Boston Public Radio Podcast

Today: U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley zooms in on the three-year anniversary of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, and a brand new Supreme Court ruling giving states the power to cut off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood. And, Joe Knowles of the Family Health Project joins with Roxbury mother Dalia to discuss the benefits of offering direct cash payments to new mothers -- Knowles' initiative...

BPR Full Show 6/26: Why Are You In My Pool?

Governor Maura Healey joins for Ask the Governor. GBH News executive arts editor Jared Bowen discusses the Boston Public Art Triennial, Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club and the fate of Iran's architectural treasures with escalation of war. Harvard national security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses the emerging details of the U.S. strike on Iran and the proposed "Golden Dome"  US-wide missile defense sy...

CNN's John King on the latest national political headlines. Jim O'Connell + Derek Winbush join to discuss 40 years of Boston Health Care for the Homeless. Jordina Shanks of Fenway Health and civil rights attorney Alejandra Caraballo join to discuss the Supreme Court's ruling on gender affirming care for trans youth. Senator Ed Markey discusses attacks to public media, and the latest national headl...

Today: Senator Ed Markey joins, with reaction to Iran and the latest on recission for PBS and NPR.  Then we’ll get reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision last week to uphold a ban on gender affirming care in Tennessee, giving states broad powers to ban or regulate transgender medical care for minors. We talk with Jordina Shanks, CEO of Fenway Health – the largest provider of trans health care in...

Today: Congressman Seth Moulton is holding two truths at once – acknowledging the threat of Iran getting nuclear capabilities, and decrying the Trump administration’s actions over the weekend – and is calling for diplomacy, now. And, Boston Globe education reporter Christopher Huffaker, Commonwealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas and the Superintendent of Essex North Shore Agricultural and...

Congressman Seth Moulton joins us to discuss Trump's weekend bombing campaign in Iran. Then we open the phone lines to get listener reactions to escalating violence in the Middle East. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung discusses the latest with the Celtics' sale, and takes a look at the Commonwealth Fund, which was established in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd.  Heidi Riccio, su...

Today: Alba Musik joins live at the Boston Public Library to perform guitar and flamenco dancing, ahead of a show this week at Long Live Roxbury. And, President Trump campaigned on being a champion of the working class. How’s he doing so far for labor? We ask David Weil, who served in the department of labor in the Obama White House. 

Ron Mitchell, publisher of the Bay State Banner, and Joan Vennochi, opinion columnist at the Boston Globe, join for Press Play — our weekly media analysis segment.  ALBA Musik join for Live Music Friday, ahead of a performance at Long Live Roxbury, with Spanish guitar and flamenco dancing. David Weil, visiting professor of public policy at Harvard Kennedy School, served in the department of labor...

NBC Boston's Sue O’Connell and former Suffolk County sheriff Andrea Cabral discuss the Karen Read verdict. Harvard national security expert Juliette Kayyem explains the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, plus the debate around whether the U.S. should be involved.  To celebrate Juneteenth, former Boston Mayor Kim Janey, the NAACP’s Michael Curry and Northeastern University’s Ted Landsmark...

Today: NBC10 commentator Sue O'Connell and former public safety secretary Andrea Cabral discuss the Karen Read trial, and her acquittal. And, a Juneteenth panel with Boston’s first black mayor, Kim Janey, educator and lawyer Ted Landsmark, and Michael Curry of the NAACP and Mass League of Community Health Centers. 

A call-in segment asking listeners: If Democrats need the working class to win big, do they need to drop the purity tests and some hardlines on social issues? Ken Burns zooms in on the anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill to talk about the American Revolution, 250 years, and speak out in defense of public media. Ken Rapoport, CEO of Azuluna Foods & Christopher Grallert CEO of Green City Gr...

We start the show by asking listeners about a weekend of demonstrations, including 'No King' rallies and the military parade.  Anand Giridharadas, political commentator, discusses the shut-down of protests Saturday in LA, Trump's military parade and the political violence in Minnesota. Lucy Wightman discusses her new memoir "Princess Cheyenne: My Life as Boston's Most Famous Stripper." Lisa Thurau...

Today: Lucy Wightman joins Jim and Margery ahead of this week's release of her memoir, "Princess Cheyenne: My Life as Boston's Most Famous Stripper." And, a new report shows Massachusetts is backsliding on some aspects of juvenile justice reform. We speak with Lisa Thurau and Kristen Wheeler of Cambridge-based nonprofit Strategies for Youth.

Joan Donovan on misinformation in the digital age, she’ll talk about media coverage of the LA protests and discerning real news accounts from AI slop.  BAMS Fest returns to Franklin park on June 28th, with a whole slate of sister events during June. We’ll talk with founder Catherine T. Morris, with a Live Music Friday performance from Boston reggae band Roots Alley Collective. Boston Pride for the...

Today: Joan Donovan, founder of the Critical Internet Studies Institute & Boston University Assistant Professor of Journalism and emerging media studies, joins for a discussion on artificial intelligence, media manipulation, and telling truth from fiction. Boston Pride For The People President Adrianna Bolin and development & parade co-chair, Gary Daffin – he’s also President of the Multic...

Chuck Todd on the premiere of his new show “Sunday Night with Chuck Todd,” where he interviewed Steve Bannon. Andrea Cabral on Weinstein verdict. Michael Curry on RFK/vaccine misinformation.  Corby Kummer on pricy Boston dining

Today: Food policy analyst Corby Kummer discusses the new "dirty dozen" list of grocery store items laden with pesticides. And, Michael Curry, head of the Mass League of Community Health Centers, discusses a new proposal for the shuttered Carney Hospital in Dorchester to be repurposed as a training facility for nurses.

National security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses the situation in L.A. GBH's Meghan Smith and Alex Green, vice-chair of the Mass Special Commission on State Institutions, both join to discuss the conditions for disabled people in state institutions, and in the state generally Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung discusses the Boston City Hall scandal involving one of Wu's Cabinet chiefs...

Today:  A new report shows how, throughout its history, Massachusetts failed thousands of disabled residents living in institutions, and then tried to cover their tracks with bureaucratic stonewalling decades later. GBH’s Megan Smith joins alongside Alex Green, vice-chair of the commission behind this report.  And, naturalist Sy Montgomery is back to talk about axolotls, as researchers at Northeas...

BPR Full Show 6/10: Fact From Fiction

Today: Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett of the Boston Medical Center joins to discuss the latest medical headlines. And, ahead of this year’s Embrace Ideas Festival, we talk with Embrace Boston CEO Imari Paris Jeffries. Plus, joining Imari both at the festival – and today’s show – Giselle Byrd. She’s the first Black trans woman to lead a regional theatre company in the United States at Boston’s The Th...

BPR Full Show 6/9: National Guard In Los Angeles

Today: Trump deployed the national guard in California, without the consent of Governor Gavin Newsom. We talk through the existential questions of presidential authority with retired federal judge Nancy Gertner. Plus, her suspicions about the government's new charges of human trafficking against a man they wrongly deported, Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And, journalist Adam Chandler argues in his new book...

WSJ Callum Borchers & GBH Adam Reilly for Press Play this week. They’ll discuss the latest efforts to defund PBS & NPR.  The Light in the Piazza is the latest musical at the Huntington Theatre Company. We’ll hear performances from leads Sarah-Anne Martinez and Josh Grosso for this week’s edition of Live Music Friday. Dan Primack, business editor at Axios, joins to talk about steel tariffs,...