

Boston Public Radio Podcast
WGBH Educational Foundation
Join hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan for a smart local conversation with leaders and thinkers shaping Boston and New England. We feature our favorite conversation from each show. To hear the full show, please visit wgbhnews.org/bpr To share your opinion, email bpr@wgbh.org or call or text 877-301-8970 during the live broadcast from 11AM-2PM Monday through Friday.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 25, 2025 • 37min
Best Of BPR 7/25: Live Music With Solas Ahead Of Lowell Folk Fest & Rep. Auchincloss Makes The Case For New Cities
Today:We’ll start with Live Music Friday, from Irish folk band Solas performing for us ahead of the Lowell Folk Festival.And, Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss joins us with MIT economist Jon Gruber – making the case for new cities -- as in, we need to build a lot of housing, and quickly, if we’re going to get ourselves out of the housing crisis.

Jul 25, 2025 • 2h 30min
BPR Full Show 7/25: Beaches and Burgers
Local woman, coyote wrangler and NBC10 Boston's Sue O'Connell guest hosts with Jim.Julie Millican, Vice President of Media Matters, joins for this week’s edition of Press Play media analysis. Irish folk band Solas performs ahead of this weekend's Lowell Folk Festival. We also talk with festival founders Seamus Eagan and Winnie Hogan, plus executive director Lee Viliesis.GBH's Callie Crossley discusses a protest on Nantucket against Vice President JD Vance, WBZ layoffs, Trump’s latest push to prevent “woke AI," new Obama conspiracy theories and reflections on the death of Hulk Hogan and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. Rep. Jake Auchincloss and MIT economist Jon Gruber join to talk about their recent essay called “The Case for New Cities."

Jul 24, 2025 • 32min
Best Of BPR 7/24: Genocide Scholar On Gaza & GBH CEO On Rescission
Today:Omer Bartov is the Dean’s Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. He joins us to discuss his view that Israel’s ongoing actions in Gaza constitute genocide.Then GBH CEO Susan Goldberg stops by studio 3 to update us on the impacts of losing federal funding.

Jul 24, 2025 • 2h 41min
BPR Full Show 7/24: The Towel Wasting Family
BPR Full Show 7/24: The Towel Wasting Family

Jul 23, 2025 • 39min
Best Of BPR 7/23: Fired Market Basket Execs Allege Hostile Takeover & La Saison's Road From Tehran To Boston
Today:Market Basket executives Tom Gordon and Joe Schmidt join Jim and Margery at the Boston Public Library to discuss their firings, in the wake of speaking out against the company's latest. And, husband-and-wife owners of La Saison bakery, Soheil Fathi & Sarah Moridpour discuss their journey from Tehran to the Boston area.

Jul 23, 2025 • 2h 32min
BPR Full Show 7/23: Have We No Shame?
GBH executive arts editor Jared Bowen discusses the Labubu craze and 200 years of American Art on display at the PEM.Harvard national security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses Israel's expanded attacks in central Gaza, the growing daily deaths at food and humanitarian sites operated by the IDF, and France's media organization calling for the removal of its freelancers who remain in Gaza, citing starvation.Market Basket employees -- Joe Schmidt and Tom Gordon -- were fired hours after Schmidt appeared on our show yesterday. We check back in with them on the latest in the Market Basket family feud. Ariel Foxman is the VP of brand and experience for the Boston Seaport and Brandon Cardet-Hernandez is a Boston School Committee and member of the Mass council for Latino Empowerment. They are married, and join for our "How Do You Two Know Each Other?" segment.Soheil Fathi and Sarah Moridpour of La Saison Bakery join to discuss their journey from Tehran to Boston.

Jul 22, 2025 • 38min
Best Of BPR 7/22: The Garden Lady On GBH & Suspended Market Basket Supervisors Speak Out
Today:“The Garden Lady” herself, C.L. Fornari, joins to discuss her program on GBH and CAI.And, Joe Schmidt and Paul Quigley have each worked at Market Basket for decades; they're currently suspended in the wake of turmoil in the board room over leadership at the company. They join to discuss.

Jul 22, 2025 • 2h 41min
BPR Full Show 7/22: Sparkling Vs. Still Water
CNN chief national correspondent John King on the latest national political news.C.L. Fornari, the garden lady, joins to discuss her Saturday afternoon CAI/GBH broadcast ... and takes listener questions about plants and gardening.Joe Schmidt, Tom Gordon, and Paul Quigley are Market Basket supervisors suspended by the company in the wake of CEO Artie T Demoulas being placed on leave. They were suspended over allegations they have been engaging in "disruptive behavior within the company."Sports authority Trenni Casey discusses the WNBA entering in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement with players, and the NFL's female coaching surge.

Jul 21, 2025 • 35min
Best Of BPR 7/21: Trump Vs. Murdoch & Trump Vs. Harvard
Today: Andrea Cabral and Shirley Leung fill in for Jim and Margery.We talk with NBC10 commentator Sue O'Connell about President Trump's new lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over new reporting on his connections with Jeffrey Epstein.And, Princeton's Khalil Gibran Muhammad discusses the latest in higher education, as Harvard takes the Trump administration to court over federal funding.

Jul 21, 2025 • 2h 34min
BPR Full Show 7/21: The Only Prescription
Boston Globe's Shirley Leung and former public safety secretary Andrea Cabral sub in the host seats for Jim and Margery. Amherst College professor Ilan Stavans talks about how Hispanic and Latino communities are adapting to the Trump administration's immigration policies, and ICE’s latest push to build migrant tent camps. Local woman Sue O’Connell discusses inner-party GOP debate over the Epstein files, Stephen Colbert’s cancellation and the Astronomer CEO caught on the Coldplay concern 'kiss cam.'Boston Medical Center's Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett discusses local hits to Medicaid from Trump’s massive spending bill, plusnew evidence on the harms of vaping. Princeton University's Khalil Gibran Muhammad discusses how claims of anti-semitism are being used to undercut DEI in higher-ed, and why Black Americans are continuing to boycott big-box retailers.