October 21, 2025: Familial connection

Today, we spend time with our second of the Easthampton mayoral candidates: Lindsi Sekula. She currently serves as the executive assistant to the mayor for the city, and was the very first to announce her candidacy. We ask about her vision for the office, especially now after working with two mayors, the importance of some of the city’s initiatives, and get her take on the temperature of a race with three candidates who already work very closely with each other. We’ll also learn more about the ways the Bay State is helping kids get closer to their foodways. It’s Massachusetts Farm to School Month and despite federal cuts, the state has thrown its support into this program that gets the products of local farms into public schools. We speak with Abby Getman-Skillicorn, special projects manager, and Mistelle Hannah, Northampton schools nutrition director, about the ways this program is ahead of its class. And local author Catherine Newman is celebrating the release of a brand new novel. "Wreck" sees the family introduced in her previous work "Sandwich" wrestling with uncertainty and grief and evolving family dynamics in a way that is compelling and personal, and very much rooted in western Mass., and we’ll chat with the author before you can meet her in person at an event in South Hadley next week through Odyssey Bookshop.