The Common

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To Rome and back: Mayor Wu and Gov. Healey tout climate policies at the Vatican May 22, 2024

Show notes

Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu traveled to Rome last week to present their plans for de-carbonization and climate resiliency at a multi-day summit hosted by the Vatican and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The Wu administration aims to reduce the city’s carbon footprint via a suite of initiatives, including new rules on Boston buildings, which are responsible for over 70% of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Wu's goal is for city buildings, old and new, to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

Meanwhile, Gov. Healey is pushing her own climate reforms in the state legislature.

For more on their trip to Italy, Darryl C. Murphy speaks with Boston Globe politics reporter Samantha J. Gross, who traveled with Wu and Healey last week.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Unpacking the official response to the pro-Gaza student movement May 21, 2024

Show notes

As school years wind down at colleges and universities around the state, the last student encampments protesting the war in Gaza have been dismantled.

At some schools, student protestors packed up the tents of their own free will. At others -- including Emerson, Northeastern and MIT -- they were forcibly disbanded by police.

With summer fast approaching, questions remain about the tactics employed by universities to disperse student protesters. The Common's Darryl C. Murphy speaks with WBUR senior political reporter Anthony Brooks about what happened and what comes next.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

The pilot program bringing English classes to emergency shelters May 20, 2024

Show notes

The state is hoping a new pilot program providing ESL classes to newly arrived immigrants staying in Massachusetts emergency shelters will help them achieve self sufficiency faster. The pilot is lead by the nonprofit English for New Bostonians, which has been teaching occupationally-focused language classes with the goal of providing students the skills and confidence to find employment, and continue improving their English in other settings.

Claudia Green, English for New Bostonians executive director, and Thaís Lobo, who heads the English Works Program for English for New Bostonians, join The Common to discuss the importance of language instruction for newly arrived immigrants and the future of the pilot program.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Looking back on 20 years of marriage equality in Mass May 17, 2024

Show notes

Today is the 20th anniversary of gay marriage becoming legal in Massachusetts. The right for same sex couples to marry was brought about by the Goodridge Decision, which made Massachusetts the first state in the country to secure marriage equality. Back in 2004, Arline Isaacson, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts GLBTQ Political Caucus (formerly known as the Mass Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus), was one of the advocates who worked to secure marriage equality in the Commonwealth.

Arline joins The Common to reflect on this anniversary, and discuss the ongoing efforts to improve the rights of the LGBTQ+ community in Mass. today.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

A cannabis 'pipe dream' May 16, 2024

Show notes

When the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission launched its Social Equity Program, it promised a pathway for groups disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs into the newly legalized cannabis market. But today, social equity operators are finding that getting into the cannabis business is a far cry from the lucrative opportunity it once was, sometimes leaving them worse off than when they started the process.

"CommonWealth Beacon" reporter Bhaamati Borkhetaria spoke with cannabis operators in the region who graduated from the state’s Social Equity Program, she joins The Common to discuss their experiences, and the barriers they continue to face getting established in the cannabis industry.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

As encampments are dismantled, campuses prepare for graduation May 15, 2024

Show notes

Colleges and universities across the country are gearing up for graduation, including here in Boston. Commencement comes at a very tense time on many campuses though, as student protest encampments in support of Palestinian people and school divestment from Israel have been dismantled by police at numerous schools, notably MIT and Emerson College. Tufts and Harvard Universities also had encampments that were recently disbanded by student protestors themselves.

WBUR Senior Education Reporter Carrie Jung joins The Common to discuss the mood among students as this tumultuous year comes to a close, and whether disruptions can be expected at graduation ceremonies over the next weeks.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Last Seen's 'Postmortem' podcast asks: How should we treat the dead? May 14, 2024

Show notes

Death of a loved one can bring with it a deep sense of loss. We miss that person's personality, their energy, and we honor that with our grief. But how do we as a society, respect their remains, the bodies they leave behind?

That question is at the center of the latest season of WBUR’s podcast Last Seen - which came out this month: “Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard.”

The podcast follows a scandal at Harvard Medical School that made headlines last year, when a manager at the medical school morgue was accused of selling body parts donated to the school for scientific study.

Today on The Common, Darryl C. Murphy speaks with host and reporter Ally Jarmanning about her experience diving into the apparently flourishing underground market for human remains and her quest to answer the question: How should we treat the dead?

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Lawmakers react to WBUR investigation into police handling of rape cases May 13, 2024

Show notes

Several weeks ago, WBUR published an investigation examining how police in Massachusetts handle reports of sexual assault and rape. The piece, which focused on alleged serial rapist Alvin Campbell (brother of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell), has garnered the attention of state lawmakers who wish to make changes to the Commonwealth's systems and protocols around such cases.

WBUR Statehouse Reporter Walter Wuthmann joins The Common once more to discuss reactions to the piece, and several potential solutions to this pressing issue that lawmakers are considering.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Psychedelics in Massachusetts: The future of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD May 10, 2024

Show notes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, which could become the first psychedelic-assisted therapy as early as August.

Today, The Common presents the final episode of our three-part series looking at the past, present and future of psychedelics in Massachusetts as a potential ballot question that could lead to the decriminalization of natural psychedelic substances in Massachusetts.

Rick Doblin, founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), is featured in today's conversation. He has led efforts to bring psychedelics back into mainstream medicine, in part by organizing clinical drug trials to get MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD approved by the FDA.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Psychedelics in Massachusetts: The ballot question on decriminalization May 09, 2024

Show notes

A proposed ballot measure to decriminalize certain plant-based psychedelics in Massachusetts is now in progress, with activists gathering another 12,429 signatures by July 3 to secure ballot placement in the November election.

Today, The Common is continuing our three-part series looking at the past, present and future of psychedelics in Massachusetts and what decriminalization could mean for the state.

In this episode, we’ll examine the current status with Sam Drysdale, a Statehouse News Service reporter closely following the ballot measure.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

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