Boston Public Radio

Plans around the proposed Olympic Games in Boston have zeroed in primarily on the economic stability of the games and the construction of new facilities.…

Four years after Osama bin Laden was killed in a top-secret raid by Navy SEALs, the United States government is releasing a score of documents, books, and…

Numbers from Governor Charlie Baker's MBTA advisory report have come under fire for potentially exaggerating the number of sick days taken by employees…

In every crisis, there are three 'R's that anyone trying to de-escalate the situation should know: regret, reason, and remedy. The Patriots could use a…

Picture this: it's Berlin in March of 1921. A young Armenian engineering student is walking along a street in the quiet, wealthy neighborhood of…

The United Kingdom defied expectations (and opinion polling) when it re-elected Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron with an overwhelming majority…

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened up the lines to hear from listeners about the unaffordably of housing in the Boston area. Callie Crossley joined to discuss the protests in Puerto Rico that forced Governor Rossello to resign. Vikki Spruill, the president of the New England Aquarium discussed the organization’s role in the fight against climate change. Emily Rooney joined us with her weekly list of fulminations and fixations. Tech writer Andy Ihnatko discussed a $5 billion fine levied by the FTC against Facebook. We spoke with Dr. Leah Zallman, who has been researching how Trump's immigration policies are impacting immigrant communities’ access to healthcare. Does Massachusetts’ craft beer industry have a diversity problem? Boston Globe business columnist Shirley Leung joined us to discuss her latest column. The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company cast of Cymbeline joined us for our weekly news quiz.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We heard from Congressman Joe Kennedy III on his thoughts about former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony yesterday. We opened the lines to hear listeners' reactions from Mueller's testimony. Criminal justice analyst Andrea Cabral parsed through former Vice President and Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden's new criminal justice reform plan. Medical ethicist Art Caplan discussed the ousting of Planned Parenthood's president, Leana Wen, over "philosophical differences." Former Massachusetts Secretary of Education Paul Reville discussed Rhode Island's decision to take over Providence Public Schools. WGBH Executive Arts Editor Jared Bowen shared his thoughts on Quentin Tarantino's new film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." We heard from listeners about their most daring feats.

Today on Boston Public Radio: We opened up the lines and hear listeners' thoughts on the licenses suspension scandal at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. On Monday, lawmakers abruptly recessed an oversight hearing on failures at the Registry of Motor Vehicles after the Baker administration witnesses the committee hoped to hear from did not show up. Attorney General Maura Healey joined us for another edition of Ask the AG. Legal analyst Michael Zeldin joined us for a preview of special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony tomorrow. We spoke with Atlantic Senior Editor Corby Kummer about a new program by the National Restaurant Association to train former inmates to work in restaurants. CNN's John King joined us to go over the latest headlines from the 2020 presidential race. We discussed an ESPN radio host's break from normal content to condemn President Trump's racist comments with NBC sports reporter Trenni Kusnierek.

You've just eyed up a pizza on your food delivery app, and boy does it look good. But do you ever think about what goes on after you hit the 'Order' button? The New York Times' Metro reporter Andy Newman spent six days delivering food as a freelance deliverer for food apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats, and he discovered what the other side of food delivery is like. Food writer Corby Kummer joined *Boston Public Radio *on Tuesday to describe what full-time deliverers experience. "The larger truth is delivery people are not treated as people. These apps may be your friend when you want a rose oolong tea delivered to your door in ten minutes, but they are not the food service providers friends and they are definitely not the workers friends," he said. Kummer related a particularly worrying account from Newman's NYT's article about a DoorDash worker who was injured. "One of the great quotes in the main story was a DoorDash worker who fell and broke both arms. All DoorDash did was send him or her a 'Get Well Soon' card. Nothing about insurance, nothing about workers compensation, the whole thing was like this nightmarish dehumanizing experience." Customers tend to negatively target workers in the food business and rude behavior isn't getting any better with technology playing as a middleman, Kummer said. "Social isolation is considered the main health problem in society right now. It is happening all over society and it is a kind of dehumanizing that comes of only communicating with people on your cellphone via apps and not voice. People aren't being treated as people," he said. "Make sure the tip goes to the worker, open the door, look the person in the eye, say thank you." Some delivery food apps don't pass on customers' tips to the deliverer, Kummer added. "Another nefarious, terrible, dehumanizing thing about this is the apps greedily steal your tip. So the customer might think they're tipping well, but the companies apply that tip toward the cost of their delivery and they don't pass it on to the deliverer. They just give the deliverer the guaranteed minimum. Try to figure out or insist that the companies actually say whether the tips go to the workers, because often they don't," he said. Kummer also pointed out that the delivery service Grubhub steals business from restaurants. "Think about where you order from and the way the restaurants are being treated. Grubhub is stealing people's restaurant names to create phony websites to take away business from them and steal their commissions."

Today on Boston Public Radio: Shannon O'Brien and Joe Malone joined for a politics round-table about the upcoming Democratic debates and to preview the Robert Mueller testimony. O'Brien is the former treasurer of Massachusetts and former Democratic nominee for governor. Malone is also a former state treasurer. TV expert Bob Thompson gave a recap of the recently announced Emmy nominations. We opened the lines to ask our listeners how they feel about the upcoming Mueller testimony. Huntington Theatre Company's Director of Eductation Meg O'Brien, and rising high school senior at Codman Academy Arie Dowe spoke about the Huntington Theatre's collaborative production with the school to put on King Lear. Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III discussed white male privilege. Harvard business historian Nancy Koehn talked about Abraham Lincoln's connection with the GOP. We opened the lines again, this time to ask our listeners how they feel about swimming in open water, after recent shark sightings in Cape Cod.