November 13, 2023: Mahaiwe and Mars care
We chat with Amanda Freeman, Marissa Chiapperino, Franchezka Bermudez about changing policy and making bureaucracy easier to navigate in the 413, Discover the century of history nestled in Great Barrington at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, and Mr. Universe tackles issues both terrestrial and cosmic.
The Fabulous 413 · Monte Belmonte & Kaliis Smith
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (dovetail.prxu.org) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
It’s Hunger Awareness Week here on NEPM. All week, we and the newsroom will be centering stories about how hunger affects our region.
Although we’ve talked with many folx along the way who are more boots on the ground in terms of fighting hunger and its affects in our area, we haven’t had a chance to speak with many folx who are working on the policy end of this work. So we sit down with Franchezka Bermudez, 413cares program coordinator, Andrea Freeman, Policy Director of Public Health Institute of Western MA and Marissa Chiapperino, Clinical Nutritionist Navigator at Holyoke Medical Center to examine a few of the sea changes we’re trying to enact across the Bay State and beyond.
We then head across the mountains to a cultural center nestled in the southern Berkshires. Opened in 1905, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center has been through several incarnations before becoming a non-profit in 2003. We talk with executive director Janis Martinson and general manager Michael Beuth about keeping the venue beautiful and relevant, while also encouraging more diversity and equity.
And Mr. Universe, Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed, got to see Bob Dylan in Springfield this past weekend. We hear his thoughts on the septegenarian nobel laureate, as well as a continuation of our conversation about the moon, in which we see how Mars is kind of a cautionary tale.