Karen Brown

This three-part series looks at growing rates of childhood obesity through the efforts of one community health clinic in Holyoke, MA. Approximately half of all children in this predominantly low-income and Puerto Rican community are overweight or obese. Nationally, an estimated 30 percent of all children are overweight or obese. The series first aired on WFCR in July, 2010.

Listen to Part One

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Childhood obesity has become a public health crisis in the US - and one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s main causes. More than 30 percent of all children in the US — about 11 million — are considered clinically overweight or obese. In Holyoke, Massachusetts, which has many Puerto Rican and low-income residents, the problem is even worse than the national average. In the first of a series, WFCR’s Karen Brown reports how one community health center is trying to reverse this trend.

(to download mp3 audio, right-click here)

Listen to Part Two

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In Part 1, we profiled a clinical effort to reduce rates of obesity and diabetes, especially among low-income and Latino populations. In Part 2, we check in with one Holyoke family trying to follow their doctor’s advice.

(to download mp3, right-click here)

Listen to Part Three

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The Holyoke Health Center runs an intensive weight loss program for children. But can families keep up the momentum - and spread it to the community - after the program is over? WFCR’s Karen Brown has the final report in our series.

(to download mp3 audio, right-click here)

Listen Now

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Chrystal Concepcion, Denise Shaw-Miranda, Somali Santos

Massachusetts will soon release its annual statistics on teen pregnancy. For the past several years, the cities of Holyoke and Springfield - both among the poorest in the state - have traded the dubious honor of most teen births per year, which is why advocates are working to get sex education in the public schools.

This story aired on WFCR on March 25, 2010. To download audio, right click here

Listen Now

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Mario Hornsby Jr

A father of a slain teenager — who was the unintended target of a gang hit in Springfield, MA — tries to overcome his grief, and help the city, with a poignant memorial. He’s erecting a community garden on the very spot where his son’s killers carried out their crime.

This aired on WFCR on Aug. 19, 2009.

To download this audio, right-click here

A 3-part series on Massachusetts Health Reform — an overview of my reporting from the

Gary Cloutier, uninsured

last year, featuring the voices of consumers, doctors, advocates, insurers, state officials. (Aired on WFCR, and adapted for NPR.)

-

-

Listen to Part One: A Look Back — How Massachusetts passed its landmark law (May 19, 2009)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Listen to Part Two: The Individual Mandate — How people respond to HAVING to buy insurance (May 20, 2009)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Listen to Part 3: Expanding Public Programs — Who benefits, who doesn’t, and is it sustainable? (May 21, 2009)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tyler Gorman, on Commonwealth Care

Listen Now (30 minutes):

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[Audio problems? Click here.  MP3 download available here (right-click).]

“A Burden to be Well: Sisters and Brothers of the Mentally Ill” is a 30-minute radio documentary that delves into the often unexamined experience of “well” siblings who grow up in a family coping with mental illness. It profiles two sets of siblings in particular: a New Hampshire family dealing with their middle daughter’s bipolar diagnosis while trying to raise two other children; and a pair of twin sisters, one with schizophrenia, and the other – a psychiatrist – without. This documentary, which aired in 2006 on WFCR and NPR (in shortened form) won a PRNDI award, among others.

Written and Produced by Karen Brown
Edited by Mary Beth Kirchner, American Radion Works

First aired on WFCR in Amherst, MA on June 8, 2006.

Reporting was made possible by a Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism.

Upper photo: Deb, Audrey, and Rose Stanas
Lower photo: Carolyn and Pamela Spiro

Listen Now (58 minutes):

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

[Audio problems? Click here.  MP3 download available here (right-click).]

“The Wild Child: Coping with a Bipolar Youth”is an hour-long radio documentary that follows three young people, and their families, as they navigate adolescence with a severe mental illness. The piece includes first-hand accounts from the young people themselves, as well as information from researchers and advocates. This story aired in 2005 on WFCR and on PRI’s American Radio Works. It won a national Edward R. Murrow Award and First Place from the Association of Health Care Journalists, among other awards.

Written and produced by Karen Brown.
Edited by John Dankosky.

A version of this story aired on NPR (1-18-05), “Public Schools Struggle with Bipolar Disorder.” To listen, click here. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4457271