The Fabulous 413

We speak with Emerson professor Bob Nesson, whose film "Holding Up the Sky", a documentary about the post prison evolutions of two ex-cons in Boston, is showing in Orange this weekend, check in with Rep. Jim McGovern about his visit with the Dalai Lama, tonight's debate, Julian Assange and more. And our favorite itinerant bartender, Sean Billson, swings by the studios for a cocktail thunderdome impromptu. GUADALA-PRAGUE DEUX1.5 oz Slivovitz1.5 oz Gin.75 oz Fernet Vallet1 oz grapefruit juicejuice of 1/2 limemix together, add ice, shake, strain. Le Pin2 oz Hennessy.75 oz Zirbenz.25 oz Fernet Vallet.5 oz orange juice.5 oz lemon juiceMix together, add ice, shake, strain.

Local author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi stops by to talk about the latest tv adaptation of one of his novels: Apple TV+ series "Wondla", we sit with writer/comedian/podcaster John Hodgman to discuss his New England connections, and the fellow funnymakers that will join him in the Comedy Cabaret at Solid Sound this weekend, and Word Nerd Emily Brewster is a ton of fun, but is she funner or the most fun? And why do we have strong feelings about which sounds more right?

We speak with singer-songwriter Mon Rovia about their work and past at the Green River Festival, Antenna Cloud Farm director and curator Michi Wiancko walks us through their plans for the 2024 season which opens this weekend, and Benjamin Bland of Mass in Motion Springfield shows us how many groups can come together to make better food and physical activity policy happen in Western Massachusetts.

Pizza Quest VIII lands at Roberto's Pizza in Sheffield, we share our tiny but mighty pop-up with Philadelphia band Snacktime from this past weekend's Green River Festival, and Mr. Universe, Hampshire College's Salman Hameed breaks down universe contraction and expansion through the furthest galaxy from us that has ever been observed.

It's our live show from the Green River Festival Roundhouse! We're joined by new festival director, John Sanders, and two of the acts performing Friday sets at the Festival: Twisted Pine, and The Nude Party's Patton Magee.

We check in with the 5th graders and one of their teachers, Tim Austin, at Fort River School in Amherst to discover their civic engagement class which has them interacting with issues affecting folx in the Bay State and beyond, head to Florence to talk with Clara Li about the downshift from Great Wall restaurant to her family's new restaurant, Little Wall and how local produce impacts her menu, and Representative Jim McGovern, and hear an AI generated song about Northampton.

We take a tour of the many sustainable and innovative happenings at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, and learn about a thirst quenching fundraiser they'll have on the 20th, continue our journey at Mumbet Freedom Farm in Sheffield, and check in on the high spirits of NEPM reporter and Celtics Fan Kari Njiiri as team clinched the title this week.

Mr. Universe returns from Pakistan on Eid to tell us about the difference between novas and super novas, we chat with David Blood and Alex Torres of Fame Lounge and Eatery in Holyoke about their Pride Block Party happening in tandem with Holyoke Pride, and we head up to Memorial Hall Museum to check out an exhibit about the history of the Green River Festival with festival founder Jim Olsen and museum curator Ray Radigan

We head to the hilltowns to hang out in a woodshop with two black woodworkers in Franklin County, Sam French and Charles Thompson, and hear about their experiences in western Mass, sit on the bestest couch ever at Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke while we chat with executive director Megan Seiler about their Wisty Wednesday series and it's extra special Juneteenth edition coming up, and Mary Daire of Dare Bottleshop & Provisions meets up with us to taste Loire Reds at their new store in Great Barrington.

We speak with musicians and educators Patrick Dailey and Tim Eriksen about "Jubilee: A Juneteenth Concert of Early American Music" happening at Historic Deerfield, and Clark University professor Ousmane Power-Greene wades us into the murky historical context of Juneteenth and the many ways freedom used to be celebrated.

We hear from the team embarking on a mission to restore a third Nelson Stevens mural to Springfield's Mason Square: Napoleon Jones Henderson of Afri-Cobra, and Britt Ruhe and Springfield artist SELF of Commonwealth Murals, sit with the Franklin County Pride organizers to hear about their celebrations this weekend, and Word Nerd Emily Brewster is totally alright, and helps us understand why both spellings of the phrase are also all right.

Carrie Ferguson takes a small break from their Grumpytime Club to throw a Pride Kickoff party at Hawks and Reed this Friday that will also celebrate the release of their new single "The Many I Am", we chat with writer/director/producer Julian Lowenthal about the Franklin County shot and conceived movie "Money Game" which will have a week long residency at Greenfield Garden Cinemas starting June 14th, and it's peak strawberry season, so we head to Hadley to sample nature's bestest candy with Joe Czajkowski of Lakeside U-Pick.

We speak with author and Greenfield native Essie Chambers who'll be coming to Odyssey Books to celebrate her debut novel "Swift River" on June 13th, get ready to party with the LGBTQIA2+ youths at queer prom in Holyoke, and get a tour of what's growing at Mumbet Freedom Farm in Sheffield with its lead stewards: Sunder Ashni and Adrian Seneca Bello.

We speak with Jo Clifford, author and performer of "The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven" who'll be be making her US premier of the work in Northampton this weekend, Live Music Friday brings multi-wreckage player Suitcase junket to the studio just before his show at the Iron Horse on June 8th, and drink beachy coastal white wine with our Franklin County Wine Friend and Sommalier Ken Washburn, who brings an extra friend of his own.

We hang out with Buffalo Tom, whose UMass Amherst origins brought them back to the area to celebrate their latest album Jump Rope, and dig into their longevity, day jobs, and the incestuous natures of local music scenes, and Congressman Jim McGovern gets into those felonies a little more and all the other fallout since that Capitol Hill has endured.

We hear from Damany Gordon of Genuine Culture LLC about their upcoming event on House Music which will center two of the genres pioneers, chat with the illustrious and multi hyphenated Dr Nell Irvin Painter who will be speaking at Bombyx this weekend about her latest collection of essays and her ongoing work on the life of Sojourner Truth, and Word Nerd Emily Brewster speaks up about silent letters in words.

We speak with the organizing force behind Chicopee's only Farmers Market: Center Fresh Farmers’ Market, meet with the CEO of Trustees of Reservations Katie Theoharities and discover the many ways that group is preserving important cultural and ecological sites for us all to enjoy, and hear a little asparagus science with the duo behind Tumble Science Podcast for Kids from this past NEPM Asparagus Festival.

We talk with SSO President Paul Lambert and jazz legend and NEPM Host of Jazz a la Mode Avery Sharpe about the upcoming Springfield Symphony Orchestra program for Juneteenth, and revisit some of our adventures this past weekend at the NEPM Asparagus Festival in Hadley with State Senator JO Comerford, MDAR Commissioner Ashley Randle, and a whole lot of folx learning how to properly bunch asparagus competitively.

It's nearly the NEPM Asparagus festival! So we chat with Supicha and Phil Hillenbrand of Thai Chili Food Truck about the growth of their business and what they'll be bringing to the Hadley Common this weekend, hear from Winterpills for Live Music Friday just before their sold out show at the Iron Horse tonight, delve into a bubbly reds thunderdome at Tip Top Wine Shop in Easthampton, and with asparagus on our minds, of course we talk to epidemiologist Dr. Andrew Lover about WHY this particular vegetable makes your body do odiferous things in the bathroom.

We get into the Hadley side of the area's asparagus rivalry with Wally Czajkowski of Plainville Farm, preview a series of new works on the broader idea of Puerto Rico with MIFA Victory Player's upcoming program "Puerto Abierto", and congressman Jim McGovern ventures into Trump verdict speculations, agricultural committee openings, flag burnings, foreign policy and much much more.

Eggtooth Productions joins us in studio to talk about bringing Virgina Woolf to the stage with their gender fluid, time bending production of "Orlando", Word Nerd Emily Brewster trips our tongues and minds with the descriptive tools of metonomy and synecdoche, and we chat with NEPM reporter Alden Bourne who recently produced a duet of stories about preserving Massachusetts Farmland.

Local historian and linguist Wren Wood gives us a glimpse into the speech patterns of Herman Melville, Springfield Pride Parade founder and organizer Taurean Bethea divulges the evolution of the event as they gear up for its third iteration, and we get ready for the NEPM Asparagus festival by visiting the Smiarowski Farm in Hatfield, where that vegetable has been grown by all four generations of farmers stewarding that land.

Legendary fingerpicker and all around amazing musician Chris Smither joins us in the studio for Live Music Friday, we start our exploration of the origins of the Memorial Day Holiday and Black military history with Clark University Professor Ousmane Power Greene, and Table and Vine Ambassador Michael Quinlan brings three wines from his latest fixation to the Tina Turner Memorial Wine Thunderdome so we might taste a spectrum of Vermentinos.

We talk with organizer and founder of the Odenong Pow Wow, Justin Beatty, delve into the pages of a tri-literate children's book seeking to bridge cultural divides with translator Eliezer Nowodworsky and publisher Ilan Stavans, and our weekly chat with congressman Jim McGovern barely scratches the surface of the very publicly busy week he's had.

Our intern Cenai Collins spent his time with us working on a podcast idea. By the end of his tenure, he'd finished the first episode, and so we're sharing that episode with all of you! Congrats, Cenai, on your graduation from AIC!

We say goodbye to our intern Cenai Collins by chatting about his experiences with us, head to Colrain to chat with Justin and Katie Korby who have each won Good Food awards this year for their work in fermentation, and Word Nerd Emily Brewster drives us through the origins of words pertaining to traffic. OH YEAH, and it's our 300th show. Go us!

We hang out with the bovine brood at Mapleline Farm in Hadley and hear how the sister team of Jessica Dizek and Jennifer Zima are stewarding the location's 120th year of operation, then cross the mountains to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams to chat with president James Birge about the ecologies of higher education, especially at a time when small college closures loom largely.

Mr. Universe goes to a UAP convention and tells us all the unclassified details he can, we take a walk around the corner to see how the folx at RAD's volunteer bike shop ar helping the community ride better, and talk about the real effects the Mass Reconnect program has had on community colleges with Springfield Techinicall Community College president John Cook.

So much stuff was happening we had to do a whole extra episode about it! We'll chat with the folx from Rachael's Table about their Outrun Hunger event in Forest Park, celebrate our families and ourselves with a new book from Leslea Newman getting a launch party in Northampton, and head to the Shea Theater in Turners Falls to celebrate some of the newest Americans with the program Immigrant Voices.

Erin McKeown and Spouse come in for Live Music Friday just ahead of their sold out show at the Iron Horse, we celebrate 20 years of universal marriage with a couple that was part of the lawsuit that made it happen, and head to Northampton to taste through Mary Taylor's catalog of wines in a thunderdome at Bottle-O.

We check out the only commercial poultry processing plant in western Massachusetts with the folx behind Reed's Farm in Sunderland, Word Nerd Emily Brewster zhuzhes up our vocab, and Congressman Jim McGovern talks about humanitarian developments, commencements in a time of wide protests, and more.

We broadcast live from the opening show at the newly re-vamped and much improved Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton. We're joined by the performers from the first official show, Rachael and Vilray, their opener Taylor Ashton, Parlor Room Collective Executive Director Chris Freeman, and General Manager Neal Robinson to celebrate the occasion, discuss the importance of the venue to the area, and peruse the litany of repairs and changes they've made to the iconic musical institution.

We delve into the history of the iconic Iron Horse on the eve of its official opening with a wide swath of folx who've watched its evolution, head to great Barrington to take a tour of a facility built by an icon at the Guthrie Center, and check in with the Americorps workers of the organization All Love, who are throwing a community Field Day this Saturday in Holyoke.

We chat with Mark Melnik of the UMass Donahue Institute about workforce disparity in western Massachusetts as the NEPM newsroom launches into a week-long exploration of the subject, local author and professor Naila Moreira celebrates the release of her new book "The Monarchs of Winghaven", and Mr. Universe draws parallels between the recent appearance of the Aurora Borealis and the protests at Umass.

We bring the Bay State's own bluegrass legend Peter Rowan to the studio for Live Music Friday, explore one of the oldest running quiz shows in american with Beth Ward host of As Schools Match Wits, enjoy a vertical wine thunderdome at State Street Deli Wine & Spirits, and delve into the work of the late Steve Albini with Time Eriksen and Peter Irvine of Cordelia's Dad who recorded two albums with him.

We're back from vacation with two troubadours from the valley teaming up to bring South American and Iberian guitar styles to the stage at the Parlor Room in Northampton: Tony Silva and Russell Brooks, we reconvene with congressman Jim McGovern to find out not only the latest shenanigans on Capitol HIll but his take on the wave of protests on campuses across the US including at UMass Amherst, and Monte shares what he did on his spring break vacation: talking with Smith students about their study abroad progam in Cordoba.

We discover the collaborative arts program OneBeat, whose current cohort will perform at Bombyx on Sunday, delve into our local history with the folx behind History Fest at Westfield State University, and the region's own labor history with the documentary "At Sword's Point" which will air on NEPM this weekend.

We hand out with rising Americana artist Amythyst Kiah, prepare for Hampshire Pride this weekend with organizers Clay Pearson and Alden Peotter, and check out the connections between animation and classical music with the upcoming program "Bugs Bunny Goes to the Symphony" at the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

We hear about a paint recycling program happening this weekend with the Northampton High School Key Club, check in with Senator Elizabeth Warren about some of the hotbed issues on her side of congress, and hear about a monthly poetry open mic night at 10 forward to help keep the National Poetry Month spirit all year long.

We head to the Berkshires to meet a winemaker encouraging everyone to drink more local wines, bring the noisy power trio True Jackie in for Live Music Friday, and bring Mr. Universe in for our chat with the poet laureate of the USA, Ada Limon.

We hear about the Pay it Forward Grant Program with folx from City Space in Easthampton, get a peek at the History of Salsa Event Happening at 33 Hawley in Northampton, and Congressman Jim McGovern finally gets to do some actual governing on Capitol Hill while also keeping an eye on the grown number of protests on college campuses across the US.

We check out NEPM's Newest Podcst with creator and reporter Karen Brown, find out more about Gateway City Arts recent sale to Alternative Education institution Lighthouse, and our resident wordster, Emily Brewster, untangles a reder question about homonyms.

We meet two of the three generations growing and brewing at Kosinski Farm in Westfield, get a tour and a temperature of the recently re-opened to the public Triplex Cinemas with creative director Ben Elliot, and walk to the beat of the Pittsfield Jazz Fest with Ed Bride of Berkshires Jazz.

We take a tour of the Springfield Municipal Recycling Facility with advisory board members Susan Waite and Amy Donovan in honor of Earth Day, and stumble into a brand new gem of a pizza spot in Great Barrington at Uva.

We chat with Payton Shubrick of 6 Bricks Dispensary in Springfield about changes to the marijuana landscape in Massachusetts, chat with Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black about the debut of the Spiderwick Chronicles TV series on Roku, and hear about Mary Jane Jones' 4/20 celebration at the Marigold Theater in Easthampton.

We chat with actor/director/producer Karen Allen about her career and more, head to Hadley to see the 50+ years of history that makes 20 Acre Farm what it is, and check in with US Rep Jim McGovern, who has a lot on his mind this week.

We hear about the history of the Solar Rollers and the wave of rallies and actions they've got planned for Saturday, and hear from poet Alex Woolner about the many ways her imprint Attack Bear Press is trying to get as much poetry into as many hands as possible.

For the first time ever in the show’s history, we are venturing outside the four counties of western Massachusetts. But the ties of the 413 are still strong in the places to which we’re headed. Restless Books in Amherst will release “The Book Censor’s Library” on April 30th; a speculative fiction novel that wrestles with a wealth of issues relevant to any democracy in crisis. Author Bothanya Al-Essa speaks with us about this, the only book of hers that has not been banned in her home country of Kuwait, about the real life parallels to the book, how opening a bookstore in a nation with only-recently-lessened censorship has been, and the love of literature that has lead to each. And we head south to the home of the author of one of the most well-known pieces of abolitionist fiction. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT is about to launch a new summer series with it’s event “Garden of Literacy” this weekend. So we chat with executive director, Karen Fisk, director of collections & public programs Cat White, and newly appointed director of interpretation & visitor experience Erika Slocumb, all of whom currently or very recently lived in the 413, about the center’s mission of literary activism, how engaging their community in history can invigorate an area’s civic base, and all the fun things they’ll be getting up to this Saturday in their new event series.

We gear up for the Easthampton Film Festival with organizer Chris Ferry and filmmakers Christian Banda & KT Baldassaro, bear witness to and diseminate the newest verstion of the one character show "SUGA" at Double Edge Theater, And Mr. Universe breaks down what we really got to see during the eclipse.

We hear about the newest iteration of theater production "Across the Ninefold River" with members of the Unnameable Children's Project, gear up to celebrate 4-1-3 day with Liz Rosenberg of The Toy Box in Amherst, prepare ourselves for the tales of Valley Voices Best of show happening at the Academy of Music, and bring two natural reds to the wine thunderdome at the Leverett Village Co-Op.