couple of the episodes we loved from 2024. We have so many favorites that we couldn't reair all of them, but these are some of the ones that we wanted to listen back to. This week, host Khalilah-Brown Dean chose our interview with author Amy Tan. Amy is best known for popular novels like The Joy Luck Club and its 1993 film adaptation...

The Disrupted team is welcoming the new year by choosing a couple of the episodes we loved from 2024. We have so many favorites that we couldn't reair all of them, but these are some of the ones that we wanted to listen back to. This week, producer Kevin Chang Barnum chose our interview with James Forman Jr. The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world. And Black peo...

In March of 1924, more than 100 Black and white attendees were at a dinner party in downtown Manhattan. The party was organized by prominent thinkers Charles S. Johnson and Alain Locke and included people like W.E.B. DuBois. Their goal was to bring together Harlem’s young Black writers with white publishers to help the writers’ work find a national audience. The party was a success. So...

We hear a lot of of debate around sex and sexuality from our political leaders these days. Proposed legislation in areas like reproductive rights and education are constantly in the news. And while that debate may seem intense today, it isn’t new. Americans have long argued over which kinds of sex are, and aren’t “acceptable.” You need to understand the past to understand t...

Poet Reginald Dwayne Betts was part of a carjacking in a Virginia mall parking lot when he was 16 years old. He was charged as an adult and sentenced to 9 years in prison. Dwayne was released in 2005. Today, he’s a lawyer and award-winning poet. He’s also the founder and CEO of a nonprofit organization called Freedom Reads . It provides handcrafted bookcases full of brand new books to prisons. For...

Poet Crystal Wilkinson says people are always surprised to hear that there are Black people in Appalachia. That’s despite the fact that two million Black people live in the region. The Black presence in Appalachia goes all the way back to the time of enslavement. And Crystal’s own family is a part of that history— her relatives Aggy and Tarlton Wilkinson were an interracial couple there in the ear...

Actress Anna Deavere Smith is known for her roles on TV series like The West Wing , Nurse Jackie and Black-ish . She’s also the playwright and performer behind more than fifteen one-woman shows including the Tony-nominated Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 and the new This Ghost of Slavery: A Play of Past and Present . She writes scripts based on her interviews with real people in a style she pioneered...

This year, Michael Morand, director of community engagement for Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, was appointed New Haven's official city historian. We return to our conversation with him about bringing New Haven’s history to life and the exhibit he collaborated on at the New Haven Museum . The exhibit includes years of Michael's research as part of The Yale and Slavery Research Pr...

This hour, we learn about some of the ways that millennial and gen z politicians are making their mark on the U.S. Up first, Brandon Scott is the youngest mayor of Baltimore in more than 100 years. A new documentary film called The Body Politic  follows Mayor Scott during his first term in office, focusing on his campaign to reduce gun violence. We are joined by that film's director and producer,...

In her new book Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal , Dr. Bettina Love says that Black public school students like her in the 1980s and 1990s were "labeled disposable because of our zip code, test scores, and Black skin." Dr. Love is this year's winner of the Stowe Prize for Literary Activism. She joins us to explain how she sees anti-Black racism baked in...

Disrupted  is about the changes we all encounter and the forces driving those changes. Some disruptions spark joy and possibility. Others move us to take action and re-evaluate our world. But the show isn't just about those disruptions; it’s about embracing them, exploring new perspectives, and feeling more connected to ourselves and our communities. Host and political scientist Khalilah Brown-Dea...

The United States imprisons more people than any other country in the world. And Black people bear the burdens of mass incarceration the most. In 2019, Connecticut was one of seven states where Black people were incarcerated at over nine times the rate of white people. That’s according to an analysis done by The Sentencing Project. These problems aren't new, but they also aren't going away. Pulitz...

If you've never spent time in Appalachia, your idea of the region might be shaped by what you see in media like vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy and its subsequent movie adaptation. But many popular depictions of Appalachia ignore its rich diversity. This hour, we talk to people who grew up in Appalachia to go beyond the stereotypes. Neema Avashia discusses h...

According to a Washington Post analysis , from 2021 to 2023, states passed 70 laws restricting education about race, sex and gender. In the four years before that, states passed zero such restrictions. That change accompanies a wave of criticism of U.S. universities brought forward by politicians like Vice Presidential Nominee JD Vance. This, hour, we look into what is behind these attacks on educ...

For years, Dr. Jonathan Metzl thought about gun violence as a public health issue. His approach treated it like an epidemic and treated guns as a health risk. But as he studied a mass shooting that happened near where he lives in Nashville, he realized he had been missing something crucial for years— the cultural power of guns. He joins us to talk about his new book, What We’ve Become: Living and...

Author Amy Tan is best known for popular novels like The Joy Luck Club and its 1993 film adaptation . The book and movie explore several mother-daughter relationships — some of which were shaped by Amy’s own experiences. Amy’s latest book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles , hits close to home in a different way. In it, she brings the birds in her backyard to life with humor and tragedy through observa...

This hour, we are returning to conversations about the stories we see represented on the small screen. Elizabeth Ito is the creator of ' City of Ghosts ' and also worked on Adventure Time . She'll discuss using people's real voices in her work and covering topics like gentrification on a series that children watch. Bethonie Butler, author of ' Black TV: Five Decades of Groundbreaking Television fr...

This year, Michael Morand, director of community engagement for Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, was appointed New Haven's official city historian. We talk with him about bringing New Haven’s history to life and the exhibit he collaborated on at the New Haven Museum . The exhibit includes years of Michael's research as part of The Yale and Slavery Research Project documenting Yale...

Listening to the news, it feels like there are more natural disasters than ever. This hour, we return to conversations about why flooding and droughts are becoming so common and how the word "disaster" affects the way we view an event. First, Connecticut State Historian Andy Horowitz explains why understanding disasters involves looking at the decisions people made before the devastation, sometime...

Disrupted will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, as we prepare for the election, we are bringing you some highlights from the New Hampshire Public Radio series ' Civics 101 .'  Why Vote, And How To Do It The United States is supposed to be a representative democracy. We vote for our leaders, and those leaders represent our interests. But the impact of your vote isn't always...

Disrupted will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, as we prepare for the election, we are bringing you some highlights from the New Hampshire Public Radio series ' Civics 101 .' Are We A Democracy Or A Republic? Civics 101 has a tagline: we’re a show about the basics of how our democracy works. And there’s a complaint we get pretty often around here, that our tagline contains...

This week on Disrupted , we dive deep into one of the wildest election cycles in recent history. Journalist and editorial director for Mother Jones , Jamilah King, offers her take on some of the latest political developments. We also discuss Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy with Higher Heights for America, an organization that supports Black women in politics. You can also watch  Disrupted...

This hour, we listen back to conversations with people who think a lot about religion— both their own experiences and how it impacts society. NPR National Political Correspondent Sarah McCammon grew up in Kansas City as an Evangelical. Her book, The Exvangelicals - Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church tells her story and the story of others who felt disenchanted by the movement...

This hour, we explore Connecticut music. Violinist Kersten Stevens recently released a jazz album that she worked on with eight-time Grammy winner Christian McBride. She talks to us about facing imposter syndrome and how her unique sound came out of her experience playing a wide range of genres while growing up in Connecticut. Qiana Coachman-Strickland, also known as " DJ Q-Boogie," discusses her...