Boston Public Radio

Roosevelt introduced sweeping progressive policies with his New Deal. Can today's progressives do the same around climate change?

MGH employees do more than take care of patients — they also sing!

The civil rights organization wants more information about potential civil rights violations.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is trying to block state department officials' testimony.

The recovery of dead bodies is weeks behind in progress, Juliette Kayyem says.

The executive director of the National Immigration Forum questioned how officials in the Trump administration can ignore the president's rhetoric anymore.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened the show to talk with listeners about the latest results of the 2020 presidential election, as former Vice President Joe Biden appeared close to a victory. Beat the Press host Emily Rooney talked about the move by several TV news outlets to cut away from President Trump's Thursday press conference, after he repeated false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election. She also discussed news that former Red Sox manager Alex Cora is returning to manage the Red Sox after January’s cheating scandal, and read her weekly list of fixations and fulminations. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh called in for our monthly edition of “Ask the Mayor.” He talked about the state of the 2020 presidential race, COVID testing in Boston, whether he plans to run for reelection, and what he thinks about the return of Alex Cora to the Red Sox. As always, Walsh also responded to questions and comments from callers. Under the Radar host Callie Crossley talked about Joe Biden's razor-thin lead in the Georgia presidential race, and the role that former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams in the state's election. She also weighed in on the possibility of election-related violence, and recent writing by Monica Hess in the Washington Post about the unique advantages of having women in positions of power. We finished out our show by returning to callers to talk about the state of the 2020 presidential race.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Robert Tsai talked about the state of the presidential race as of Thursday morning, and weighed in on the President’s litany of lawsuits against states over ballot counting. Tsai is a professor of Law at Boston university. His latest book is "Practical Equality: Forging justice in a Divided Nation.” Next, we turned to callers to get your thoughts on the ongoing election count, and what you make of the President’s lawsuits. Former Suffolk County sheriff and secretary of public safety Andrea Cabral discussed the impact of voter suppression in the 2020 presidential race, and the persistent, unwavering faith that Trump supporters have in their president. Medical ethicist Art Caplan discussed the limits of President Trump's authority over his top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, and the impact of Trump rallies on surging coronavirus cases throughout the U.S. In our last hour, we opened the lines to hear your thoughts on how election 2020 is playing out.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened Wednesday’s show by turning to callers, to hear your thoughts on Tuesday’s presidential election. Rosa Brooks talked about her work over the summer with the Transition Integrity Project, and weighed in on how Tuesday’s results compare with some of the exercise's worst-case scenarios. Brooks is the co-organizer of the Transition Integrity Project, a former Pentagon official under the Obama administration, and the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center. Her forthcoming book is “Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City.” CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem gave her analysis of Tuesday’s election results, and explained why she expects former Vice President Joe Biden will breach 270 electoral votes before the end of the week. 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. Washington Post columnist and Brookings Institute senior fellow EJ Dionne talked about what we can gauge from the tallied votes of Tuesday’s election, with respect to both the White House and the Senate. He also discussed the road ahead on issues like climate change, racial equity, and political division in the U.S. Closing out our final hour, we opened our lines to hear your thoughts on everything related to election 2020.

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about the current state of the 2020 presidential election. “My biggest fear was a systemic breakdown of voting, such that you would get a real question from both sides that these counts were not legitimate,” she said. “There are huge issues around the post office, and we still have votes to count, but you didn’t see the kind of the thing I would’ve worried about.” One potential threat, currently undetected, was nefarious interference from foreign governments, Kayyem noted. “You didn’t see any activity in particular of foreign activity or disruption,” she said. “My worry was that that would lead to a majority of the population going to the streets demanding our democracy work better.” 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.

Back in June, the bipartisan Transition Integrity Project gamed out a handful of likely outcomes for the 2020 election. On the Wednesday after Election Day, one of the group's co-organizers, Rosa Brooks, called in to Boston Public Radio for a debrief on how Tuesday’s results compared to the project's worst-case scenarios. "Never say never, but I am actually more optimistic now,” she said in reference to the possibility that President Trump might successfully manage to discredit and nullify late-counted election ballots. "The ballots will get counted, and the Trump team will make legal challenges. But I think we’re gonna get through this – I hope we’re gonna get through this – without the level of crisis that some of our exercises got us to." Brooks is the co-organizer of the Transition Integrity Project, a former Pentagon official under the Obama administration, and the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center. Her forthcoming book is “Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City.”