March 6, 2025: Congress, sweetness, symphonies.

Today we take a local perspective of global happenings in art, in the environment and in the legislature. It is the very beginning of maple season, and the Bay State is celebrating this weekend as many producers open their sugarhouses and welcome the public to see their operations up close. We take a trip to Shattuck Sugarhouse in Belchertown to chat with the mother-son team, Judy and Nick Shattuck, about their 50 years of turning sap into syrup and more. And a new program is headed to Springfield Symphony Orchestra (SSO) next week. “Eternal Echoes” takes timeless themes in music of connection, loss and community and pairs them with a local maestro, Cailin Marcel-Manson, a local soprano soloist, Jamie-Rose Guarrine. We sit with Manson, Guarrine and SSO President Paul Lambert about bringing these works and topics close to home. Plus, our weekly chat with Rep. Jim McGovern recounts the 47th president’s recent address to Congress, budget cuts to local environmental offices, the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Congress on the DOGE debacle and more listener questions.