The Fabulous 413

We taste through 6 Cabernet Francs with Allison Slute of Cab Franc Chronicles and the folx at Dare Bottleshop, and hear about the event Queertivity from it's founder and organizer, local musician Red Jasper

We chat with the 4th generation currently running the 130+ year old Austin Brothers Valley Farm in Belchertown, hear about our NEPM colleague Elizabeth Roman's interview with Gov. Maura Healey, take a closer look at the new words in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and Rep. Jim McGovern rues the plight of mcgoverning as another shutdown looms.

We check out a tiny piece of the 978 in our four counties when we survey the wonders of the North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival, get a teaser of the 690 new words Merriam Webster just added to their dictionary, find out all about Latino Arts Day at Springfield Museums, and hear exciting news from the Parlor Room about a well known Northampton venue.

We head to Springfield's first dual language program at Gerena Elementary School, find out what Osiris Rex discovered on its recent asteroid visit, and delve into the rich history and culture of Bomba with Brendaliz Cepeda and Saul Peñalosa of Bomba de Aqui.

We get inbetween the stanzas of the Tell It Slant festival being thrown by the Emily Dickenson Museum, and speak with Actor/director/author John Lithgow about why libraries are important before his appearance supporting one of our local ones this weekend.

The Fresh Grass Festival opens today at Mass MoCA in North Adams, so we head to the berkshires to get the lay of the Roots & Americana festival with founders Chris Wadsworth & Rachel Chanoff, Festival producer Ollie Chanoff, Mass MoCA General Manager Addison McDonald, plus live music from Becky Buller and Ned Luberecki of the Becky Buller band, and with the band Mr. Sun, helmed by Bluegrass Legend...

We discuss ethical meat eating with Hettie Belle Farm, take a trip down the Connecticut River to get prepared for the Paper City Regatta, and rue yet another possible federal government shutdown in our weekly Mcgoverning with Rep. Jim McGovern

We hear about local connections to the SAG-AFTRA Strike with Gary Gallone, fine out about the three new exhibits opening at the Umass Museum of Contemporary Art, and scuba into acronyms with Word Nerd Emily Brewster.

We fawn over quodnam poet laureate and multidisciplinary author Rita Dove who comes to the Berkshires this week for the WIT festival, and speaking of festivals we talk about film editing and the Ashfield Film Festival with Harry Keramidis

Local author/illustrator Grace Lin joins us to talk about her latest book, Mr. Universe eschews the mexican alien conversation to look at K2-18b instead, and Kaliis has to broadcast from home, which is a bit ironic, considering.

We discover the WIT festival happening next week in Lenox, bring the Wine thunderdome to Franklin County (finally), and get a quick look at the Millpond series, which opens tonight in Easthampton

CISA preps us for Climate Change and Farming week, Rep. Jim McGovern also laments climate change as we review the terrible weather incidents in his district this week, and UK Rockers Modern English join us in studio before they head to Greenfield and rock us all at Hawks & Reed this Saturday.

Despite a city-wide emergency, we speak with 11th Hampden State Rep Bud WIlliams, Mr. Universe laments our lack of appreciation for comets, and we fish for animal verbs with The Word Nerd

Farm Stand is happening! We chat with the folx stewarding the Farm Resilliency Fund as well as Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll about the importance of having a well woven support network for local agriculture in the wake of climate disasters like we've had this year. Plus, a look at the mayoral candidates for Springfield with the NEPM Newsroom.

We view the juried sculpture show, now all ability accessible, at Park Hill Orchard with proprietor Russell Braen and accessibility advocate and wheelchair user Christos Palames, and take a Umass AI professor to Mike's Maze where this year's theme is artificial intelligence and the very nature of humanity.

We check out the local literary magazine Meat for Tea as they gear up for their quarterly Cirque, Hang out with Jonah Keane from Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary and Wallace Field who'll be playing the Arcadia Fold festival on those grounds next week, and drink the wine we abandoned for PInot Grigio with the Wine Snobs at State Street.

Ruth E. Carter comes by the studios before her appearance at the Art For The Soul Cafe, The folx behind the Cancer Connection's Bed-In fndraiser come by the talk about the event, and we do our weekly mcgoverning with Rep. Jim McGovern and a bunch of your questions!

We eat tasty treats at East Longmeadow's The Apple Place, delve into the evolution of the singular "you" with The Word Nerd Emily Brewster, and laugh for good causes with the folx of Comedy Cause 5.

Communication is literally the cornerstone of what we do here. But it's those big gestures of connection that really grab us. Take Little Amal , whose stature and mission are nothing of the sort. The 12ft tall puppet walks the world bringing humanity and attention to the refugee crisis, especially the plight of children within it. Currently she and her team are on a 6,000 mile journey across the U...

We find out what's wrong with local lilacs and even more wrong with local trees with Plant Pathologist Nick Brazee, head to Table & Vine to drink a much maligned grape with Michael Quinlan, and bring Franklin County's High Tea in for live music Friday.

We get our workout on with Dallas Ducar of Transhealth as they gear up for Pony Sweat, head up to Amherst to see the new brick and mortar location of Restless Books, and have our weekly chat with Rep. Jim McGovern.

The Word Nerd talks to us about the "ae" ending and its many pronunciations, Sheila Bandyopadhyay gets into her role as "Puck" in Shakespeare & Company's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and we discover the collection of plays at Historic Northampton that make up "Pulling Up the Roots".

Today, we're hanging on to a few things in unexpected ways. Let's take being hyper-local and environmentally low-impact. This is exactly what The People's Pint in Greenfield has done for decades. They've been a center for community through both their beer and their food, especially since most of their ingredients come from local suppliers. We get owner Alden Booth to elaborate on how they've been...

We're back from vacation! And immediately, we're thinking about those moments that should be the most appreciated. Back in March, NEPM's Karen Brown reported on plumber Frank Marchand's ongoing battle with cancer and the unique perspective he's come to have about life and his place in it. The story started here on NEPM , but has since been posted on NPR, and now has evolved into a one-man theater...

What happened to the so-called "Big Indian" statue on Route 2? Monte is joined Rhonda Anderson, who is the Western Massachusetts Commissioner on Indian Affairs, founder and Co-Director of the Ohketeau Cultural Center and the Native Youth Empowerment Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Council for the New England Foundation for the Arts. And Tomantha Sylvester an Indigenous (Ojibwe) artist and...