First hour: The decline in neighborliness
Second hour: New words added to the dictionary, part 2
How well do you know your neighbors? Well enough to wave hello? Stop by for coffee? Sleep over at their homes? Peter Lovenheim is the author of the book, In the Neighborhood. In it, he describes his mission to become better connected to his neighbors and he does that...by having sleepovers. A third of Americans say they've never interacted with the people next door. It's part of an overall decline in neighborliness over the past 40 years. This hour, we'll discuss why we've become more isolated and how to reverse the trend. Our guests are all community builders:
- Peter Lovenheim, author of In the Neighborhood
- Marcus Ebenhoe, director of outreach ministries at Sacred Heart Cathedral
- Yvonne Ferreira, president of the tenants' association at St. Bernard's Park
- Brad Huber, leader of the Irondequoit round table
Then in our second hour, we continue a Connections tradition by discussing new words added to the dictionary this year. Maybe you're a "normie" and don't know these 250 new words, even though your "grauntie" did. It's okay; just text a "shruggie" to your friends. We'll take a quiz this hour to test our guests' knowledge and yours, so get a pen and paper and get ready to learn some new words. We'll also talk about the origins of language and how it changes over time. In studio:
- Amanda Chestnut, artist and communications coordinator at Flower City Arts Center
- Maya Abtahian, assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Rochester
- Dan Mulcahy, creative director for Bush Communications
- Chris Fanning, director of communications for Writers & Books
