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PODCAST

Disrupted

Connecticut Public Radio

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-Dean creates a place where changemakers come together to help us see the world differently and challenge us

society & culture

All Episodes

49:00

The protests of 2020 were historic, but how much has...

Disrupted ·

2025/05/23

It has been five years since a Minneapolis Police Officer murdered George Floyd and the massive protest movement that followed. This hour, we’re reflecting on what has and has not changed in those five years. We'll look at the protests in historical context to try to understand the ways they succeeded and failed. We’ll also talk about whether have been changes in the rate of police violence since 2020. GUESTS: Alvin Tillery Jr.: Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of

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49:00

Often undervalued, student journalists play a vital...

Disrupted ·

2025/05/16

Student journalists have been in the spotlight in recent years. In 2024, amidst massive on-campus protests, people turned to student outlets like Columbia University’s WKCR for the most up to date reporting. But practicing journalism as a student comes with risks. Those risks have become even more clear in recent weeks. Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained in March after the Trump administration revoked her visa. U.S. District Judge William Sessions

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48:00

Bestselling cartoonist Thi Bui reflects on leaving...

Disrupted ·

2025/05/09

April 30th marked 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. The war looms large in U.S. culture— it’s been the subject of countless books and movies. These works have often focused on American soldiers, but not so much on the experiences of everyday Vietnamese people living through the war. Artist and writer Thi Bui’s 2017 bestselling graphic memoir The Best We Could Do started as an attempt to change that. It tells her family’s story of living through the war and ultimately

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41:10

The surprising history of sex and sexuality in America

Disrupted ·

2025/05/02

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 the present, as the saying goes. And according to historian Rebecca L. Davis, there are a lot of

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49:00

Oral histories preserve the stories of communities...

Disrupted ·

2025/04/25

Oral history preserves the past by recording people’s real voices. It’s not just about recording the stories people tell. It’s also about the way they tell them. Oral history is about memory and humanity. It’s a form of history that anyone can be a part of. This hour, we’re talking to two Connecticut residents about the stories they have preserved through oral history. Author and educator Mary Romney-Schaab talks about her father's experience as a Black person

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48:30

Representation on television from 'Julia' to 'City of...

Disrupted ·

2025/04/18

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 from Soul Train to Black-ish and Beyond, talks to us about shows centering Black characters from 1968's Julia up

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41:00

Julia Bullock and Terence Blanchard are changing how...

Disrupted ·

2025/04/11

Legendary trumpeter Terence Blanchard is the first Black composer to have had an opera performed at the Metropolitan Opera. But, as he says, he isn't the first Black composer qualified to do so. This hour, we talk to musicians who are changing the face of opera by bringing new stories to the fore. GUESTS: Terence Blanchard: Executive Artistic Director at SF Jazz and Multiple Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer. He has performed as part of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers and composed

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49:00

The legacy of the Harlem Renaissance

Disrupted ·

2025/04/04

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 much so that it’s often considered the start of the period known as the Harlem Renaissance. The

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49:00

Martha S. Jones explores racial identity by looking...

Disrupted ·

2025/03/28

Historian Martha S. Jones was looking through a book one day when she found a section mentioning her grandfather. It referred to her grandfather as white. But in reality, her grandfather’s father was a free man of color, and his mother was born enslaved. This wasn’t the first time her family’s racial identity was questioned, so she started writing down her version of her family’s history. It's that history, and her family's relationship to racial identity, that she explores

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49:00

COVID has exacerbated existing inequities in race and...

Disrupted ·

2025/03/21

Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Since that time, the world has changed dramatically, from the way we think about public health to the way we socialize to the way we watch movies. But those changes haven't had the same impact on everyone. This hour, we’re talking about COVID-19’s impact on existing inequities. We talk about the diverse experiences of disabled people over the last five years, and take a broader look at the history of

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49:00

Why mothering is 'Essential Labor' with Angela Garbes

Disrupted ·

2025/03/14

This hour on Disrupted, we're challenging long-held assumptions about parents and caregivers. First, Angela Garbes, author of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, explains how care workers are undervalued. She touches on the way the early days of the pandemic spotlighted issues in caregiving and why the legacy of American colonialism in the Philippines influenced both her family history and the disproportionate number of Filipinx nurses who died from COVID. Then, UConn professor Kari

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49:00

To understand homeownership inequities today,...

Disrupted ·

2025/03/07

Bernadette Atuahene initially moved to Detroit, Michigan to study squatters rights. But she discovered a more urgent issue once there— that many Black residents were losing their homes. The reason was property tax foreclosure, and it came as a result of property taxes that were illegally inflated. It’s one of several racist housing policies that shapes who does or doesn’t have generational wealth in the U.S. This hour, we’re talking about government policies that impact the

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49:00

What Black History Month means in today’s political...

Disrupted ·

2025/02/28

Every February, the United States celebrates Black History Month. But this year, the celebration might feel a bit different. On January 31st, the Department of Defense announced it would no longer use official resources to celebrate cultural awareness months, including Black History Month, which began the following day. That announcement came after the Trump administration's rollback of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives within the federal government. This hour, we’re joined by a

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49:00

The power of books in prison with poet Reginald...

Disrupted ·

2025/02/21

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 Dwayne, and other incarcerated people, those books can be a lifeline— a connection to

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49:00

From romance to organizing, a look at how love can be...

Disrupted ·

2025/02/14

When you think about love, what comes to mind? Maybe a movie like Love Actually or Love & Basketball. Maybe Dolly Parton or Whitney Houston singing "I Will Always Love You." Love shows up a lot in our pop culture— but what about in our politics? The relationships we build…the people we love…the way we treat each other…all of that can be political. This hour, we hear about the importance of love in political organizing and the way even our most intimate relationships

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48:30

Actor and director Brandon J. Dirden says art is...

Disrupted ·

2025/02/07

Brandon J. Dirden is an actor and director who has appeared in TV shows like The Americans and plays like the Tony Award-winning All The Way (he played Martin Luther King Jr. alongside Bryan Cranston as Lyndon B. Johnson). He's also a director — most recently of Yale Repertory Theatre’s production of Eden. The play takes place in 1920s Manhattan. It focuses on two families living in the same apartment building. Eustace Baylor comes from the south and falls in love with Anetta Barton

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41:32

How the legacies of James Baldwin and Martin Luther...

Disrupted ·

2025/01/31

James Baldwin and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were two of the most influential thinkers of the Civil Rights Movement. This hour, we reflect on their legacies as we think about our present political moment. Kyle Bass wrote the play Citizen James, or the Young Man Without a Country, which will be performed in Hartford in February. It portrays a young James Baldwin at an inflection point in his life, before he became a renowned writer. And Randal Maurice Jelks is the Ruth N. Halls Professor

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47:30

How young politicians are working toward change

Disrupted ·

2025/01/24

This hour, we listen back to our episode 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, Gabriel Francis Paz Goodenough. Then, Layla Zaidane is President and CEO of Future

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49:00

New Haven nonprofit leader Erik Clemons on community,...

Disrupted ·

2025/01/17

Martin Luther King Jr. Day is designated as a National Day of Service to encourage people to volunteer and improve their communities. But those communities' needs don’t end when the day of service ends. Here in Connecticut, people like Erik Clemons work year round to improve the communities they care about. Erik is the CEO of New Haven-based nonprofit Connecticut Center for Arts and Technology (ConnCAT), which offers job training and youth programs. He is also the CEO of Connecticut Community

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67:55

Untangling the complexities of U.S. history in the...

Disrupted ·

2025/01/10

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 to learn what it's like to teach and study the past in all its complexity in today's polarized political

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262 results

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