Boston Public Radio

In the wake of the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, Democrats in Congress have launched a renewed push for gun control legislation like…

Doctors Without Borders, the international organization in charge of a hospital in Afghanistan bombed by an American airstrike this weekend, has called…

Thomas Hughes was a 29 year old investment banker at the prestige firm of Moelis & Company when he missed a family Easter brunch at the Yale Club in New…

Over the weekend, an American airstrike in the northern city of Kunduz, Afghanistan led 12 staff members and seven patients dead at a hospital run by the…

The former British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher has achieved a rare distinction among those who have recently left their jobs: his resignation…

According to a recent piece in the Boston Globe, local Springfield man Joshua Washburn found his calling by traveling to Syria and taking up arms against…

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.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened lines to hear your impressions from night two of the Republican National Convention. Former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski gave his take on nights one and two of the RNC, and defended his stance that President Trump deserves four more years in office. CNN analyst and national security expert Juliette Kayyem discussed the heightened challenges of navigating Hurricane Laura and other storms during the coronavirus pandemic, and the worrying rise in political influence from proponents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. MIT economist and Affordable Care Act architect Jonathan Gruber discussed why public services function better outside of the private sector, and weighed in on the economic and political factors that are creating issues at the U.S.P.S Nancy Koehn talked about the key components of crisis leadership, and reflected on how national and global leaders have handled the COVID-19 crisis. Koehn is a Harvard Business School historian and author of “Forged in Crisis: The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times.” Medical ethicist Art Caplan discussed problems with President Trump's Right to Try Act, which was touted at Tuesday night’s RNC, and talked about new research indicating around half of K-12 teachers in the US have definite or possible risk factors for contracting serious cases of COVID-19.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened our lines to hear your take on night one of the Republican National Convention. NBC Sports Boston reporter and anchor Trenni Kusnierek discussed institutional racism in New England's collegiate sports, 77 false positive COVID-19 tests in the NFL, and a recent statement from NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who said he should have “listened earlier” to Colin Kaepernick. Mass. State Senator Becca Rausch talked about the successes and setbacks of mail-in voting in Mass., and responded to questions and comments from listeners. Ali Noorani, Executive Director for the National Immigration Forum, discussed unfair assumptions about foreign-born voters in the U.S., and concerns about the looming furlough of 70% of employees at the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services. Former New Hampshire GOP chair and Lincoln Party co-founder Jennifer Horn talked about her impressions from night one of the RNC, and her PAC’s latest anti-Trump ad, titled “Evil.” CNN Chief National Correspondent John King reflected on night one of the RNC, and news of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway’s exit from the Trump administration at the end of August. We opened our lines to talk with listeners about your experiences dealing with Monday's widespread Zoom outages.