New London Rocks

Where We Live staged the most elaborate, community-builiding live music event we've tried so far. We highlighted the thriving music scene in New London, with an interview about the city's music scene, an old-time banjo band and a country-tinged duo.

(The photo is by WNPR intern Chion Wolf - it shows Where We Live technical director George Goodrich with the band The Can Kickers)

Connecticut students look for in-state tuition

Here's the story that the folks from my "Writing For The Ear" class are reporting on this week. WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil is covering the continuing story of undocumented students in Connecticut and the attempt to get them in-state tuition rates.

The story's been covered by The Hartford Courant extensively this week. Mark Spencer's story in the paper includes an interesting reader survey. As of the time of this writing, some 80 percent of people responding said "No" to the idea.

Clearly, this sort of survey isn't scientific, but the reaction to an obviously sympathetic article is surprising.

(The photo is from The Hartford Courant)

On a roll...

WNPR's Where We Live had a really good couple of weeks. Our producers put together an amazing series of guests and ideas. Two of Connecticut's leading pollsters came in to talk about the ever-expanding importance of polls - especially to the already heated 2008 Presidential campaign.

The next day - we talked about AIDS in Africa and the U.S. through the lens of an acclaimed play, an important documentary, and a current conversation.

Elizabeth Wurtzel, the author of the best-selling confessional Prozac Nation joined us to talk about depression, writing, and what's she's doing at Yale Law School. Her new writing ideas are coming from her experience in Manhattan during 9/11.

That event - which killed thousands, and wrecked Elizabeth Wurtzel's nearby apartment building - also led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Clark Kent Ervin was the agency's first inspector general. What he uncovered about the department got this long-time Republican "dis-invited" from his job, and led him on a new career, writing about the current threats to America. He talks about his deep disagreements with the Bush Administration.

Author Susan Eaton and attorneys John Brittain and Wes Horton helped us uncover the history and look ahead to the future of the desegregation case Sheff v. O'Neill. Eaton's astounding book, The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial chronicles the case from the beginning, and updates it with the story of students struggling in Hartford's failing schools.

Finally, Filmmaker Ken Burns visited to talk about his upcoming documentary "The War" - to be seen on PBS stations in September. There's a reason why people like his movies. It's pretty clear he really cares about history, and knows it cold.

"Your skin would feel like it's burning..."

David Kestenbaum is a great storyteller. He's a trained physicist who does science reporting because he seems to truly love putting a human face on stuffy scientists.

In this story about a new, experimental, non-lethal weapon he uses some great techniques that we can all apply to our radio reporting. He sets up the story with a "host intro" that really makes us want to listen.

Then, he starts his copy with a very simple technique...he goes back "to the beginning" where the technology was still young. He's found a way to illustrate just what the ray-gun does by using a personal experience of someone who helped build it, and who's been hit by it. We "feel" it in a way we wouldn't if the reporter just explained what he "heard" it felt like.