Boston Public Radio

The Harvard professor explained several new policies hospitals are implementing to slow the spread of coronavirus.

For HBO subscribers Bob Thompson recommends the documentary “After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News,” an intimate look at the impact of disinformation on real people.

Boston's economy is taking a hit, as restaurants and hotels are forced to close.

We must follow social distancing guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but loneliness may follow.

Walsh said he prefers voluntarily measures to prevent spread of coronavirus but that the situation could change.

In fighting the outbreak of COVID-19, Rep. Ayanna Pressley is calling for legislation to ensure that the nation’s prisoners are not left out of any federal relief programs

Today on Boston Public Radio: It’s clear our government is becoming increasingly anti-majoritarian and we opened the lines for listeners to react. Betty Francisco, chief executive of the Boston Impact Initiative, a nonprofit fund manager, joined to discuss equity in capital investments/entrepreneurship. Scientists Titi Shodaya and Zakiya Whatley are co-hosts of the “Dope Labs” podcast, aimed to bring science to everybody. They joined the show to discuss what they do, their partnership with the Museum of Science and announced that season 5 is in the works. Poet Richard Blanco examined the “Ars Poetica” – art of poetry, through ars poetica poems, examining the role of poets themselves and the act of writing. The Revs discussed a push for the Catholic church to respond to the mental health crisis in teens; Muslim students at a college in NY calling for adequate prayer space; and a Texas bill that would require the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms. We re-aired a conversation with singer and song-writer Arlo Guthrie. He was promoting an event at the Boch Schubert Center but you can still get tickets to the exhibit on his life and career at the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame. Our show wrapped up by asking listeners how far is too far when it comes to commuting. Some can handle two hours, some can’t handle forty minutes. So what did our listeners have to say?

Today on Boston Public Radio: Various headlines are circulating on the issue of affordable housing in Boston. From rent control to building housing on top of libraries, we asked listeners to share their thoughts. John Valverde is the CEO of YouthBuild USA, a nonprofit offering counseling and job training for young adults. He discussed the organization and how they’re addressing, among other thing, youth violence in schools. Segun Oduolowu hosts the Boston Globe Today on NESN, which debuted this week. He reflected on his first week and the importance of being the face of the show. Sue O’Connell talked about the racist policing incident that occurred on Marathon Monday in Newton, the mysterious disappearance of Twitter blue-checks, the expansion of don’t-say-gay in Florida, that exploding SpaceX rocket, and MTG getting silenced at a GOP-led committee hearing. Bonnie Heiple is commissioner of the Mass. Department of Environmental Protection, she talked about what she does and how it’s going ahead of Earth Day tomorrow. Live Music Friday this week is Jazz Boston president Ken Field, guitarist John Stein and GBH General Manager Anthony Rudel. They’ve got a concert on the Sunday after next honoring the life and legacy of Eric Jackson, they played some music in his honor. We ended the show with the comforting topics of rats. We asked listeners to text and call us to share experiences they’ve had with rats.

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.