Catherine Shen
Host, Where We LiveCatherine is the Host of Connecticut Public’s morning talk show and podcast, Where We Live. Catherine and the WWL team focus on going beyond the headlines to bring in meaningful conversations that put Connecticut in context.
Before her current position, Catherine was Connecticut Public’s education reporter for just over a year. She covered a variety of stories like student mental health, childcare shortages, and teacher burnout. She joined Connecticut Public's newsroom in 2021. The Los Angeles native came to CT Public after a decade of print and digital reporting across the country.
She started her journalism career in the Los Angeles fashion scene. While that was an exciting time, Catherine ultimately needed to get back to her news roots. She was soon traipsing all across California’s Central Coast as a freelance news reporter for several newspapers, where she broke stories about local government, law enforcement, and education. She also covered crime, healthcare, business, as well as arts and culture.
After finding herself on the East Coast, she continued reporting in New Jersey, covering a mix of academic news, nonprofit projects, and human feature stories both off and on camera. Then she moved to Connecticut and started reporting for the New Britain Herald, where she won several Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists awards for her coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice movements, and police accountability.
Catherine received an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism from Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. While an undergraduate student, she was a reporter for the university newspaper and its student-run television station, Cable 8 News. She’s also a proud member of the Asian American Journalism Society.
In her downtime, she tries her best to catch up on her reading list but often fails due to a variety of distractions, including reorganizing her bookshelves, scavenging library book sales, and thinking about reading books.
Catherine can be reached at cshen@ctpublic.org.
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Smell, and its control over culture and politics, is often undervalued and misunderstood. -
We hear from writers and teachers of poetry and learn about their work fostering community through poetry events and competitions. -
There’s rain in the air and birdsongs on the wind, but are there seeds in your backyard? Today, it’s our annual spring gardening hour with horticulturalist Charlie Nardozzi. -
Eduardo Garcia, better known as “Lalo,” is one of the most celebrated chefs in Latin America. His cooking journey started in his mother’s kitchen. Today, Connecticut Mirror reporter and author Laura Tillman joins us to talk about her book “The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García.” -
As more cameras creep up across Connecticut, we take a look at surveillance technology and examine what we know, and don't know, about how the data is used. -
Beavers are known as a "keystone species," contributing to biodiversity wherever they set up their habitats. Today, Connecticut author and journalist Leila Philip joins us to talk about her book "Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America." -
We'll hear from the Connecticut postal service about the challenges of running this enormous federal agency. -
What keeps us captivated by the moon? And why, after so many years, do people want to go back there? We explore the moon’s inescapable pull on humanity. -
Social media is changing developing minds. Not always for the better. We speak with researchers and lawmakers to find out what can be done to help. -
The war in Lebanon has displaced 800,000 people, and killed nearly 700 residents. Today, we hear from members of Connecticut's Lebanese diaspora and from the International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian aid organization.
