Boston Public Radio Podcast

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Friday about Olivia Troye, former homeland security, counterterrorism and coronavirus adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, who quit her job in July and has now endorsed Joe Biden. “She’s a significant staffer, so it is big in the sense that she left the task force, she left government, and then she goes public in support for Biden,” Kayyem said. “It assures the president to be the pig that he is in terms of how he talks about people.” 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: NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd weighed in on the latest headlines around November’s elections, and President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.  GBH News’ Adam Reilly discussed new GBH/MassINC polling on voter attitudes around the 2021 Boston mayoral race.  We opened lines to ask listeners: is it time for leaders in the science and medical communities to call out President Trump’s reckless statements on coronavirus and climate change?  Former Suffolk County Sheriff and Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral discussed the recent settlement reached between the city of Louisville, Ky. and the family of Breonna Taylor, as well as last week’s study from Harvard Law School on stark racial disparities in the Mass. justice system.  Harvard Business School behavioral economist Michael Norton discussed research on leisure, and what we know about those of us who have a hard time letting loose. We also opened lines to hear your thoughts on active and inactive lei

Today on Boston Public Radio: MGH psychiatrist and pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Pinsky discussed how remote learning can hinder childhood development, in a conversation sparked by her recent Atlantic piece, titled "We Flattened the Curve. Our Kids Belong in School." We opened lines to hear your thoughts on the rollout of remote learning, and whether Mass. ought to be doing more to prioritize children’s mental wellbeing.  Boston City Counselor and mayoral candidate Michelle Wu called in to talk about why she’s running to lead the city, and how she’d improve on the job being done by current mayor Marty Walsh.  Medical ethicist Art Caplan discussed the ways companies are navigating COVID-19 testing for employees, and President Trump’s willingness to hold largely mask-free rallies during the coronavirus pandemic.  We opened lines to talk with listeners about Michelle Wu’s campaign for mayor, and the improvements you’d like to see from future Boston leadership.  Naturalist and journalist Sy Montgomery discusse

Today on Boston Public Radio: Mass. AG Maura Healey reflected on the life and career of Mass. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants, who died on Monday.  Deval Patrick, former Mass. Gov. and Chairman of the Together Fund, called in to continue the conversation about the life and legacy of former Mass. SJC Chief Justice Gants.  NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek talked about the Patriots' win – and Tom Brady’s loss – this past Sunday, and weighed in on the growing number of NFL and NBA players using their platform to advocate for social justice causes.  Heather Goldstone, Chief Communications Officer at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, discussed the link between climate change and the current string of record-setting hurricanes and wildfires in the U.S., and touched on why the COVID-19 pandemic has had a minimal impact on the climate crisis.  Jim Aloisi and Chris Dempsey discussed potential service cuts and fare hikes for the MBTA, and Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu’

Transportation experts Jim Aloisi and Chris Dempsey joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, where they attested to Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu’s record on transportation issues, in light of her newly-announced campaign for city governor.  "I think she’s already impacted the conversation,” Dempsey said. "She has been a leader on transportation since she joined the City Council, not just within the city of Boston but really across the region and across the state.” Aloisi agreed, saying he believes Wu “has already triggered conversations that are good ones.” "I think that the dynamic between her and [current mayor Marty Walsh] in terms of thinking about dedicated bus lanes, protected cycling lanes, is good one,” he said, adding that any future leadership in Boston will need to implement aggressive measures to modernize the city's transportation infrastructure. The two also weighed in on MBTA proposals to mitigate a looming budget crisis with fare hikes and service cuts, as well as Mayor Walsh’s announce

Trenni Kusnierek spoke to Boston Public Radio on Tuesday about Tom Brady’s first performance as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer last Sunday. The Buccaneers lost to the New Orleans Saints 34-23. “Brady is 43 and I don’t think we’re going to see the same Tom Brady ever again,” Kusnierek said. “Don’t build your entire offense around Tom Brady and put it all on his shoulders.” Having an offense with a solid running game will take the pressure off Brady, she added. “Make it a versatile offense, similar to New Orleans with Drew Brees, who’s 41 years old,” she said. “Anything so that every time you need a score, it’s not solely on him.” Trenni Kusnierek is a sports reporter and anchor for NBC Sports Boston.

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

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 am

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

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 ap

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, bo

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 da

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

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 le

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 Grossma

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 Thom

Note: We’re on tape today, replaying some of our favorite conversations.  On today’s episode of Boston Public Radio:  ESPN’s Howard Bryant discussed his book "The Heritage: Black Athletes, a Divided America, and the Politics of Patriotism.” Writer Michael Eric Dyson discussed his book “What Truth Sounds Like: RFK, James Baldwin, and Our Unfinished Conversation About Race in America.”  Harvard historian Stephen Greenblatt talked about his book "Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics.” Journalist and naturalist Sy Montgomery discussed her book "The Hyena Scientist.” Writer and humorist John Hodgman discussed his book, titled "Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches.” Actor and activist George Takei discussed the musical “Allegiance," which is based on his real life experience of living in a Japanese-American internment camp.

Note: We’re on tape today, replaying some of our favorite conversations. On Today’s episode of Boston Public Radio: Writer Ron Chernow talked about “Grant,” his biography of president Ulysses S. Grant. Harvard Business School's Michael Norton talked about his research on whether consumers prefer saving money or saving time. Author Karl Ove Knausgaard discussed his book, “Autumn.” Artist Patti Smith talked about why she considers herself a writer above her other crafts, in a conversation about her memoir "Devotion (Why I Write)." Novelist Salman Rushdie discussed his novel "The Golden House.” Naturalist Sy Montgomery and fellow animal writer Elizabeth Marshall Thomas discussed their book, "Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind."

Note: We’re on tape today, replaying some of our favorite conversations.  On Today’s Boston Public Radio Actor Ed Asner discussed his new play, called "God Help Us!” Restauranteurs Andrew Li and Irene Li talked about their new cookbook, which they wrote with their sister Margaret Li, called "Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes from our Chinese-American Kitchen." Bren Smith, a former commercial fisherman, discussed his new memoir, “Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer." Writer Christopher Castellani discussed his latest novel, "Leading Men." US Women’s National Team Soccer player Sam Mewis stopped by the GBH studio days after winning the Women’s World Cup Championship.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Jennifer Nassour and Steve Kerrigan recapped down Tuesday’s primaries, and debated President Trump's odds of winning reelection in November. Nassour is a former Chairwoman of the Mass GOP, founder of Conservative Women For A Better Future, and President of the Pocketbook Project. Kerrigan is the CEO of the Edward M. Kennedy Community Health Center and former CEO of the DNC. We opened lines to hear your takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed ongoing Russian interference ahead of the November election, and a new campaign ad from Joe Biden that counters the president’s claim of being the “law and order” candidate. Medical ethicist Art Caplan discussed President Trump’s unprompted denial that he had a series of mini-strokes, and weighed in on the ethical problems with the Trump Administration’s efforts to fast-track a coronavirus vaccine. Food writer Corby Kummer talked about claims from some conservatives that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris wou