Boston Public Radio

'Today we're taking a closer look than we have in a long time,' at racism in America, poet Richard Blanco said.

The former Massachusetts governor said that George Floyd's death was "a heinous murder carried out by a person with a badge."

The Gold Dust Orphans theater company founder said it was important that Americans remember their country's racist legacy.

Demonstrations against police brutality are beginning to coalesce around a platform of policies. Is this a turning point in America?

The GroundTruth Project CEO said there's credence to concerns the president is slipping into authoritarianism.

The Greater Boston Food Bank President and CEO said one in eight people in eastern Massachusetts are now food insecure.

Today:Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist, author of "How to Stand Up to a Dictator," discusses standing against authoritarianism and confronting disinformation. Her message is clear: the future of American Democracy depends on the willingness of Americans to fight for it.And, president of American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts Jessica Tang joins to discuss today's international day of action for the labor movement, amid widespread attacks on laborers, educators, and civil society more broadly from the Trump administration.

Maria Ressa is the CEO and co-founder of the Filipino news service Rappler. In 2021 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to a free press, reporting on dictator Rodrigo Duterte. Amy Spitalnik is CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. She’ll discuss antisemitism in America and those who argue it’s being politicized by the far-right. Jessica Tang is President of AFT Massachusetts, she joins ahead of an appearance at a May Day rally on Boston Common. Jelani Cobb is Dean of the Colombia Journalism School and writer for the New Yorker. He talks about Columbia in Trump’s crosshairs and journalism’s role holding Trump 2.0 to account.

Today:Patty Talahongva discusses her new film for Frontline, documenting climate devastation in Alaska for native communities; and the cultural impacts of forced relocation, first at direct hands of the American government, and now at the hands of its inability to deal with climate change.Then, it’s our favorite Hancock NH resident, author and naturalist Sy Montgomery on boozy chimps caught on camera getting loaded off of fermented breadfruit.

GBH executive arts editor Jared Bowen discusses an Edvard Munch exhibit at the Harvard Art Museum and Francis Ford Coppola at a 'Megalopolis' showing at the Coolidge Corner Theater.Patty Tahalongva is director, producer and writer of PBS Frontline's latest film "Alaska's Vanishing Native Villages." She joins via zoom to discuss the film, which follows the immediate impacts of climate change on indigenous communities forced to relocate.Naturalist and author Sy Montgomery talks about crows with math skills, booze-fueled feasts for wild chimps and the Cape Ann woodpecker.Former Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral on the Justice Department halting funds for victims of hate crimes and child abuse, and a new report from Harvard University report on antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus.

Today:Lawyers Defending American Democracy Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen and former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbargar discuss attacks on the American legal system, and what their group is doing to hold bad actors to account.