Frank Tavares is wrapping up his tenure as "The Voice of NPR." He's heard nationwide reading funding credits for NPR.

This Is NPR

You may know him as THE voice of NPR. He recently lent his talents to the band Capital Cities on their song, Farrah Fawcett Hair, featuring André 3000 from Outkast. We asked him about how he was convinced to do this - and we found out that it involves Phil Rizzuto.

NPR's Frank Tavares Ventures Into Pop Music

Stitch by Stitch by Javier Colon

South Windsor Mayor Saud Anwar

words by Dick Allen, Music by William Bolcom, performed by members of St. Patrick/St. Anthony Church Gallery Choir.

Solace

Connecticut's poet laureate Dick Allen reads his own poem in memory of the victims of the Newtown Tragedy.

Dick Allen Reciting "Solace"

Ivan Backer Trains Poem

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Ofana Naye (live)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo Homeless (live)

Joe Bagliere just returned from Ukraine where he was serving in the Peace Corps. He explains the different pronunciations of Ukraine's capital from the perspective of an American living there.

Photo of Joe enjoying a bagel in Kiev/Kyiv.

Pronounciation Of Kiev/Kyiv

Charla Nash Clip

Charla Nash 911 Clip

A mash-up of Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out" and "Mo Money Mo Problems" by The Notorious B.I.G., performed by West End Blend.

Photo of Tangsauce by Chion Wolf.

West End Blend - I'm Coming Out/Mo Money Mo Problems

Students at New Haven's Foote School play Old Joe Clark on dulcimers made in Connecticut.

"Old Joe Clark" at Foote School

What it sounds like when you slow a hummingbird's call down.

Listen Closely: There's A Song Hidden In This Hummingbird's Chirp

The story of Ed Thrall and his contentious dance hall, produced by WNPR's Catie Talarski. Aired on Colin McEnroe Show 09/30/2014

Ed Thrall's Hall

President Barack Obama called into the Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR in Hartford, CT on Election Day.

http://wnpr.org/post/president-obama-colin-mcenroe-show-dont-be-discouraged-hartford

Photo by Chion Wolf during an Obama rally in Connecticut in 2010.

President Barack Obama on WNPR's Colin McEnroe Show

Original Music by David Teie / Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons, Captain Bagpuss

Cat Music: "Rusty's Ballad"

The late cellist and teacher Ettie Minor Luckey was an enthusiastic proponent of the arts along Connecticut’s shoreline. She will be remembered at an event later this week.

More from WNPR's Diane Orson:
http://wnpr.org/post/musician-who-made-things-happen-along-shoreline

Elite Syncopation Plays Scott Joplin's "Bethena"

WNPR's Ray Hardman talks with Middletown resident Chris Hinze, who discovered the factory site where the first Indian motorcycle was built in 1901.

Middletown's Chris Hinze discovers the first Indian motorcycle site

Blue Whale calls recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. NOTE: Sounds have been sped up 10x from their original speed. (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Sounds of Atlantic Blue Whales

WNPR's Ray Hardman talks with Yale Law School prof. Judith Resnik about the recent "Time-In-Cell Report" which tallied the number of prisoners in the U.S. being held in solitary confinement.

Interview with Yale Law Professor Judith Resnik

WNPR's Ray Hardman spoke with Hartford Activist Charles "Butch" Lewis in this 2004 interview for Connecticut Public Television. Lewis died September 9, 2015 at the age of 71.

More on Lewis here:
http://wnpr.org/post/man-vine-street-remembering-hartfords-charles-butch-lewis

Photo of Butch Lewis courtesy of Rebecca Wilhite.

Butch Lewis talks with WNPR's Ray Hardman about his life and experiences in Hartford

For a while, biologists thought giraffes couldn't produce sustained vocalizations. But this montage of hums, pulled out from nearly 1,000 hours of audio, are adding another piece to the puzzle of giraffe communication. 

(Image Credit: Martin Pettitt / Audio Credit: Anton Baotic, Florian Sicks, and Angela S. Stoeger, "Nocturnal “humming” vocalizations: adding a piece to the puzzle of giraffe vocal communication")

Listen to this Giraffe "Hum"

Lee 'Aca' Thompson, Artist Collective Master Choreographer, talks about teaching in Hartford, dancing and singing, and how he stays so active at 82.  Photo by Shana Sureck.

Learn more about Keney Park and Albany Avenue at the Radius Project: 
http://radiusproject.org/radius/keney-park/ 

Radius Project: Lee 'Aca' Thompson, Artists Collective Master Choreographer

Radius producers Julia Pistell and J Holt interview Hartford legend Joe Bascetta about fashion, tattoos, and his Park Street institution Pelican Tattoo. Photo by Shana Surek. 

Learn more about Park Street at the Radius Project:
radiusproject.org/radius/park-street/



Radius Project: Joe Bascetta is Pelican Tattoo

Radius producers J Holt and Julia Pistell interview Pelican Tattoo artist Joshua August. Photo by Shana Sureck. 

Learn more about Park Street at the Radius Project:
radiusproject.org/radius/park-street/

Radius Project: Joshua August, Pelican Tattoo Artist

Robert Cotto Jr. is Trinity College’s director of Urban Educational Initiatives, and an elected member of the Hartford Board of Education. 

He describes the impact of redlining in Hartford and the complications behind new development in these historically disinvested neighborhoods. 

Robert Cotto on Redlining in Hartford

WNPR intern Timothy Cohn interviews his mother Patricia Cohn, neice of "Radium Girl" Mae Keane.

Remembering Waterbury "Radium Girl" Mae Keane

Recorded at Indian Well State Park in Shelton. Credit: Chris Wisniewski, Southern Connecticut State University / Image Credit: Ann Froschauer/USFWS

The Echolocation Call Of A Big Brown Bat

Dr. Dev Roy is a palliative care doctor, and the chair of bioethics at Montefiore Nyack Hospital and Sound Physicians in Nyack, NY. He tells me how their new musical tradition began.

Listen to the whole episode of Us in the Time of Coronavirus: https://www.wnpr.org/post/helpers-helping-helpers

How Montefiore Nyack Hospital uses music to play Covid survivors back into the world

Brock Hamilton is an X-ray technician at Yale New Haven Hospital, but he’s been re-assigned to a support team helping with some of their sickest Covid-19 patients. They’ve been playing Andra Day's "Rise Up" every time one of those patients is released from their hospital, and I asked him how it all got started.

Listen to the whole episode of Us in the Time of Coronavirus: www.wnpr.org/post/helpers-helping-helpers

How Yale New Haven Hospital helps patients "Rise Up" and go home after Covid-19

Even if you’re not in the dating world, you’ve probably heard of Tinder or OK Cupid. The photo of the person you’re checking out is prominent, and in milliseconds, you either choose to dig a little deeper and see what they’re about, or you swipe ‘em into oblivion.
 
But there’s a new app - S’More, which stands for “Something More”, that makes the photo the LEAST accessible feature... and its launch just this January may have come at the perfect time. 

People seem to be less interested in hookups, and more interested in substantial romances that can be more suited to navigating life in a pandemic.

I asked the President & CEO of S’More, Adam Cohen-Aslatei, why he designed the app this way. What’s at the heart of why photos are NOT the initial priority of his dating app?

A Conversation with the Founder of the Dating App, S'More, Adam Cohen-Aslatei

Kathy Shea Mormino of Suffield, Connecticut, is better known as “The Chicken Chick”. She’s the author of “The Chicken Chick’s Guide to Backyard Chickens: Simple steps for healthy, happy hens”, and she’s got almost 800,000 folks following her advice and almost daily educational livestreams on Facebook. I asked her what kind of changes she’s seeing in the chicken world since the pandemic hit.

Extended Conversation with Kathy Shea Mormino, "The Chicken Chick"

We had so many great stories about tattoo coverups for our show, that we had to make a second collection of 'em!
Thanks to everybody for telling me their story! 
Check out the on-air broadcast here:https://www.wnpr.org/post/change-art-stories-about-tattoo-coverups

Audacious Tattoo Coverup Episode - WEB EXTRA

Colin McEnroe's closing essay from the Season Two finale of Pardon Me (Another Damn Impeachment Show?).

More from Connecticut Public Radio's Pardon Me:
https://www.wnpr.org/post/acquitted-or-dorothy-were-not-phillydelphia-anymore

Colin's Closing Thoughts from Pardon Me, Season Two

We started off our conversation defining what exactly a superstition is and isn't. 
Listen to the full show: https://www.wnpr.org/post/are-you-very-superstitious-or-little-stitious

Audacious Extended: DR McElroy on Superstitions

Connecticut Public Radio serves Connecticut, Rhode Island, Long Island, and parts of Massachusetts with news, talk, information and entertainment programming.  WNPR produces Where We Live, The Colin McEnroe Show, The Wheelhouse, NEXT, and the Faith Middleton Food Schmooze.

Popular tracks by Connecticut Public Radio/WNPR