The Fabulous 413

We’re bringing color to the drab days of winter in New England with tulips, music, and aliens.  The history of aliens and our curiosity about their possibility is a colorful one and we’ll speak with Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, about the ties between the conjectures of the late Erich von Däniken and the Apple+ tv show: Pluribus .  The Springfield Symphony Or...

We’re back from vacation, and into more movies and books! We chat with local author and professor of creative writing at Emerson College Margot Douaihy about the brand new book in her Sister Holiday series that gets released tomorrow. Divine Ruin sees the queer almost-nun with vice and faith in equal measure thrust into the throes of the fentanyl epidemic at her school, and we’ll talk about the se...

Celebrations everywhere as we careen into the last days of the year where all the holidays are all overlapping with each other.  And as such, we’ll hear about the ways you can observe and connect with community for one of the newest of the season’s holidays: Kwanzaa. This year the Kwanzaa collective is already in the midst of their many celebrations and we’ll hear about the holiday’s origins, it’s...

The holidays blaze bright as we stumble into the last days of 2025.  If holiday music is on your menu, we’ll show you how heading west can fill your ears with seasonal cheer. The Boston Pops are presenting a brass based holiday pops concert at Tanglewood, and the event is just a small part of a move for the grounds to host concerts year round. We’ll chat with principal musicians Mike Roylance, and...

We’ll start introducing you to some of the amazing performers taking stage at Northampton’s First Night Celebrations. This year over 100 musicians, actors, dancers, and more will delight folx as they ready to ring in the new year, and first on our docket is the East African centered sounds of Zikina , in  yet another live music Wednesday to lift up the middle of your week.  And although we know th...

It’s cold outside, but the cows are warm and we’ll head out to Ludlow to explore a farm that’s seen 5 generations of family stewardship. Bud Ellison of Ellison Farm was given a mission in his youth and he’s kept that and his cattle as local as possible, we’ll hear more about his process, and his farm’s ties to family and community.  We’ll also meet Ricky McKinnie of the Blind Boys of Alabama, curr...

2025 is practically in hindsight which means that everyone is making lists. But dictionaries crown a top jewel of lexicon for the year, each using a different method to select the word that reigns supreme.  We'll chat with Word Nerd Emily Brewster what her employer, Merriam-Webster, has discovered is its top word of the year.  We’ll also look forward to February when creatives and justice seekers...

Today has a distinctly femme bent.  And a bit of awe as well, as these two xennials get to meet a Bay State musical Icon. Juliana Hatfield , in addition to her solo work, has been a part of Blake Babies, the Lemonheads, The Minor Alps, The I Don’t Cares, and a full swath of appearances alongside rock’s most influential voices, while influencing the next generation of guitarists as well.  Her twent...

Today has holiday gifts, tangible and intangible.  As we explore a place for you to get locally made crafts and art this weekend. Yet Another Queer Pop-Up Market hosts its 3rd annual Winter Market in Eastworks this Saturday, Dec 13th, bringing artisans of all disciplines of the 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC communities together to share their wares and work. We’ll talk with organizers M and Jey about building...

Wednesdays are becoming a tasty musical center to our week here, and today is no different as we gear up for another live music Wednesday with the extra dynamic and charming Irish ensemble Socks in the Frying Pan before they head just north of our studios to perform at the Iron Horse tonight, to hear sounds of Shane Hayes on accordion,  Callum Bell on fiddle, and Aodán Coyne on guitar in their ama...

It’s not technically winter, but it definitely looks like it, and in Amherst that means a new market is bringing fresh produce, carefully crafted artisan goods and more to the Bangs Center. The Amherst Farmer’s Market has officially started staying open to the public through the end of the year and we’ll chat with market manager David Machowski about his almost 4 decade tenure, and the wintery fut...

We head to Granby where a new barn rises from the ashes of a past February’s tragedy at Red Fire Farm . They are in the middle of replacing the facility that burned to the ground almost two years ago , and doing it in a way that will help them provide more to the community, and that incorporates more of Western Mass into its structure. We get a tour from Ryan and Sarah Voiland and hear about how y...

We start with the creative talents of our many interwoven communities. Not a Noplace is a nomadic QTBIPOC-focused open mic series inspired by a line from Lucille Clifton poem "what the mirror said." The events are a whole body experience, holding space and spotlighting marginalized voices and artistry in our area, and we’ll speak with organizer Camille Asia about their next occasion on Dec. 6th . ...

We’re seeing our landscapes change through art.  In Northampton a new work looks at the way the railroad has changed the city over the past century through music, historical archives, and theater. Rhythm and Rails will be performed at the Forbes Library this Saturday and is indicative of the multimedia, multi-disciplinary work that Red Skies Music Ensemble puts together. Creative director Trudy Wi...

Today it is an incredibly overstuffed Live Music Wednesday, complete with icons and holidays and spectacle galore Americana legend Tony Trischka joins us ahead of his show tonight at the Iron Horse in Northampton. The renaissance banjo player has performed with Bela Fleck, Peter Rowan, Darol Anger, and way too many other notables to count, not to mention the bands and ensembles he’s led or been a...

We head to Sunderland where a show that has become both timeless and indicative of ours is about to get on its feet for a cause. The radio play version of the timeless holiday tale “It’s A Wonderful Life” harnesses all of the goodwill of the movie, but lets your imagination roam. The mission driven theater company Valley Players will put on their version of this work over the next two weekends, co...

We’re walking again, but this time at the end there’s a hot beverage and more awareness about issues and programs concerning domestic abuse in our area. This Sunday the 22nd Hot Chocolate Run for Safe Passage happens bringing literal thousands of folx to downtown Northampton to walk or run for their cause. We speak with executive director Marianne Winters and development director Natalie Ulrich  a...

It’s day 3 of the March for the food Bank.  But you, say, wasn’t it just the past two days? Isn’t that enough marching? The thing about it is that the march has never ventured west into the last county that the Food Bank supports…. UNTIL NOW.  We’ll share how the very first Berkshires Mini march sounded from its start at Hot Plate Brewing to 3 locations all helping the nearly 30% of Pittsfield res...

Today we hear the conclusion of walking for 3 days across 4 counties and 46 miles to raise awareness of hunger and food insecurity in western Mass as the 16th March for the Food Bank is in the midst of its longest leg, 26 miles from Hampshire into Franklin County.  We’ll hear from many of the folx walking along the way including Food Bank Ex. Director Andrew Morehouse, State Reps Homar Gomez, Lind...

Today on the fabulous 413, the 16th March for The Food Bank of Western Mass . begins, and we follow the journeys of Monte Belmonte, and those who seek to help our community members facing hunger and food insecurity.  We’ll take on two counties today, walking from Springfield, through Chicopee, Holyoke, Easthampton, and finally Northampton to raise awareness and hear stories; not just about those t...

NEPM’s Hunger Awareness week gets an endcap, with a tasty music sandwich, where the filling is birds.  It starts at the Berkshire Botanical Garden , where the watercolor paintings of Robin Crofut-Brittingham’s new book, The Illuminated Book of Birds are currently on display through the end of the month. We speak with the author/artist about her work and her event at the exhibit on Nov. 29th Then w...

NEPM’s Hunger Awareness week continues, and today our weekly conversation with Congressman Jim McGovern dials in on food insecurity.  McGovern is one of the strongest anti-hunger advocates in Congress and today we’ll hear how fighting hunger used to be a bipartisan issue. And why and when that changed. We’ll separate fact from fiction when it comes to some of the narratives surrounding the Supplem...

As NEPM’s Hunger Awareness Week continues, we head to another newer pantry just up the road from us here in Springfield. Born Free Food Pantry was birthed from a need in Six Corners to give access to the community to food and services that generally aren’t as easily available. We speak with founders Charlie Holmes and Terrence Lee , and other volunteers about feeding the people’s needs through fai...

Hunger awareness week continues here at NEPM, so, we’ll take you into one of the newest of the 199 organizations that the Food Bank of Western Mass works with in Western Mass at The Brick House in Turners Falls. Executive director Tom Taffe brings us into his small-but-mighty food pantry and tells us about the innovative new collaborative anti-hunger effort that several organizations in Montague h...

It’s Hunger Awareness Week here at NEPM and that means all week we’ll be talking with folx involved with the fight against hunger, the proverbial boots on the ground here in Western Mass.  We start at the top, with the head of the organization for which Monte will march next week, executive director for the Food Bank of Western Mass Andrew Morehouse. We’ll hear about the ways that inflation and re...