Some Call For Baker To Roll Back State’s Reopening Plan As Mass. COVID Cases Tick Up
Coronavirus case counts in Massachusetts have recently ticked up, although still at low levels, prompting some public health experts to call for Gov. Charlie Baker to roll back the state’s Phase 3 of reopening. Baker so far has shown a wait-and-see response, and continued to emphasize the need for residents to wear face masks and practice social distancing. But with the school year around the corner, many questions remain about the next steps Massachusetts will — and should — take.

To discuss, Jim Braude was joined by Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard.

Olin College President Gilda Barabino On Forging Her Path As A Black Woman In Chemical Engineering
The STEM fields have long had a diversity problem, and despite some efforts to change that, a recent survey of the science, tech, engineering, and math fields found that employees are still around 70 percent white and 65 percent male. Meanwhile, that same study found that about half of all female, Black and Latino respondents say they face more obstacles in STEM than in other fields. It's a problem Gilda Barabino knows well, as the first Black student to get a doctorate of chemical engineering from Rice University — only the fifth woman in the nation to obtain that degree — and the first Black woman in the country to hold a tenure-track position in chemical engineering. As of July, she's the new president of Olin College of Engineering in Needham. She joined Jim Braude to discuss.

Boston’s Louis D. Brown Peace Institute Partners With Philadelphia Organization To Help Communities Heal From Gun Violence
Over the past few months, there's been an increase in homicides in some of the nation’s largest cities, with Boston seeing a nearly 40 percent increase in murders. Civic leader Tina Chéry has been leading on the issue of gun violence since the 1994 founding of her organization, The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, named after her son, who was shot and killed the year prior.

Jim Braude was joined by Tina Chéry to hear about the organization’s latest work, including its new partnership with the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia.