The Common

It's another show from our archives, today with WBUR reporter Martha Bebinger. You know that broken thing you have sitting in your closet that you just don't have the heart to throw away? It could be a broken lamp, a dead watch or a pair of scissors that's a little dull. Well, chances are there's a helpful neighbor nearby who would love to fix it up for you at one of the region's Repair Cafes. Mar...

Today’s episode is another from our archives. Last year, we took a trip to Mei Mei Dumpling Factory and Cafe following the grand re-opening of its first brick-and-mortar location since the pandemic. We met up with Mei Mei co-founder and James Beard Leadership Award-winning chef Irene Li for a tour of the facility, a discussion on the changing restaurant landscape of Boston and of course, some deli...

The Common team is taking a beat to rest and recharge this Memorial Day weekend. But to keep your podcast feeds fresh, we’re getting a little help from our friends in the WBUR newsroom with a feature. It’s by WBUR Arts and Culture correspondent Andrea Shea. Andrea recently visited the Huntington Theatre for a sneak peek at its newest production ‘Toni Stone,’ which tells the true story of the first...

Team Common announced a few weeks back that the show will transition to a once-a-week podcast this summer as part of some larger changes happening at WBUR. We are hard at work on this transition now. So, for the next few weeks we will be featuring some episodes from The Common 's archive, while we focus on bringing the newest iteration of the show into the world and your podcast feeds very soon. W...

The Instagram account Boston Urban Archive offers a look at the history of the city's communities of color. Ebony Gill created the page in December of 2023, while she was a student at University of Massachusetts Boston. Since then, the account has garnered more than 30,000 followers with images that take viewers down Boston's memory lane. WBUR Reporter Arielle Gray visited UMass Boston's Healey Li...

Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu traveled to Rome last week to present their plans for de-carbonization and climate resiliency at a multi-day summit hosted by the Vatican and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The Wu administration aims to reduce the city’s carbon footprint via a suite of initiatives, including new rules on Boston buildings, which are responsible for over 70% of the...

As school years wind down at colleges and universities around the state, the last student encampments protesting the war in Gaza have been dismantled. At some schools, student protestors packed up the tents of their own free will. At others -- including Emerson, Northeastern and MIT -- they were forcibly disbanded by police. With summer fast approaching, questions remain about the tactics employed...

The state is hoping a new pilot program providing ESL classes to newly arrived immigrants staying in Massachusetts emergency shelters will help them achieve self sufficiency faster. The pilot is lead by the nonprofit English for New Bostonians, which has been teaching occupationally-focused language classes with the goal of providing students the skills and confidence to find employment, and conti...

Today is the 20th anniversary of gay marriage becoming legal in Massachusetts. The right for same sex couples to marry was brought about by the Goodridge Decision , which made Massachusetts the first state in the country to secure marriage equality. Back in 2004, Arline Isaacson, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts GLBTQ Political Caucus (formerly known as the Mass Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus), was o...

When the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission launched its Social Equity Program, it promised a pathway for groups disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs into the newly legalized cannabis market. But today, social equity operators are finding that getting into the cannabis business is a far cry from the lucrative opportunity it once was, sometimes leaving them worse off than when the...

Colleges and universities across the country are gearing up for graduation, including here in Boston. Commencement comes at a very tense time on many campuses though, as student protest encampments in support of Palestinian people and school divestment from Israel have been dismantled by police at numerous schools, notably MIT and Emerson College . Tufts and Harvard Universities also had encampmen...

Death of a loved one can bring with it a deep sense of loss. We miss that person's personality, their energy, and we honor that with our grief. But how do we as a society, respect their remains, the bodies they leave behind? That question is at the center of the latest season of WBUR’s podcast Last Seen - which came out this month:  “Postmortem: The Stolen Bodies of Harvard.”  The podcast follows...

Several weeks ago, WBUR published an investigation examining how police in Massachusetts handle reports of sexual assault and rape. The piece, which focused on alleged serial rapist Alvin Campbell (brother of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell), has garnered the attention of state lawmakers who wish to make changes to the Commonwealth's systems and protocols around such cases. WBUR Sta...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder, which could become the first psychedelic-assisted therapy as early as August. Today, The Common  presents the final episode of our three-part series looking at the past, present and future of psychedelics in Massachusetts as a potential ballot question that could lead to the decriminalizati...

A proposed ballot measure to decriminalize certain plant-based psychedelics in Massachusetts is now in progress, with activists gathering another 12,429 signatures by July 3 to secure ballot placement in the November election. Today, The Common  is continuing our three-part series looking at the past, present and future of psychedelics in Massachusetts and what decriminalization could mean for the...

Advocates behind a proposed ballot question that could potentially decriminalize certain plant-based hallucinogens, a.k.a. psychedelics, are gathering signatures to put the question in front of voters on election day in November. If successful, people over 21 can use a limited amount of substances like magic mushrooms without worry of criminal penalties from the state. This week, The Common will p...

Black women and girls make up a disproportionate number of the nation’s missing people, almost one in five. Here in Massachusetts, there are few protocols on tracking these cases, and that number is harder to determine. Now, a new bill on Beacon Hill seeks to shine a light on how missing persons cases involving Black women and girls are handled, including instituting an "Ebony Alert" system, which...

Early last year, the Biden administration issued a policy to allow temporary entry for up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela — countries facing extreme unrest and violence. People in the program, called humanitarian parole , are allowed to live and work in the United States for two years. The Common speaks with WBUR reporter Simón Rios about what humanitarian parole...

It's a great time to hit the theater. Today on The Common ,  Assistant Director of WBUR CitySpace Candice Springer is back with some top musical happenings to get you out and about this month. Candice recommends... The Drowsy Chaperone : Now - May 12, Lyric Stage Company,  Boston A Strange Loop : Now - May 25, Speakeasy Stage at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion, Boston “Song Exploder” Live featuri...

When the city removed a tent encampment in the area known as Mass. and Cass back in November, officials offered to help people find housing as part of a plan to help keep them off the streets. Now, two state run housing programs that were part of the effort are slated to close . WBUR reporter Deborah Becker joins The Common to talk about why these programs are closing, and how the closures will af...

Boston is a cultural hub for Caribbean communities, with people originally from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Trinidad, and other Caribbean countries, comprising nearly 9% of the city's population. The new Boston Caribbean American Association in Dorchester aims to unite these communities and promote year-round political and civic engagement. Kwame Elias of the Boston Caribbean American...

Last Thursday, the Massachusetts House and Senate voted to pass a supplementary budget  that will  provide an additional $251 million to the family shelter system. It also imposed a maximum of nine months stay limit for current families living in the state's emergency shelters, with certain people eligible for an extension waiver. Now, the bill awaits Governor Maura Healey’s  signature. Today, The...

We're going to be upfront with you. Last week was a hard one at WBUR. On Wednesday it was announced that the station would be cutting up to 14% of its staff through buyouts and layoffs in an attempt to reduce the station’s expenses by $4 million. This comes after a significant drop in underwriting revenue in recent years, adding to the trend of personnel cuts at public radio stations across the co...

Late Wednesday night, a protest encampment created by students at Emerson College was forcibly removed by police. Over 100 protesters were arrested in the clearing, and multiple injuries have been reported. Meanwhile, other encampments have been erected on campuses across the city as students call for, among other things, a ceasefire in Gaza, that schools cut ties with Israeli funding and support...

April is Earth Month, which is a time to reflect on the one planet we have and for a lot of us that’s an opportunity to discuss climate change, and how it’s affecting our communities. Throughout the month we featured weekly conversations with some of the people in Greater Boston working to build our region’s resilience in the face of a changing climate. Our final guest for these Earth Month discus...