Boston Public Radio Podcast

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse discussed the influence of dark money in Washington, and reflected on this week’s Senate hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.  We opened up lines to hear your thoughts on Congress’ inability to pass more coronavirus stimulus relief.  Beat the Press host Emily Rooney offered her impressions of Thursday’s dueling presidential town halls, and discussed the suspension of C-SPAN political editor Steve Scully after he falsely claimed that his Twitter account was hacked. She also read a conspiracy-themed list of fixations and fulminations. Jay Wexler, Boston University law professor and former clerk for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, recounted his time honoring his former boss at a days-long vigil, and reflected on the expected appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Food writer Corby Kummer discussed the Boston restaurants that are “hibernating” this winter in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and talked about what Americans should expect Thanksgiving celebrations to look like this year. CNN’s John King talked about Thursday’s town hall debates for President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. He also touched on polling indicating that the president is losing favor with women voters, and a recent condemnation of Trump from Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, speaking to constituents in Neb. Under the Radar host Callie Crossley discussed the ramifications of a halted census count, recent Washington Post reporting on postal workers falsifying data, and Vice President Mike Pence’s response to learning about the fly on his head from his debate against Sen. Kamala Harris.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Renée Landers recapped the week’s Senate hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, what the public learned about Barrett’s judicial approach, and whether she believes the nominee would help overturn Roe v. Wade. Landers is a professor of law and faculty director of the health and biomedical law concentration at Suffolk University’s School of Law.  We then opened lines to talk with listeners about your thoughts on court-stacking, and whether Democrats should work to expand the Supreme Court if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed before the election.  NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd caught us up on the Senate hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Amy Coney Barrett, and dueling town hall interviews for President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Next, we opened lines to talk with listeners about the two presidential town hall debates taking place Thursday night, for both President Tump and former Vice President Biden.  Matt Stout, who covers politics and government from the Boston Globe’s State House bureau, gave a debrief on Mass.' Ballot Question 2, regarding whether the state ought to implement ranked-choice voting, and offered some pros and cons for voters still figuring out where they stand on the issue. State Rep. Mike Connolly discussed his thoughts on Gov. Baker’s newly-released rental relief plan, and the implications of the state ending its eviction moratorium, which it'll do on Saturday, ahead of winter months and another potential coronavirus surge. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko discussed Twitter and Facebook’s moves to limit the spread of a story, published Wednesday by the New York Post, about what the outlet described as a “smoking gun” email found on the laptop of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. He also talked about issues with Amazon’s delivery service, and what you can do to help delivery drivers find your home.