Boston Public Radio

In 2019, several states have passed laws restricting access to abortions, leaving some wondering if it means the end of Roe v. Wade.

Emily Bazelon is the author of "Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration," a new book that examines prosecutorial power, and how that has affected the justice system for decades.

Another hate crime rattled a synagogue this weekend, leaving one woman dead and others injured. Reverend Irene Monroe and Reverend Emmett Price say this shooting fits into a pattern of white nationalist violence.

The secretary of state touted his success in keeping the state safe in 2016, and is confident he'll be able to do it again in the next election.

In response to the release of the redacted Mueller report, Rep. Ayanna Pressley has renewed her call to impeach President Donald Trump.

Following the release of the redacted Mueller report Thursday, Rep. Jim McGovern told WGBH News he “doesn’t trust” U.S. Attorney General William Barr’s assessment that there was “no collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign in the lead up to the 2016 election.

Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem spoke with Boston Public Radio on Wednesday about how foreign policy could change post-Trump. President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has stated his intent to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran, Kayyem said. “Biden has said he wants to get back into the deal, and the Iranians are playing hardball now because they’re going to have their best leverage now,” she said. “But things will get back to normal, the good news is that everyone is positioning for Biden.” What concerns Kayyem is whether the United States’ allies will be ready to trust the country again, she noted. “To me the thing that rings most compelling for the challenge President-elect Biden is going to encounter is the worry amongst our allies that we were the country that did elect Donald Trump, and that almost reelected him,” she said. “That piece of it worries me, since there is something unreliable about us.” 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.

Medical ethicist Art Caplan joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, talking about the flurry of news on two promising coronavirus vaccines from U.S. developers Pfizer and Moderna. Caplan cautioned that while word of the vaccines is promising, delays in distribution mean that people need to continue taking the pandemic seriously for foreseeable future. "I’m worried that we’re going to forget that over the next couple of months, we’ve gotta be hyper-cautious,” he said. "We don’t [yet] have vaccines – we have flaring, forest-fire levels of virus all over the place… if we can just get through the dark winter, I think there’s a spring coming. But we’ve gotta get through the dark winter with prudence.” Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU School of Medicine.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Filmmaker Mike Shum discussed his latest documentary for FRONTLINE, "American Voices: A Nation in Turmoil,” about the perspectives of Americans on the events of 2020, from Black Lives Matter protests to the coronavirus pandemic. Next, we opened our lines to ask listeners: do you think Joe Biden will be able to make good on his pledge to unite the country? NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek weighed in on news that the MLB is appointing its first-ever female general manager in Kim Ng, who’ll be managing the Miami Marlins. She also discussed how college sports leagues are navigating the pandemic, including plans to contain next year's March Madness to select stadiums in Indianapolis. Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett returned to give an update on all things coronavirus. She discussed the latest news around a vaccine, the potential return of lockdowns to Mass., and responded to questions and comments from listeners. Gergen Barnett is the vice chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and Residency Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical School. Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung talked about Gov. Baker’s nomination of Serge Georges Jr. to the Supreme Judicial Court, worker layoffs at Boston's Mariott Copley Place, and her latest reporting for the Globe on why Mass. businesses can’t yet afford another lockdown on par with what we saw in the spring. CNN’s John King called in for his weekly politics debrief, where he weighed in President Trump’s refusal to concede his 2020 election loss, and a New York Times report that he sought options to attack Iran in the final months of his presidency. We closed out Tuesday’s show by opening lines to ask: is your cure for the pandemic blues busting out the holiday lights, candles, trees and music?

Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett gave a roundup of recent COVID-19 developments going on across the country, and here in Massachusetts, on Boston Public Radio this Tuesday. “Things are pretty dire across the country - everyday we hear news about states and governors who are finally putting in orders around masks and starting to close indoor dining, bars, and gyms,” she said. “Populations that really didn’t believe COVID-19 was true, or didn’t believe the severity of it, are now getting very ill, some on their death beds resenting this is true.” As for Thanksgiving festivities, Dr. Gergen Barnett asks people to get creative celebrating the holiday remotely. “Increasingly states with very high rates - and in Massachusetts we’re certainly barreling up to high numbers - we’re really asking people to please just have this Thanksgiving be like no other Thanksgiving, be creative, maybe take an outdoor hike with masks on,” she said. “There’s lots of other ways to appreciate gratitude on Thanksgiving besides sitting around a lot of food for a number of hours.” Gergen Barnett is the Vice Chair of Primary Care Innovation and Transformation and the Program Director in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston Medical Center. She is also an assistant professor of Family Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We kicked off Monday’s show by talking with listeners about the disastrous coronavirus surge throughout the U.S., and new developments in the race for a vaccine. Boston Globe political reporter James Pindell discussed GOP efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and weighed in on the slew of issues facing Democrats in the wake of underwhelming Election Day results. Emily Oster, Brown economist and co-author of CovidExplained.org, made her case for why the benefits of moving forward with in-person learning outweigh the risks, and discussed the economic divide between pandemic-era education for wealthy kids versus their less well-off peers. T.V. expert Bob Thompson reviewed the latest episodes of “The Crown” and “SNL,” and talked about the known details of a forthcoming show from Jon Stewart on Apple TV Plus. Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett Price, hosts of GBH’s All Rev’d Up, debated the impact of evangelical voters on the 2020 election, and weighed in on the newly-emerged child sex abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, involving ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. In light of HBO’s “The Undoing” returning to the format of one episode per week, we opened lines to talk with listeners about your feelings on T.V. binging. Inaugural poet Richard Blanco recited some poems about American hope in the face of turmoil.