Smart Talk Tuesday; Torsella runs for a Treasurer repeat and COVID death effects ripple through families

Tuesday’s Smart Talk will include the Democratic incumbent and candidate for Pennsylvania Treasurer Joseph Torsella who joins us to discuss his record and priorities before the November election.

State Treasurer Joe Torsella and Gov. Tom Wolf.

The Pennsylvania Office of the State Treasurer serves as the custodian of more than $100 billion in Commonwealth funds, and is responsible for the receipt and deposit of state monies, investment management and oversight of all withdrawals and deposits from state agencies.

Other candidates on the ballot for Treasurer are Republican Stacy Garrity, Libertarian Joe Soloski, and Green Party Timothy Runkle, who appeared on the program on September 22. You can hear that conversation at witf.org. Garrity is scheduled to join Smart Talk later this week, however, Soloski did not respond to invitations.

A death in the family is devastating. A COVID-19 death is equally so and researchers looked into how a pandemic death, in particular, impacts a family.

In a study of kinship networks in the United States, the Penn State University researchers found that approximately nine surviving close family members will be affected by each death from the virus.

Appearing on Smart Talk to share more details on their findings is Ashton Verdery, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology, demography and social data analytics at Penn State University.

With information overwhelming social media users, it’s important for media organizations to ensure their listeners/viewers/readers can trust their reporting. Questions like, “How do people decide what news is trustworthy?” or “How can journalists influence what users consume and share?” have come up repeatedly at public forums with WITF journalists.

To help answer those questions, WITF is taking part in the Trusting News project and joining Smart Talk to offer perspective is WITF Multimedia News Director Tim Lambert.