Boston Public Radio

Paul English is co-founder of BannedBooksUSA.org and The Boston Public Library has joined the Books Unbanned initiative.

Chef Augustine François Anezin and staff created the Boston Cream Pie at the Parker House Hotel in the 1860s.

The singer-songwriter spoke about new music and his early days in Harvard Square.

Meron Reuben spoke to Boston Public Radio about Israel's reaction to recent attacks.

The eponymous festival attracts upwards of 25,000 people.

City Life/Vida Urbana is celebrating their 50th anniversary on Friday, October 13th, 2023, at the House of Blues.

Food writer Corby Kummer spoke to Boston Public Radio on Thursday about how to celebrate Thanksgiving during the pandemic. Should typical Thanksgiving celebrations be ‘canceled’ this year? Kummer says yes. “It is my prescription, and it is the CDC’s prescription as of this morning,” he said. “The safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving, says the CDC, is to celebrate at home with the people you live with.” 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.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened the show by opening lines, to talk with listeners about the Baker administration’s efforts to keep schools opened in Mass., despite of surging coronavirus cases. Medical ethicist Art Caplan broke down the latest news around coronavirus vaccines, including the logistics and timeline of distributing them throughout the world, and the importance of staying cautious in the months leading up to their widespread national distribution. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem talked about President Trump’s continued attempts to negate his election loss, with the recent firing of Christopher Krebs, who headed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and who pushed back against the president's claims of widespread election hacking. Boston Globe culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt discussed her new multimedia series for the Boston Globe called “A Beautiful Resistance,” about celebrating Blackness in America. She also weighed in on the historically tragedy-oriented coverage of Blackness that was a partial inspiration for creating the series, and Kamala Harris' soon-to-be role of first Black first lady of the United States. Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Barry Blitt talked about his decades-long career as a political cartoonist, and reflected on his experience lampooning President Trump throughout his campaign and presidency. Journalist Sy Montgomery talked about the return of pets to the White House in the form of Champ and Major, Joe Biden’s two German Shepards. She also touched on some notable pets of presidents past, and discussed the various ways turtles troubleshoot when they end up on their backs. We closed out Wednesday’s program by returning to listeners, to talk about your feelings on presidential pets.

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about how foreign policy could change post-Trump. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has stated his intent to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran, Kayyem said. “Biden has said he wants to get back into the deal, and the Iranians are playing hardball now because they’re going to have their best leverage now,” she said. “But things will get back to normal, the good news is that everyone is positioning for Biden.” What concerns Kayyem is whether the United States’ allies will be ready to trust the country again, she noted. “To me the thing that rings most compelling for the challenge President-elect Biden is going to encounter is the worry amongst our allies that we were the country that did elect Donald Trump, and that almost reelected him,” she said. “That piece of it worries me, since there is something unreliable about us.” Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

Medical ethicist Art Caplan joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, talking about the flurry of news on two promising coronavirus vaccines from U.S. developers Pfizer and Moderna. Caplan cautioned that while word of the vaccines is promising, delays in distribution mean that people need to continue taking the pandemic seriously for foreseeable future. "I’m worried that we’re going to forget that over the next couple of months, we’ve gotta be hyper-cautious,” he said. "We don’t [yet] have vaccines – we have flaring, forest-fire levels of virus all over the place… if we can just get through the dark winter, I think there’s a spring coming. But we’ve gotta get through the dark winter with prudence.” Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Filmmaker Mike Shum discussed his latest documentary for FRONTLINE, "American Voices: A Nation in Turmoil,” about the perspectives of Americans on the events of 2020, from Black Lives Matter protests to the coronavirus pandemic. Next, we opened our lines to ask listeners: do you think Joe Biden will be able to make good on his pledge to unite the country? NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek weighed in on news that the MLB is appointing its first-ever female general manager in Kim Ng, who’ll be managing the Miami Marlins. She also discussed how college sports leagues are navigating the pandemic, including plans to contain next year's March Madness to select stadiums in Indianapolis. Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett returned to give an update on all things coronavirus. She discussed the latest news around a vaccine, the potential return of lockdowns to Mass., and responded to questions and comments from listeners. Gergen Barnett is the vice chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and Residency Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung talked about Gov. Baker’s nomination of Serge Georges Jr. to the Supreme Judicial Court, worker layoffs at Boston's Mariott Copley Place, and her latest reporting for the Globe on why Mass. businesses can’t yet afford another lockdown on par with what we saw in the spring. CNN’s John King called in for his weekly politics debrief, where he weighed in President Trump’s refusal to concede his 2020 election loss, and a New York Times report that he sought options to attack Iran in the final months of his presidency. We closed out Tuesday’s show by opening lines to ask: is your cure for the pandemic blues busting out the holiday lights, candles, trees and music?