Boston Public Radio Podcast

Paul Willis is a Boston-based rapper and educator who’s spent his career in nonprofits helping youth through hip hop & the arts. His latest project is “Hip Hop Leadership,” a combination album / book / teaching curriculum about what hip hop can teach about leadership.  Andera Cabral on the Wisconsin Judge who was arrested.  Shirley Leung on nonprofit 826 Boston rejecting $250k in federal grant...

Twisted Pine performed for Live Music Friday, ahead of shows at the Spire in Plymouth and Lowell’s The Town and The City festival.  Sue O’Connell on the Blue Origin flight & the latest on Karen Read. Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett on RFK’s ongoing vaccine disinformation campaign. BAA CEO Jack Flemming joined to preview this year’s Boston Marathon. He’ll join alongside championship athlete and fi...

Today: GBH’s Adam Reilly & NBC10’s Sue O’Connell are here for media analysis segment “Press Play” – The nation’s journalistic bulwark “60 Minutes” has just lost its lead producer, who quit over loss of journalistic integrity at CBS. Plus, Sue’s dispatch from the Karen Read courtroom. And, Live Music Friday with Paul Willis, a Boston-based rapper and educator who’s spent his career in nonprofit...

Mount Holyoke College president Danielle Holley was an early critic of President Trump administration's encroachment into academic freedom. She discusses the growing chorus of college and university leaders standing up for their independence. And, Michael Curry of the NAACP and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, discusses the fate of Carney Hospital in Dorchester -- shuttered in...

Food policy analyst Corby Kummer discusses the FDA moving to ban some food dyes and RFK Jr.'s MAHA agenda. He also discusses a free grocery store in Maryland and Megan Markle’s new jelly endeavor. Danielle Holley is the President of Mount Holyoke College and joins to talk about the role of higher-ed leaders in the era of Trump 2.0. She’s been outspoken about resisting federal pressure and said she...

BPR Full Show 4/23: Don't Say Please & Thank You

Today:  Embrace Boston’s Imari Paris Jeffries and Jenee Osterheldt of the Globe’s “A Beautiful Resistance” series and Everyone 250 join ahead of a major rally happening this Saturday to protest racial injustice happening on the federal level, while also commemorating 60 years since Martin Luther King Jr. led a very similar Freedom Rally here in Boston.  And, some very funny figures in Boston’s com...

Today: Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan College, was one of the first university presidents to stand up to federal pressure from the Trump Administration. We discuss the growing chorus following in his footsteps. And, a mother-son duo for the latest iteration of our segment “How Do You Two Know Each Other?” with Marianne Hughes, the first Executive Director with the Interaction Institute for So...

Michael Roth, president of Wesleyan University, discusses his 'case against cowardice' in the face of Trump's attacks on higher education. Brian McGrory, head of BU journalism, discusses the local reaction to the Pope's death, the latest with Steward Healthcare suing to claw back money from former vendors, and conservative radio callers voicing their displeasure of Trump's tariffs. Marianne Hughes...

Today: Former Massachusetts public safety secretary Andrea Cabral discusses a federal judge holding the Trump administration in contempt over its defiance – The administration refuses to return a man wrongly deported to El Salvador. Then we talk about higher education with the College Uncovered podcast team, GBH’s Kirk Carapezza and the Hechinger Report’s Jon Marcus. Season 4 is out now.

Local woman Sue O'Connell hosts with Margery while Jim slithers somewhere in Cambridge.  Political analyst and podcaster Chuck Todd is back for his Thursday D.C. news roundup. Former Suffolk County sheriff Andrea Cabral on the DOJ suit against Maine for its trans high school athletes laws. Plus, why a federal immigration judge denied bond for Rumeysa Ozturk. GBH education reporter Kirk Carapezza a...

Today:  National security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses the normalization of political violence; and calls for the Trump administration to show proof of life for the man wrongly deported to an El Salvador mega-prison. Michael Curry, CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, discusses the health and medical impacts of the federal administration's decision to pause more than $2...

Michael Curry joins via zoom to discuss the federal funding freeze impacts on medical research and healthcare in Mass, and Healey's budget request for cuts to mental health. Juliette Kayyem discusses the attack on PA Gov Josh Shapiro, and normalized violence; Harvard's defiance; plus, DHS staffers given lie detector tests over alleged leaks. Christopher Kimball discusses Milk Street's latest Itali...

Today: We check back in with local Black entrepreneurs Rose Staram and Ricardo Pierre Louis on today's environment for BIPOC-owned businesses -- both had secured major contracts two years ago when Boston hosted the NAACP’s national convention.  And, legendary filmmakers Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein discuss their six-part, 12 hour docu-series coming this fall: “The American Revolution"

Filmmakers Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein join to discuss their American Revolution series, premiering later this year. We check back in with Rose Staram (RoseMark Production) and Ricardo Pierre Louis (Prive Parking) two local business owners we've spoken with since the NAACP convention in Boston around the city's contracting policies as it relates to people of color. Sports authority Trenni Casey z...

Today: Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner discusses the Trump administration’s defiance of a court order to return the wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia – still locked up in a mega prison in El Salvador. Meanwhile, in the Oval Office, Trump welcomed El Salvadoran president Bukele with open arms. And, Princeton’s Khalil Gribran Muhammad discusses which schools are standing up and which schools are...

Food policy analyst Corby Kummer discusses the hollowing out of middle-class restaurant and how local restaurants are grappling with tariffs. Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner discusses the legal battle over the mistakenly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Boston Globe travel writer Christopher Muther discusses the sexy clowns of Montreal and the growing number of Americans applying for dual ci...

It's Live Music Friday with the Music Inclusion Ensemble, ahead of their year-end show at the Berklee Performance Center. We talk with founder Adrian Anantawan, singer/songwriter/disability rights advocate Gaelynn Lea and violist Connor Valcy. NBC Boston's Sue O’Connell on the second Karen Read trial jury selection and the toxic online discourse that still surrounds the case. Lyndia Downie of the...

BPR Full Show 4/10: AITA For Not Sharing My Location?

Today: National security expert Juliette Kayyem offers a  risk assessment for international college students – and anyone planning on traveling outside the country – as the Trump administration ramps up visa revocations.  Plus, auditor Diana DiZoglio is still trying to deliver on the overwhelmingly voter-supported legislation that would authorize her to audit the legislature.

GBH executive arts editor Jared Bowen discusses "It's A Motherf**king Pleasure" at ArtsEmerson and "Don't Eat The Mangos" at the Huntington.  Harvard national security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants and the crusade against free speech concerning Palestinian support on college campuses. It's a Passover panel wit...

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joins for Ask The Mayor. Then NBC Sports Boston anchor/reporter Trenni Casey discusses an NCAA $2.8 billion settlement, the Red Sox Mookie Betts trade getting Trump's attention and the Women's Final Four.  CNN's John King zooms in for the latest national political headlines. Plus, Andris Nelsons & Chad Smith of the Boston Symphony Orchestra join ahead of a Friday Yo-Yo...

Anand Giridharadas of The Ink newsletter discusses national politics & this weekend's protests across the country Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner discusses Trump's third term talk and the latest on cases before the Supreme Court. Fiona Hill, senior fellow at Brookings and was the senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council during Trump's first administ...

Today: Fiona Hill has spent decades studying Putin and Russia – both as a scholar and as a US intelligence official – serving in George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump administrations. She discusses the shift in foreign policy agenda in the first few weeks of Trump's second administration, and threats to Democracy worldwide.

The Boston Lyric Opera's 80th anniversary production of " Carousel " starts tonight, and brings the beloved show back to its beginnings at the historic Colonial Theater – in 1945. We speak with Boston Lyric Opera CEO Bradley Vernatter, director and visionary Anne Bogart, and Boston Foundation's Lee Pelton, making his theatrical debut. Plus, performances from Chelsea Basler, Brendan Shapiro, and Ma...