February 18, 2026: Re-oriented West

In Amherst, a musical meeting of cultures and landscapes is happening in a project from Sunny Jain. Wild Wild East is an exploration that blends ideas of expansion, cowboy mythos, the immigrant experience, and ritual. It’s a mesmerizing shift from his work in the brass focused Red Baraat, and we speak with the percussionist and composer about the pilgrimage into a more progressive sound. We also head northwest where two family farms have merged into a year round market feeding its community. Hager's Farm Market has made itself into a one stop shop for produce, dairy, ready made meals, maple, ice cream and more. We speak with Sherry & Chip Hager about becoming an indispensable resource for the hilltowns, the impact of SNAP and HIP, and their recovery from a devastating fire.  And Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, our dictionary right here in Springfield, looks to the east for a question we posed about the origins of the word orient and its many iterations, which evolves into a look at its opposite end in the occident as well.