The day after the 2016 presidential election, David Nastri, like many, couldn’t believe his candidate had won. Then he ran into one of his friends. She was crying, in disbelief that so many Americans had chosen Donald Trump.

“And I said, you know, ‘What do you think of me?’” Nastri recalls asking her. “And she said, ‘Oh, I love you, you’re awesome.’ And I said, ‘I voted for him.’  ‘How could you do that?’ she said. And I said, ‘It’s a big country, he’s not gonna break it.’ I think that’s been borne out, he didn’t break it. He’s improved a lot of it.”

Turkey growers describe this time of year as the industry’s Super Bowl, when orders for turkeys start rolling in. But Thanksgiving will be different this year because of the pandemic.

Rick Hermonot said it’s still a little early to know how many people will order smaller turkeys from his farm in Sterling.

“We’re wondering because folks are not having as large a gathering,” he said. “But orders have been coming in so far. They look pretty typical. People wanting 12-pounders all the way up to people wanting 35- or 40-pounders.”

What if the work-at-home trend becomes permanent? What will happen to Connecticut’s downtowns? Economist Victor Calanog of Moody’s Analytics joined All Things Considered to opine on whether downtowns are as good as dead. He also broke down what he thinks city planners should be doing right now to prepare.

Liliana Cruz of Boston has just been selected for a school desegregation program. At dawn, she takes the bus to a mostly-white high school in the suburbs. There she makes friends, endures microagressions and racism, wrestles with her identity and finds her voice. That's the premise of Jennifer De Leon's debut novel “Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From,” which came out this year. 

Halloween is right around the corner and many gardeners are decorating pumpkins for the holiday. A fun way to decorate is to make a pumpkin planter filled with succulents.