Boston Public Radio Podcast

Today on Boston Public Radio: Jake Auchincloss, the Democratic candidate for Massachusetts' 4th Congressional District, discussed why he believes America needs a green energy economy, and offered his take on how Congress ought to be handling economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.  We opened our lines to talk with listeners about the wildfires devastating the west coast, and America's failure to seriously confront climate change.  New Yorker staff writer and historian Jelani Cobb called in to talk about his new documentary for FRONTLINE, “Policing the Police”.  TV expert Bob Thompson weighed in on news of the final season of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” and reflected on the passing of veteran actor Diana Riggs.  Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett Price, hosts of WGBH’s All Rev’d Up, discussed the recently published Harvard Law School report into racial disparities in the Mass. prison system, and the racist subtext of President Trump’s “law and order” messaging.  We opened lines to talk with listeners about the Patriots' Sunday victory over the Miami Dolphins, and whether the win has added significance in light of Tom Brady’s loss with the Buccaneers.  Inaugural poet Richard Blanco called in for our monthly edition of “Village Voice,” where he read a handful of poems commemorating the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Media maven Sue O’Connell offered her unique insight into some best practices for remote learning, as both a parent and pupil. She also weighed in on the ridiculousness of gender reveal parties, and the upsides to ranked-choice voting. We opened lines to talk with parents about your plans for navigating the school year, as classes begin to get underway. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh called in for “Ask the Mayor,” where he spoke on a wide range of issues impacting the city, and responded to questions and comments from listeners. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko discussed the recently-announced inclusion of civil rights activist and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the next installment of the Madden video game series. He also explained why some Amazon delivery workers are hanging smartphones in trees outside shopping centers. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung talked about her recent column criticizing Mayor Marty Walsh for speaking to reporters about the mayoral ambitions of Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu. She also spoke on how the COVID-19 pandemic is widening America's “grotesque” wealth gap. We opened lines to ask listeners: Has pandemic life diluted your ability to distinguish weekends from weekdays?

Today on Boston Public Radio: NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd discussed revelations about President Trump’s understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic, from journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book. He also weighed in on whether Woodward ought to have shared clips from the interviews with the public earlier.  We opened lines to talk with listeners about the president’s acknowledgment, made in interviews with journalist Bob Woodward, that he understood the seriousness of COVID-19 as far back as February, all while publicly downplaying the severity of the looming crisis. Former Suffolk County Sheriff and Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral weighed in on the recent move by the Department of Justice to represent President Trump in a defamation suit, and the wider legal implications of last week’s arrest of nine Boston police officers in an alleged overtime fraud scheme.  Ali Noorani discussed whether changing attitudes around immigration could edge suburban voters towards Biden in November, and a hunger strike by detainees at an ICE detention center in Louisiana. Noorani is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Immigration Forum. His latest book is "There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration.”  Former Mass. Education Secretary Paul Reville discussed tensions around the return of teachers to in-person learning, and recent allegations from a former Boston principal that she was unfairly targeted by parents with political connections.  Andrew Bacevich discussed President Trump’s failure to end U.S. military involvement in the Middle East, and his recent piece for Salon, positing how Joe Biden ought to lead the nation should he win in November. Bacevich is the President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University, and author of "The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory.” We opened lines to ask listeners: are you mentally and emotionally prepared for fall and winter life during the coronavirus pandemic?

Immigration authority Ali Noorani called in to Boston Public Radio on Thursday, where he reflected on shifting political attitudes in Arizona’s densely populated and largely suburban Maricopa County. The conversation followed a recent Bloomberg article, titled "If Maricopa County Sours on Trump, So Will Suburbs Everywhere." "This county was very much the locus of anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona that very quickly moved across the country,” he explained, citing examples like the state’s controversial 2010 “Show Me Your Papers” provision, which was drafted by a Senator situated in the county, and the extreme anti-immigrant politics of Joe Arpaio, who served as county sheriff from 1993 to 2017.   "But now, as Bloomberg points out, it’s this change in demographics, the changing economics of Maricopa County, that’s changing the county’s perspective and approach on immigration,” he said, adding that some faith-based voters "just don’t like the way that Donald Trump – and frankly, the Republican Party – is approaching immigration." During their conversation, Noorani also touched on how a slowed-down naturalization process for immigrants will limit votership in November, and detainees at a Louisiana ICE detention center on hunger strike in protest of inhumane treatment.  Ali Noorani is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Immigration Forum. His latest book is "There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration."

Massachusetts’ largest teachers unions strategy for urging fully remote learning in the state this fall hit a snag when a teacher strike in Andover was ruled illegal by the state’s labor board, after the union instructed teachers not to enter school buildings for a staff training last week. Paul Reville told Boston Public Radio on Thursday he agreed with the labor board’s decision, though acknowledged that there is no unified front on either side of the issue. “There’s a lot of tension now between the unions’ understandable and justifiable role in protecting their members’ health and interests, and school districts pushing hard to reopen school, with a lot of parents feeling they want to see their children back in school,” he said. State law prohibits public employees from striking, and the labor relations board determined that the union overstepped its authority when it tried to unilaterally dictate where teachers perform their work. “I’m looking, I know a number of people are looking for flexibility, both from management and labor, in getting to a set of agreements that takes into account the needs of children and families in this moment,” he said. The ruling comes as a number of districts are still negotiating how to start school this fall. 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: MIT economist and Affordable Care Act architect Jonathan Gruber discussed concerns that a rushed COVID-19 vaccine could exacerbate vaccine skepticism in the U.S., and other political quandaries surrounding Operation Warp Speed.  We opened lines to ask listeners: what would it take to get you on board with an American-made coronavirus vaccine?  CNN’s Brian Stelter discussed his latest book, "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.” National security expert and CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed controversial acknowledgments made by the president in a forthcoming book from veteran journalist Bob Woodward, and her latest piece in The Atlantic, called "The Emotionally Challenging Next Phase of the Pandemic."  Medical ethicist Art Caplan weighed in on the thousands of Americans attending Donald Trump rallies without masks, and ethical questions raised by a new drug claiming to treat a common form of dwarfism.  Food writer Corby Kummer discussed data from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association indicating that 20% of Mass. restaurants have closed permanently because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thoughts on fellow food writer Tom Philpott’s new book, “Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It." We opened lines to ask listeners: are you ready to continue eating outside at restaurants during the fall and winter?

National security expert Juliette Kayyem made her weekly appearance on Boston Public Radio Wednesday, where she touched on reporting from veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Rage,” which includes an acknowledgment from President Trump that he understood the looming severity of the COVID-19 pandemic back in February, at the same time he was publicly claiming the virus would “disappear." "Trump never likes to be wrong,” she said. "And so what was interesting to me about his claim that he always knew how bad it was going to be, is that even though it’s against self-interest… in some ways it satisfies his own narrative about himself, which is ‘I’m never wrong.’" "I think that that’s so interesting… deadly interesting, that that’s how his brain actually works,” she said. “He’d rather be accused of lying than be accused of being wrong." Kayyem also discussed her latest piece in The Atlantic, "The Emotionally Challenging Next Phase of the Pandemic," and whether she believes the president's latest string of scandals will influence swing voters in November.  Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and faculty chair of the homeland security program at the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, where he discussed new data from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association indicating the state has already lost a fifth of its restaurants to revenue losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Kummer warned that while the numbers are tragic, this forthcoming winter season could prove even grimmer for Mass. restaurants. "Until Spring… we’re not going to have an accurate count, an accurate figure – and I think that’s the news we’re going to be bracing for,” he said. “Many restaurants this winter, unless something changes dramatically, will die." During the interview, Kummer also touched on his recent New York Times review of Tom Philpott’s “Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It,” and an NPR report about the alarming percentage of low-income kids not getting government-subsidized meals through the pandemic.  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.

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has halted the late stage trial for a COVID-19 vaccine this week due to a suspected adverse reaction in a participant. Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday the participant developed an inflammation of the spinal cord and had to be hospitalized, causing the company to pause the trial in order to conduct a safety review and determine whether the reaction was in fact caused by the vaccine. Caplan said the takeaway from this latest development is that medical trials cannot be rushed, no matter the political pressure to quickly develop a vaccine. “We want to vaccinate our way out of this thing and people keep spinning tales it’ll be here in October,” he said. “I keep saying no it wont, it’ll be here next year, and I don’t know when, but maybe the end of the year … because you’ve got to collect this data.” Art Caplan is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty chair and the director of the division of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened our lines to talk with listeners about the 11 Northeastern University students suspended, without tuition reimbursement, for violating the school’s social distancing rules. NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek talked about the disqualification of tennis icon Novak Djokovic from the US Open, and a new opinion piece in the Boston Globe from Celtics center Enes Kanter, titled “Why I won’t shut up and play basketball." WGBH News analyst and GroundTruth Project CEO Charlie Sennott discussed ongoing pro-democracy protests in Belarus, and muted reaction from President Trump to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett Price, hosts of WGBH’s All Rev’d Up, discussed a new report showing Black girls are nearly four times as likely to be disciplined in school as their white peers, and President Trump's order that federal agencies end training on white privilege and critical race theory. TV expert Bob Thompson weighed in on data analytics giant Nielsen’s embrace of streaming, the piling controversy around Disney’s "Mulan" reboot, and “Women Make Film,” an ongoing film series airing on TCM. CNN’s John King talked about the latest news on the presidential race, eight weeks away from Election Day, and ongoing federal debate around further coronavirus relief funding. We reopened lines to talk with listeners about the recent Atlantic piece alleging that President Trump called dead U.S veterans “suckers” and “losers.”