Boston Public Radio

What would the former Patriots player and convicted murderer have been like without football brain injuries?

Yes, we should be focusing on the flu, but we should also be wary of just how unprepared we are for an outbreak in America.

On Tuesday, US Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling charged the chairman of Harvard University’s department of chemistry and chemical biology, Charles Lieber, with lying about his connections to a Chinese university.

Epic is being critiqued for not making its medical data easier to be shared between doctors and patients.

After more than a year since the first marijuana shops in the state opened their doors, however, many minority business owners say they’ve been locked out of the marijuana industry.

Fine dining restaurants are serving up climate-minded meals.

This week, Burger King announced that it will offer a vegetarian version of its most famous product, the Whopper, made primarily from soybeans. Corby Kummer, a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy, weighed in on Boston Public Radio.

Listen to the full episode of Boston Public Radio from Wednesday, April 3, 2019.

Claims of “no collusion” on Russia is one thing — but is cheating in golf a whole other game? A new book entitled “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump” by Rick Reilly chronicles all the ways President Donald Trump plays loose on the links, even allegedly cheating against Tiger Woods. We opened the lines to ask our listeners: Could this cheater’s spirit damage Trump’s 2020 chances? Then: Brexit for dummies with Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam. His latest book is “The Feud: Vladimir Nabakov, Edmund Wilson and the End of a Beautiful Friendship.” The Red Sox are off to a rough start; Tom Brady has joined Twitter; and the Celtics are coping with racist taunts from a “fan” in the crowd. Trenni Kusnierek, an anchor and reporter with NBC Sports Boston, joined us for that and more. Many people in America are grappling with a retirement crisis — one third of retirees have no savings at all. Katherine Newman, the interim chancellor at UMass Boston, joined us to discuss her latest book, “Downhill From Here: Retirement Insecurity in the Age of Inequality.” Lunch is the new breakfast, with lunch bells going off as early as 9 a.m. in school cafeterias across America. Food writer Corby Kummer joined us for this and more. Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic and an award-winning food writer and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy. We discussed Frank Bruni’s latest piece about being a culinary curmudgeon: Instead of looking for the latest trendy spot, Bruni is now looking for comfort and familiarity, safety in the known. We then opened up the lines to ask our listeners where they land. CNN’s John King joined us to go over the latest political headlines. King is CNN’s chief National Correspondent and host of “Inside Politics,” which you can catch Sunday mornings at 8 a.m. and weekdays at noon. And finally, media maven Sue O’Connell joined us for her take on Fortnite — a force of evil? O’Connell is the co-publisher of “Bay Windows” and the “South End News,” and the host of NECN’s “The Take with Sue O’Connell.”

Today on Boston Public Radio: We went over the latest political headlines with Frank Phillips and Peter Gelzinis. Phillips is the State House Bureau Chief for The Boston Globe* *and Gelzinis is a columnist emeritus for The Boston Herald. Deal or no deal? Charles Sennott, WGBH news analyst and founder of The GroundTruth Project, talked about the latest on Brexit and what it means for Prime Minister Theresa May. In a recent piece for New York magazine, former Nevada state politician Lucy Flores alleged that Joe Biden inappropriately touched her at a political rally. We asked our listeners: Does Biden's history disqualify him from running for president? Television expert Bob Thompson weighed in on the final season of "Veep" and shared his picks for the best and worst TV of the week. Thompson is the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse. For seven weeks, Carolyn Beeler — the environmental reporter for The World — was on an Antarctic expedition living and working among a group of scientists who were studying Thwaites Glacier. She shared her takeaways from the trip. Richard Blanco helped us ring in National Poetry Month by teaching Jim and Margery how to pen their own acrostic poems. Blanco is the fifth inaugural poet in U.S. history and author of, most recently, "How To Love A Country." Joe Mathieu, host of WGBH's Morning Edition*, *shared his reflections on a recent reporting trip to Cuba with Congressman Jim McGovern.

Attorney General Maura Healey took our questions and yours on “Ask the AG.” Emily Rooney, host of “Beat the Press,” discussed Betsy DeVos’s attempt to cut Special Olympics funding and shared her famous List. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko looked at Facebook’s push to ban white nationalism from its platform. “Under the Radar” host Callie Crossley weighed in on the rumors about Joe Biden picking Stacey Abrams as his VP candidate. We opened up the lines and asked you: When you are witness to acts of racism, how do you deal with it? Two stars of the new ‘Hamilton’ parody, Dominic Pecikonis and Marissa Hecker, ‘Spamilton' faced off on our Friday News Quiz.