12:00: Assemblymember Demond Meeks on the 2026-2027 NYS budget
1:00: 'Connections Summer Sessions': Is climate change the 'Great Filter'?
We continue our series of conversations with local state representatives about New York's 2026-2027 budget. This hour, we're joined by Assemblymember Demond Meeks. He shares his takeaways on legislation related to public safety -- including bills concerning 3D-printed ghost guns and domestic violence reduction -- housings, childcare, education, and more. He also answers your questions about state business. In studio:
- Assemblymember Demond Meeks, District 137
Then in our second hour, "Connections Summer Sessions" continues. This week's series of special rebroadcasts feature one of our most popular guests: astrophysicist Adam Frank. In this episode, a conversation about intelligent life in the universe and climate change. In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked, "Where is everybody?" He was talking about the nearly infinite sea of stars, but the lack of any evidence of other intelligence. Perhaps we can't see nearly far enough to find other civilizations. Or perhaps climate change is a phenomenon that happens on every planet that sees technological development. University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank posed that idea in a New York Times piece. In this special rebroadcast, he joins us to go down the rabbit hole: How likely is it that intelligent life exists elsewhere? Should we try to find it? What if it finds us? And what if climate change could threaten our future? Our guest:
- Adam Frank, Ph.D., author and Helen F. and Fred H. Gowen Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester
"Connections" is livestreamed each day on the WXXI News YouTube channel. Watch here.
