Boston Public Radio

Nothing says "happy holidays" like a Friday News Quiz. To prove it, we brought two bona fide Santa Clauses—that's right, two!—to face off on this week's…

Last Friday, France held a memorial for the 130 citizens killed during the terrorist attacks of November 13th. This week, the city hosts 50,000 visitors…

This afternoon, President Barack Obama announced there was no "specific, credible threat" on the homeland ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. He…

It has been ten days since Paris was wracked by a terrorist attack that killed 130 and injured hundreds others. But in that time, the City of Light has…

Attorney General Maura Healey says the public records reform bill approved by the House earlier this week, while a step in the right direction, does not…

If you've ever shared food with someone you work with, or passed notes about that one guy in your office who always chews with his mouth open and sneezes…

Today on Boston Public Radio: MIT economist and Affordable Care Act architect Jonathan Gruber discussed concerns that a rushed COVID-19 vaccine could exacerbate vaccine skepticism in the U.S., and other political quandaries surrounding Operation Warp Speed. We opened lines to ask listeners: what would it take to get you on board with an American-made coronavirus vaccine? CNN’s Brian Stelter discussed his latest book, "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.” National security expert and CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem discussed controversial acknowledgments made by the president in a forthcoming book from veteran journalist Bob Woodward, and her latest piece in The Atlantic, called "The Emotionally Challenging Next Phase of the Pandemic." Medical ethicist Art Caplan weighed in on the thousands of Americans attending Donald Trump rallies without masks, and ethical questions raised by a new drug claiming to treat a common form of dwarfism. Food writer Corby Kummer discussed data from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association indicating that 20% of Mass. restaurants have closed permanently because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and thoughts on fellow food writer Tom Philpott’s new book, “Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It." We opened lines to ask listeners: are you ready to continue eating outside at restaurants during the fall and winter?

National security expert Juliette Kayyem made her weekly appearance on Boston Public Radio Wednesday, where she touched on reporting from veteran journalist Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book, “Rage,” which includes an acknowledgment from President Trump that he understood the looming severity of the COVID-19 pandemic back in February, at the same time he was publicly claiming the virus would “disappear." "Trump never likes to be wrong,” she said. "And so what was interesting to me about his claim that he always knew how bad it was going to be, is that even though it’s against self-interest… in some ways it satisfies his own narrative about himself, which is ‘I’m never wrong.’" "I think that that’s so interesting… deadly interesting, that that’s how his brain actually works,” she said. “He’d rather be accused of lying than be accused of being wrong." Kayyem also discussed her latest piece in The Atlantic, "The Emotionally Challenging Next Phase of the Pandemic," and whether she believes the president's latest string of scandals will influence swing voters in November. Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and faculty chair of the homeland security program at the Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Food writer Corby Kummer joined Boston Public Radio on Wednesday, where he discussed new data from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association indicating the state has already lost a fifth of its restaurants to revenue losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Kummer warned that while the numbers are tragic, this forthcoming winter season could prove even grimmer for Mass. restaurants. "Until Spring… we’re not going to have an accurate count, an accurate figure – and I think that’s the news we’re going to be bracing for,” he said. “Many restaurants this winter, unless something changes dramatically, will die." During the interview, Kummer also touched on his recent New York Times review of Tom Philpott’s “Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It,” and an NPR report about the alarming percentage of low-income kids not getting government-subsidized meals through the pandemic. Kummer is a senior editor at The Atlantic, an award-winning food writer, and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy.

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has halted the late stage trial for a COVID-19 vaccine this week due to a suspected adverse reaction in a participant. Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday the participant developed an inflammation of the spinal cord and had to be hospitalized, causing the company to pause the trial in order to conduct a safety review and determine whether the reaction was in fact caused by the vaccine. Caplan said the takeaway from this latest development is that medical trials cannot be rushed, no matter the political pressure to quickly develop a vaccine. “We want to vaccinate our way out of this thing and people keep spinning tales it’ll be here in October,” he said. “I keep saying no it wont, it’ll be here next year, and I don’t know when, but maybe the end of the year … because you’ve got to collect this data.” Art Caplan is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty chair and the director of the division of medical ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened our lines to talk with listeners about the 11 Northeastern University students suspended, without tuition reimbursement, for violating the school’s social distancing rules. NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek talked about the disqualification of tennis icon Novak Djokovic from the US Open, and a new opinion piece in the Boston Globe from Celtics center Enes Kanter, titled “Why I won’t shut up and play basketball." WGBH News analyst and GroundTruth Project CEO Charlie Sennott discussed ongoing pro-democracy protests in Belarus, and muted reaction from President Trump to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett Price, hosts of WGBH’s All Rev’d Up, discussed a new report showing Black girls are nearly four times as likely to be disciplined in school as their white peers, and President Trump's order that federal agencies end training on white privilege and critical race theory. TV expert Bob Thompson weighed in on data analytics giant Nielsen’s embrace of streaming, the piling controversy around Disney’s "Mulan" reboot, and “Women Make Film,” an ongoing film series airing on TCM. CNN’s John King talked about the latest news on the presidential race, eight weeks away from Election Day, and ongoing federal debate around further coronavirus relief funding. We reopened lines to talk with listeners about the recent Atlantic piece alleging that President Trump called dead U.S veterans “suckers” and “losers.”