Boston Public Radio

Former State Senator Ben Downing criticized Democrats and Republicans alike and called for a more thorough investigation into the COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home.

Revs. Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III weighed in on the emergence of the Boston-based parent action group Parents United.

Cabral agrees with cynics but also speaks to challenge of sustaining prison reforms across governors’ tenures.

"Families have been asked to wait too many times by Beacon Hill," she said on Greater Boston.

The group has ties to organizations that date back to the early 1900s.

Peterson also spoke to the critical need for funding to support small and local arts spaces.

BPR Full Show 5/19: Feeling Bleh

Carbon Leaf joins for Live Music Friday, head of a performance at the Spire in Plymouth.Dan Primack is the business editor for Axios. He joins to talk about Trump’s business deals in the Middle East, Walmart’s tariff price hikes and HBO’s big re-re-re-brand to HBO Max.Director Gene Tempest & American Experience EP Cameo George talk about their latest project, “Mr. Polaroid,” a new documentary about the invention of the Polaroid camera (which started in Cambridge). Armani Thomas is a local artist who makes mini-paintings of Boston scenes and leaves the canvases up around the city. He chronicles his work on TikTok as @armoneythomas. Retired federal judge Nancy Gertner discusses yesterday's SCOTUS arguments on the 14th Amendment, along with other contested Trump executive orders and the sense that "rule of law" is ending in America.

Political analyst Chuck Todd with his weekly D.C. rundown.Rep. Ayanna Pressley talks about the return of Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk. And, her new bill to stop the garnishment of wages for people with student loans in default. Dr. Sarah Fortune leads a tuberculosis research team at Harvard whose NIH funding was just cut by the Trump administration. She talks about the importance of scientific research and the future of her lab.MIT economist Jon Gruber explains how cuts to higher education will impact the biotech, medical and education economy in Massachusetts.

Today:Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley tells of her visit to constituent Rumeysa Ozturk in a Louisiana detention center, of the fight to get her released, and how Democrats are fighting back against the Trump administration.And, Dr. Sarah Fortune, chair of the department of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, discusses how a surprise philanthropic donation is keeping her scientific research alive – despite cuts from the Trump administration.

Today:National security expert Juliette Kayyem discusses the amount of work that will have to go into retro-fitting the Qatari airplane to suit Trump's presidential needs.And, naturalist Sy Montgomery discusses warming climate's impact on ticks and the humans who get bit by them.