Under the Radar with Callie Crossley

The Boston-based Roxbury International Film Festival, or RoxFilm, is back for its 23rd annual event. After last year's fully virtual festival, organizers are offering both outside and online screenings to make the films accessible to all attendees. The Roxbury Film Festival, New England’s biggest film fest dedicated to films by, for and about people of color, kicked off Thursday with a roster of 8...

Corporate logos turned rainbow during this year's Pride Month, even as some of those same companies made hefty donations to anti-LQBTQ politicians. Instagram and LinkedIn now offer a profile section displaying users’ pronouns — will other platforms soon follow? Those stories and more on today's LGBTQ Roundtable. Guests: Grace Sterling Stowell  — executive director of the Boston Alliance of Lesbian...

On Saturday, millions of people across America, including right here in Boston, will celebrate Juneteenth, first celebrated on June 19th, 1865. 156 years ago, the enslaved people in Texas found out they were free — two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The event, which first had the most meaning for the people of Texas, has now become an observance that recognizes the history but also emb...

Flowers in full bloom, warm breezes, brilliant sunlight — nature offers us the flawless qualities of summer. And this summer, especially, we are eager to leave behind the ever-present blue light of our computer screens for the blue skies of New England’s shortest season. With vaccinations up and pandemic restrictions easing, we summer readers are ready to take our novels out for a day on the beach...

Hollywood celebrities are bouncing back from cancel culture with big film and TV offers. Plus, the plug is getting pulled on Internet Explorer, the internet browser we all loved to hate. And, teenage punk rock band The Linda Lindas hit back against anti-Asian racism with their viral song. Our experts discuss what’s happening in the world of pop culture. Guests: Michael Jeffries , dean of academic...

Creamy, airy and aromatic — the $5 strawberry from Japan is doubly sweet. Home bakers made sourdough bread the "it" food during the pandemic. Now those homebound hobbyists have turned their doughy devotion into cupcakes for cash — with microbakeries popping up all over social media. And welcome to the world of wine proxies — beverages that look, feel and taste like wine, except they're not. Plus,...

From its basketball team to its signature sunshine, Miami always brings the heat. But now that extreme heat is the norm, the city has hired a first of its kind, a 'Chief Heat Officer.' Millions rely on air conditioners to help beat the heat, but both air conditioners and refrigerators chill with the use of a super pollutant. Plus, will rising tides force the coastal residents of Cape Cod to move i...

This week will mark the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder by the recently convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. And, Floyd’s death was followed by several high-profile acts of racism linked to trauma and measurable PTSD in communities of color. What role has the seemingly never-ending racial trauma played in the uptick of suicidal deaths among young African America...

Critics complain about Gov. Baker’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, but the Biden administration gives him high marks. Boston’s mayor’s race — the most diverse field ever — guarantees the city’s first nonwhite mayor. And Republican governors slash unemployment benefits, saying forcing people off the rolls will combat a labor shortage. We’re spending the full hour with the Mass Politics Profs. Gue...

This Mother's Day, Americans are predicted to spend about $28 billion to celebrate their mothers. But for those who've lost their mothers, this is a tough time emotionally, made worse by a season of grief from COVID-19 deaths. This is the second Mother's Day during the pandemic, but the first time many will be without Mom. In a year of so much loss — including of community, jobs and normalcy — the...

First, it was the cable and satellite TV subscribers who started a movement by turning to the internet for entertainment. Streaming services got a big boost during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown as millions more Americans — desperate for distraction — willingly ponied up for paid subscriptions. Now, cable cord cutters find the streaming cord wrapped around their necks as they are strangled wi...

More than a dozen Republican-controlled state legislatures have passed or are promoting bills targeting transgender youth, a new poll reveals that 75 percent of people of faith support protections against LGBTQ discrimination, and President Biden nominates the first openly-gay head of Customs and Border Protection. Those stories and more, on our LGBTQ news roundtable. Guests: Grace Sterling Stowel...

It’s too soon to know all the ways the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped our decisions about life and family, but, during the year of uncertainty, many women decided to protect their reproductive future by freezing their eggs. Just a little over a decade ago, egg freezing was considered an experimental procedure. Today, it's a common procedure millions of women choose each year. During the pandemic, the...

The advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate had already documented more than 3,000 anti-Asian incidents of racism before the Atlanta murders. Worse, the March 16 murders of eight spa workers - six of them Asian women - did not stem the tide of anti-Asian racist animus. Instead, the reported episodes of physical and verbal assaults spiked. Now, Asian Americans and allies are pushing for increased awareness a...

This week, on our regional roundtable: In Rhode Island, public outrage over Blue Cross Blue Shield’s plan to charge patients for COVID-19 treatment; New Hampshire boots out of state college students from its vaccine program; and lead contamination revealed at the historic East Chop Lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard stirs debate about clean up and pollution. Guests: Arnie Arnesen  — host of The Attit...

The situation at the southern border worsens, but the Biden administration resists calling it a crisis; Chelsea — one of the Massachusetts communities hit hardest by COVID — gets short-changed in the new COVID relief bill; and Latino entertainers are overlooked in this year’s Oscar nominations, again. It's our Latinx roundtable. Guests: Marcela Garcia  – columnist for the Boston Globe Julio Ricard...

The COVID-19 Pandemic pulled an estimated 8 million Americans into poverty. Millions lost jobs that kept them one paycheck away from becoming destitute, and many, like those who were formerly considered middle income, now patronize the food banks where they used to donate. There have always been poor people, but the pandemic has exposed some of the realities and conditions of poverty which are lit...

It's been one year since Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency , sending most of us inside, and upending our lives in ways we couldn’t have imagined. On this sobering anniversary, Bay Staters are pausing to reflect on how living with COVID changed them. Universities and archivists are already curating last year’s memories and memorabilia for history, but how do experts who...

Will one studio’s decision to stream all of its movies right away be a final blow for struggling movie theaters? Plus, HBO’s Allen vs. Farrow the dramatic telling of the sexual abuse charges against famed Hollywood director Woody Allen brought by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. And Dolly Parton’s new role as vaccine ambassador. Those stories and more in our Pop Culture Roundtable. Guests: Micha...

With several Boston city councilors eyeing the mayor’s office, contenders are gathering support to fill their soon-to-be-empty seats. Plus, as the April deadline of the CDC’s eviction moratorium closes in, subletters find themselves stuck in the legal margins. And Gov. Baker’s administration plans a study to re-imagine work after the pandemic. Those stories and more in our Local News Roundtable. G...

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to illuminate the glaring inequalities that already existed in Massachusetts. Rising unemployment has made things worse for families already stretched thin. Especially in Chelsea, one of the state’s poorest cities, where the COVID-19 rate of spread is the highest in the state. Since the pandemic began, families have especially struggled to have enough food. But, for...

Even as the national vaccine rollout inoculates Americans against COVID-19, climate change is already fueling the next wave of global pandemics. A new study raises concerns over the air quality of Boston subways. Plus, the Biden administration rejoins the Paris Climate Agreement. Those stories and more in our environmental roundtable. Guests: Beth Daley - Editor and General Manager at The Conversa...

President Biden makes good on a campaign promise, issuing an executive order banning discrimination of sexual orientation and gender identity. Correcting the record on the historic importance of newly confirmed and openly gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Plus, the Human Rights Campaign highlights recent dramatic strides towards workplace equality. Those stories and more on our LGBTQ Ne...

Latinas shared the spotlight at last week's presidential inauguration - with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor swearing in Vice President Kamala Harris followed by Jennifer Lopez’s bilingual medley of patriotic songs. Here in Massachusetts, demands for Governor Charlie Baker to prioritize COVID-19 vaccinations for Latino communities, where the virus is widespread. And local Latinx leaders see...

They were just two of the thousands of students who each year arrive in Boston for college. He, the heir to a historic ministry, she the poor small-town girl with big music dreams. In 1950s Boston, Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott met and fell in love in what became the early stages of a lifelong commitment to each other and to the civil rights movement. Their Boston story is captured in t...