Disrupted

When people think of craft, certain images might come to mind, like knitting in a rocking chair by a warm fireplace. People often think of it as a quiet, solitary activity— one that doesn’t make much of a public statement. But crafts like knitting can be radical. The rocking chair by the fireplace isn’t just quiet and solitary— it can also be a site of real political change.

This ho...

A number of student groups and grassroots organizations recently called for a day of “No work, no school, no shopping,” to protest immigration enforcement in Minnesota. This comes at a time when consumers are used to seeing reasons not to support certain brands or companies, and worker strikes are up around the country.

This hour, we take a look at labor strikes and economic boycotts, when they...

The Greater Hartford Gives Foundation invests in a wide range of projects from arts to education. And they recently celebrated their 100th year in existence. With that milestone, they decided to make some changes. Their projects include building a new headquarters and increased funding for scholarships. Even the name is new— until recently, the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation was known as the Hartf...

Krystal Marquis’ debut novel, The Davenports, came out in 2023. The novel centers on four Black women navigating their careers and romances in 1910 Chicago. The book deals with class, race and gender, and it quickly joined New York Times’ bestsellers list for Young Adult Hardcover fiction. A second book, The Davenports: More Than This, was also a bestseller. And the popularity of the series may...

Every February, the United States celebrates Black History Month. But in recent years, the celebration might have felt a bit different.

On January 31, 2025, 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 Dive...

When was the last time you dabbled in something? In this episode of Disrupted, author Karen Walrond talks about the joys of dabbling and the space where dabbling and activism meet. She shares how trying activities like sports, pottery or baking—even if you're not good at them—can expand our definition of self.

We also visit Jason Ramos' New Haven dance studio, Baila Con Gusto CT, where dab...

Disrupted recently reached a milestone— five years on the air. We celebrated with a live event that included a panel discussion on “Finding Joy and Purpose in Turbulent Times.” Panelists Erik Clemons and Ryan Parker opened up about the duality between joy and turbulence in their lives, and Ryan gave us a stirring performance of his poetry.

GUESTS:

• Erik Clemons: CEO and President of ...

Connecticut’s Clean Slate law passed in 2021. The law aims to erase certain convictions from people’s records after a period of time. It was initially scheduled to go into effect in January of 2023, but the program faced delays. This hour, we'll take a look at where things stand with Clean Slate today.

We'll also hear from Joe Soss and Joshua Page. Their recent book is Legal Plunder: The Predat...

The United Nations General Assembly is currently in its 80th session. This hour we look at the status of the organization today, and the challenges it faces.

Plus, historian Thant Myint-U has a new book out about his grandfather, U Thant, who was the UN’s first non-European secretary-general, and a leading ambassador of peace during the Cold War. Myint-U joins us to talk about his grandfather's role ...

According to Amnesty International, 15 countries used the death penalty in 2024. The United States was one of those countries. Capital punishment is illegal in 23 states and isn’t used in some of the states where it is legal. But the United States still executed 25 people in 2024 and nearly twice as many people in 2025.

But amidst all the statistics and lofty arguments for and against, it’s imp...

Many people remember #MeToo from when it went viral in 2017. And before the hashtag, there was the Me Too movement, started by activist Tarana Burke 20 years ago as a way to support survivors of sexual violence, especially Black women and girls.

This hour, we’re reflecting on what has changed since the height of the Me Too movement. We'll discuss everything from policy to social media.

GUESTS:

• ...

The Disrupted team is welcoming the new year by choosing a couple of the episodes we loved from 2025. 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 episode on student journalism.

Student journalists have been in the spotlight in recent years. In 2024, amidst massive on-camp...

The Disrupted team is welcoming the new year by choosing a couple of the episodes we loved from 2025. 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 journalist and author Megan Greenwell.

Megan Greenwell's book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the Am...

The way people approach children’s books in the U.S. has changed a lot over time.

Philosopher John Locke helped popularize the idea that learning to read should be fun with his 1693 treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.

Fast forward 300 years and television series continued Locke’s legacy. Today's adults might remember the joy of reading being touted to young people through shows like Ar...

Studying oysters can help us understand how Connecticut’s shoreline is changing. Studying lizards can help us understand the history of life on our planet. Biologists research living organisms. And in doing so, they help us understand not only ourselves, but also the way our lives are intertwined with those of every other species.

This hour— Connecticut biologists tell us how their work helps u...

For students and families, navigating the world of higher education isn’t easy. Some of the challenges, like student loan debt, have been going on for years. Other challenges come from more recent changes in how the federal government approaches universities.

To explore these challenges, we're talking to John Maduko, who was appointed Interim Chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universit...

Being the first person to do something isn’t easy. There’s no blueprint for what you are doing, no conventional wisdom to fall back on when all else fails. There is also the pressure of expectations and all the people who are counting on your success. But it’s a way to show people what is possible. Being first means being a pioneer. And here in Connecticut, people are pioneering a wide ra...

When Tracy K. Smith served as Poet Laureate of the United States, she used her platform to bring people together. In 2018, she traveled the country for a series called American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities. At these events, she encouraged people to share their thoughts, regardless of their background. While Tracy’s two terms as poet laureate ended in 2019, she is still using ...

In Unrig the Game: What Women of Color Can Teach Everyone About Winning, author Vanessa Priya Daniel writes about the challenges that women of color face. She includes a satirical section formatted like a job description, where she details the duties of women of color leaders. They include “Be likable at all costs,” “Work with zero margin of error” and “Be a willing screen ont...