Real talk, Real people

We hear a lot about the bad things that young people are doing. But there are many young people striving to do things that help make their communities a better and safer place to live. My guest today is Daniel Hunt. He is the newest member of the Hamden Human Services Commission. For the past several years, Daniel has been creating programs in New Haven that include building relations with police...

We're jumping into the year 2022 to give young Black men about to graduate high school a heads up on scholarship money that could be theirs. My guest today is Ed Stowe Jr. He is the vice chairman of scholarships for the Fairfield County chapter of Alpha Psi Alpha. He says his fraternity has four $2,500 scholarships to give away but many times has a hard time finding young men to apply. What are th...

There are a lot of mix-messages about COVID-19, with conflicting information coming from many sources. My guest today is Dr. Heidi Zapata, an infectious disease doctor at Yale University's School of Medicine.    She is here to talk candidly about the virus, where we stand on getting people vaccinated, the effectiveness of the different vaccines and what  potentially lies ahead.&nbsp...

There is a crisis brewing in New Haven that potentially affects Black and brown people seeking mental health treatment at the Connecticut Mental Health Center. Officials' plan to bring in armed police and add surveillance. This has the advocacy group Hamden Action Now calling the impending policy change a veiled attempt for more control of Black and Brown communities. My guests today are Rhonda Ca...

New Haven resident Alessia Mesquita, 28, is the latest woman to lose her life to domestic violence. Police say she was shot dead by her boyfriend while she was with their 1 year old child. My column this past Sunday in Hearst CT newspapers is about domestic violence because it has become more deadlier than ever.  We’re going to listen to Corrinna Martin, the founder of Mothers of Victim Equal...

We've had some interesting women on the show during the last 16 months. They have talked about everything from breast cancer to solitary confinement to mental health to how to get a better handle on your finances. We decided to end National Women’s Month with three of our guests who talked about the importance of healthy eating, being the boss and Black self-identity.  They are respectively,...

Black women have been making a difference around the country fighting social issues that affect black communities -- and Hamden resident Kimberly Washington is no exception. Eight years ago, she founded the nonprofit "Mothers Demand Action" to bring attention to gun violence in her community and rallied mothers from around New Haven County to her cause. Real talk caught up with Kimberly at Hamden...

What does it take to be a good father? My guest is Dr. David Lee Asbery, the founder of Fixing Fathers, Inc., a Hamden-based start-up company on a mission to fix fathers -- one dad at a time. He says men don't have to be perfect dads but they do have to be committed to being good dads. There are more than 4 million Black children in the U.S. The majority are growing up with a father in the home bu...

Guns, guns, guns. A lot of attention falls on the illegal use of guns in the Black community. But owning a gun legally is a Second Amendment right given to all Americans, although, it isn't talked about much in the Black community.  My guest today is Norwalk resident William Hampton, owner of Train Safe Academy. A gun enthusiast and member of several gun organizations, he teaches classes on the re...

It's been nearly a year since Barbara Fair brought her campaign to end the inhuman treatment of Connecticut prisoners to Real talk, Real people.   And now, her advocacy on behalf of prisoners has helped bring about the closure of the Northern Correctional Institution in Somers. The United Nations stated in a report that methods used at the prison seemed to be "a state-sanctioned policy aimed...

My guest today is Dwayne Jackson, one of 45 volunteers for CASA, an acronym for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Southern Connecticut. The mission of CASA is to recruit and train adults to safeguard the best interests of children who have been abused or neglected in New Haven, New London and Middlesex counties.  Jackson is here to tell us why we should get involved and become a volunteer with...

The conversation is about legalizing marijuana in Connecticut and this is a critical week to talk about it. Gov. Lamont is expected to include marijuana legislation in his budget on Wednesday. My guest today is Adam Wood, co-director of the Committee to Regulate Marijuana in Connecticut. Wood joins Real talk, Real people to tell us why Connecticut should legalize marijuana and his reasoning goes b...

The conversation this week is our ongoing look at being Black in Connecticut. My guest is 29-year-old Bridgeport resident Avery Tillery. Avery says many of the problems in the Black community can be solved through reparations. And he believes reparations are needed in all areas of the Black community where, he says, inequality has led to such wrongs as children working to help pay bills.  He...

What does being Black in Connecticut mean to its Black citizens? And what do we need to do to better our lives and have stronger communities? My guest this week is Bridgeport resident Sharaya Smith. She says the first step Blacks must take is to find their identity. 

When I was a kid, the name Martin Luther King, Jr. was like an electric current running through Black neighborhoods. The March on Washington had galvanized the civil rights movement and Black people could not stop talking about King's "I Have a Dream" speech and the real possibility that a change was going to come. It’s been nearly 58 years since King’s iconic speech and his unifying vision but as...

I thought COVID-19 had shown us the worse it could bring but I was wrong. The virus is raging stronger than ever and the death tolls are at unprecedented levels here in the U.S.  As of Friday, the U.S. was averaging 247,200 new cases a day and averaging 2,982 deaths per day.  Whether you agree or disagree with taking the vaccine available, you should understand the pros and cons. And for...

We finally have our own website. Our new podcasts will now be uploaded to jameswalkermedia.com --- but we will continue to also upload them here for a period of time.  A little more than a year ago, Real talk, Real people put out its first podcast. It took about five months before people began to show interest, but little by little, we began to pick up more listeners. We decided to add a...

Wow. What a year it has been. Who could have imagined that a virus would not only become the dominant story of the year, but bully its way through a nation mired in chaotic social upheaval to take over the way we live, work and socialize? It was a year of protests, rioting, looting and shooting -- all which took a back seat to COVID-19. We talked about all those issues with everyday people sharing...

What does it mean to have faith -- and how far can it carry you during dark periods in your life? My guest is the Rev. Alfred Smith of Macedonia Baptist Church in Ansonia.  He said it was his faith that kept him strong during a year in which his left foot was amputated, family members died from COVID-19 and between the surgery and recovery time, spent 117 days alone due to the virus. He said...

If 2020 has done nothing else, it has reinforced my fear of being old and stuck in a nursing home.  The CT Adult Family Living Program offers an alternative for those people who wish to stay home by paying a family member, loved one or home aid to take of them. My guest is Monica Perry, a soft spoken, longtime home health care worker. She has spent 40 plus years caring for others.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I am frustrated with people who refuse to wear a mask in public even as COVID-19 resurges more deadlier than ever. Deaths nationwide may exceed 300,000 before Christmas.   This is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year but I have never known the news to be so grim. I also have never known people to be so callous and have such disregard for the v...

I know what they say in front of the cameras and what they say when they stand at a podium delivering a speech. But has anyone tried to contact Democrats U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal with a problem?  I did.  They are two of the most recognizable “liberal” names in politics.  I guess that is why I was bitterly disappointed by the response or lac...

As we look forward to Thanksgiving, we here at Real talk, Real people have a lot to be thankful for. We have been up and running for more than a year. October 25th was our anniversary and as we head into the new year, we have a lot of changes coming that will offer more than our podcast. These changes include the launch of a new website -- jameswalkermedia.com, -- which will have content such as m...

My guest this week is Brock Bacote, a New Haven resident. He had just been released from the Brooklyn Correctional Institute 3 days when this conversation took place. I wanted to talk to Brock to get an idea what it is like being locked up and in close quarters with other inmates after learning about COVID-19.

A lot of people are having a hard time feeding the body what it needs to stay healthy and obesity is a huge problem. My name is Kelly Gruber, the outpatient dietitian at Yale New Haven Health-Bridgeport Hospital.  She is here to brush us up on what nutrition is and how to use key food groups to stay healthy.