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A look at housing, from current legislation to a wave of arson in the 1970s

FILE: Photo taken in May 1977 of a building in the South Bronx, New York. The 1970s saw many major fires in the Bronx.
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Photo taken in May 1977 of a building in the South Bronx, New York. The 1970s saw many major fires in the Bronx.

Housing policy impacts everyone, so this hour, we are taking some time to break down what is happening with housing policy in Connecticut's current legislative session. CT Public's own Abigail Brone joins us to talk about some of her recent reporting.

Plus, in the 1970s, a wave of arson swept U.S. cities. The arson has long been attributed to the Black and brown residents of apartment buildings, but Bench Ansfield argues that the fires were most often set by the landlords who owned the buildings. That's part of the book Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City.

GUESTS:

Special thanks to our interns divina cordeiro and Megan Rodriguez-Hawkins.

Disrupted is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

Kevin Chang Barnum is a producer for Connecticut Public Radio’s weekly show Disrupted. Kevin grew up in Connecticut and started his radio work at his graduate university’s radio station, KUCI. He has also worked for HRN, a network of food and beverage podcasts.
Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean is an award-winning scholar at Wesleyan University, author, and host of 'Disrupted' on Connecticut Public.
Erica McIntosh is Senior Regional Editor for Southern Connecticut. Erica was born and raised in Connecticut.
Robyn Doyon-Aitken is the Deputy Director of Audio Storytelling and Talk Shows
Meg Fitzgerald is the senior manager of projects and radio programming.

Funding provided by:
The Connecticut Office of Film, Television and Digital Media