Ben Lewellyn: Member of the Month, January 2016
I’m Ben Lewellyn, and I’m the Sales Director at Good People Brewing Company where I’ve worked since 2011. I’ve lived in Birmingham and the suburbs my whole life except for a two-year stint in Texas for graduate school. While I was in Texas, I started listening to the podcast of This American Life and discovered the world of public radio from there. I guess that is the most millennial thing about me — I was introduced to great terrestrial radio through podcasts.
My favorite programs these days are probably On The Media or Says You, although a great episode of World Cafe or This American Life is still a treat. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was comparing notes with a fellow public radio fan about our favorite stories from TAL. My answer is “The Super,” the wild story that Jack Hitt tells about the manager of his NYC apartment building in the early 80s. I won’t ruin it for you, but that story has stayed with me and been forced upon unsuspecting family and friends for many years now.
For a few years, WBHM has been my primary information and entertainment source. I’m proud to be a sustaining member of this station, whose original reporting and programming schedule — just like our local beers — are as good as anywhere else in the country!
Birmingham is 3rd worst in the Southeast for ozone pollution, new report says
The American Lung Association's "State of the Air" report shows some metro areas in the Gulf States continue to have poor air quality.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis
Maia Szalavitz discusses harm reduction's effectiveness against drug addiction, how punitive policies can hurt people who need pain medication and more.
Gambling bills face uncertain future in the Alabama legislature
This year looked to be different for lottery and gambling legislation, which has fallen short for years in the Alabama legislature. But this week, with only a handful of meeting days left, competing House and Senate proposals were sent to a conference committee to work out differences.
Alabama’s racial, ethnic health disparities are ‘more severe’ than other states, report says
Data from the Commonwealth Fund show that the quality of care people receive and their health outcomes worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
