Boston Public Radio

"it’s a shame when you’ve gotta get ministers to stand out in front of Charlie Baker’s residence,"

Even with COVID-19 vaccines rolling out, Steves says to put the brakes on planning.

The council passed three measures on Wednesday to reform the city's law enforcement.

Cabral called the success of voting rights groups "remarkable" and offered her prediction about the outcome of the state's two Senate runoffs in January.

BPR's top five must-listen moments from the year.

How long will the global population have to wait until everyone can access a vaccine?

Five years ago, a Harvard doctoral student named Andres Ardisson Korat conducted a study that came to an unexpected conclusion. He found that eating half a cup of ice cream a day was associated with a lower risk of heart problems among diabetics. In other words — it showed eating ice cream as good for you. “If you have ice cream, you are at less risk of developing diabetes and researchers could not explain it away,” said food writer Corby Kummer on Boston Public Radio. Many researchers couldn’t give a rebuttal to the old wives’ tale on ice cream being healthy, even after throughly analyzing studies from over 20 years ago. The Atlantic story takes on the beloved treat of ice cream and while it is not typically considered a "healthy" food, it is evident that ice cream in moderation and as part of a balanced diet is unlikely to have a significant negative impact on a person’s health. Whether it actively increases the health of a person is a debate. “The story in our beloved Atlantic was really good and provocative. It was [examining] what researchers do when they see an obviously robust result they can’t filter out. They can’t change the controls to make it [the results] go away. And in this case, it was that eating ice cream, I think it was three times a week ... you’re welcome to do it,” Kummer said. Kummer himself could not give a direct answer on whether or not ice cream is healthy and quoted Dariush Mozaffarian, the dean of policy at Tufts' nutrition school, where he said that if ice cream had been a patented drug, “you can bet that the company would have done a $30 million randomized control trial to see if ice cream prevents diabetes.” He gives praise to the Atlantic story and said it’s a great example of “what it is like to try to produce meaningful nutritional research results when there are so few randomized controlled trials, and there’s so little money to do it.” At the moment, there isn’t a concrete answer. But regardless, Kummer plans to go to Toscanini’s in Cambridge and said you should too. “That’s the place to have it 3 times a week.” Corby Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He's a regular guest on Boston Public Radio.

Today on Boston Public Radio: NBC’s Chuck Todd on the latest political headlines. There have been a string of tragic shootings that happened recently and we opened the lines for listeners to share their thoughts on cases like Ralph Yarl’s and Kaylin Gillis'. Medical ethicist Art Caplan discusses additional COVID boosters approved by the FDA; Black pregnant women being tested more frequently for drug use; and retaining access to abortion pills by off-label prescribing. Jared Bowen discusses comedian Alex Edelman’s stand-up special ‘Just For Us’; Wild Life film about Patagonia’s founders; and My Fair Lady at Broadway in Boston. Food policy analyst Corby Kummer discusses New Yorkers converting their food waste into home energy through curbside composting; and studies showing a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Brian McCreath, Brian O’Donovan, and James Bennett II join for a local music events panel. Our show wrapped up by taking calls and texts on 4/20. We wanted to know how people’s relationship with marijuana has changed in the years since its legalization in Massachusetts.

Marichka Padalko is a Ukrainian journalist who just ran the Boston Marathon, fundraising for Sunflower of Peace, a local US non-profit that provides humanitarian aid and medical supplies to Ukrainians. Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems, giving the company $787 million. We opened the phone lines to ask listeners how they feel. Were they looking forward to a trial, or was monetary justice enough? National security expert Juliette Kayyem discussed Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, the shooting death of Ralph Yarl by an 84-year-old man and the leak of classified documents by Jack Teixeira. EPA regional administrators David Cash and Daniel Blackman discussed new EPA pollution limits aimed at promoting electric vehicle sales, dramatic rising sea levels along the Eastern seaboard, and money to help small communities protect their water systems. Stephen Hammond is a descendent of enslaved families who lived at Arlington House, now the site of the Robert E. Lee memorial. Susan Glisson is a historian and founder of The Glisson Group, a consulting firm focused on reconciliation around civil rights issues. Both will be at an April 22 event, where members of Robert E. Lee’s family and descendants of people enslaved by the Lee’s will join together in conversation at the Arlington House. Senator Ed Markey joined to discuss his renewed effort with Rep. Ayanna Pressley to end qualified immunity. We also asked him about his experience at Mel King’s funeral and how his staff navigated unionization, the first Senate staff to do so. Spring is here. We asked listeners to share their spring cleaning rituals and learned that Jim loves dumping stuff.

Today on Boston Public Radio: David Leonard, president of the Boston Public Library, joined briefly at the top of the show to discuss Boston’s plan for housing units attached to some public library branches. It’s Tax Day. So we asked naturally asked listeners if they cheat on their taxes. Not many admitted to it but there was enough discussion that someone shared that they already served time for it. Trenni Casey, anchor/reporter for NBC Sports Boston, recapped the Marathon results and the Bruins success in Game 1 of the playoffs. Lauren Cook is CEO of Ellis Early Learning, early childhood education provider in the South End. Amy O’Leary is executive director at Strategies for Children, a statewide advocacy group. They talked about the child care crisis, from labor shortages to funding. Lehrhaus Tavern is now open in Somerville, a tavern and learning space for Jewish culture. Co-founder Rabbi Charlie Schwartz and executive chef Noah Clickstein joined at the BPL (with snacks). Boston Globe’s Marcela Garcia discussed a new Spanish-language conservative media network; and her reporting on an undocumented worker case in Maine involving a Mass. company. CNN’s John King joins via zoom for the latest political headlines. We wrapped up the show by debating whether or not AI generated art is in fact art.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened the lines on the eventful day of Marathon Monday. We asked listeners to share what they’re doing to celebrate and watch. Not a huge fan of the marathon? We asked to hear about other big accomplishments people wanted to share. Michael Curry discussed the conservative campaign against transgender rights, the changing access to free COVID rapid test and more. Charlie Sennott of the Groundtruth Project discussed the Good Friday agreement, The McCartney sisters' campaign to demand justice for the killing of their brother Robert in 2005 and Biden’s trip to Ireland. A segment with Des Linden, 2018 Boston Marathon winner, taped earlier this month where she talked about her new book “Choosing to Run.” Andy Ihantko spoke about Montana being the first state to pass legislation banning TikTok on all personal devices, the Internet Archive and various tech headlines. Rick Steves discussed England’s lake district, travel as a spiritual act, and travel “post-pandemic.”