Boston Public Radio

NPR reporter Aarti Shahani joined Boston Public Radio to discuss her new book, which details her family’s decade-long fight to remain in the U.S.

A judge ruled Harvard doesn't discriminate against Asian Americans.

CNN has started carrying graphic that fact-check the president as he speaks live on air.

Our weekly news quiz featured Shakespearean shenanigans.

When Botham Jean’s brother Brandt took the stand at the sentencing of his brother’s killer Amber Guyger, he had an unusual request for the judge. On the stand, Brandt forgave Guyger for killing his brother, and asked the judge if he could hug her. The judge allowed it.

Harvard's admissions process passes muster in federal court, but isn't perfect, Reville said.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened up the phone lines and asked our listeners to respond to a recent U.N. report that said one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction. Tech writer, blogger and podcaster Andy Ihnatko discussed Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes’ op-ed calling for the company to be broken up. Emily Rooney, host of Beat the Press on WGBH, talked about the passing of Boston based journalist Tom Ellis. Shirley Leung talked about the city of Boston’s record on hiring female and minority contractors. Leung is the interim editorial page editor of the Boston Globe. Playwright Ryan Landry discussed his new play “The Ebonic Woman.” Callie Crossley, host of Under the Radar on WGBH, discussed the significance of the birth of the first biracial member of England’s royal family. Adam Zand and Greg Peverill-Conti joined us for our weekly news quiz. Zand and Conti are the founders of the Library Land Project.

Administrators in Warwick, Rhode Island are facing blowback after they proposed that children with unpaid school lunch debt be given only sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches to eat, instead of hot meals. Food writer Corby Kummer says it's time to revisit the concept of free school lunch for all students.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Our political roundtable with Michael Curry and Joe Malone tackled the latest local and national news. Curry is Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Mass League of Community Health Centers, and a member of the National NAACP Board of Directors. Malone is former state treasurer. Is the standoff between China and the United States the beginning of a broader economic war? Charles Sennott, founder of The GroundTruth Project and a WGBH analyst, weighed in. Do you feel cheated by the weather this spring? We opened up the lines and asked our listeners. After being exiled from TV, Billy Bush is making his return. Television expert Bob Thompson weighed in. Thompson is 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. Reverend Irene Monroe and Reverend Emmett Price tackled the moral issues of the day on “All Revved Up.” Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist and the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, as well as a visiting researcher in the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University School of Theology. Price is a Professor of Worship, Church & Culture and Founding Executive Director of the Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. We opened up the lines and asked our listeners about the death of the middle school dance. Is it time to bring this rite of passage back? Poet Richard Blanco read the winning entries to our acrostic poem contest. Blanco is the fifth presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history, and his new book is "How To Love A Country."

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened up the lines and asked our listeners about Elizabeth Warren’s plan to tackle opioid addiction, including calling on institutions like Harvard to remove the Sackler family name — the family behind Purdue Pharma — from prominent buildings. The House Judiciary Committee voted yesterday to hold A.G. William Barr in contempt of Congress. CNN legal analyst Michael Zeldin weighed in. Former Suffolk County sheriff Andrea Cabral discussed newly released video of Sandra Bland’s encounter with police. Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan weighed in on a new “heartbeat” abortion law in Georgia, one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. WCAI science editor Heather Goldstone talked about a sobering U.N. study warning that over one million species may face extinction because of the human impact on the environment. Former Congressman and Secretary of both Congress and Transportation Norman Mineta shared the upcoming PBS documentary about his life. Joining us for a crash course in rosé were TJ and Hadley Douglass, the co-owners of “The Urban Grape.”

Today on Boston Public Radio: Juliette Kayyem discussed yesterday’s school shooting in Colorado, and the new round of sanctions imposed by the United States on Iran. Kayyem is the Belfer Lecturer in International Security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and an analyst for CNN. We opened up the lines and asked our listeners to respond to columnist Dugan Arnett’s column in the Boston Globe about whether or not men can pull of wearing sandals in the summer. Boston Globe reporters Andrew Ryan and Beth Healey discussed their recent investigation into links between those who’ve worked in politics and Massachusetts’ marijuana industry. We opened up the phone lines and asked our listeners how they feel about the Uber/Lyft driver strike, which took place on Wednesday. Alex Beam discussed Denver’s push to legalize psychedelic mushrooms. Beam is a columnist for the Boston Globe, and author of the book “The Feud: Vladimir Nabokov, Edmund Wilson, and the End of a Beautiful Friendship.” Judge Richard Gergel discussed his new book “Unexampled Courage,” which examines how a racially charged case against a black WWII veteran during the Jim Crow era led to a political awakening for President Harry Truman. Bob Thompson discussed a gaffe in last week’s episode of Game of Thrones involving a Starbucks cup left in a shot, and the series of finale of Veep, which premieres this week.