July 3, 2025: Summer learning

We’re seeking out public places where there is AC that also happen to be fonts of knowledge. Millions of years ago, the Connecticut River was a hotbed of dinosaur activity, and Dino Trail Week explores the contributions the Asparagus Valley has brought to the study of the “terrible lizards” through the past two centuries. We head the Beneski Museum to meet Museum Educator Fred Venne, student docent Cirdan Kearns, and Dino Trail Week organizer Jonathan Mirin of Piti Theater as we explore their collection, learn more about how fossils and tracks get studied, and hear about all the fun dino oriented things you can do starting July 5th. Less fun but no less important is the ongoing conversation about enslavement and the North. As part of those conversations Historic Northampton has spent several years exploring the city’s place in that history, and unveils their current findings in a new exhibit today. Slavery and Freedom in Northampton, 1654 to 1783 presents the names and lives of those enslaved and we talk with Betty Sharpe of Historic Northampton, Dylan Gafney of Forbes Library, and professor Ousmane Power-Greene of Clark University about their journey to this opening in an extra special Power of History segment. And congressman Jim McGovern caps off two late-running congressional sessions by chatting with us about the impact the budget bill will have on millions of Americans, and the issues of bipartisanship he continues to encounter on Capitol Hill.