The Fabulous 413

We explore language today! What's that? We explore language every Wednesday because of The Word Nerd? To that we rebut: indeed. But how is this Wednesday different from any other Wednesday? Perhaps it's because we had a great listener question from a listener about the origins of certain English phrases (inspired by our look at the origins of the language in a previous show ). So Emily Brewster ,...

Today is all about participation! It's exactly what we want to do in strawberry season! and since that has just started, we head to the pick-your-own fields of Pie In The Sky Farm in Northampton. There, proprietors Kristen Sykes and Fred Beddall walk us through their many different varieties (some ready and some not), show us some of their other PYO crops that are just getting started, and speak t...

We did a whole show live from the stage at the NEPM Asparagus Festival in Hadley! Since this is our first time trying something like this, we figure we'd pull out all the stops and have a show just jam packed with guests. So that's exactly what we do. For something as iconic to Hadley as asparagus, we need to bring along someone who's been immersed in the crop for ages. So we bring in Wally Czajko...

It's a day for acknowledgements. We're honoring the legacies of legends whose contributions can't be quantified. Such is the case with Ramsey Lewis , who is being honored on June 3rd at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke. Genuine Culture, LLC has gathered a group of jazz players and MCs to walk through his catalog to give a glimpse of the breadth of his influence across many genres . We speak with Daman...

Today we're getting into the local glow-ups. There's no containing our excitement when we speak with Ruth E. Carter, Springfield native, four-time nominee and two-time winner of an Oscar for costume design . Over fifty movies later , we're still in awe of how her vision truly brings together characters. We talk about her start in costuming, working on Marvel movies, her late mother, and the truly...

Hidden gems are always fun to find. There's cool things to discover in our very language itself. Emily Brewster , resident wordster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield, helps us delve into the conflict ridden marriage of German and French that ultimately resulted in the modern English Language. The Battle of Hastings is very involved, but your dinner might be also. We encounter gorgeo...

There is something to be said about just getting things done. It's not always easy, and this is an impasse that The Literacy Project seeks to address. In fact, on June 1st, they are holding a graduation ceremony at Greenfield Community College for folx who have just completed their GED through programs they have in place. We chat with outgoing executive director Judith Roberts , Kat Brenton and Am...

Sometimes the weekend requires a shift in perspective. Which is exactly what Provisions is aiming to do in the Wine Thunderdome. Benson Hyde and Bruce McAmis bring us a possibly contentious set of contenders as we pit two canned wine spritzers against each other, and examine one of the more sustainable routes wine may be taking forward. It's what all of us will have to take with the Bombyx Center...

Today, there is an overabundance of creativity. Scotty Swan is engendering it in kids. He teaches Rock Band Camp who will perform at the Northampton Center for the Arts on May 28th . We chat with him about getting kids comfortable enough to really shred, and about the other camp he runs in the summer: The Urban Wizards Academy. There's a whole organization that's encouraging this creativity in old...

There's a little extra curation happening today. The Word Nerd, Emily Brewster , senior editor at Merriam-Webster , and our resident wordster, alerts us that a shift is happening between our iced coffee and ice tea. Letters are disappearing from certain descriptive words in a totally natural way and we dig into why. Then we are figuring out how to un-curate, of sorts. Thousands of indigenous remai...

Today, we peek behind the curtain. There's synergy to be found in young folx collaborating and figuring out new paths of expression. The School of Dance and Contemporary Thought approaches this from several fronts: working with other youth arts group, and by fostering it's own young pre-professional company in The Hatchery . Both prongs of this philosophy have shows this weekend at the Academy of...

We're starting the week with a flurry of activity. That activity includes veritable rock legends, as we talk with June Millington about her band, Fanny . They've got a documentary that's airing on PBS+ and covers all the boundaries that the still performing and touring band broke over their tenure. That's not all though, as proven by IMA: The Institute for the Musical Arts . We get into the origin...

So much happening this weekend, let's dig in. First, we head back to Lenox to enter the Wine Thunderdome once again. Nejaime's Wine Cellars has set a pretty high precedent for these, becoming our first setting for a rosé showdown. And once again, Joe Nejaime has us doing our tasting blind, which is always a fun extra challenge. Then we skip across the mountains to discover that modern beekeeping h...

Collaboration is the name of the game. We're pretty sure that Rep. Jim McGovern wishes that word was a little more prevalent in his goings-on Capitol Hill-wise. But debt ceiling and resignation woes aside, the congressman himself has been up to a lot of working with other folx, including using a little technology to aid in a recent commencement speech . Collaboration is at the very core of singing...

There is a certain strength in demanding what is needed. We find this in the civil rights movement. In particular, a smaller predecessor to the movements we know now and came from the meeting of two Massachusetts minds is highlighted in an upcoming documentary. Florence filmmaker Lawrence "Larry" Hott joins us to preview his latest film titled "The Niagra Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Right...

Everyday is a good day to build more community. We forge connections between nature and humans, while watching what became of the dinosaurs, listening eagerly to their scintillating songs. David Sibley , ornithologist, author, and artist, joins us to speak on all things birds, just as he will on May 22nd at a fundraiser for Tilton Library . All this orchestrated by librarian Candice Bradbury , who...

Today, we stumbled into turning points. Seems just about right for a Monday. There's the point at which a star looks at the planets around it and fails to recognize itself in the mirror. And we in turn, or at least those of us studying that star, fail to recognize it as well. This is the case with Fomalhaut , a star once likened to "The Eye of Sauron", but which is now being seen in a different li...

Weekends are for spreading out and connecting. There's connections to be found among the many musicians that make up the Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra . Originally founded by Peter Blanchette , the collection of players combines now under the direction of Joseph Ricker. For live music Friday, we crashed their practice to hear them prepare for their spring concert "800 years" , which will encompass...

Ideologies and worlds collide on today's show. First, our weekly check-in with our congressperson as we mcgovern with Rep. Jim McGovern . There's a lot happening on capital hill and beyond and we get his take on Santos' charges, the expiration of title 42, and more. Then we head to Florence where worlds will meet sonically this weekend. Colliderfest is coming to Bombyx this weekend and bringing wi...

Today, we dive head first into local, and then national controversy surrounding one of our favorite things: word usage. There's buzz around the word "ladies" and how it impacted the search for a new school superintendent in Easthampton . Having heard from the mayor recently, we engage another side of this story: that of the word user himself, Vito Perrone, and get a different perspective on that s...

With the massive attrition of dairy farms in Massachusetts , (and the alarming amount of sad cow stories we've had on the show), we're turning our attention to a co-op that is still making milk magic happen. Angie Facey of Bree-z Knoll Farm , which is a part of Our Family Farms , shows us around their new facilities, including a robot that uses lasers to milk their cows, and a brand new, only-been...

We're starting the week off with a bang! And that's literal in the case of the sun. Just in time for all your existential dread, Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed , talks to us about how the sun will eventually devour the Earth. The process is genuinely cool and we found out more about how this happens by watching another star eat one of its planets . For a good portion of May, that bang will bring a pl...

Music, mezcal, and OSHA are what we're all about today! Don't think these things go together? Well, we're about to be the center of that particular Venn diagram. You may have heard about a death due to dust inhalation at a dispensary in Holyoke . We bring in reporter and UMass Professor Dusty Christensen , who recently wrote a more in depth article about this incident and other related issues for...

It is wars in the stars day! Which means it's the day before Cinco de Mayo, often celebrated in ways that are... shall we say questionable. But Latinas 413 and Hot Plate Brewing are seeking to change all that, while still having fun in the process. They're hosting a Cinco de Mayo event at the brewery that day and we checked in with Sarah Real of Hot Plate, and Lilliana Atanacio, Perla Mendoza, and...

It's our 50th episode! Time to party! And we're not the only ones. Transhealth , an all queer run organization seeking equity and unity in gender care, is celebrating too! And although their official 2nd anniversary show is sold out , that doesn't mean that we can't party with them. CEO Dallas Ducar and development director Em Ayers swing through to let us know what the organization has gained so...