Boston Public Radio Podcast

Latest Episodes:

BPR Full Show 10/23/20: Lessons from Witch City Oct 23, 2020

Show notes

Today on Boston Public Radio:

We started off the show by talking with listeners about your impressions of Thursday night’s presidential debate, the last before the November election.
NBC Sports Boston anchor and reporter Trenni Kusnierek discussed the growing number of professional athletes taking part in get-out-the-vote campaigns, a recent article by Celtics point guard Marcus Smart titled "This Article is Not About Basketball," and low sports viewership numbers for 2020.
Beat the Press host Emily Rooney talked about President Trump’s contentious “60 Minutes” interview, and weighed in on the rising number of coronavirus cases in Mass.
Jill Shah spoke about the new stipend program for low-income families in Chelsea, Mass. Shah is president of the Shah Family Foundation, which is coordinating and supporting efforts between Chelsea and philanthropic partners to facilitate one of the largest universal basic income programs in the nation.
Emerson Baker talked about the history of the Salem Witch Trials, and the elements at play in 1692 Salem that are relevant to America today. Baker is a professor of history and a General Education Faculty Fellow at Salem State University. He's also the author of multiple books, including “A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience."
Food writer Corby Kummer compared the eating habits of former Vice President Joe Biden to those of President Donald Trump. He also discussed various ways restaurants and food brands are pivoting for the election, and reflected on rising food insecurity in the U.S., seven months into the coronavirus pandemic.
Closing out the show, we talked to listeners about your strategies for staying outside and virus-free in the winter of coronavirus.

Corby Kummer: Local Program Aims To Help Restaurants Stay Warm During Winter Oct 23, 2020

Show notes

Food writer Corby Kummer spoke to Boston Public Radio on Friday about a new program in Cambridge aiming to help small local businesses during the upcoming winter season of the pandemic. The Patio Heater Reimbursement Program will reimburse restaurants up to $250.00 per portable patio heater.

“I hope other cities will take it up, subsidizing these outdoor heaters is great,” he said. “Having the subsidy to give people indoor ventilators with proper MERV 13 filters I think would be a next step.”

Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.

BPR Full Show 10/22/20: Small 'D' Democracy & Capital 'A' Anxiety Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

Today on Boston Public Radio:

NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd discussed former President Barack Obama’s rebuke of President Trump in a Wednesday stump speech for former Vice President Joe Biden. He also talked about the stakes for Thursday’s presidential debate, moderated by his NBC colleague Kristen Welker.

We opened our lines to hear your thoughts on former President Obama joining the campaign trail for Joe Biden, and to talk about your feelings heading into the final presidential debate.
Former Suffolk County sheriff and secretary of public safety Andrea Cabral discussed voter suppression in the U.S., and why she’s not optimistic about the future of voting rights in the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court decision protecting late-arriving absentee ballots in Penn. She also touched on recent statements from an anonymous juror in the Breonna Taylor case, who said this week that the grand jury did not agree on whether Taylor's shooting was fully justified.

Matthew Teitelbaum, the Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, discussed how the MFA is adapting to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as how they're working to confront issues of race in the art space. He also gave a debrief on the opening of the MFA's long-awaited exhibit showcasing the work of painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Next, we turned to callers to hear your thoughts on the censorship of art, in a conversation about a series of postponed exhibits of artist Philip Guston.
Tech writer Andy Ihnatko weighed in on the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit brought against Google, as well as Apple’s buyout of the Charlie Brown TV specials, and new AI-powered "neural filters” coming on the latest edition of Adobe Photoshop. Ihnatko is a tech writer and blogger, posting at Ihnatko.com.
Former Mass. Education Secretary Paul Reville talked about Wednesday's decision by city officials to bring Boston Public Schools back to all-remote learning, and other headlines around the shaky return to classrooms during the coronavirus pandemic.

Paul Reville On Boston Shool Committee Nixing Exam Test Oct 22, 2020

Show notes

The Boston School Committee decided unanimously to ditch the exam schools admission test for one year due to the challenges presented by administering an exam during a pandemic.

The new plan instead will rely on grades, MCAS scores, and ZIP codes to determine eligibility and acceptance.

While the School Committee accepted the new plan 7-0, former Education Secretary Paul Reville told Boston Public Radio Thursday it is an imperfect solution to the problem.

“It’s not going to go away as a controversy,” said Reville. “This is a flawed plan, but any plan would be flawed in these times. To get a fair calculation of merit in the absence of a tool that applies to all students … to do that in this environment of coronavirus is impossible to do, so they’re settling for the next best thing.”

The newly-approved system reserves the first 20 percent of seats at Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the O'Bryant School of Mathematics for Boston students with the highest pre-COVID grades in BPS, charter, private and religious schools in the city. The remaining 80 percent would be offered in rounds based on grades in individual zip codes, starting with those zip codes with the lowest median incomes.

Paul Reville is former Secretary of Education and a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education where he also runs the Education Redesign Lab. His latest book, co-authored with Elaine Weiss, is “Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty.”

BPR Full Show 10/21/20: Lessons from Remote Learning Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

Today on Boston Public Radio:

We kicked off the show by opening lines to talk with listeners about Coronavirus and the classroom, and Wednesday’s news that Boston Public Schools will be returning to fully remote learning.

Tiffany Faison, chef and owner of Sweet Cheeks, Tiger Mama, Fool’s Errand, and Orfano, checked in to talk about how her restaurants are holding up, seven months into the coronavirus pandemic.

CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed the 545 migrant children who’ve yet to be reunited with their parents after getting separated by U.S. officials at the U.S. Mexico border. She also weighed in on President Trump’s refusal to tone down rhetoric around Mich. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, despite the recent attempt on her life by a right-wing militia.

MassLive reporter Steph Solis broke down Mass. ballot Question 1, concerning the state’s "Right to Repair" law, and talked about the often confusing campaigns for and against it.

Medical ethicist Art Caplan ran through the latest coronavirus headlines, including president Trump’s sustained attacks on his own COVID-19 task force advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and new polling showing Americans are increasingly skeptical about a fast-tracked vaccine from the Trump Administration. He also weighed in on a new law, proposed in the Netherlands, that would allow doctors to facilitate the deaths of terminally ill children.

Closing out the show, we reopened lines to discuss schooling in the era of COVID with teachers, parents, and students.

Art Caplan: Trump Has Done 'Severe Damage' For Science Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

Medical ethicist Art Caplan spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about President Donald Trump’s behavior towards a potential COVID-19 vaccine.

“Trump has really done severe damage - he’s beaten up the CDC, he’s beaten up the FDA, he’s gone after Fauci, and he definitely has put on the sidelines his own coronavirus task force,” he said. “He’s basically said, ‘I’m going on the anti-science platform.’”

Caplan worries about anti-vaxxers, regarding COVID-19.

“If we get a vaccine and we don’t get a lot of people taking it then a lot of the impact of the vaccine is gone,” he said. “When people start to say ‘Forget it, I’m not taking a vaccine,’ that’s horrible news for science.”

Art Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Juliette Kayyem: Trump Incites 'Terrorism,' This Time In Michigan Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

Joe Biden has blamed President Donald Trump for inciting the alleged domestic terrorist plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Trump tweeted "liberate Michigan" back in April, and this past Saturday joined in on ‘lock her up’ chants, referring to Whitmer, at a rally in Muskegon.

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about Trump’s behavior.

“It’s not enough to say that Trump incites violence; he incites a particular kind of violence known as terrorism that’s the use or threatened use of violence for political or social purposes,” she said. “He’s been doing this for years, but the Michigan thing made it take off, and we need to call it terrorism.”

Trump incites violence in a particular way, such that he can have plausible deniability, Kayyem noted.

“It’s called stochastic terrorism - you can call it random terrorism - which is simply a way of describing how a leader uses his words and platforms to incite his followers in which it’s vague enough that he can have plausible deniability and say it was just a joke,” she said. “But his listeners hear what he’s saying as a calling card.”

Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

BPR Full Show 10/20/20: Votes of Confidence Oct 20, 2020

Show notes

Today on Boston Public Radio:
We opened the show by talking with listeners about the worrying rise of coronavirus cases throughout the U.S.
Carol Rose discussed the impact Judge Amy Coney Barrett could have on future Supreme Court rulings around voter rights, and why voter suppression is a real threat, even in liberal Mass. She also talked about abortion rights in the state, and State House legislation that would expand abortion access in the Commonwealth. Rose is the Executive Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts.
Larry Calderone responded to a series of to city-wide police reforms being touted by Mayor Walsh, from use of body cameras by officers working overtime, to the establishment of an external Office of Police Accountability and Transparency. Calderone is president of Boston’s Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union.
We reopened lines to discuss the new no-strings-attached stipend program for low-income residents in Chelsea, Mass., and hear how getting an extra $200-400 check would impact your life.
Jelani Cobb called in to talk about the latest FRONTLINE documentary on voter suppression, called “Whose Vote Counts.” Aside from being the correspondent on the documentary, Cobb is an award-winning journalist, staff writer for the New Yorker, and professor of journalism at Columbia School of Journalism.
John King offered a debrief on the latest national political headlines, two weeks away from the November presidential election. King is CNN's Chief National Correspondent and anchor of "Inside Politics,” which airs weekdays and Sunday mornings at 8 a.m.

BPR Full Show 10/19/20: Holding out for Hugs Oct 19, 2020

Show notes

Today on Boston Public Radio:
Media maven Sue O’Connell and GBH’s Adam Reilly weighed in on the national political headlines of the day, including ongoing negotiations in Washington over additional COVID stimulus funding. They also touched on a few statewide stories, from Gov. Baker’s formal announcement that he won’t be voting for Trump, to Saturday’s end of the Mass. eviction moratorium.
We opened lines to talk with listeners about recent reporting in the Boston Globe on the dozens of Mass. State Troopers who've engaged in criminal behavior without facing repercussions on the force.
GBH News analyst and GroundTruth Project CEO Charlie Sennott broke down the latest international headlines, discussing the steady reemergence of COVID-19 across Europe, the reelection of New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and political unrest in Chile.
Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung talked about a pilot program offering no-strings-attached checks for low-income families in Chelsea, and recent reporting in the Boston Globe on economic revival in Brockton. She also gave us a glimpse into how her two kids are handling remote learning, a month into the school year.
Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III, hosts of GBH’s All Rev’d Up, weighed in on the spiritual leanings of Democrats and Republicans, and discussed what we understand about Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s attitudes towards racism in the criminal justice system.

Closing out the show, we opened lines to ask: seven months into the coronavirus pandemic, how much are you missing hugs and physical contact?

Corby Kummer: Hibernating Restaurants Stay Hopeful For Warmer Spring Months Oct 19, 2020

Show notes

Food writer Corby Kummer spoke to Boston Public Radio on Friday about hibernating restaurants, which will close during the winter due to COVID and try to reopen in the spring.

“There’s only one choice many restaurants have since the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) money ended, which is look at their expenses, see how much it would cost to try to stay open with extremely limited capacity, and say ‘We’re closing the doors and hoping in warmer weather we can bring back outdoor dining,’” he said.

Many Boston restauranteurs have told Kummer that they’re hoping to hang on until April, he noted. “But what I thought was ‘You really think there’s going to be a vaccine in wide use by April?’” he said. “But I think that the realistic calculus here is that once warm weather opens, there are more takeout possibilities, more outdoor dining possibilities, and restaurants can try to stay on.”

Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Boston Public Radio Podcast

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected