Radio Boston

May 13, 2021

I'm A Man Of Faith. But I Don't Know If I Believe Anymore That Peace Is Possible

The violence this week makes me wonder how long I can look through a spiritual lens to contextualize political oppression, writes Taymullah Abdur-Rahman.

Crismely Tinidad, left, the Housing Service Coordinator at the Bronx River Community Center, translates for a resident who only speaks Spanish as he registers with a Somos Community Care screener at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site at the Bronx River Addition NYCHA complex, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

How A Community Center In Boston Got More Shots Into Arms

May 13, 2021

Hey, Google! Who Was I Before I Met You?

May 12, 2021

A teacher speaks with a student between classes at Rippowam Middle School on September 14, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. (John Moore/Getty Images)

We Want To Hear From You: What's School Been Like During The Pandemic?

May 11, 2021

Support the news

I'm A Man Of Faith. But I Don't Know If I Believe Anymore That Peace Is Possible

How A Community Center In Boston Got More Shots Into Arms

How To Write A Sympathy Note In The Time Of Coronavirus

What I Saw As A Boy In India Shaped My View Of Global Health

Heavy Meddle: Help! My Husband Can't Stand My Parents, And Now It's Affecting Our Marriage

We Asked 10 People To Imagine Life After The Pandemic. Here's What They Said

In Case You Missed It

Two women walking arm in arm and watching something on the other side of the road. Sankt Moritz, March 1969 (Getty Images)

In The Company Of Women: The Pandemic Void Only My Girlfriends Can Fill

Feb 11, 2021

Poet Amanda Gorman speaks at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Amanda Gorman's Poetry Opened The Door, And 'Let Everyone In'

Jan 22, 2021

After so much hardship and loss, the psychological recovery from this trauma will be long, writes Dr. Molly Colvin. (Klaus Vedfelt/Getty)

Why You Can't Shake Pandemic Anxiety

03:26Mar 9, 2021

Rower and climate activist Frederick Hewett rows on the Charles River. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

When Climate Change Comes Home: Behind The Essay

Feb 28, 2019

On Air Commentaries

Joni Mitchell posed in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1972 (Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns via Getty Images)

Why 'A Case Of You' Is The Best Love Song Of All Time

05:17Feb 12, 2021

What will life look like after the pandemic? (Dan Nott for WBUR)

We Asked 10 People To Imagine Life After The Pandemic. Here's What They Said

08:06Mar 17, 2021

Salman Wasti and his daughter Noreen Wasti, pictured at Noreen's wedding in Bristol, Rhode Island, in Sept. 2013. (Courtesy)

Singing Bollywood In The Sunroom: A Daughter Remembers Her Dad As He Was Before COVID

08:51Feb 19, 2021

A model attends a Black Lives Matter fashion show and protest by fashion designer Jason Christopher Peters at Washington Square Park on July 12, 2020 in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

'It Doesn’t Matter If It’s Your Fault': I Warn My Daughter About Police As My Father Warned Me

02:57Jul 16, 2020

Politics

A girl reacts as a health worker collects her swab sample to test for COVID-19 in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (Rajanish Kakade/AP)

May 11, 2021

What I Saw As A Boy In India Shaped My View Of Global Health

How will we respond to the global inequities of the pandemic? asks Garaub Basu. Our decision will shape billions of lives.

On May 5, 2021 Facebook's Oversight Board ruled to uphold the company's temporary ban of former President Donald Trump, but ordered the company to revisit the decision in six months.(Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Trump And Facebook Are Still Partners In Crime

May 6, 2021

Volunteers treat patients suffering from Covid-19 with free oxygen at a makeshift clinic in a parking lot outside the Gurdwara Damdama Sahib on May 03, 2021 in New Delhi, India. (Rebecca Conway/Getty Images)

What The U.S. Can Do Right Now To Help Vaccinate The World

May 4, 2021

President Joe Biden speaks about infrastructure investment from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus on April 7, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

Don't Get Caught Up In 'Infrastructure' Semantics: Biden's Plans Are Essential Investments

Apr 29, 2021

President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress, with Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on the dais behind him on April 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images)

Biden's Speech Made Progressives Happy. But There's More Work To Do

Apr 29, 2021

More From Cog

A cow eats hay at a farm on June 2, 2009 in Escalon, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Can't Meat Eaters And Vegetarians Just Get Along?

Reducing rather than abolishing meat eating, combined with sustainably raised livestock, can help to avert climate disaster, writes Rich Barlow.

May 11, 2021

A woman is vaccinated in East Boston as part of the GOTVax campaign. (Courtesy)

We Can Boost Low Vaccination Rates The Same Way We Raise Voter Turnout

We use traditional get-out-the-vote tactics to vaccinate people in the hardest-hit communities: text messaging, phone banking and door-knocking, write David Velasquez and Alister Martin.

May 10, 2021

The author's mother, as a child, with her mother circa 1920. (Courtesy)

My Mother Was More Than Either Of Us Knew

It took me a long time to understand that many of my most treasured ways of being come from my mother, writes Janna Malamud Smith.

May 7, 2021

The author, in her mother's orange coat, with Mireni Alves Vieina, at Mireni’s Designs and Expert Alterations in Concord, Mass. (Courtesy)

Remembering My Mom By Restoring Her Coat

After Kate Peltz's mother died, a tailor helped restore her mother's wool coat. They shared a connection over the memories held by fabric and the pain of missing mothers who...

May 7, 2021

The author with her brother, Kevin, and mother, Nancy, in Sandwich, Mass, 1981. (Courtesy)

In Praise Of The Mother’s Day Gifts We’ll Never Actually Use

Inspired by glossy ads in magazines, Laura Shea Souza once bought her mother a bottle of Estée Lauder’s White Linen. While her mom never actually wore the perfume, she kept...

May 6, 2021

The Soccer Grannies dancing with the author's soccer team, the Lexpressas, in 2010, in Lancaster, Mass. (Tessa Gordon)

When We Couldn’t Meet On The Soccer Field, We Danced — 8,000 Miles Apart

Jean Duffy learned to play soccer at age 45, and she connected with a team of "Soccer Grannies" in South Africa. When the pandemic canceled their tournament, they shared hope...

May 5, 2021

What We Lose When Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Leaves Boston

Hannah Harlow worked at HMH for 17 years before leaving to run her own bookstore. She had a close-up view as authors, including Jhumpa Lahiri, launched their careers, and championed...

May 3, 2021

Protesters hold placards during a demonstration against racism on March 26, 2021, in Taiwan. (Daniel Tsang/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Want To Be Nice? Don't Stay Silent

Shalene Gupta grew up in Minnesota, the paradise of small talk and steering away from the inflammatory. After the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, she writes, I’m learning when your...

Apr 30, 2021

Secondary school students wearing masks in Wellsville, New York. (Barrie Fanton/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

School's Back! Now Can We Please Keep Some Lessons From Hybrid Learning?

A year ago, we were handed an unexpected experiment in crisis-era education, writes Joanna Weiss. Will we have learned anything from it, in the end?

02:32Apr 29, 2021

Isis Gardner, left, receives a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Banning Recreation Center in Wilmington, Calif. The site switched from its original plan to use the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 to the Pfizer vaccine. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)

Why We're Terrible At Weighing The Risks Of The J&J Vaccine

Skipping medical treatments or preventions that offer great benefits for minimal risks is always a costly error, write Abraar Karan, Ingrid Katz and Richard Zeckhauser.

Apr 28, 2021

Colorful face masks for sale at a store in the Netherlands.
(Robin Utrecht/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

My Year In Masks

Early on in the pandemic, covering your nose and mouth felt like an emergency. Now, as the end of mask-life dawns, Anita Diamant wonders what we'll remember from this long,...

Apr 28, 2021

Protesters march outside the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre on Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, as LGBT advocates protested a bill that would ban gender conformation medical treatments for children under 16. (AP Photo/Stephen Groves)

I’m A Physician. Don’t Legislate Health Care For Transgender Patients

Republican legislators are targeting transgender young people, including pushing for medical bans denounced by the American Academy of Pediatrics. These bans hurt transgender children, writes Dr. Jessica Kremen.

Apr 27, 2021

Roses lay on the portraits of victims during a memorial to commemorate the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 on April 24, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Chris McGrath/ Getty Images)

'Late, But Not Too Late': What Biden's Recognition Of The Armenian Genocide Means To My Family

Armenians' pain was deepened by a lifetime of waiting in vain for the world to officially acknowledge that what happened to them was genocide, writes John Christie.

Apr 27, 2021

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., left, listens as Stacey Abrams, founder of Fair Fight Action, speaks during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jim Crow 2021: The Latest Assault on the Right to Vote on Tuesday, April 20, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Republicans Want To Make Voting Harder. Corporate America Doesn't Agree

Big business generally aligns itself with the Republican Party. Not so on the GOP's efforts to restrict voting, writes Rich Barlow.

Apr 26, 2021

Kenneth Holt, 48, looks on as he visits George Floyd Square a day after former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all counts for the 2020 death of Floyd, Wed., April 21, 2021, in Minneapolis. (Julio Cortez/AP)

Derek Chauvin Was Convicted. But The Racist Story Of His Defense Remains

The social narrative of the trial is not only about justice served or denied but also about racist ideas deep in the culture, write Fern L. Johnson and Marlene G....

Apr 23, 2021

The author's 9-year-old daughter, Freyja. (Courtesy)

My Disabled Daughter Showed Me That None Of Us Are Independent

Aimee Christian had long pushed independence for her 9-year-old daughter, Freyja, who has a neurological disorder. Then a conversation made Christian question that goal for her daughter -- and herself....

Apr 23, 2021

Terrence Floyd, brother of George Floyd, speaks at George Floyd Square after the guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial on April 20, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

I'm Not Celebrating The Chauvin Verdict

I fear that congratulatory celebration may lead to complacency -- a complacency that does not fully acknowledge that there have been and will be many George Floyds, writes Lee Pelton.

Apr 22, 2021

Protesters on March 24, 2021 in Bloomington, Indiana hold placards during the Keep the Promise rally in Dunn Meadow to advocate for Indiana University to reach carbon neutrality by 2040.
(Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

So You're Serious About Climate Change: Vote In Your Local Elections

Local elections are the low-hanging fruit of climate politics, writes Nathaniel Stinnett. A small uptick in turnout of environmental voters can swing results and have a big impact on policy-making.

Apr 22, 2021

People march through the streets after the verdict was announced for Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021 in Atlanta, United States. The jury found Chauvin guilty on all three charges. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)

'What It Felt Like Was Stillness': Finally, Accountability For The Murder Of George Floyd

Theresa Okokon watched every minute of the Chauvin trial. Our relief in the verdict is temporary, she writes, but I don't really want to think about that right now.

03:29Apr 21, 2021

An array of solar panels stands on the Dearborn STEM Academy roof. The roof is white to reflect heat on sunny days. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

How Solar Energy Policies Could Help More Low-Income Residents

Massachusetts is a national leader in solar energy, with 18% of the state's electricity coming from the sun. But most low-income residents haven't been able to take advantage of the...

Apr 21, 2021