The Fabulous 413

Congressman McGovern was hoping for the week off but Monte bothered him on a junket to Kenya. We'll hear how U.S. tax dollars are being spent there. And Local Hero farmer spotlight with Phil Korman from CISA on Many Graces Farm & Design in Hadley. We talk with Rebecca Maillet and Kel KomendaYou can learn more about the National Young Farmers Coalition and the One Million Acres Campaign, and hear about Many Graces crowdsourced fundraiser. Then, Hip-Hop turns 50 this month. Jackalope in Springfield is hosting a 5-course wine dinner mixed with mix-tape to celebrate. We'll get a preview form Force aka Garrick Perry; Jackalope General Manager and Northampton City Councilor.

Today we're joined by Ang Buxton and Mo Schweiger who are the producers of the **Far Out Comedy Festival **where from August 24-26th over forty stand-up comics, split between 10 Forward in Greenfield and The Majestic Saloon in Northampton. What’s interesting about this particular comedy festival is that not a single one of the comedians is a straight, cisgender, white man! Far Out Comedy Festival will showcase and celebrate standup and drag performances from voices traditionally underrepresented in the comedy world, namely queer people, people of marginalized genders, and BIPOC performers.And did you know that there was a community of CONJURERS here in Western Massachusetts? We’ll learn about the Valley Conjurers and the magic that they are bringing to Ludlow this weekend.Plus, we'll introduce you to 3 of the 15 teenagers who spent the last 6 weeks here in our building at NEPM learning how to be radio producers, podcasters, photographers and journalists. We’ll hear about NEPM’s Media Lab from Jose Romero, Isabel Delarosa and Maggie Kocsmiersky.

Mr. Universe tells us about the farthest star, we workshop a new name for a well-loved musical celebration in Northampton with Steve Sanderson and the Word Nerd, get our Lego on when Andy Price chats with us about Brick Con, and find out more about indictments with Jen Taub.

We're seeking to close some distance today. We're doing it by chatting with Juan Falcon of the Hispanic American Library, nestled in the core of Union Station here in Springfield. They're hosting the first ever New England Latino Festival on August 25-26th at Riverside Park. We explore why it's important to keep Spanish literacy alive locally, and to make sure that all folx in the Hispanic and Latino/x diaspora feel seen and heard. And we're seeing how families come together. "The Longest Goodbye" is a new movie about a psychologist tasked with helping astronauts adjust to space, and more recently, helping them adjust to the possibility of life on Mars. As part of this film, it explores the experiences of local astronaut Cady Coleman and her family during the times of her training and ISS assignments. We get to talk to filmmaker Ido Mizrahy as well as Coleman, her husband glass artist Josh Simpson, and her son Jamey Coleman, whose experiences we can all witness when the film is shown at Amherst Cinemas on August 17th.

Today we get to break a good number of things down. Which is to say making things easier to understand or digestible. This is at the core of what docents do for museum visitors, take their knowledge of the museum's various collections, and help patrons understand them better. It just so happens that the museums right down the road from us here in Springfield are . To help us see what the Springfield Museums want in their volunteers, we head over to the quadrangle to chat with current docents Katie Merrill and Laura Cienciwa, and director of education Larissa Murray and see if maybe we have what it takes to join their crew. For Live Music Friday, we convince author, educator, podcaster, polymath, and all around awesomeness Erin McKeown to come down from the hilltowns and pay us a visit. They're about to head to the woods for a set of concerts they've designed with the Trustees of Reservations called Scenic Songs and even further afield with the folx of the podcast "Welcome to Nightvale" later in the year, but we're equally curious about their newsletter developing into a podcast called "Fax of Life" and how their relationship with music has shifted over the past two decades. We check in with the Bubba Sadowsky at Greenfield Games to hear more about their online summer auction. It's a holdover from a pivot they made in the pandemic, but it's also community coming together to share and exchange in ways they hadn't expected. And we head to the Berkshires to once again enter the Tina Turner Memorial Wine Thunderdome: this time with Ben and Mary Daire of Dare Bottleshop and Provisions in Lenox. It is high rose season, and perhaps for the first time in a thunderdome, we get our hosts to really show themselves through the wines we pit against each other. And that is a delicious way to engage as well.

We explore the collaboration between the Holyoke Housing Authority and Atlas Farm's Mobile Market, check out the Art of Brewing Festival happening at the Normal Rockwell Museum, and have our weekly talk with Rep. Jim McGovern about the latest farm bill.

We learn which words were most looked up this week with Ersatz Word Nerd Ammon Shea, talk with Sharron Frazier-McClain about the Third Annual Celebration of Black Voices at Barrington Stage, and speak with Megan Burke of the Community Foundation about their involvement with the Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund.

Today, the whole of Tanglewood's campus is getting ready for a showcase, where every group that's been sequestered on that large parcel of conserved land nestled between Lenox and Stockbridge delving deeper into their music comes together, and invites the greater community to come and experience some of what they've been working on. It's the annual event Tanglewood on Parade. And we are talking with some of the folx involved live from the Tanglewood grounds. We go backstage with our Tanglewood correspondent, Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart to explore the things the Pops have and will get up to in these waning weeks of the Tanglewood season and hear what inspires him at a time when the arts are still very slowly recovering from the barrage of COVID. We also meet Rachael Childers, who at present is the only woman in the BSO's brass section, and pick her brain about the parade itself and what makes this community event special. Tanglewood Music Center conducting fellow Armand Birk, who in addition to conducting in the evening's program, made a large life pivot in order to get to that point. And Amy Alderich from the Tanglewood grounds who organizes all of the grounds extra happenings, of which there are a copious amounts, and gets them to drier locations when the skies threaten the good time. And will we get to see John Williams who will also be conducting this evening? We can still dream, can't we?

Confrontation seems about right for a Monday. We're confronting the things that truly make us happy. Amherst College Professor Catherine Sanderson has taught classes, done studies, and more on the subject, all of which culminates in her latest book "The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset for Happiness, Health and Longevity." The world could use more happiness so we invite her to our studios to find out how more happiness can happen to more of us. We're confronting that which may not be as obvious to everyone. Mr. Universe, Hampshire College professor Salman Hameed, is illuminating some of those obscured facts as they pertain to the recent congressional hearings on aliens. Or perhaps eviscerating might be a better term... And we're meeting the biases of the world head on. Take the Mic is a program that started as a one-day seminar and has grown to be a week long summer course at Springfield Technical Community College. Director Ayanna Crawford teaches young women of color public speaking in order to retain agency and voice in a world that often seeks to silence their voices and opinions. We're joined by the director, along with recent graduate Justine Crespo, and NEPM reporter Nirvani Williams, who originally covered the story, to encounter what they all have learned through this program about the world and themselves.

We're about to go dancing in the parks. Fiesta Patronales de Holyoke is a festival imported from Puerto Rico and cut more in the size of Holyoke. Run by an organization that has been a pillar of South Holyoke for decades, Nueva Esperanza, what originally celebrated the patron saint of a town has grown to be interfaith, and a broad celebration of all the things that make Holyoke unique, especially that it has the highest per capita population of Puerto Ricans outside of the island. We talk with Holyoke mayor Joshua Garcia, and Fiesta Chairperson Melvin Sanchez about the immense growth of this festival, and it's importance not just to the population it serves, but the area as a whole by bringing folx to Heritage Park to celebrate. We're bringing local music to the parks too. For Live Music Friday, we're joined by The Fawns, a seasoned local band who are playing the Florence Civic Center next Thursday as a part of their live music summer series. We’re told that there’s audience participation, and we’re eager to take advantage. And that park may just be your own backyard. But when you're cooking outside, what do you drink with the food you've grilled? That's the question we're trying to answer with the two wines that enter this week's Tina Turner Memorial Wine Thunderdome. We head to State Street Wine & Spirits to pit two wines against each other to see which glass goes best with grilled foods, and hear about the recent Beyonce concert.

It's a course correction sort of day. Is this once again about our ongoing struggles with the floodwaters? Perhaps. We're all looking for ways to alleviate the devastating repercussions of the June and July rains, and those efforts now include the USDA. Farm Service Agency State Exec Director for the USDA, Daniel Smiarowski takes a break from his own farm the to chat about some of the USDA's disaster relief programs, as well as other programs the federal agency engages with smaller farms to help them year round, environmental disaster or no. In fact that extends more broadly across the federal landscape, we discover in our weekly mcgoverning with Representative Jim McGovern. We get his take on Massachusetts disaster relief on the state level, the efforts to get more federal aid to the farmers and municipalities that need it, and on aliens. Yup. Aliens. And it's in the stride of one's horse as it enters the tourney. The Massachusetts Renaissance Faire happens this weekend at the Cummington Fairgrounds. There's a giant swath of activities to participate in beyond the costumes, fairies, and field hands, and we speak with Jenny Crawford who's been involved with the fair for several seasons, about all the delights our in which local lords, ladies, and beyond might indulge.

What today totally needed was another indictment. But first, why don't we pronounce the "c" in this word? We dig into this with ersatz word nerd Ammon Shea, as it's one of the more popular words being looked up this week, along with reboot and copyright. Which leads us into the ever drifting tides of word meanings. On the shores of those tides is Western New England Law professor, author, and podcaster, Jen Taub, who is able to explain to us the difference between copyright and trademark. In addition to also helping us weed through the new crop of charges against our former president and the possible charges the cast of "Barbie" might incur. And we're moving this indictment to the soil. Or rather science has done so as we continue to monitor and analyze the aftermath of the June floods. The UMass Extension was established to help the greater community use the resources available on campus and they've been helping MDAR with their ongoing efforts in our area. We chat with director Clem Clay and production agriculture leader Susan Scheufele about the ways in which they can and are helping all of us make good use of the land beneath our feet, floodwaters or no.

It's all about collectives today. There's the group of women who came together to make community art about women's history in Northampton. The Hestia Collective formed in the late '70s out of other women's art collectives in the area, but through much efforts and a couple of grants made the "A History of Women in Northampton" mural that abuts the Masonic St. parking lot. The mural is currently being restored and there's a celebration in honor of that happening on August 2nd. We speak with Linda Bond, Susan Pontious, and Mariah Fee who formed the original collective, researched the women depicted, and painted the original mural from 1978-1980, and Rebecca Muller who helmed the previous restoration in 2003 about the importance of this particular work, and what happens when community art meets feminism. And there's the people on whose land we currently reside. The Pocumtuck Homeland Festival celebrates it's 10th year of modern observance this weekend in Great Falls with events all weekend. Amidst the art, music, and general welcoming of the occasion will be a wealth of education about the various indigenous populations that gather together. We speak with author, teacher, and president of the Nolumbeka Project, David Brule, and proprietor of Firehawk Studios, traditionally-inspired artist Amalia Fourhawks about the importance of such gatherings as a means of centering, teaching, and becoming more aware of the stories right in front of us.

Today is all about the unexpected things we encounter. Like a day dedicated to a performing arts pioneer. "The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever" was started by a small theater troupe in London in an effort to get themselves into the Guiness Book of World Records for the most people dressed as Kate Bush. But what started as a half-joking tribute has turned into a global phenomenon, including Greenfield, which may have been the only city in the northeast participating this year. We head to Energy Park not just to learn the choreography, but to hear the stories of the folx who've come together on the birthday of the artist who begat this whole endeavor. And like the surprises we see in the skies when the conditions are right. Dark Skies is a movement to reduce light pollution so that both scientists and civilians might observe the cosmos better, but it's more than that when we look a little closer. We head to the McConnell Rooftop Observatory at Smith College to talk about the efforts to make less illuminated evenings happen with astronomers James Lowenthal of Smith College and Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed of Hampshire College. There we're able to dig into not just the potential scientific benefits of these efforts, their environmental potential, and how to find the places where you too can enjoy the benefits of a darkened sky. It's also in the neighborhood pizza place with a much longer name than we use colloquially. Joe's Cafe Spaghetti and Pizza House becomes our first Hampshire County location for Pizza Quest. For over 70 years the local staple has been serving the folx of western Mass. Since it is a much beloved local of Table & Vine Ambassador Michael Quinlan, we invite him along to test their slices, and find the dish of local urban legend.

Finding new things in the places we know and love is really what we're all about. So we're psyched that a Northfield singer songwriter is getting her time to shine. Sandy Bailey has spent a number of years making music, but her debut album "Daughter Of Abraham" comes out on August 18th, and she'll be performing in Northampton at Bands on Brewster on August 3rd. We invite her into the studio to talk about the links to history in her music, taking classes in Nashville, and bask in the sounds we got a glimpse of during her appearance at the Green River Festival. We find interesting and provocative theater happening at the base of the Berkshires in the Gem of the Valley: Chester. "The Light" is a production that places a focus on some of the nuances of black love that has just opened at Chester Theater. We talk with director Christina Franklin about making theater happen in western Mass as well as the importance of giving depth to BIPOC experiences in places where they can really make an impact. And we discover it in pitting two wines against each other in the Tina Turner Memorial Wine Thunderdome. For the first time ever we take the battle on the road to combine the conflict with Pizza Quest, our effort to find the best pizza in the four counties of western Mass, which lands us at Joe's Cafe Spaghetti and Pizza House in Northampton. There, we're met by Michael Quinlan, Joe's aficionado and Table & Vine Ambassador, who has us examine how one grape, in a way not unlike twins, grows to be so very different when placed on two different continents.

The strength of a community should have intention supporting it. We see that in a farm in Hatfield that survived the floods mostly unscathed when several of its neighbors did not. We head to Bardwell Farm to chat with Harrison Bardwell, a 9th generation farmer now in charge of the acreage, about changes the farm has made over the years, how they are helping out the farms that didn't fare so well, and about the problems that may still arise if it continues to be as wet as it has been. We see it in the motions of Rep. Jim McGovern in his efforts to secure federal emergency funds for the area in light of those floods. While we're mcgoverning with the congressman, we get his take on the new farm bill, immigration, and aliens. Yes. Aliens. And a couple of central Mass. recommendations to boot. And we notice it in the movement that's being brought to the Berkshires. We head back to Jacob's Pillow to speak with Artistic Director Pamela Tatge on integrating more of the community into their offerings. The changes the festival has made in order to endure all year round while providing to both the dance world and the greater Berkshires through the pandemic, fire damage, and beyond is inspiring and makes us want to move as well.

Progress is a marathon. It's noticable in the words people look up at our local dictionary. Keeping track of those words and trends is one of the many things our substitute word nerd Ammon Shea does at Merriam Webster. We ask him about what people are looking up these days, as well as ask him about that one time he read the entire Oxford English Dictionary cover to cover. And it's especially noticable in the disparity of folx with disabilities. Today marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which seeks to provide equity in the myriad places in the nation where none was being provided. Although we've come a long way since then, as with any civil rights movement, there is quite a ways to go. So we bring in a number of folx we know in the community to talk about the law itself, their experiences, and how we might make things better in the future. We are joined by digital accessibility specialist Shivaji Kumar, visual artist and Vice Chair of the Holyoke Disability Commission Lyn Horan, activist, musician, and chair of the Northampton Disability commission Jeremy Macomber-Dubs, campaign manager and graduate student of disability justice Maria Guarino, and executive director of Independent Living Resources Christos (Chris) Palames (who was at the signing of the original ordinance in 1990, the largest attended signing in US history).

For the past 21 years, Bang On A Can has been performing their innovative and interesting take on concert music in North Adams at Mass MoCA. But what started as an elongated performance series has stretched into a 3 week long festival workshop for budding virtuosos seeking broader horizons in which to stretch their musical wings. It concludes with a three day extravaganza in the spirit of the original concert: 11+ hr performance marathons with a wealth of musical types, interactions, and explorations. To get a taste of what Bang On A Can, The Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the summer festival fellows have been up to, we head to North Adams to hear from co-founder of Bang On A Can, Michael Gordon and a handful of very gracious participants: accordionist Iwo Jedynecki, violist Santiago Velo Quintairos, cellist Nick Photinos, plus two current members of the Bang On A Can All-Stars; cellist Arlen Hlusko, and pianist Vicky Chow. We also get a chance to discuss the history of the festival with Sue Killam, Managing Director for the Performing Arts and Film at MASS MoCA, who has seen this particular group's relationship with the museum blossom over the last two decades. Loud Weekend happens this weekend, starting on July 27th. Iif this preview is any indication, it's going to be especially awesome, and we cannot wait.

Today we're making time to come together and improve things. A lot of this has to do with recent announcements about funds and systems being developed to help the many farmers who have lost some or all of their crops over the course of this year. Since FEMA funds are restricted to infrastructure, the Bay State is finding the funds to help its farmers through other means. One of them is the Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund, which sees its structure rooted in The United Way. Another is the very recently proposed supplementary budget through the State senate. Each seeks to address different aspects of this growing loss and devastation, and we speak with Tim Garvin of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, as well as Senator Jo Comerford, and Senate President Karen Spilka about the purpose of each endeavor as well as why it's important to handle a calamity of this nature by working in tandem from different angles. It's also in the kismet of a new library and an equally new president. It's the 100th anniversary of Calvin Coolidge's inauguration. His official presidential library, which resides within Forbes Library, is celebrating the occasion of our 30th president with an event we are fondly dubbing: Calvinmania. We speak with vice president of the Calvin Coolidge Library and Museum Standing Committee Bill Scher, and librarian and archivist Julie Bartlett Nelson about the local connections that still pervade Northampton's landscape. And it's in pop culture making the most interesting mashups. Such is the case with Barbenheimer: a colloquialization of both the fact that the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies were released on the same day, and the idealized double feature one might partake of due to this fact. We talk with Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed about the importance of both films alongside local filmmaker Bob Krzykowski.

A Friday edition of McGoverning with Congressman McGovern. Is FEMA involved in helping our flooded farms? And where does he stand on Barbenheimer? We’ll forgo the Wine Thunderdome for the Cider Gauntlet and taste with cidermaker Suzy Fortgang from Muse Cider Bar and Valley View Farm in Williamsburg. Filmmaker Jason Berry who’s screening his film, City of A Million Dreams, about New Orleans Jazz funerals in Springfield this weekend. And Live Music Friday with the folk singer playing Bombyx in Florence, Willie Carlisle.

The Fabulous 413 is live in the streets of the Fabulous 413. We’re broadcasting live from the kick off to the Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival. The free 10th Annual Festival begins this evening on Fort St. in front of The Student Prince, The festival has become the city's premier annual cultural event, showcasing a diverse lineup of national stars and local talent spanning jazz, blues, funk, hip hop, Latin, and African musical genres.We'll be joined live in front of The Student Prince on Fort St. by Festival Founders Kristin and Khalif Neville, the family of the late Charles Neville from the legendary New Orleans group The Neville Brothers. I’ll also talk with Evan Plotkin, Springfield native, festival founder and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce's 2022 Citizen of the Year. We’ll talk with producer Kyle Homstead from Laudable Productions. And we’ll round out the hour with the group kicking off the free festival tonight-the Garifuna Collective

Today is a sandwich, which is great because we are hungry for bookends. Perhaps ironically, this is an important part of a... whoops, that was about to be a spoiler for Double Edge Theater's Summer spectacular, "The Hidden Territories of the Bacchae", currently showing at their Ashfield facilities. This work is a re-imagining of the work that started the company and takes the audience on a journey not just through story, but across meadows and barns and more. We spoke with several members of the cast and crew about this production and broadening the scope of what theater can do, including co-founder and artistic director Stacy Klein. Double Edge played a tangential part in the establishment of The Ohketeau Cultural Center, of which Rhonda Anderson is a co-founder. But Rhonda is also the western Massachusetts commissioner of Indian affairs, and now has become a board member of the Woodlands Partnership of Western Massachusetts. We speak with her about increasing visibility for indigenous communities, about reconnecting with the land, and healing the wounds in both. And one might find the mistaken histories we've attributed to those indigenous communities craven. Or maybe you've noticed a shift in how that word is utilized lately. The Word Nerd, our resident wordster and senior editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield, Emily Brewster, takes on a question from one of our listeners about a shift they've noticed in usage for two adjectives: mortifying and craven. The results are not shame-y, we promise.

We are making a way for the things we need today. It happens with newly made government offices. One of Gov. Healey's actions in her first 100 days in office was to create the Office of Rural Affairs, and former State senator Anne Gobi has recently been appointed to the post. We talk to her about the challenges her office is facing in light of the area's recent environmental disasters, about the ongoing transportation questions of the region, and which apples she likes best. It happens when a farm makes it's appeal a bit broader. Gran-Val Scoops in Granville is much more than an ice cream shop. In addition to offering gourmet ice cream in a wealth of flavors, they also sell dairy products from several farms, raise grass fed beef, have a petting zoo on premises, and more. We chat with Avola Bernt, co-owner about keeping their flavors local, and the rich intertwined history of their farm and family. It happens in dance. Within the wealth of the Jacob's Pillow Festival in Becket, a company seeking to make dance truly for every body makes its way to Western Mass. Axis Dance Company has purposefully sought to include professional dancers of all abilities, all disabilities, and all neurodivergences since 1987. We speak with their artistic director, Nadia Adame, about making equitable movement for all, and how we can have more folx dancing in more places everywhere. **Transcript of the interview with Nadia Adame will be available shortly, and the notes will be updated with a link as soon as they are completed**

This episode is a phoenix. Which is to say, we get to look at successes found in failures. This is one of the main tenets of Dr. Andrew Lam's latest book "The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases". He joins us in studio to talk about the medical successes that emerged from our defeats, and how those may direct future breakthroughs. Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed, explains that it is behind the recent success of ISRO, or the Indian Space Research Organization, which successfully launched a rover and lander this past weekend. In addition to re-igniting the space race, it allows us to look at the world's previous rover/launcher missions and what nations are hoping to encounter with these endeavors. And it's in Pizza Quest volume 5. We have previously failed to eat a pie in Franklin County, but remedy that with a quick trip to Magpie in Greenfield. There we are joined by the rest of the Belmonte Family in our pursuit of the best pizza in western Massachusetts

It's our 100th episode! Can you believe it? Neither can we! So we head to Franklin County to share our celebrations with a whole building as we broadcast live from the brand new library in Greenfield. We speak with outgoing director Ellen Boyer, head of children's services Ellen Lavoie, teen libarian Francesca Passiglia, Jeremiah Rood of borrower services, and incoming director Anna Bognolo. To help us stay focused with our line of questioning, we bring in author/illustrator and previous guest Mo Willems as our guest co-host. Plus, it's still live music Friday, so we have Scottish harpist and Silk Road Ensemble member Maeve Gilchrist stop by just before her set at Antenna Cloud Farm.

We're getting the feeling this has happened before. That feeling is the impetus behind the new podcast "Deja News", where current events are linked to those with of the past with chilling, nigh prescient, similarities. At the helm of this endeavor is Rachel Maddow, and along with her co-host Isaac-Davey Aronson, we talk about adjusting to a more radio-like medium, journalistic integrity, and mocktails. Despite the flooding, highland games will return to Northampton this week. The Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival is in its 28th year, and has more pipe and drum bands than ever. After surveying its Look Park locale, organizer Peter Langmore swings through the studios to give us the run-down on all the food, music, dancing and more that will happen July 15th at the park, plus a brief history of caber tossing. And speaking of the floods, which are on all of our minds, especially with more rain slated for this weekend, our chat with congressman Jim McGovern focuses on what comes next for agriculture in western Massachusetts after this series of devastating blows.

Today we are arriving on shores after being underwater. The recent rains have lead to dams breaking, riverbanks overflowing, and hundreds if not thousands of acres of farmland being awash in several feet of water. After the February and May frosts, this is a gut wrenching third punch in a growing season that has already been a struggle. We speak with the farmers and organizers at Grow Food Northampton, CISA, MDAR, and State Senator Jo Comerford about the effects of the flooding and what comes next. After spending 3 years in sanctuary in Northampton, Irida Kakhtiranova is back at home, and the pirogi business that she started while in exile, P’frōgi, is thriving at local stores and a growing number of farmers markets. We speak with her about her ongoing pursuit of citizenship, the unforseen setbacks of that pursuit, and what makes a good dumpling. And the word nerd, Emily Brewster, resident wordster and senior editor at Merriam Webster, tackles a reader question from John Dionne about "irregardless". Though this word is much reviled, it is very much real and in the dictionary, which sparks a larger conversation about the evolution of certain prefixes.

It's fun to take the long way around sometimes. We're not the only ones. John Burney's origin story for the start of Meadowbrook Farm in East Longmeadow involves a telephone pole in a field and a dream that's evolved to be ~400 acres of Western New England farmland. We speak with him and Jacob Nelson from CISA about blueberries, local wholesale, and the people who help to make that farm robust. We see it in the circuitous route language takes, even on our own tongues. Linguist and budding local historian Wren Wood helps us discover the sound of a Chicopee past, including a speech approximating the accents of the time. They share with us their passion for making the sounds of the gilded age, showing how that shapshot of language can connect us even closer with the people of the past. And it's happening in beloved mediums having a resurgence, in our case the return of vinyl records to the fore. Prodigal Massachusetts native, professor John Dougan has recently edited the anthology "The Life, Death, and Afterlife of the Record Store: A Global History", so we take him to Easthampton's Platterpus Records, where owner Dave Witthaus joins us to discuss the nature and progress of how we consume music.

Today's show has a bit of an edge, or perhaps it is walking towards one. Renowned guitarist G.E. Smith will be playing a solo show and teaching a masterclass on the history of guitar both benefiting Belchertown Music Boosters, a local organization dedicated to supporting local arts programs in the Belchertown school system. After a bit of miscommunication, we're able to chat with the award winning sideman about the folx he's worked with, his start on guitar, and why helping programs like this is important. We're also at the edge of reinforcing ideas we've had about space and physics. Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed, not only mentions that we might see Aurora Borealis this weekend, but broaches the importance of the recent discovery of new ways to detect gravitational waves in space. It's a constant of the twenty-first century that we are in the midst of climate crisis. Philanthropist and author Chuck Collins' latest book, "Altar to an Erupting Sun", examines some very human possibilities for confronting this crisis. But even more than that, it's a love letter to many real activists of western Massachusetts and southern Vermont. We speak with him about the book, and about his evolution to philanthropist after giving away the fortune he'd inherited from Oscar Mayer.

We're exploring touchstones today. We find it in a new exhibit that seeks to highlight folx often overlooked. The Lava Center in Greenfield hosts a number of projects, as we hear from co-coordinator Jan Maher, from plays to visual art to film festivals and more. Now open and on display at the LAVA Center is "Black Families of Greenfield: A Brief Historical Snapshot" which seeks to highlight the legacies of folx in that town who have been often overlooked. The collection was researched by Carol Aleman, president of the Greenfield Historical Society, who offers some insights to the process of putting it together. We find these touchstones in the ways that we move. Berkshire based dance company, They Dance For Rain, has found these connections in tap. Over the years they've gone to Kenya to teach and share the medium, but this is the first year they've been invited as guests of the Nairobi Dance Life Festival, and Stefanie Weber and Josephine “JoJo” McDonald join us live from Nairobi to speak on their myriad experiences there. And we discover these connections closer than we knew. For our Wine Thunderdome we head to Mesa Verde in Greenfield to have proprietor Amy McMahon. But her incredible palate and two bottle challenge to us are only half as interesting as her recent efforts to collaborate with the nearly 150 Haitian refugees currently living just off the Greenfield rotary, so we talk about the connections and compassion of food and resilience.

Today we witness how the paths can diverge. Which is to say that this weekend in the Berkshires, our Tanglewood correspondent, Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, will lead his orchestra and an ensemble in a presentation of "Ragtime" that has been arranged specifically for them. Since the source novel and musical both deal with the potential, pitfalls, and triumphs of our young nation and the communities that are forced to intersect here, we speak with the maestro about how important works of this nature are and why they remain relevant today. Speaking of said young nation, we also get a glimpse of the ripples last week's Supreme Court decisions have had through the legislative branch as we mcgovern with Rep. Jim McGovern this week. He gives us his take on the full scope of the rulings, and how he decompresses from the intensity of all that on the Cape. We also head to Mason Square Public Library in Springfield for their Summer Reading Kickoff, where books and ice cream abound. In addition to discovering our ice cream names, programs & training librarian Elizabeth McKinstry also tells us about some of the other programs the library provides, including a project involving yearbooks that Springfield Libraries is about to display at it's Central Branch.

The things that shift when you're not looking is what this show is about. That happened last week with decisions that the Supreme Court handed down. Although some were expected, others were. To sort through the wreckage, we get Western New England University Law Professor Jen Taub involved to help us interpret the word of the justices. There's the slow subtle shift in how we understand things. Have you ever wondered why it sounds okay to say fine ancient white ceramic plates but not ceramic fine white ancient plates? The answer has to do with the order of adjectives. Resident wordster, Emily Brewster, senior editor from Merriam-Webster walks us through the evolution of that order and how the specifics of it are becoming simpler. And there's the shifts that happen just due to the circumstances of the day. Although we had planned to chat with Mike Calabrese of Calabrese Farm in Southwick about their corn crops, deliveries keep him on the road and unable to talk. Lucky for us, he's the younger brother of Joe Calabrese who is able to speak to us about all of the things that are fresh right now, how the May frost affected their fruit crops, and the pleasures of family dynamics on their acres in Southwick.

On paper, this is a holiday that celebrates us as a nation leaving the proverbial British nest to stumble out onto the world stage alone. But we'd rather celebrate the freedom to welcome new neighbors from near and far to these shores and make better, stronger, more diverse and interesting communities. Not so much melting pot, as tasty nuanced salad. So we celebrate with music, cause it's not a party without music. From the Green River Festival, we have our Roundhouse sessions with Larry and Joe and Miko Marks, all amazing musicians who buck the norm.Larry Bellorín was (and is) seeking asylum in North Carolina when his path crossed Joe Troop, and they've been blending Llanera and bluegrass ever since, mixing Americas North and South with their sound. Miko Marks left her music career behind for 14 years due to how unwelcoming the country music industry was, but is now back reclaiming her time at the microphone and on the stage. We celebrate with the words and experiences of those who have just arrived. The Performance Project's First Generation ensemble have designed the piece "Mother Tongue" from the stories of their collective. It's an explosive and poignant piece of theater, and they share an excerpt with us. And we're celebrating with tiny umbrellas and tasty beverages. Sean Billson of Gateway City Arts joins us to talk punches and sample them for the Tina Turner Memorial Cocktail Thunderdome. We get a couple of surprise visitors to join us as we take a brief look at the history of tiki cocktails.

Sometimes it is totally okay to cut wide swaths. So we go extra broad with Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed, and go looking for one of the cosmos' coolest mysteries: gamma rays. Or at least the theories behind them, of which there are a lot, including one tied to dinosaur extinction and a BOAT. We also cast a large net toward civics. In order to be naturalized, each potential new American must answer a randomly selected set of questions out of a standardized hundred. But it has been shown that many folx born in this country couldn't answer those questions correctly. So we invite Gairy Wynter, who has just passed his citizenship test and becomes an American on the holiday, and Laurie Millman of the Center for New Americans to come and administer the test to us to see if we would pass. And we are gazing on the largess of careers and fandom. We're joined by John Flansburgh of the band They Might Be Giants. The band is on a nearly sold out tour that makes a stop in Deerfield on July 6th, allowing us to delve into their history, our collective love and fondness for them, and some accidental connections we're thrilled to discover. We've been wondering since the mid-80s if they were giants. We'd say at this point they have made themselves so.

Today we have very long memories, especially in light of the shortsightedness of the news this week. So we reach back to a text that has remained relevant and prescient for 170 years. The speech "What to the slave is the 4th of July?" was given by Frederick Douglass in 1852, but is read aloud in towns across the Bay State, including several in western Mass, through a program launched by Mass Humanities called "Reading Frederick Douglas together". We gather several of these readers together, the program's director Dr. Latoya Bosworth, Dr. Toni McComb, Javier Luengo-Garrido, Prof. Ousmane Power-Greene, and Anika Lopes, to share a bit of the work and talk about why it remains important. We remembered that we have never tasted wine in Franklin County, and felt we needed to fix that immediately. So we head off to Ashfield Lake House, where proprietor Dre Rawlings comes to our rescue for the Tina Turner Memorial Wine Thunderdome. It is our second blind tasting, but in a neat twist, we only use wines from the restaurant's cellar. And if you've enjoyed our opening theme music for the show, today's your lucky day because the band that made that song is our guest for Live Music Friday. Spouse plays Gateway City Arts on June 30th (right after the show in fact) but made a quick side stop to come in and play our theme music in studio. Spouse isn't the largest group we've ever had in studio, but they are the loudest and have the most gear, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

The people we bring together are closer than you think. It happens somewhat ironically, in the portion of Rep. Jim McGovern's district that isn't actually in the 413, where he's just completed a round of town halls. In this week's mcgoverning with McGovern we find out about his constituents on the other side, and more solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ and drag communities. If you've got a question for the congressman, email us at [email protected] or text to [800-639-9120](tel:8006399120) and we'll ask it during the next show! It happens in eating local also. Karl Prahl recently moved his poultry operation, Underline Farm, to Easthampton, and in doing so landed directly across the street from the home of Vincent Corsello, who owns Corsello Butcheria. What happens next is a kismet of community coming together to be even more local, even more present in the way we handle livestock, and even more dedicated to making sure the impact of the industries we're involved in is beneficial to everyone. And it is a mainstay of making music. The Antenna Cloud Farm's Music Walk takes place July 1st in Downtown Turners/Great Falls, filling the town with innovative and interesting music from 2-8pm, both with in-person musicians and virtually in self guided tours. We hear a sample of the performers in Aisha Burns who is scheduled to play that evening, and hear more about how the Antenna Cloud Farm brings folx together to make such a fun event happen from founder Michi Wiancko (who you may have heard in the NERO Orchestra episode

This show is for babies. Just kidding, but it is about young ones, and that's almost as cute. First there's the music for kids and their grown-ups happening at The Parlor Room in Northampton. Liam Hurley and Nick Deysher, also known as Mr. Liam and Mr. Nick, curate The Parlor Room Kids Series, which happens every first Sunday of the month on a sliding scale so that everyone can be included. This is kids music for everyone, parents included, and we get a taste of what's in store for those families this Sunday when they stop by the studios, ukeleles in tow to evoke a couple 10 second dance parties for us. Then there's bear cubs. When young bears are orphaned, sometimes Kilham Bear Center in New Hampshire steps in to care for them until they can be released. If that seems a little far for our 413 focus, it turns out that they took in two cubs from Massachusetts, including a bear discovered in Greenfield that they named Alma. NEPM senior reporter Nancy Cohen has been following the story of Alma ever since its placement in the facility, so we chat with her about the things that happen to go along with Alma's release back into the wild this spring. And is it more mature to say that you feel bad or that you feel badly? We ask The Word Nerd, resident wordster Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster about which phrase is more correct, and what other phrases like that have become contentious.If you have a linguistic question for The Word Nerd, let us know! Email us at [email protected]

Community comes in all shapes and sizes and that's what we love best about it. It comes in the form of a long standing pillar of the coffee community turning his company over to his employees. Dean Cycon of Dean's Beans Organic Coffee announced his retirement a while ago, but his official last day was June 26th. And with that last day, the company became a worker-owned co-operative. We speak with Dean and the company's new CEO Beth Spong about making that shift happen and the legacy of societal change they've been able to enact in the coffee industry stateside and with their international partners. And pirates. Arrr. And it comes in the form of a long loved cultural celebration returning to the streets. The Springfield Puerto Rican Parade has been a fixture for over 33 years. Back in person and out on the streets, the event will have a kickoff party June 29th at White Lion. To get a better handle on all of the fun things you can do in it's 2+ mile stretch downtown, we invited parade administrator Shirley Rodríguez and NEPM's own Elizabeth Román into the studio to share their experiences and talk about the future of the parade.

We're still reeling from the awesome that was this weekend, and in that way, today's show is a bit of a recap. First we head to Amherst to check out the new Wes Anderson movie, "Asteroid City". We get to speak with executive director of Amherst Cinema Yasmin Chin Eisenhauer about some of the events coming to their theater, and then delve into the science-y-ness of the film with Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed. We promise no spoilers for the film. Next, a set of performances we held at the Green River Festival. Taking place in the Roundhouse in the middle of the Franklin County Fairgrounds, we cajoled a handful of the artists already performing at the festival to perform impromptu intimate performances and chat with us. We sit with The Wood Brothers, who mostly are brothers and talk about the instrument the not-quite-brother of the band has created out of an old guitar and many other things as well as how their latest album "Heart Is the Hero" came to be recorded. And we get to hang out with Vivian Leva and Riley Calcagno who make up the folk duo Viv & Riley, just before Riley sat in on Raichel Baiman's set at the Back Porch Stage. We got to explore the world of old-fashioned string band sound as they continue to update it for a new millenium.

It's Green River Festival Weekend! And we're broadcasting live from the Back Porch Stage! We chat with Jim Olsen, the man behind the whole thing as well as Signature Sounds in Northampton about the history of the festival and the acts that have gotten him excited over the course of his tenure. We get Nan Perrotti, artistic director of the festival, whose distinctive style is easily identified on signs at many events, to talk to us about how she came to work her magic in script and how she came to be in the 413 as well. Kent Hunt of East Branch Studio joins us to talk about building the Green House stage: a tiny house that is used for the festival and then repurposed. Professor Rob Williams and several students from the 5 colleges involved with the project arrived with him to explore why a construction effort of this nature is important not just to the festival itself, but to our community building as well. And it wouldn't be the Green River Festival without music. So Bridget Kearney makes her way to the stage just before her solo set, as does Suitcase Junket, fresh from his completion of his secret show for the campsite.

Technical difficulties are our favorite, let us tell you. But that doesn't stop us from chatting with Negin Farsad and Roy Blount Jr. of NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" just before they headed to the Berkshires for a live taping of the show. We subject them to a barrage of quiz adjacent questions as a warm up to the show on which they are regular guests, and broach the subject of farm animal sounds in various countries. Another part of our lemonade making involves Rep. Jim McGovern, who joins us for our weekly mcgoverning. We get his take on the Schiff censure, the rolling attempts at impeachment, and the Poor People's Campaign. If you have a question for the congressman, email us at [email protected] or text us at [1800-639-9120](tel:18006399120) and we’ll ask him on air. And for everyone not spending their whole weekend at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, we give a quick plywood ramp to the weekend, full of fun things to do in the 4 counties that isn't the Green River Festival.

It's finally summer! Astrologically, that is. We chat with local armchair meteorology expert Dave Hayes The Weather Nut about the differences between the summer of space and the summer of the skies and what we should expect at the Green River Festival this weekend. Local multi-disciplinary artist Terry Janoure is embarking on a new musical journey at Bombyx on June 25th. This new work titled "Secret to Life" highlights the lives of older women of color and is based on an ongoing series of interviews Janoure conducts. We talk with her and Linda McInerney of Eggtooth Productions, who are helping to bring this to the stage, about the importance of these stories and their retelling through music. And we're joined by The Word Nerd, Emily Brewster, Senior Editor at Merriam-Webster who guides our attention to a word they have been watching for a while: "parasocial". And we'll get into how a word might incur the watchful eye of our local dictionary here in Springfield.

We are back at full host capacity! Huzzah! But someone wasn't able to fully turn off while vacationing due to seeing a logo that referenced Western Mass. Monte chats with Tim Convery of Tim-Scapes about his city designs including the one for "HAMP", and other inspirations. Returning is hungry work, however, so we get a visit from Clarissa Lee-Madden of Grown Up Farm in Belchertown. Though this farm started out in mycology, it's branched out much more since it's origins and we get into what's good that's coming up from the ground right now, as well as some extra delicious ways to eat them from the personal chef herself. And speaking of eating, we also visit Bridge Street School's Better World Picnic. This annual celebration is not just in honor of the end of the school year, but also of the rich diversity that the student body and their families represent.

We are here for the uplift. It's found in the many Juneteenth celebrations happening next week, and especially in the one being thrown by Arise for Social Justice in Springfield. Founded 30 years ago, Arise has been a part of several initiatives for bettering the city, including opposing the biomass plant. We speak with Rusty Polsgrove about the importance of celebrating as a part of resistance, and how collaboration helps further causes faster. Plus that uplift is very much at the core of The Compost Cooperative as well. We continue our conversation with worker-owners Trenda Loftin and Revan Schendler about the progress the co-op has made with their housing project, and about the inherent flaws in our systems that their business model is actively attempting to combat.

Today was all about building the communities you need to see in the world. We take a brief breather from our Juneteenth gear up to look to the north at the things the Compost Cooperative is up to. Worker-owners Revan Schendler and Trenda Loftin swing through the studios to tell us more about the core mission of the co-operative and how their model seeks to combat recidivism and climate change at the same time. Then we brush the surface of nerdom, a topic near and dear to Kaliis' heart. The BEGIN Podcast features black nerds in western Mass digging into all things geeky. Two of the hosts, Neal Robinson and Garrick Perry, stop by to chat with Kaliis about our respective histories on what used to be the outskirts of society, and the intersectionality of black and nerd culture.

We're checking out the things that remain. It's in the rumors of a bluesman that stay with us to this day. Ms. Annye Anderson has made a mission out of dispelling those tales about her step-brother, Robert Johnson, in her book "Brother Robert: Growing Up With Robert Johnson". But her life is just as storied and interesting as his is, and we find out about both. It's in the celebrations we make as well. Juneteenth comes to Greenfield this Monday in an event thrown by Moving Mountains Media. The festivities are in their second year and we bring Mpress Bennu, the organizer behind the event, to the studios to talk about the happenings both new and famililar that you can encounter on our day of freedom. It's the parts of the language we keep. The Word Nerd, Emily Brewster, resident wordster and senior editor from Merriam-Webster shows us land-lubbers that some of our common phrases washed ashore from the sea, managing to evolve and thrive away from the briny depths and ships they originally sailed upon. If you've got a question you'd like to ask of The Word Nerd, send it to us at [email protected] or text to [1-800-639-9120](tel:18006399120) anytime

Sometimes it's good to dig into the roots of how we got to where we are. It is a compelling factor that will bring Elizabeth "Mumbet" Freeman's story to life at Historic Deerfield on Juneteenth. Tammy Denease of Hidden Women stage company presents her one woman show on Freeman's life. But it's just one of the many lives she portrays, so we speak about using theater as a tool to educate about history. It's where we are too. As Wisteriahurst Museum prepares to throw its Juneteenth celebrations on the holiday itself, we're joined by Erika Slocumb, a historian at the museum. In addition to organizing their Juneteenth event, she's been working on a project that looks to highlight and preserve the oral history of the black community in Holyoke, but has found that the reaches of community stretch much farther than she'd originally imagined. And it's in physical roots, including some of the ones we eat. We sat down with Phil Korman from CISA, Nate Shattuck of Shattuck's Sugarhouse and Devon Lane Farm, and Katie Bobbin, the new manager of the Belchertown Farmers & Artisans Market to check in on how their opening weekend went considering that they are one of the few Sunday markets in the area, and to take a look at how this particular market has evolved over the past 30 years or so.

Kaliis flies solo this week! No one panic!Although there was some panic about microbes from space at one point. Mr. Universe, Dr. Salman Hameed joins us live to chat about the complete futility of quarantining to prevent microorganisms that would have been brought back by space missions. But our caution about cosmic cross-contamination still influences missions to this day, and may see some results on Mars. June 12th was once declared Nelson Stevens Day in Springfield. Since the artist currently has a show up at Springfield Museums, we talk with NEPM's Kari Njiri, who not only has reported on the exhibit and the folx involved in making it happen, but has stories to tell from knowing him in everyday life. And it's the start of our week long Juneteenth ramp up. I Am Afro: A Street Fair For All People is a Juneteenth event happening this weekend in North Adams featuring a wealth of activities. The festivities are being produced through a partnership of the Berkshire Black Economic Council and the First Congregational Church of North Adams. The BBEC's president and founder, A.J. Enchill, sits with us to talk about the festivities and other civic action as well. And we're interested in finding out about your connections to Juneteenth as the week goes on. Have you celebrated it before? Is this your first time hearing about the holiday? Let us know at [email protected] or send a text to [1-800-639-9120](tel:18006399120).

More celebrations, more better, we say. We're celebrating a widening palate, constantly tested and rested in the Tina Turner Memorial Thunderdome, which we enter with the folx at State Street in Northampton. There we take two rosés and pit them against the seafood melange of ceviche, as the Wine Uncle and Yankee Sippah consistently up their pairing game. We're celebrating our queer community, especially in these times where we are seeing it threatened in places near and far. Heather Mahoney, Jake Krain, and Kacie Dean of Franklin County Pride visit us in studio and let us know all of the wonderful events they have planed for their Pride happening all week and beyond, for all walks and ages of the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. And we're celebrating innovators. Django in June highlights the musical style anchored by Django Reinhardt and is nearing its 20th year. For live music Friday, we're joined by organizer Andrew Lawrence, guitarist and instructor Jack Soref, and clarinetist Evan Arntzen who in addition to showing us the incredible virtuosity of the jazz manouche style, but key us into some of the unique perspectives this event brings to western Massachusetts.

Isn't it lovely when community comes together to make art? We think so! It's why we speak with The Greenfield Players, who for the next two weekends will bring the bard to Energy Park for their presentation of Twelfth Night. With company members Rachel Cronen-Townsend, Daniel Greycloud-Jacob, Steve Cronen-Townsend, Cassie Wood-Triplet, we get into the appeal of taking your Shakespeare outside for a little Vitamin D, and why this particular work continues to resonate. And it's in manner that we all wear ourselves, the hidden talents that bubble forth. Those talents are a thing that FAB Fashion Passion Week is actively seeking right now. This collaboration between Make It Springfield and FAB Fashion of Turners Falls is seeking to highlight local designers and hobbyists as well as global designers. Both groups are very much looking for folx in the community to participate! We chat with organizers Richie Richardson of Fab Fashion and Roberta Wilmore of Make It Springfield about the power and importance of globalizing our arts communities through collaborations like these on big and small scales. It's in the way we come together to preserve these spaces as well. There is currently a campaign to save the Triplex Cinema in Great Barrington, which shut it's doors on June 5th. And some big names have come out in support of keeping this small but vital art-house theater operating, including Gregory Crewdson, who through June 9th is offering prints of one of his previously unreleased works as part of this fundraising effort. We chat with him about how cinematic sensibilities bleed into his work, and how he got involved in the preservation efforts. And if we're honest, making good legislature is an art as well. Which may be why Rep. Jim McGovern has a bit of ennui today. For today's mcgoverning with McGovern, we dig into his discontent with the Rules Committee, a board for which he was chair when the democrats had a majority in the House.