August 13, 2026: Ongoing repairs

Today, we're trying to fix that which is broken.How we as a nation care for those less fortunate is broken, but not in the way the rhetoric often puts forward. Cuts to SNAP, to housing assistance, to services that people rely on have very real consequences. For the commonwealth, there is a significant delay in getting people access to these services through the Department of Transitional Assistance. We head to Gardening the Community which is now at the center of a very physical call to action made by the farm’s director Liz O’Gilvie, and DTA Supervisor (also president of SEIU local 509) Antoinette Hughes to hear about what’s currently happening with the Baystate and DTA. Academia is also broken, and some of that proof is that the 5 college consortium at the end of this year will return to being a 4 college one. But an intrepid and eager collection of alums, students, parents, faculty, and folx that have a connection to Hampshire college have gathered to try to preserve some of of the campus in the name of its mission. We head to Amherst to speak with Joan Wattman, Ann Hackler, and Bera Dunau about the efforts of Hampshire Next and how the organization seeks to keep that curious academic experiment going. And our weekly chat with Jim McGovern sees the congressman returned from holiday on the Cape to talk about our many exploits in Iran, how ageism influences congress, more efforts to Save SNAP, the blatant exploitation of the judicial branch, and questions from listeners like you.