#MeToo: Behind the Podcast

In a spe­cial edi­tion of UConn Jour­nal­is­m’s ‘Behind the Sto­ries’ pod­cast, we spoke with two Hart­ford Courant jour­nal­ists — Edi­to­r­i­al Page Edi­tor Car­olyn Lums­den and sports writer Desmond Con­ner — about two preva­lent top­ics in the news world: the #MeToo move­ment and the inter­sec­tion of sports and politics.

Car­olyn Lums­den has been work­ing for the Hart­ford Courant for over 20 years, first as a writer and then as the Opin­ion edi­tor.  She also worked in Boston and New York with the Asso­ci­at­ed Press and Ran­dom House, respec­tive­ly. UConn Jour­nal­is­m’s Caitlin Cul­li­gan ’18 inter­viewed Lums­den about the #MeToo moment on social media and crack­ing open the dis­cus­sion about sex­u­al harass­ment and sex­u­al assault. Lums­den has been vocal through­out the #MeToo move­ment, even ask­ing the pub­lic to share their thoughts on Face­book and com­pil­ing respons­es into a wide­ly viewed op-ed for the Courant.

The sec­ond half of the pod­cast fea­tures sports­writer Desmond Con­ner, who talks with UConn Jour­nal­is­m’s Con­nor Don­ahue ’19 about the chang­ing con­ver­sa­tion around sports. High pro­file sto­ries about Col­in Kaeper­nick, ESP­N’s Jemele Hill, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump and the NFL have pulled sports out of the realm of enter­tain­ment and into very polit­i­cal, polar­ized debates. Con­nor has worked at the Hart­ford Courant since 1991 and cov­ered sports rang­ing from the high school lev­el to pro­fes­sion­al. He cov­ered UConn bas­ket­ball for nine years as well, although his favorite sport is football.

The pod­cast was host­ed and pro­duced by UConn Jour­nal­is­m’s Eliza Kan­ner ’18.

https://soundcloud.com/user-709472486/behind-the-stories-12-metoo-and-when-sports-politics-collide