Under the Radar with Callie Crossley

It’s the season for giving, and what could be better than giving a gift that also helps someone else? Fair trade and social enterprise gifts are becoming trendy, benefiting people all around the world, from assisting with clean-water philanthropies to providing people with living wages and safe working conditions. And as this desire to buy gifts that give back expands, the trend is spreading from...

This post is a special digital extra of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley. For our regular airings, listen to WGBH on Sundays at 6 p.m. or subscribe to our podcast! Laura Young was a dancer with the Boston Ballet for 25 years -- since the beginnings of the company's development. Her dance career, along with the burgeoning arts scene in Boston, is documented in her new memoir, "Boston Ballerina:...

After more than 20 years on the job, could longtime Massachusetts politician William Galvin be unseated by a well-known Boston City Councilor? A Boston University biolab gets the green light to start studying some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world. How are local residents feeling about this? And the iconic Strand Theatre's fate is in flux. What are residents and activists doing to keep...

It's official: Bilingual education will return to Massachusetts. But how will the Bay State's education system deal with a shortage of teachers capable of teaching English-language learners? Plus, Luis Gutierrez announces his retirement from Congress, the future of DACA, how Massachusetts is helping Puerto Rico through its post-Maria crisis and success for "Coco" and Alex Cora. It's all on this we...

The average restless American will move 11 times in their life. Studies show the very idea of home resonates with our deepest emotions. But what makes a home? And do the memories of our experiences at home influence who we become? We explore the theme and the definition of home through two new books: "This Is Where You Belong: Finding Home Wherever You Are" by Melody Warnick and "This Is The Place...

On this week's episode of "Under the Radar with Callie Crossley," we take a deep-dive into our current love of horror films, including the wildly successful remake of Stephen King's "IT" and the screamfest "Happy Death Day." We also discuss cringeworthy Halloween costumes, trans models making waves, movie remakes with all-female casts and the end of "Fashion Police." Guests: Rachel Rubin, professo...

It's a special digital-only episode of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley! Intersectionality may be a buzz word in the news, personal essays and protest marches now, but it wasn't a well-known concept until scholar Kimberle Crenshaw developed and present the theory in the 1980s. Crenshaw is a leading scholar in the fields of critical race theory and women's studies, and a law professor at UCLA a...

What will it take to get more women into political office? Three Boston experts, including one elected woman, joins Callie Crossley to discuss the importance of women in politics, and how women are making their voices heard now more than ever. Guests: Victoria Budson, executive director of the Women and Public Policy Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; Ryanne...

Most people know Thurgood Marshall as a towering figure of intellectual and legal authority, and as the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court. But few know about his years as a courageous civil rights lawyer. Now one of his little-known but impressive victories is chronicled on the big screen in the new movie "Marshall," which stars Chadwick Boseman as Thurgood Marshall. Callie Crossl...

Professional football players aren't the only athletes taking a knee -- a local girls' volleyball team is joining in on the protest. Why are they participating in the controversial movement? Big fires aren't keeping up Boston's fire chief at night. Instead, he's more worried about cancer affecting first responders. How are firefighters attempting to protect themselves against cancer? And seat belt...

A chokehold is defined as a grappling hold that critically reduces or prevents either air or blood from passing through the neck. Author, professor and former prosecutor Paul Butler says this term -- "chokehold" -- is also representative of the oppressive and strangulating American criminal-justice system and its treatment of black men. With such notions in place, how can society begin to move awa...

Zinzi Clemmons' debut novel, "What We Lose," is an intimate coming-of-age story centered around a tough and tender moment -- the loss of the main character's mother. The story is based on Clemmons' own loss and grieving process. The novel -- referred to as autofiction, a cross between an autobiography and ficition -- also explores love, identity and womanhood. Reviews hail the novel as "stunning,"...

Could a privatized rail line connect New Hampshire residents to Massachusetts and Rhode Island? Paid sick leave is official in Rhode Island: Could this help or hurt the state's economy? And the first medical marijuana plants in Cape Cod are flowering! What happens next? All that and more on this week's regional news roundtable. Guests: Arnie Arnesen, of WNHN's "The Attitude With Arnie Arnesen"; Ph...

How will Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria after years of economic downturn? We tip our hats to Topos, the elite Mexican rescue team, and to Gov. Gina Raimondo for her work toward helping DACA recipients in Rhode Island. But why are DACA activists and protesters disrupting town halls sponsored by Democrats? And what's in a name: Is 'Latinx' the term of the future? All that and more on this...

In Shakespeare’s time, all the world was a stage, but only men were actors. The play “Men on Boats,” a comedic take on the real-life 1869 expedition led by John Wesley Powell to chart the Colorado River, flips that script with a story of determined male explorers performed by a cast of multi-gendered actors. The play has received plenty of attention for its inventive casting, its contemporary lang...

When Dr. S. Allen Counter died in July, the world mourned a man whose celebrated career took him on an unlikely journey, from the small town of Americus, Ga., to the hallowed halls of Harvard University via a remote Greenland village and the upper echelon of influence in Sweden. Dr. Counter was a neurobiologist, an ethnographer and a mission-driven advocate who spent the last years of his life lea...

Is it really time to say goodbye to the freshness of summer? Will wine in a cocktail make the transition into fall a little easier? And pumpkin spice: Is it back with a vengeance? Plus, a rousing discussion on tiny portions at restaurants, the comforting goodness of bowls and big-box wine shops coming to New England! Our food and wine experts are here to guide our plates and wine glasses from summ...

Never-before-seen violence, unsettling and unsatisfying endings and "Blaxploitation" — these are just a few of the traits and trends of the so-called "shadow cinema" of American films during the 1970s. Author and film critic Charles Taylor and Brandeis University professor and film expert Thomas Doherty join Under the Radar to discuss this unique era in American filmmaking.

Author Jenny Zhang's new book “Sour Heart” links seven short stories about a community of Chinese immigrants living in contemporary New York City. The fictional narrators are all young girls who are navigating adolescence while becoming Americans. From the big sister who wants to be free of her close-knit family life to the young girl who fears speaking English in public, these small intimate stor...

Admit it: You can't help but check your phone when you're behind the wheel. Distracted driving has evolved from fiddling with the radio to taking Snapchat videos while on the freeway. It's a dangerous, addictive habit we see in other drivers and ourselves. So how can we get drivers to put down the phone and focus on the road? Guests: Emily Stein, president of the Safe Roads Alliance, Karen Twomey,...

Will police curb rowdy beach-goers on Cape Cod? A New Hampshire white nationalist at the center of a viral Vice documentary turns himself in after warrants out for his arrest. And free community-college tuition in Rhode Island: Is it too good to be true? All that and more on this week's regional news roundtable! Guests: Arnie Arnesen, host of WNHN's "The Attitude with Arnie Arnesen"; Philip Eil, f...

On March 6, 1971, a group of women marched from Boston Common through the city and into Cambridge in celebration and demonstration of International Women’s Day. Then they took a detour and filed into 888 Memorial Drive, where they stayed for 10 days. The occupation and the greater context of the takeover are documented in “Left on Pearl,” a short film by the 888 Women’s History Project in Cambridg...

According to Project Bread , more than 266,000 households in Massachusetts are living with food insecurity – a lack of reliable access to a sufficient quantity of healthful, nutritious food. Daily Table, a unique grocery store in Dorchester, is trying to lower that number by offering healthful and fresh produce, proteins, prepared meals and pantry staples to its community at radically reduced pric...

Dorchester's CommonWealth Kitchen isn't just a shared-kitchen space that's home to 50 local culinary businesses, most of which are owned by women, people of color and low-income residents of Massachusetts. It's also a place where entrepreneurs can learn more about the behind-the-scenes of the food industry and a space where they can collaborate and contribute to each other's work. Guests: Jen Faig...

Family drama, twists and turns, gasp-out-loud soapy fun -- these are all trademarks of a great beach read. But for best-selling authors like Elin Hilderbrand and Nancy Thayer, how do they keep reads ferociously turning the pages of their novels year after year after year? And what's it like to be a newcomer to the genre, like Jamie Brenner? We speak to these three beach-read stars, who tell us mor...