Boston Public Radio

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found guilty today of all 30 charges in the Boston Marathon bombing trial, including 17 that qualify for the death penalty. Jim…

Afghanistan is rebuilding, slowly, after more than a decade of war. But is the progress being made fleeting, or built-to-last?That's a question Charles…

Does any snack sing "spring" quite like the pastel-colored culinary marvel that is the Peep?*Let me answer that for you: no. Jim Braude and Margery Eagan…

Mere hours after Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz crashed a passenger airplane into the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board, airlines in Europe…

Coffee giant Starbucks was skewered earlier this month when it introduced a campaign trying to get customers to talk about race (not surprisingly, it…

World leaders have been gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland for weeks trying to hammer out a deal on the future of Iran's nuclear program. Today, their…

Juliette Kayyem called into Friday’s Boston Public Radio to reflect on news that President Trump has contracted the coronavirus. “Trump needs an out,” she said while weighing in on whether the diagnosis might signal his political demise. “It can’t possibly be that America didn’t vote for him, so it’s that 'the voting was rigged’ or whatever.” “Maybe this is his out... maybe this is the way in which he says ‘but for the COVID, I would’ve been able to rally everyone and won.' Maybe this doesn’t end with a fire burst, but a sort of whimper under a virus.” Kayyem also offered insight into what President Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis could signal for the country's national security, and security elsewhere abroad. Juliette 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 talk with listeners about President Trump’s sympathy for the Proud Boys, and how his open racism is impacting your relationships with friends and family on the other side of the political spectrum. Boston City Councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell discussed why she’s chosen to enter race for mayor of Boston, and weighed in on a series of local issues, from the so-called “digital divide,” to pushes for citywide police reform. Former Suffolk County Sheriff and Secretary of Public Safety Andrea Cabral discussed Suffolk County DA Rachael Rollins’ release of a list of of 136 Boston-area police officers with “questionable credibility,” new developments in the case around the killing of Breonna Taylor, and her take on Tuesday’s presidential debate. NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd discussed Tuesday’s chaotic debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, and how he thinks it could impact voters ahead of the election. He also touched on why he doesn’t expect Biden or Trump to back away from future debates. Greater Boston Food Bank President and CEO Catherine D’Amato discussed need for further government assistance in order to help feed struggling communities through the COVID-19 pandemic, and reflected on what her organization is doing to serve the growing number of Mass. residents who are food-insecure. Brattle Book Shop proprietor and “Antiques Roadshow” appraiser Kenneth Gloss talked about his newest business venture: helping people curate their bookshelves for Zoom backgrounds. He also touched on the "Brattlecast" podcast, and how much he misses the regulars who’d visit his shop in Downtown Boston. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko discussed a new feature on Twitter that prompts users to read articles before re-tweeting them, a new Google smartphone feature that'll wait on hold for you, and advancements in internet privacy features. Closing the show, we opened lines to talk with listeners about your thoughts on robotic pets.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We started off by talking with listeners about your impressions from Tuesday night’s presidential debate. Rep. Seth Moulton offered his impressions of Tuesday night’s debate, discussed the newly-published report from Congress' Future of Defense Task Force on shortcomings with U.S. national defense, and reflected on his initiative to establish a national three-digit suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem weighed in on Tuesday’s debate, looming challenges in distributing an eventual COVID-19 vaccine, and deeper national security risks revealed in the New York Times report on President Trump's tax returns. Medical ethicist Art Caplan discussed whether doctors should have political conversations with their patients, as well as what he described as “reckless” development of coronavirus vaccines in China, and a rise in U.S. parents who say they won't have their kids get a flu shot this fall. Chasten Buttigieg, husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, gave his take on Tuesday’s chaotic presidential debate, and spoke in depth about his newly published memoir, “I Have Something to Tell You." Boston Globe travel writer Christopher Muther discussed Maine’s lift on restrictions for travelers coming from Mass., interstate traveler animosity, and his experience sharing a hotel with quarantined college students. Closing out the show, we returned to listeners to talk about Tuesday's presidential debate.

The Trump administration waged a pressure campaign against the C.D.C. to push messaging in line with President Trump’s agenda to reopen schools and downplay the risk of COVID-19 spread among younger populations, according to a report in the New York Times. Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator for the White House, was involved in the effort, a move medical ethicist Arthur Caplan told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday is inappropriate. “Birx should be advising if you’re going to reopen you’ve got to test, if you’re going to reopen here’s the cut off point where you’ve got to close,” he said, “and what we’re getting is more of the political message that we’ve got to reopen, and that’s politics not science.” Caplan is the Drs. William F and Virginia Connolly Mitty Chair, and director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

Tuesday night’s presidential debate contained a lot of crosstalk — overwhelmingly initiated by President Donald Trump interrupting Joe Biden — and not a lot of substance. CNN analyst Juliette Kayyem told Boston Public Radio on Wednesday that despite the lack of policy discussion, the choice presented to voters is very clear. “I don’t know what you were expecting, but we have two choices, there’s not a third choice like ‘I wish this would all go away’ on the ballot,” she said. “And on both substance and temperament, I think Biden did great actually and Trump did horribly.” During the debate, when asked to condemn white supremacy, Trump refused, instead telling the far-right militia group known as the Proud Boys to “stand back and standby.” “Everything from the overt racism, which I find liberating, rather than wondering what does he actually mean, to his inability to talk about any of his policy proposals beyond conservative judges and I have a healthcare plan read my twitter account.” Juliette 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.