June 8, 2026: Knox Speaks

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.

June 3, 2026: Unlikely approaches

This Sunday you’ve got an opportunity to see a new film by a Hampshire alum that explores a very American problem in a very unique way. Our Hero, Balthazar [https://ourherobalthazar.com/] addresses issues of control, connection, class inequities and the endemic of school shootings through the eyes of two young men with very different backgrounds and takes on those issues and we’ll speak with screenwriter Ricky Camelleri [https://ricky-camilleri.squarespace.com/about/] about this dark but poignant movie, that'll get a screening at Garden Cinemas [http://www.gardencinemas.net/] in Greenfield on June 7th. [https://www.gardencinemas.net/content/Special+Events] We’re also exploring ways to connect humor to the dark times in one’s life. Grief: a Comedy [https://alisonlarkin.com/grief-a-comedy-the-book/]has been a one woman show, a book, and next weekend  on June 12 & 13th at The Mahaiwe [https://mahaiwe.org/event/grief-a-comedy-tv-presents-alison-larkin-grief-a-comedy/2026-06-12/] in Great Barrington, will be taped for a special. We’ll chat with the woman behind the work, Alison Larkin [https://alisonlarkin.com],  to explore her career in comedy, and the importance of laughter in the overall healing process.  And Word Nerd Emily Brewster is taking the Mario® route, delving into the plumbing and across rainbow roads to see which is the original phrase of things that come down the pike, or down the pipe.

June 2, 2026: Shared Histories

The Tumble Science Podcast for Kids [https://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/] is hosting their Joke-Ha-Thon fundraiser after a difficult year facing the repercussions of federal funding rescissions. This year’s chuckle marathon competition will lead into a new pivot for Tumble’s creative team and we talk with Marshall Escamilla and Lindsay Patterson about this change and how well Monte will do against the other competitors It’s the nation’s 250th anniversary, but what about that whole 150-ish years before we made it official? And where in that history do we see the peoples who were brought to the colonies as property? Professor Ousmane Power-Greene [https://www.clarku.edu/faculty/profiles/ousmane-power-greene/] chats with us about the landscape of slavery in the north in the years before we were officially America for this month’s Power of History.  And in Granby, two farms that have been friends for decades have merged. In the past year the folx at Mckinstry Farms [https://mckinstryfarms.com/] has taken over the reins at Sapowsky Farm [https://www.buylocalfood.org/directory/listing/sapowsky-farms]  as its owners retired. We head to their farmstand to chat with Steve Sapowsky and Bill Mckinstry about this arrangement and the past and future of the farm.