June 10, 2026: Get free

June 10, 2026: Get free

We celebrate freedom for all with a Juneteenth event that brings all of the community together. Arise for Social Justice has been honoring the holiday with a free celebration connecting folx of all walks of Springfield life with music food and services they may need and more. Executive Director Tanisha Arena joins us to talk about the party they’re throwing, and her journey to this work.  We’re also looking at the immigrant experience through fiction and firsthand accounts. Restless books has just published the award winning collection People who live alone talk too much which highlights the incredible intimate moments of immigrants interacting with American culture in New York, and we speak with author Sofi Stambo about the appeal of short fiction, and how it can connect these snapshots to something greater.  And as pride month continues, we look at the language surrounding the LGBTQIA2S+ community itself with word nerd Emily Brewster, because those words have come as long a way as we have, and the linguistic history of Gay and Queer are just as fascinating as the times and folx they have represented over the centuries.

June 9, 2026: Corners of resilient pride

Festivities are coming to downtown Greenfield for Franklin County Pride this weekend. This ninth iteration is bringing even more folx, music, and organizations together to celebrate the rainbow of identities present. We speak with Heather, Fritz, and Tolja about this year’s festivities and the impact that political climate has on their efforts to make sure the community stays safe and seen.  We continue to highlight the organizations of our area for 413 Gives Day with Resilient Community Arts. Founded in the pandemic, the non-profit seeks to create more arts access and equity to kids, teens and their grownups across Hampshire and Hampden counties. We chat with director Maddie McDougall and youth coordinator Libby Keller, both of whom are teachers in their day jobs, about the impact they’ve seen the arts make, and the gaps that the loss in federal funding leaves.  And speaking of pandemic shifts, Carrot Corner Farm came to be when one family moved from their boat on the coast to a vegetable shaped parcel in North Amherst, and we’ll chat with co-owner Eli Mior about his introduction to agriculture and the innovative practices they’ve been implementing

June 8, 2026: Knox Speaks

Today is all about communication and immigration, which, let’s not forget, does include the founding fathers. And the founding itself might not have happened if an intrepid young bookseller hadn’t taken some initiative to bring a veritable pile of weapons to Boston from a conquered fort in New York to chase away the British.  Local historians have gathered together to map out more of Henry Knox’s course through the Berkshires east with 59 canons and more, and that information is now available in a new book released by the Berkshire Historical Society. We’ll talk with authors Bernard Drew of Great Barrington; Gary Leveille of the Great Barrington Historical Society; Rob Hoogs, Monterey Historical Society; Ron Bernard, Sandisfield Historical Commission; and Tom Ragusa, Otis Historical Commission about Ye Trodden Path and learn how you can celebrate the book's release with them at Arrowhead in Pittsfield this Wednesday June 11th. [https://berkshirehistory.org/event/authors-talk-and-book-signing-ye-trodden-path/]  And we continue our highlights of organizations that you can help through 413 Gives Day [https://www.nepm.org/more413Gives] by chatting with Caroline Gear, executive director of the international Language institute [https://ili.edu/], who’s been with the school for 40 of its 42 years. We learn the principles of how their model was built, and the changes 4 decades have made in the institution. And Caroline gives us a glimpse of the impact the rhetoric surrounding immigrants and funding changes for education have made in their offerings and outlook.

June 5, 2026: Gives Beer and Festivals

We head into the weekend with a little music, a little beverage, and some extra care for our community.  The Green River Festival begins in just 2 weeks bringing artists from all over the globe to Greenfield for three days of incredible sounds and community. Oh and we’ll be there too. We speak with John Sanders of DSP shows and organizer of the whole affair about some of the musicians headed to Franklin County.  In Old Deerfield, the Memorial Hall Museum is raising a pint to the Baystate’s history. Brewing Massachusetts is their new exhibit that looks at the lineage, legislation surrounding and culture of beer, brewing and alcohol in Massachusetts. We get a tour with curators Ray Radigan and Lindsay Kruzlic.  And we start our week of highlighting organizations for 413 Day with 18 Degrees. Over its nearly 130 year tenure, the organization may have changed names, but remains true to principles of aiding families and children in the berkshires, and now in Hampden county as well. We speak with executive director Stephaie Sneed about her tenure at the helm, and the ways they’ve supported some of the area’s most vulnerable populations.

June 4, 2026: The giving areas

Sadly, a wide array of local organizations and non-profits that provide an equally wide amount of services to the people of Western Mass and beyond have lost grants and programs just like we did, and this is our chance to help them like you our listeners have helped us. 413 Gives [https://www.nepm.org/more413Gives]is a one day four county wide effort to help fill the gap made for many organizations by recissions in federal funding, because we weren’t the only ones who felt that financial cut.  We’ll talk with the leadership behind these efforts: Megan Burke of Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts [https://communityfoundation.org], Kara Mikulich and Maeve O'Dea of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation [https://berkshiretaconic.org/], and NEPM’s [https://nepm.org] own Matt Abramovich and learn more about how this collaborative effort helps us all.  And our weekly conversation with congressman Jim McGovern [https://mcgovern.house.gov] sees a house resolution finally hit the floor, but brings up questions on russian sanctions and the US’ involvement in Lebanon, which is a stark contrast to the cuts simultaneously being made to WIC and SNAP, plus we get his opinion on AI oversight and regulation.