The Fabulous 413

May 22, 2026: Regional Festivity

We're psyched about the long weekend, so we’re leaning into the celebration aspect of our extra day off. And on this show it means engaging with one of our favorite agricultural products wine! Kate Norris is one of the winemakers at Division Wines [https://www.divisionwines.com/], carefully crafting the grapes of the Pacific Northwest into reflections of both the Willamette Valley and surrounding areas, as well as her early years in the Loire Valley, so we bring three teams of folx together for a supersized, hyperlocal thunderdome at Provisions [https://provisionswine.com/] in Northampton.  We can’t celebrate without music, so Live Music Friday brings in a transatlantic duo creating bittersweet snapshots in time. Sophia St. Helen [https://sophiasthelen.bandcamp.com/music] and Michael Lesko [https://michaelleskomusic.bandcamp.com/music] have just begun their journey of writing songs together, and we’ll hear a bit of that new creativity before you can see them perform at the Parlor Room on May 23rd.  Plus word nerd Emily Brewster, resident wordster and senior editor at Merriam-Webster [https://www.merriam-webster.com/], gets us to look at words as an atlas and marker for location as we delve into the sound and context of American regionalisms.

May 21, 2026: Grow an Odenong

This weekend the 6th Odenong Powwow [https://www.odenongpowwow.org] returns to Amherst Regional High School gathering folx of all walks and honoring the indigenous traditions and culture of the many tribes in our corner of turtle island. We speak with founder Justin Beatty [https://www.jbdvart.com/] about the lessons learned in all of his years of producing the event, and about the foods, folx and community that grows through celebrations like this.  In Ashfield, a dream to reconnect with the land has blossomed into a learning experience in craftways. On Growing a Bunch Farm [https://growingabunchfarm.wixsite.com/growingabunchfarm], owner Lisa Fortin has connected with sheep and lamb farmers across New England to create amazing yarn colorscapes. We chat with her about the summer camps teaching kids skills in the hot months, the bottle necks in fiber processing, and get to see some of her dyeing operation up close as she processes skeins for Bloom Woolen Yarns [https://www.bloomwoolenyarns.com/].  And in our weekly chat with congressman Jim McGovern [https://mcgovern.house.gov], the representative is so mired in DC ongoings that he may not make it home for the long weekend, but still finds time to reminisce on the late Barney Frank, [https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/g-s1-123012/barney-frank] the retaliatory republican primaries, the constitutional crisis inherent in the possible Jan 6 reparations, and the lessons we all should be taking and acting upon from the civil rights movements of the past.

May 20, 2026: Birdsighting with David Sibley

Today is accidentally a twofer, because when you have one of the nation’s most renowned ornithologists living in your purview, and the birds have just come back to the area because it’s spring, that’s just too much perfect kismet to not lean into So we’re headed out to the hills along the Connecticut river to go birding with author and illustrator David Sibley [https://www.sibleyguides.com/], as well as NEPM President Matt Abramovitz, avid birder himself, and digital creator Ayu Suryawan, on a hunt for the recently returned bobolink, and hear about the trials they face in our region’s habitat.  We’ll also learn good "do"s and "don't"s for birders, tricks to bird calls, about Sibley’s work for the US Postal service that ties into the 250th celebrations, and more.  Plus we get a chance to try out for ourselves NEPM’s own monocular [https://www.pledgecart.org/home?campaign=C52729EB-7C76-4E5C-A9F1-AA44AD7DA8CC&source=#/home] to get a better glimpse of the birds (in addition to Sibley’s own very swanky telescope). (Also if you're interested in either False Knees [https://falseknees.com] or Rosemary Mosco's [https://rosemarymosco.com] artwork, here are links to each!)

May 19, 2026: Legoland and Arrowhead

Today the fabulous 413 is about friendship, and literature.  We head to CitySpace [https://www.cityspaceeasthampton.org/] in Easthampton where a brand new theater company is kicking its first production out of the nest. Legoland [https://www.wigbtheater.org/legoland] is an amazing coming of age story about the impact of change and teenage fixation between two siblings who find themselves on an incredible journey to restore imbalance. We speak with the founders and actors of Why’s It Gotta Be Theater Company [https://www.wigbtheater.org] about the group’s founding, how cardboard and puppetry fit into this production, and where this beginning fits in their mission to present fresh queer voices and stories onstage. Then we head to the Berkshires to watch whales, or the hills that inspired tales of the sea at least. Arrowhead, [https://berkshirehistory.org/] Herman Melville’s country estate has just opened for public visits, so we get a tour with Berkshire Historical Society Director Leslie Herzberg to get some insight to the author’s life, and friendship with neighboring author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Plus we’ll learn some of the challenges that arise when  restoring a historical house to reflect the time period of its most famous residents.

May 18, 2026: Queen Kelly's notes

We’re breaking open the old ways to impart a bit of depth, while also honoring several upcoming ends.  In Amherst you have a chance to see a lost classic restored to the silver screen. Queen Kelly [https://amherstcinema.org/films-and-events/queen-kelly] was a film plagued by problems and a hemorrhaging budget that was a death knell for silent movies. Tonight, Milestone Films [https://milestonefilms.com/] will show their restored version of the film at Amherst Cinema [https://amherstcinema.org/]. We talk with company founders Dennis Doros and Amy Heller about the nuanced work of this restoration, their mission to expand the cinematic canon, and the fun particulars of this movie that they’ll also explore in conversation.  And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios [https://kainaatstudios.com] and former Hampshire college astronomer Salman Hameed fresh from the penultimate graduation at that institution delves into the notes of Galileo that lead the world to further enlightenment on the heavens, but brought him ever closer to the chopping block.