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.
