Recent Work
Davis Dunavin
Reporter | WSHU News
Fairfield County, Connecticut
I tell stories with sound.
Fairfield County, Connecticut
I tell stories with sound.
Recent Work
University of Connecticut biologist Carl Rettenmeyer and his wife Marian spent 50 years studying the army ants of South America's rainforests -- tough, aggressive insects who move in swarms across the rainforest floor. In that time, they collected about two million army ants, along with the animals that live alongside army ants.
Everyone has a price. The phrase dates back to ancient Rome, but a new Yale University study tried to find out if that extends to babies. Arber Tasimi,a graduate student at Yale's infant cognition lab, spends a lot of time around that one group of people who should be pure and innocent, if anyone is.
At a recovery support group in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Lance Supersad and Paul Elliott are seated across from each other. Supersad, 20, leans forward, listening intently as Elliott tells him about his history of addiction -- how it started in reaction to a breakup and cost Elliott his job as a security guard.
Just over 200 years after Jesus died, in 240 A.D., someone made a wall-painting of a woman in a house in the ancient city of Dura Europos, now in modern Syria. Almost seventeen centuries later, in the 1920s, Yale archeologists found the painting while excavating Dura.
Any journalist will tell you that it can be difficult for scientists to explain themselves in layman's terms. Actor Alan Alda and Stony Brook University are trying to change that. Since 2009, the university has offered improv classes for scientists out of its Alan Alda Center for Scientific Communication.
Doctors at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Connecticut say a batch of tainted heroin caused 18 overdoses and one death in the past week. When Tammy Sisco found out her daughter overdosed on Thursday, she rushed to Lawrence and Memorial Hospital.
If you need romantic advice on Valentine's Day, you might want to ask the longest-married couple in the United States. John and Ann Betar have been married for 83 years. He's 104, she's 100. It started in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1932. Ann Shawah was a popular high schooler who dreamed of going to college.
There were some 500 factories in Bridgeport, Connecticut at the turn of the last century. They made products that were sold all over the world - everything from sewing machines, to ammunition, to lingerie. One of those factories, owned by the Warner Brothers Corset Company, made one of the most popular corsets in the world.
Last year, more than 200 listeners participated in two online studies where they were asked to see if they could tell the difference between music written by a human and music written by a computer program. In a classroom on the campus of Yale University, lecturer Donya Quick gave me the same test she gave participants in the studies.
Yale is putting more than 2,000 VHS tapes online by the end of 2016. Archivists say even they don't know what's on them until they put them in a VCR and press "play."
Nineteenth century showman P.T. Barnum was the father of the American circus. He was also an early mayor of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and he developed much of the city's downtown. And among his wonders is the Barnum Museum. Its colorful sandstone and terra cotta architecture is a fanciful mix of styles, with a big dome and towers.
Wednesday night was the coldest night of the winter so far in the region, with temperatures dropping to the single digits and wind chills of nearly 20 degrees below zero. In cities like New Haven, this can mean tough times for the homeless, like Jose, a 44-year-old man born and raised in New Haven's Fairhaven neighborhood.
Sunday marks two years since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Over the past two years, thousands of people around the country have responded with acts of kindness. That includes many different groups and some who have decided to act on their own.
Annabelle is one of this week's top box office draws. The horror film is the story of a possessed doll that terrorizes a family. The doll was also a character in the 2013 film The Conjuring, and it turns out she isn't just a work of fiction.
Arborists in Connecticut are getting ready for another summer battling the emerald ash borer. They're beetles that kill trees, and they've been spreading.
A ride on the last bar car in America as it left New York's Grand Central Station. Aired nationally on NPR's All Things Considered.
A longer version of "Last Call" that ran on WSHU-FM in Connecticut.
Newtown Patch
Coverage from the scene, starting on the morning of Dec. 14 and continuing through the following days.
In the wake of tragedy, Newtown was graced with unprecedented kindness from around the world. That kindness inspired a movement. Published on the one-year anniversary of the shooting.
Several Sandy Hook businesses have received funds from a state grant. But questions remain on how to shape the area's economic future.
Residents were unanimous -- and sometimes emotional -- at a joint meeting of the Legislative Council, Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance to determine the fate of a house on 12 Riverside Road, bordering the Sandy Hook Elementary School site.
Newtown's faith leaders and town officials share how they've found strength.