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Air Dates: January 27-February 2, 2025

Children’s and young-adult authors often explore the pain and loneliness of growing up. Padma Venkatraman does it in an elegantly told story that also explores immigration, environmental change, and the power of friends to make everything better.  

Venkatraman is an award-winning author who was born in Chennai, India. Before becoming a novelist, earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from The College of William and Mary. She conducted postdoctoral research in Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and later worked in Germany. She also served as head of Inwoods Small School, and taught oceanography and directed diversity efforts at the University of Rhode Island. Venkatraman is the author of five novels including “Climbing the Stairs,” “Island’s End,” “A Time to Dance,” and “The Bridge Home.” She has written several other books, including: “Double Stars: The Story of Caroline Herschel (Profiles in Science),” “Women Mathematicians (Profiles in Mathematics),” and the illustrated “Growing Gold,” “Born Behind Bars” and “Cleverest Thief.”  Her latest book is “Safe Harbor,” was published this month.  

On this episode of “Story in the Public Square,” Venkatraman dives into her new book, “Safe Harbor,” about a girl who moves from India to America who one day finds a seal with plastic wrapped around it as she walks along the seashore. And as she works to save the seal, her world begins to open in ways she doesn’t expect.” She continued, saying, she’s been reflecting on the way immigrants in the United States have been viewed and treated recently, saying the ability to be free and to think freely is something to be preserved in our society “so that we can draw people from all over the world and make this culture what it is, which is so vibrant.”

“Story in the Public Square” broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Check your local public television listings for air times near you! An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 4:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Mondays at 2:30 a.m. ET on SiriusXM’s popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. “Story in the Public Square” is a project of the Pell Center at ������. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter.