Boston Public Radio Podcast

Today on  Boston Public Radio : We opened lines to talk with listeners about the president’s bout with COVID-19, and his abrupt departure from Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday evening. NBC Sports Boston anchor and reporter Trenni Kusnierek discussed abysmal voter registration statistics among players in the NBA, political advocacy in the WNBA, and the latest news around Patriots quarterback Ca...

Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett offered her medical perspective on the latest headlines around President Trump’s fight with COVID-19, helping parse together exactly how sick the president actually is. Gergen Barnett is the vice chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and residency director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School....

President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 last Thursday, and was transported to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for monitoring on Friday. Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with  Boston Public Radio  on Monday about how the rest of the world views the news of Trump contracting the coronavirus. “What our enemies are looking at are unbelievable unforced error at th...

Today on  Boston Public Radio :  Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett discussed Friday’s news that President Trump has been diagnosed with COVID-19, and a concerning rise in coronavirus infections throughout Mass. Gergen Barnett is the vice chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and residency director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical...

Medical ethicist Art Caplan, speaking on Friday's  Boston Public   Radio , said that while it isn’t uncommon for presidents to conceal critical information about their health and wellbeing, Donald Trump has an ethical responsibility to be fully transparent about his own physical standing, following Friday’s news of a COVID-19 diagnosis. “Look, it’s an election time. We wanna know who we’re voting...

Juliette Kayyem called into Friday’s  Boston Public Radio to reflect on news that President Trump has contracted the coronavirus. “Trump needs an out,” she said while weighing in on whether the diagnosis might signal his political demise. “It can’t possibly be that America didn’t vote for him, so it’s that 'the voting was rigged’ or whatever.” “Maybe this is his out... maybe this is the way in whi...

Today on  Boston Public Radio :  We opened lines to talk with listeners about President Trump’s sympathy for the Proud Boys, and how his open racism is impacting your relationships with friends and family on the other side of the political spectrum. Boston City Councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell discussed why she’s chosen to enter race for mayor of Boston, and weighed in on a series o...

Today on  Boston Public Radio :  We started off by talking with listeners about your impressions from Tuesday night’s presidential debate.  Rep. Seth Moulton offered his impressions of Tuesday night’s debate, discussed the newly-published report from Congress' Future of Defense Task Force on shortcomings with U.S. national defense, and reflected on his initiative to establish a national three-digi...

The Trump administration waged a pressure campaign against the C.D.C. to push messaging in line with President Trump’s agenda to reopen schools and downplay the risk of COVID-19 spread among younger populations, according to a report in the New York Times. Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator for the White House, was involved in the effort, a move medical ethicist Arthur Capla...

Tuesday night’s presidential debate contained a lot of crosstalk — overwhelmingly initiated by President Donald Trump interrupting Joe Biden — and not a lot of substance. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday that despite the lack of policy discussion, the choice presented to voters is very clear. “I don’t know what you were expecting, but we have two choices, there’s n...

Today on  Boston Public Radio :  We started off by opening our lines to talk with listeners about your thoughts ahead of Tuesday’s debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek weighed in on the Patriots' Sunday win against the Oakland Raiders, dropped prostitution charges against Patriots owner Robert Kraft, the lousy 2020 season for the Red So...

Today on  Boston Public Radio :  We opened lines to talk with listeners about Monday’s New York Times report revealing information about President Trump’s long-withheld tax returns.  Suffolk University law expert Renee Landers discussed what could happen to the Affordable Care Act if Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, and other questions circling the Supreme Court nominee. Lander...

The Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to the Affordable Care Act a week after the election. Health law expert Renée Landers told Boston Public Radio on Monday Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court Amy Coney Barrett may undercut Obamacare if she’s on the bench. “The serious question is whether she will view the decision she criticized in (a court opinion upholding the Affordable Care Act) as...

Last week, Bishop Michael Curry spoke on  Boston Public Radio  about the righteousness of love, and the value it can bring us in life’s more worrisome periods.  "'You know when you used to go to the cemetery, and you’d see the date [and] name of whoever died, and then you'd see the date of their birth… you’ll see that there’s a little dash between the date of their birth and the date of their deat...

Today on  Boston Public Radio : Journalist Barton Gellman talked about the growing likelihood that President Trump will work to skew election results in his favor, in a conversation about his recent Atlantic piece, “The Election That Could Break America." We opened lines to talk with listeners about your thoughts on the possibility of a contested November election.  Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy d...

Today on  Boston Public Radio : Suffolk County DA Rachel Rollins weighed in on Wednesday's ruling on the Louisville, Ky. Police officers involved in the killing Breonna Taylor, and responded to a range of listener calls as part of our monthly “Ask the DA” series. NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd recapped the latest political headlines around the 2020 presidential race.  Former Suffolk Cou...

Paul Reville, former Massachusetts education secretary, spoke with  Boston Public Radio  on Thursday about how Massachusetts schools, both K-12 and higher ed, are handling reopening during the pandemic. “Many people are predicting we’re going to have a resurgence of this virus, and it’s going to push everybody back to being exclusively online, in due course,” he said. “We’ll see, I hope not, but w...

Today on  Boston Public Radio : MIT economist and Affordable Care Act architect Jon Gruber weighed the possibility that a Supreme Court without Ruth Bader Ginsburg might overturn the ACA, and the widespread ramifications that would play out if that were to happen.  We opened lines to hear your thoughts and concerns about the future of the Affordable Care Act.  CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed...

Medical ethicist Art Caplan joined  Boston Public Radio  on Thursday, where he lambasted the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which he called “the single most important issue of his presidency."  Caplan noted that while the U.S. makes up only four percent of the world’s population, it accounts for a fifth of all global COVID-19 deaths.  “That’s inexcusable,” he said, pl...

Over 200,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19, homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem told Boston Public Radio  on Wednesday. “And we suspect that this is an undercount, because maybe some people are not being counted for dying of COVID, or they had an underlying condition which catches them first,” she said. “There’s excess deaths everywhere we look, so the 200,000 number, I think, at the...

Today on Boston Public Radio : We opened lines to talk with listeners about your experiences around school reopening. NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek recapped the latest sports headlines, from losses by the Patriots and Celtics, to debate over whether college athletes should have more access to coronavirus testing than their collegiate peers. Filmmaker Michael Kirk discussed...

A recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study found that adults who’ve tested positive for COVID-19 were twice as likely to have eaten at restaurants. But the study is facing criticism for its lack of distinction between diners who ate at indoor versus outdoor establishments, food writer Corby Kummer said. “I do trust the CDC, but the study they released did not differentiate bet...

Today on  Boston Public Radio : Dahlia Lithwick, a legal correspondent and senior editor at Slate, discussed the legacy of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a feminist icon, and reflected on her experience interviewing her in January. Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy discussed his views on the danger of politicizing the Supreme Court, and why he believes most Senate Republicans will fall in line b...

Today on  Boston Public Radio : Former FBI agent Peter Strzok weighed in on corruption and within the Trump administration and its impact on U.S. national security, in a conversation about his new book, “Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump."  Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell offered her thoughts on Mayor Walsh's police task force, the rocky transition to hybrid...

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...