Boston Public Radio

On Wednesday, Dershowitz said that advanced a controversial legal theory in which he claimed a president could invite electoral interference from a foreign power to aid them because it would be in the public interest.

Trump defense attorney Alan Dershowitz argued in the impeachment trial the president is allowed to engage in a quid pro quo.

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.

Note: We’re on tape today, replaying some of our favorite conversations. On today's episode of Boston Public Radio: Former U.S. Senate investigator Daniel J. Jones and director Scott Z. Burns discussed their collaboration on the new movie "Report,” about Jones’ investigation into the CIA’s use of torture. Daniel Leader, a pioneer in the American baking world, discussed his latest book, "Living Bread." Author and activist Naomi Klein talked about her new book, "On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal." New Yorker staff writer and host of the “Revisionist History” podcast Malcolm Gladwell discussed his new book, "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know." Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow discussed his new book, "Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators." Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton discussed his latest research on why minimalism is the new status symbol. Writer Joshua Foer talked about the latest edition of "Atlas Obscura: An Explorers Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders."

Note: We’re on tape today, replaying some of our favorite conversations. On today's episode of Boston Public Radio: New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik discussed his latest book, "A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism.” Harvard Business School behavioral economist Michael Norton explained the pathology of the “ask braggart,” a person whose sole motivation behind asking you a question is to tell you about themselves. Norman Mineta, the former statesman who served as cabinet secretary for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, talked about about a new PBS documentary, "Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story." New Yorker staff writer George Packer discussed his latest book, "Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century." John Waters, filmmaker, writer, artist, and one of our greatest cultural commentators, discussed his latest book, "Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder." Raphael Bob-Waksberg, creator of BoJack Horseman, discussed his collection of short stories, "Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory." Author Ben Mezrich discussed his latest book, "Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Redemption and Betrayal."

Today on Boston Public Radio: NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd recapped this week’s Republican National Convention, and discussed whether the week’s speeches will have an impact on swing voters. We opened lines to hear your impressions from night three of the RNC. Media maven Sue O'Connell talked about the absence of LGBTQ issues at the year's RNC, and the impact a second Trump term might have on LGBTQ rights. Former Suffolk County Sheriff and Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral discussed peaceful protests in various sports leagues over police brutality, and debate around the ethics of cash bail systems and the Massachusetts Bail Fund. Former Mass. Education Secretary Paul Reville talked about the challenges of keeping college students socially distanced during the fall semester, and news about how charter schools are navigating their own return to classes. We opened lines to talk with listeners about the return of students to college campuses, and whether you think they’ll be willing to follow social distancing guidelines. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung talked about the extra work that remote learning brings for parents, and discussed how local businesses are navigating workplace safety during the coronavirus pandemic. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko discussed a group that used Facebook to advocate for violent counterprotests in Kenosha, Wis., and debate around whether Elon Musk should be allowed to launch tens of thousands of satellites into the Earth’s orbit for his Starlink project.

As some schools and colleges opt for in-person learning this fall, Paul Reville told Boston Public Radio on Thursday that even with concerns about COVID-19 spread in classrooms and dorms, society has to accept some level of risk in order to deliver its mandate to provide an education to people. “We’re not sure what’s going to happen, but we’ve got to be vigilant and we’ve got to be able to react quickly if things start to get out of hand,” he said. “It’s all a matter of risk tolerance. The notion that we’re going to get to zero risk is just totally unrealistic, none of us have zero risk in our day to day lives.” Reville is former Secretary of Education and a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education where he also runs the Education Redesign Lab. His latest book, co-authored with Elaine Weiss, is “Broader, Bolder, Better: How Schools and Communities Help Students Overcome the Disadvantages of Poverty.”

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about Hurricane Laura, a Category 4 storm headed toward the Texas and Louisiana coasts. “You have to shelter differently because of COVID, so there’s a mandatory masking policy by all organizations who are running shelters,” she said. “It does not matter what a governor or local official says - no mask, no shelter, and I think that’s exactly right.” 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.