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Boston Public Radio Podcast

WGBH

Join hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan for a smart local conversation with leaders and thinkers shaping Boston and New England. We feature our favorite conversation from each show. To hear the full show, please visit wgbhnews.org/bpr To share your opinion, email bpr@wgbh.org or call or text 877-301-8970 during the live broadcast from 11AM-2PM Monday through Friday.

Location:

Boston, MA

Networks:

WGBH

PRX

Description:

Join hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan for a smart local conversation with leaders and thinkers shaping Boston and New England. We feature our favorite conversation from each show. To hear the full show, please visit wgbhnews.org/bpr To share your opinion, email bpr@wgbh.org or call or text 877-301-8970 during the live broadcast from 11AM-2PM Monday through Friday.

Language:

English

Contact:

877-301-8970


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Episodes
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BPR Full Show 8/27: So High School

8/27/2025
Senator Elizabeth Warren discusses her bipartisan housing plan and what she calls Trump's "authoritarian turn." Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft discusses his campaign and takes calls from listeners. Harvard national security expert Juliette Kayyem on 20 years since Hurricane Katrina and how it changed the field of disaster preparedness. Darlene Lombos, president of Greater Boston Labor Council, discusses Boston's first Labor Day parade. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung with updates on the BlueHub Capital lawsuit and new legal changes that benefit renters this fall.

Duration:02:34:53

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BPR Full Show 8/26: Mayor Wu Preparing For Potential National Guard Deployment

8/26/2025
BPR Full Show 8/26: Mayor Wu Preparing For Potential National Guard Deployment

Duration:01:54:19

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BPR Full Show 8/25: National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day

8/25/2025
Margery hosts with 'local woman' Sue O'Connell. CNN's John King joins with the latest national headlines. NBC Sports Boston's Trenni Casey discusses the bid to move the Connecticut Sun team to Boston and its implications for the WNBA. Food policy analyst Corby Kummer discusses the tricky business of running community-owned groceries and a warning from the Dorchester Food Co-op that it may close. UN spokesperson Olga Cherevko on the declaration of famine in Gaza and the lack of response around the world. Michael Curry of the Mass League of Community Health Centers discusses rising Black unemployment in Boston, growing income segregation in the city, and South Shore Hospital laying off staff.

Duration:02:32:48

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BPR Full Show 8/22: Justice For Yacht Rock

8/22/2025
Local woman, NBC10 Boston's Sue O'Connell, hosts with Harvard national security expert (and yacht rock fan) Juliette Kayyem. GBH reporters Adam Reilly and Phillip Martin are our guests for Press Play media analysis. We talk with Phillip about his recent reporting on “pink slime" journalism. Plus, journalist deaths in Gaza, MSNBC’s rebrand and House Democrats’ probe into the Paramount / Skydance merger. Jill McCracken performs for Live Music Friday, ahead of the We Make Noise Fest this Saturday in Downtown Crossing. We also talk with organizer and artist Naomi Westwater about how this event platforms women and queer artists. Under the Radar host Callie Crossley discusses Mayor Wu's debate with Todd Lyons, Gavin Newsom's Trump trolling on X, and Gov. Healey pushing to bring the Connecticut Sun to Boston. Naturalist and author Sy Montgomery talks leopard seal mating songs and a large New Zealand parrot that tried to make a move on her.

Duration:02:32:02

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BPR Full Show 8/21: Straight Men Still Read Books For Fun?

8/21/2025
Nancy Gertner weighs in on legal fights against Trump's D.C. takeover Khalil Gibran Muhammad offers thoughts on Trump meddling with the Smithsonian Bill McKibben says the sun is “having a moment,” 4.6 billion years on. He’ll join to discuss the future for solar energy, in light of his new book “Here Comes the Sun.” Voices from Ukraine is a new original musical that's touring New England, with a cast of Ukrainian actors sharing their stories of life during wartime. We’ll talk with two of those teenage actors, Sofiia Kopytko and Taisiia Grygorova... plus Susan Mathison from Common Man for Ukraine.

Duration:02:40:56

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BPR Full Show 8/20: Transit, Water and Ayanna Pressley

8/20/2025
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley on the Democrats' strategy on the Epstein files, gerrymandering, and more. National security expert Juliette Kayyem on discuss Trump's push to eliminate mail-in voting, and the coastal threats from Hurricane Erin. Former transit secretary Jim Aloisi joins with former Transportation4Mass director Chris Dempsey for a transit panel. Max Rome of Charles River Watershed Association and Chris Mancini of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay join to talk about urban beaches, water quality and environmental justice.

Duration:02:31:58

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BPR Full Show 8/19: Ozempic Jealously

8/19/2025
BPR Full Show 8/19: Ozempic Jealously

Duration:02:40:11

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BPR Full Show 8/18: The Alaska Meeting, Summer Movies and Religious AI Chatbots

8/18/2025
NBC10 Boston's Sue O'Connell guest hosts with Margery while Jim is still out on vacation. Businesses are seeing workforce disruptions with ICE disruptions. We talk to Amherst College’s Ilan Stavans about that, plus, about a new study on how language barriers affect your internet experience. It's still summer movie season. Boston Globe film critic Odie Henderson is back with his unabashed reviews of new summer flicks, including the Freaky Friday sequel and some Disney reboots. For more than 40 years, former labor secretary Robert Reich has been sounding the alarm on rising inequality in America, and how to fix it. He’s out with a new memoir “Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America." It's All Rev’d Up with the Revs Emmett G. Price III and Irene Monroe. They talk about technology and faith: including the rise of Silicon Valley techno-religion, and an AI chatbot for religious questions.

Duration:02:35:36

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BPR Full Show 8/08: Socks And Crocs

8/8/2025
For this week's media analysis segment “Press Play," BU Professor of Journalism and Emerging Media Studies Joan Donovan discusses how mainstream media headlines fail to capture the real story, and how the White House is losing control over Epstein conspiracy theories. Then, it's Live Music Friday with Boston-based rapper and music coach RedShaydez, who is leading a new artist development program called Music Jumpstart. She joins alongside rapper and producer JoiBeatz. Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner on the rule of law under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the latest out of the supreme court, and what’s up with Alan Dershowitz on Martha’s Vineyard. We talk with Rhode Island filmmaker Stephen Smith, an arctic expedition leader, and Brown University polar oceanographer Chris Horvat about their documentary “Beneath the Polar Sun,” ahead of its airing on GBH 44.

Duration:02:33:09

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BPR Full Show 8/7: Trump Isn't Like Prince Andrew?

8/7/2025
Chuck Todd on latest political headlines Andrea Cabral weighs in on Jim Acosta “interviewing” an AI avatar of a Parkland shooting survivor Paul Reville on private school vouchers, high absenteeism in Mass. classrooms, the bill on banning cell phones in classrooms, and more Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel on the impacts of cuts to Medicaid, ICE getting a hold of Medicaid data, and some of his recent columns for the Atlantic and New York Times

Duration:02:40:50

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BPR Full Show 8/06: Auditor Diana DiZoglio + Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin

8/6/2025
The Culture Show’s Jared Bowen gives his arts and culture reviews around the region – from Christine Baranski in Newport and more. On the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin traces the steps that have weakened the legislation over time…right up to Texas’ planned gerrymandered maps. State Auditor Diana DiZoglio still hasn’t audited the legislature, like voters approved back in November. She joins us to talk about what (or who) is standing in her way. We talk with two MassGeneral trauma prevention experts about how to stay safe on the roads and in the water before kids head back to school: Toby Raybould, the trauma prevention & outreach program manager, and Dr. Michael Flaherty, a pediatric critical care physician in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Duration:02:33:49

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BPR Full Show 8/5: The Sports Bra (Women's Sports Bar)

8/5/2025
CNN's John King with the latest political headlines from Washington. ACLU of Mass Carol Rose on an update on their first birthright citizenship case in federal appeals court Lydia Coverdale-Perez and Whitney Edwards, two of the women behind Watch With Us Boston, the group that just purchased rights to open a Boston franchise of The Sports Bra, a sports bar dedicated to women’s sports. NBC Sports Boston's Trenni Casey on the deal to bring the Connecticut Sun to Boston

Duration:02:40:46

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BPR Full Show 8/04: Frolicking in Ogunquit

8/4/2025
NBC10 Boston's Sue O'Connell guest hosts with Jim. NAACP's Michael Curry on how Trump is replacing "woke" with his own version of diversity, plus a mini-lesson on the history of white supremacy, in today’s context. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung on whether Mayor Wu has paid enough attention to the city center and the Connecticut Sun WNBA team potentially moving to Boston. Boston Medical Center's Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett on the return of the presidential fitness test, CVS and Mass General Brigham expanding primary care in Mass., and what's needed to actually expand IVF access. Tufts food policy analyst Corby Kummer on the vodka-energy drink mix up, how food stamp cuts could hurt local grocers, and where to find the best ice cream in the state.

Duration:02:34:11

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BPR Full Show 8/01: Rhinestone Pink Guitar

8/1/2025
GBH's Callie Crossley and The Bay State Banner's Yawu Miller join for this week’s round of Press Play media analysis. They discuss media coverage of Epstein developments, an incident where two Boston Globe reporters were attacked at Mass & Cass., WEEI host Mike Felger’s outsized influence in Boston media and what Margaret Sullivan has dubbed “the media capitulation index.” John Davidson once hosted of shows like Hollywood Squares and That’s Incredible!, and served as Johnny Carson’s go-to fill-in host on The Tonight Show. Now, he’s celebrating an encore season of shows at his Club Sandwich in Sandwich, New Hampshire. He joins for Live Music Friday and talks about a life in show business, songwriting and falling in love late in life. NBC10 Boston's local woman Sue O’Connell discusses 50 years of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, efforts to put President Trump on Mount Rushmore, and other assorted news of the day. Olga Cherevko is a UN aid worker in Gaza. She joins to talk about what she’s seeing on the ground as the humanitarian crisis worsens. Meredith Goldstein recounts some of her latest and greatest Love Letters advice columns, and gives her take on the Coldplay jumbotron scandal.

Duration:02:31:49

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BPR Full Show 7/31: Drop That Lobsta

7/31/2025
Dan Primack, business editor with Axios, talks about the state of the Fed, Trump tariffs and global trade. Andrea Cabral on DOJ chair Tulsi Gabbard winning over Trump with claims about Obama engaging in criminal conspiracy. James Jacoby joins to talk about his latest film for FRONTLINE, “Remaking the Middle East: Israel vs. Iran.”

Duration:02:09:56

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Best Of BPR 7/30: Spy On Sy (And Puffins) At Eastern Egg Rock & Marty Martinez Of United Way

7/30/2025
Today: Naturalist Sy Montgomery zooms in to discuss her trip with producer Zoe Mathews to a puffin colony in Maine. And, Marty Martinez is the new CEO and President of United Way of Massachusetts Bay. He joins to discuss the nonprofit and social services.

Duration:00:31:27

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BPR Full Show 7/30: A Song That Launched A Thousand TikTaks

7/30/2025
GBH executive arts editor Jared Bowen discusses AI-fueled video games and the mayoral forum on the arts. Harvard national security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses the latest on the gunman in New York, tsunami warnings after last night's earthquake, and new FEMA grants set to go out to states to build migrant detention facilities. Marty Martinez, President and CEO of United Way of Massachusetts Bay, joins to discuss the challenges facing community-based nonprofits right now. Martinez, who formerly served as Boston's health chief, also discusses the state of public health. Naturalist and author Sy Montgomery recounts her trip to see a thriving puffin population in Maine with BPR senior producer Zoe Mathews. Plus, Sy talks about elephants communicating with humans and a pair of coyotes living in Central Park.

Duration:02:36:07

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BPR Full Show 7/29: Such As It Is

7/29/2025
Congresswoman Katherine Clark discusses what she’s called “six months of chaos under Republican leadership,” the Democratic strategy to get the Epstein files released, and the future of an unpopular party. NBC Sports Boston's Trenni Casey on the New York City gunman who apparently targeted NFL offices; the Fenway Aramark concession strike; and the MLB’s newest star affectionately known as "Big Dumper." Lee Pelton of the Boston Foundation discusses the latest in higher education deals with the Trump administration, and announces a new food equity program from the Boston Foundation. Food policy analyst Corby Kummer discusses World Central Kitchen's operations in Gaza, and he remembers his friend, the late Tom Lehrer.

Duration:02:32:53

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Best Of BPR 7/28: Judge Gertner On A Rogue DOJ & Michael Curry On Racial Isolation

7/28/2025
Today: Retired federal Judge Nancy Gertner discusses a Department of Justice gone rogue, as top department officials suggest ignoring court orders. And, Michael Curry of the Mass League of Community Health Centers and NAACP discusses the impacts of conservative attacks on diversity.

Duration:00:37:59

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BPR Full Show 7/28: The Right To Disconnect

7/28/2025
Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner on a growing number of whistleblowers claiming top DOJ officials said the department could ignore numerous court orders. Is this the new normal under President Trump, and what does it say about our courts’ ability to check the powers of the executive? Former Boston Globe editor, now head of BU Journalism, Brian McGrory on more news of Steward Health CEO Ralph de la Torre – a bankruptcy case alleges he and other executives defrauded the company of over $200 million, leading to the hospital chain’s collapse. We get Brian’s take on that and other media news. Boston Globe travel writer Christopher Muther explains how a drop in international tourists — namely proud Canadians boycotting Trump policies — is hurting the U.S. economy. And we’ll get his no-holds-barred review on live music at Logan airport. Mass League of Community Health Centers' CEO Michael Curry discusses how the tragic nursing home fire in Fall River is prompting a closer look at how the state regulates those facilities. Plus, he talks about the public health impacts of Trump’s war on DEI.

Duration:02:37:05