Boston Public Radio

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…

Charter schools in Boston have made extraordinary gains, according to a new report from Stanford University. New Massachusetts Secretary of Education…

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.

Today on Boston Public Radio: In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing tomorrow, we opened the lines to ask our listeners for their memories and thoughts about the event. Dorothea Gillim, executive producer of *Molly of Denali, *joined to talk about the new PBS Kids show. Mayor Marty Walsh and new director of the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement Yusufi Vali joined Jim and guest host Shirley Leung to take listeners' calls in "Ask The Mayor." Boston Globe reporter Sean Murphy talked about the latest cases where people have been wronged by a variety of companies and services. WGBH's Callie Crossley spoke about the hazards of multitasking. Will and Dave Willis, owners of Bully Boys Distillers, joined for our Friday News Quiz.

Today on Boston Public Radio: Jim And Margery talked to New York Times Magazine staff writer and lecturer at Yale Law School, Emily Bazelon whose latest book, Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration, looks at the causes of Mass Incarceration Environmentalist and journalist Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org discussed his latest book, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? MIT economists Jonathon Gruber and Simon Johnson discussed their latest book: Jump-Starting America: How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream TC Boyle joined Jim and Margery to talk about his latest novel Outside Looking In. Poet Richard Blanco gave a crash course on the literary tools that can make your poetry more poetic.

Today on Boston Public Radio: United States Senator Ed Markey spoke about his experience visiting detention facilities at the Texas border. To wait or not to wait? We opened the lines to ask our listeners about Nancy Pelosi's impeachment strategy. *Boston Globe *columnist Shirley Leung joined to discuss the role women played in the Apollo 11 mission. Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem discussed her recent Washington Post column about the border crisis. Food writer Corby Kummer spoke about Arby's introduction of meat-based vegetables in a jab against the plant-based meat industry. Economist Jonathan Gruber explained the pros and cons of rent control. Harvard business historian Nancy Koehn spoke about the hazards of multi-tasking. We opened the lines again, this time to ask our listeners about how they manage multi-tasking.