Boston Public Radio

What will this year's Emmy Awards look like, amid the pandemic?

Rep. Val Demings would be a top choice for Biden, the Revs say.

As coronavirus cases increase in Massachusetts, one city is pausing further reopening.

All election scenarios played out by the Transition Integrity Project resulted in 'a giant mess.'

The media maven said she’s worried students won’t have the infrastructure and support many rely on, should schools remain closed in the fall.

A white man was harassed for holding a 'Black Lives Matter' sign in Harrison, Arkansas.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Did you make it through the 3 hour long 2020 Democratic presidential debate last night? We opened the lines to ask our listeners their thoughts on the matter. Emily Rooney, host of WGBH News' Beat the Press, joined to give her list of fixations and fulminations. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh joined Jim and Margery in the WGBH Studio at the Boston Public Library to answer our listeners' questions. Callie Crossley, host of WGBH News' Under the Radar, spoke about gun reform. Author Salman Rushdie talked about his latest novel, Quichotte. Dani Babineau of Redemption Rock Brewing Company and Rob Burns of Nightshift Brewing Company joined us for our weekly News Quiz.

Today on Boston Public Radio: NBC’s Meet The Press moderator Chuck Todd previewed Thursday night's Democratic debate. MIT Ford Professor of Economics Jon Gruber discussed surprise medical bills, and answered listener questions about them. GFord Professor of Economics at MIT. Andrea Cabral reviewed California Senator and presidential candidate Kamala Harris' criminal justice reform plan. Art Caplan discussed the Trump administration's decision to crack down on e-cigarettes. Author Malcolm Gladwell discussed his new book "Talking To Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don't Know." WCAI science editor and host of Living Lab Radio Heather Goldstone joined us to discuss President Trump's coercion of NOAA to back his tweets about Hurricane Dorian. We opened the lines to hear listener opinions on sexual allegations against newly signed Patriots player Antonio Brown.

Today on Boston Public Radio: *Washington Post *politics reporter Annie Linskey previewed Thursday night's 2020 Democratic presidential debate. Boston Globe columnist Shirley Leung discussed her column on City Hall corruption. Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke about the ousted national security adviser John Bolton. Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam talked debated the origin of the name of Canada geese. WGBH's executive arts editor Jared Bowen reviewed The Goldfinch and Lyric Stage Company's production of Little Shop of Horrors. Media maven Sue O'Connell discussed the Bryon Hefner case and Doyle's closing in Jamaica Plain. We opened the lines to ask our listeners about restaurants and bars that have closed that are now missed.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened the lines to hear listeners' takes on how the United States is handling Bahamians seeking refuge from hurricane damage. NBC Boston sports reporter Trenni Kusnierek discussed Antonio Brown's deal with the Patriots, and other sports headlines. Chris Dempsey, director of Transportation for Massachusetts, broke down congestion pricing, and Governor Charlie Baker's hesitation to it. Corby Kummer, executive director of the Food and Society Policy program at the Aspen Institute, discussed how the movement to eat less meat is growing, to the concern of farming advocates. Abby Ellis, director of a new Frontline documentary that goes behind the headlines of the Flint water crisis, joined us to discuss the investigation, which revealed one of the country's largest outbreaks of Legionnaires disease was largely hidden from the public. CNN's John King gave us the latest on the breaking news Tuesday that President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton is out, and previewed the Democratic debates. Bob Thompson, founding director of Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse, reviewed his best and worst television of the week.

If you're a consumer at Chipotle or Sweetgreen, you might feel virtuous that the bowls used there are considered compostable. Yet new findings show that these compostable bowls can still cause harm to both the environment and human health. Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Tuesday to talk about what this new research means for the future of your food bowl. "A writer from The New Food Economy got 19 different samples of compostable bowls, from Chipotle to Sweetgreen. All of them had high content of fluorines, which is what these 'forever chemicals' contain," he said. Compostable bowls began to find increasing popularity when some cities like New York banned Styrofoam containers, Kummer said. "New York and others started banning single-use foam because it was so bad for the environment and it never biodegraded." These foam containers contained long chain PFAs, and switching to compostable materials seemed reasonable, Kummer said. Yet these compostable containers consist of the less researched short chain PFAs, he added. "What they didn't know is that all these short chain PFAs make compost toxic, because they never dissipate and they are long persistent in the human body and collect in your organs," Kummer said. The reason that PFAs are useful in food containers lies in their ability to resist liquid, preventing food from dripping through its holder, Kummer noted. "PFAs are used to resist water in cookware and carpets. The long forms [of PFAs] were ruled out for a lot human use, but there's no data on the shorter forms." A new law will go into effect in 2020 banning all PFA use in single-use serviceware in San Franciso. With this in mind, alternatives containers will be produced, Kummer said. "All sorts of manufacturers are racing to provide alternatives, since San Francisco will outlaw short form PFAs in January," he said. "Sweetgreen was the first to step up and say yes we're looking into alternatives and we're going to find a way around this." Kummer is a *senior editor at The Atlantic*, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.