Social Issues

Parents Sports Misbehavior

Springfield College Sports Management  Prof. Kevin McAllister and Springfield Republican sports writer Bill Wells will discuss recent misbehavior by parents at youth sporting events and what this says about our society, as well what we need to do to change and...

Lying Online

Psychology Prof. Robert Feldman, Dean of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst, will discuss his paper “Liar, Liar, Hard Drive on Fire: How Media Context Affects Lying Behavior” and his finding that people are more likely to lie in...

Adoption Psychology

Psychology Prof. Harold Grotevant, PhD U-Mass/Amherst and leader of the Rudd Adoption Research program,  is a leader in the psychology of adoption. His work looks at relationships in adoptive families. There will be a Mar. 30 conference at UMass on adoption during the...

That’s not a candle…It’s wax with a string inside

There will always be a wild and unpredictable quality to creativity and invention, says Anthony McCaffrey, a cognitive psychology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, because an “Aha moment” is rare and reaching it means overcoming formidable mental...

Sojourner Truth Memorial

Steve Strimer, committee member of the Sojourner Truth Memorial, will take us through Sojourner Truth’s experience as a free slave, abolitionist and women’s right advocate in Florence, MA at David Ruggles Center for Early Florence History and Underground...

Update on “Rebuild Springfield”

We spoke with Nick Fyntrilakis and Jerry Hayes — Co-leaders of the effort to plan and coordinate tornado repairs in Springfield– in the fall. Now the duo is back on Connecting Point to discuss the Rebuild Springfield plans announced on Jan. 31....

Housing and the Economy

Hampden County Register of Deeds Donald Ashe will discuss with Jim Madigan what the 2011 real estate transactions recorded by his office tell him about the housing market and the state of the local economy....

W.E.B. DuBois

Our Black History month coverage continues in Great Barrington – the birth place of W.E.B. DuBois. There we’ll visit the WEB DuBois Center, which is keeping the legacy of this controversial and diverse figure...

Black History Month, part two

Our coverage of Black History month continues with a discussion with author Joe Carvalho, III. His book, “Black Families in Hampden County, Massachusetts 1650-1865” has been updated. Saldo and Carvalho discuss some of the African Americans who made a...