Incorruptible Mass

Politics is overwhelmingly decided by older generations, but we hope that is changing.  Between the March for Our Lives, the climate movement, the push for student debt cancellation, and more, young people are increasingly burdened and have gotten more politically involved.  We talk to Martha Durkee-Neuman about these policies and more. Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat abo...

Redistricting happens once every 10 years, and it defines the boundaries for local, state, and national elected offices.  What is the difference between redistricting and re-precincting?  How does redistricting affect communities of color?  Will there be a large number of open seats in our state government in 2022?  Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts poli...

Members of Congress worked with activists to reverse Biden's decision on the eviction moratorium.  While it isn't everything we wanted, it clearly had a positive effect in keeping people in their homes during this crisis.  In this episode we talk housing as well as the importance of elected officials working with activists and standing their ground against the Supreme Court. Jordan Berg...

The US is one of the worst countries in providing vacation for workers.  We do not require that employers provide any paid vacation, or any paid holidays.  This doesn't make us more productive, just more stressed.  Massachusetts could lead on this, providing a legislative example for other states while offering policy that is good for everyone. Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Call...

Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan record live at the Boston Common.  In this episode we cover a lot of the topics we've covered before, including why state politics matters and is a national strategy, what is wrong with our State House currently, and how it impacts us from a policy perspective. This is the audio version of Incorruptible Massachusetts season 4 episode 14. Yo...

Join us this Saturday, July 24, at 11am on the Boston Common for a live recording of the podcast! Post a limerick about how bad our State House is on twitter with the hashtag #IMjuly24 for your chance to have your limerick read on the air!  It would be easy to fund everything we want at the state level, if only our State House had the guts to do it. The Fair Share amendment, taxing unearned income...

Last week, our state reps voted down three no-brainer rules that would have made our State House more transparent.  Today we talk to Erin Leahy from Act On Mass about their work lobbying for these rules reforms for the last 9 months.  Ironically (but not surprisingly), they sprung this vote on the reps (and on us) with less than four hours notice. Jonathan Cohn and Anna Callahan and Jordan Berg Po...

https://www.incorruptiblemass.org/july-24 Hi, it's Anna Callahan with a short announcement.  We wanted to let you all know that we'll be having a live broadcast on Saturday, July 24th, at 11am on the Boston Common.  Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and I would love to see you there in person!  Bring your questions about state politics so we can answer them live on the show, and bring y...

While the legislature did pass some environmental legislation last session, there doesn't seem to be anything approaching a comprehensive Green New Deal-style plan that includes jobs, transportation, housing, etc.  We should expect more in a state where polls say that residents would happily pay more to save our planet. Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachus...

If you don't want to get mad, don't listen to this episode.  We give a bunch of examples of our city, state, and national governments bending over backward to allow corporations and the uber-wealthy to skirt the law while burdening regular people with onerous bureaucracy.  Can you imagine a world where the opposite happens, where our government makes our lives easier while requiring corp...

Did you know that the vast majority of state reps who sponsor amendments then withdraw them before they can be voted on?  Amendments could allow legislators to skip over the byzantine committee process and bring legislation to the floor.  But instead of insisting that our state government consider legislation that would help millions of people, state reps use amendments as resume builders, sponsor...

Student debt is a crushing burden on young people, one that other countries simply don't allow.  While student debt could be cancelled, we must realize that student debt is only a reality because our state legislature underfunds public colleges.  Special guest Timmy Sullivan joins us from PHENOM to talk about public higher ed here in Massachusetts and the history of our state government leavi...

We keep saying we need more people to engage in politics, and specifically in Massachusetts state politics.  But we also said we think lobbying is not that effective.  How are we supposed to engage with our state reps if it’s not lobbying? We have a special guest, Medford City Councillor Nicole Morell, here to talk about how she and other elected officials work directly with the coalition that got...

The Massachusetts State House appears to have no agenda at all, and passes small reforms for haphazard reasons. Our state Democratic Party Platform is far ahead of the State House and its veto-proof majority of state reps, who seem to not even be aware that it exists. We look at other states who have narrower margins and pass life-changing policies. Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Call...

State reps run on the promise of standing up to the Speaker, and then shortly after being elected are saying no, I changed my mind, the way to "get things done" is to do what the Speaker tells you. What is going on, and how can we change it? Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts politics.  You’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts.  Our goal...

Did you know that three of the last four Speakers were convicted of felonies related to corruption and bribery? The Speaker of the House controls everything that goes on in the building -- including what laws get passed in Massachusetts. Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts politics. You’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts.  Our goal is to help peop...

Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts politics. You’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts.  Our goal is to help people understand state politics: investigate why it’s so broken, imagine what we could have here in MA if we fixed it, and report on how you can get involved. In this episode, we talk about how much more we should expect from our veto-proof...

Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts politics. You’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts.  Our goal is to help people understand state politics: investigate why it’s so broken, imagine what we could have here in MA if we fixed it, and report on how you can get involved. In this episode, we  share our paths to working in state politics and make a case...

Jordan Berg Powers, Jonathan Cohn, and Anna Callahan chat about Massachusetts politics. You’re listening to Incorruptible Massachusetts.  Our goal is to help people understand state politics: investigate why it’s so broken, imagine what we could have here in MA if we fixed it, and report on how you can get involved. In this episode, we dream big -- what kind of lives could we be living? What could...

Hear stories of how our community is weathering the COVID-19 crisis -- featuring a musician in Somerville who is insecure, and a musician in Canada whose needs are taken care of. This is the audio portion of the Solidarity LIVE! interview streamed live on YouTube on May 6, 2020.

Opposition to progressive programs such as Medicare For All or free college tuition generally involve the rhetorical "who's going to pay for it?" and complaints about increased taxes and deficits. But what if conventional economics is wrong about government spending, debt, and taxation? Modern Monetary Theory explains why taxes *aren't* what fund U.S. Federal Government program...

Audio portion of Solidarity LIVE! video episode where we hear stories of how our community is weathering the COVID-19 crisis -- including someone from the Welcome Project, Tufts Mutual Aid, and a local who is currently in South Korea. This show was broadcast live on April 29, 2020.

Hear stories of how our community is weathering the COVID-19 crisis -- including a City Councillor, an expert on SNAP, and a criminal justice expert. To hear about our next show, go to https://annacallahan.com/get-updates/

The audio portion of Anna's Solidarity LIVE! video interview with Hannah Friedman from MAMAS (Mutual Aid Medford And Somerville) Myfanwy Callahan, MD, a Medford doctor speaking from the frontlines on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting healthcare workers, hospitals, and medical facilities Daphnee Balan, a Somerville paraprofessional teacher (Apologies for the echoing is parts of the guest...