Fresh Air

9 hours ago

Why BU Should Rename Myles Standish Hall

Myles Standish committed terrible acts of violence against the Massachusett Tribe, writes Travers Frank. BU should rename the building after one of Standish's victims.

United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry speaks during a conference call on climate change with the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on September 17, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Al Drago/Getty Images)

What's Missing In Our Fight Against Climate Change

Sep 20, 2021

The author's daughter, floating in their local swimming pool. (Courtesy Traer Scott)

Wishing For Post-Pandemic Normalcy — Everywhere But Here

Sep 17, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Covid-19 response and the vaccination program at the White House on August 23, 2021 in Washington,DC. (Jim Watson/Getty Images)

Vaccines Alone Won't Save Us. How Biden’s COVID-19 Action Plan Is Incomplete

Sep 16, 2021

Support the news

Why BU Should Rename Myles Standish Hall

My Wife Died Of An Asthma Attack. If She'd Known About 'Peak Week,' She Might Have Survived

What's Missing From Back To School This Year? The Time To Heal

My Mother, The Doctor. She's Still Inside There Someplace

What's Missing In Our Fight Against Climate Change

The Lawlessness Of The Supreme Court

In Case You Missed It

Lindsay (left) and Sophia Cook at a memorial benefit for their father, Dennis Cook, who was killed on Sept. 11, 2001. (Courtesy Lindsay Cook)

As ‘9/11 Kids,' We Only Have The Stories Other People Tell Us About Our Dad

12:33Sep 10, 2021

The author and her late husband, David Retik, who died in the attacks of 9/11, and their two young children. (Courtesy Susan Retik)

When My Husband Died On Sept. 11, I Found My Voice. And I Learned To Listen

04:14Sep 8, 2021

Liliana Lambert, 6, writes down and draws positive affirmations on poster board at P.S. 5 Port Morris, a Bronx elementary school, Tues., Aug. 17, 2021 in New York. (Brittainy Newman/AP)

Why Massachusetts Schools Need A Mask Mandate

Aug 18, 2021

A marine with the 24th Marine Expeditionary unit (MEU) passes out water to evacuees during the evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Air. (Isaiah Campbell/U.S. Marine Corps via Getty Images)

If Only Your Outrage On Afghanistan Matched Your Commitment To Serve

Aug 27, 2021

On Air Commentaries

Jack Thomas on his sailboat, The Butterfly (Courtesy Geri Denterlein)

'I Just Wish I Could Stay A Little Longer': Jack Thomas Considers The End Of His Life

07:09Aug 13, 2021

The author’s grandmother, Marie Moran, in Breezy Point, 1947.

I Know The Water Is Coming. But I Can't Bear To Sell My Family's Cottage

05:08May 28, 2021

Tinnitus is an age-related condition shared by 20% of the U.S. population, writes Julie Wittes Schlack. It’s also a symptom of long haul COVID. (Getty Images)

'The Phantom Hum': My Tinnitus Is Real. It's Also A Metaphor For Our Time

04:19Jul 16, 2021

Simone Biles competes during the gymnastics world championships on October 8, 2019 in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Stuttgart, Germany. (Tom Weller/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Simone Biles Can Fly, But She's So Much More Than Her Wings

06:13Jul 30, 2021

Politics

Sep 15, 2021

The Lawlessness Of The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court has refused to block a blatantly unconstitutional Texas law prohibiting most abortions. Why? Power, writes retired federal judge Nancy Gertner, plain and simple.

Students ask questions in the CORE History and English class of teacher Jessica Valera at the Girls Academic Leadership Academy: Dr. Michelle King School for STEM students in Los Angeles on the first day of in-class instruction on August 16. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

How My High School History Classes Failed Me

Sep 14, 2021

School buses on Geneva Avenue in Dorchester. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR)

What's Missing From Back To School This Year? The Time To Heal

Sep 13, 2021

Emal Ahmadi shows a photo of his family member who was killed during a U.S. drone strike on their home, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 2, 2021. Ahmadi says Sunday's U.S. drone strike killed 10 members of his family, six of them children. Senior U.S. military officials said the drone strike hit an Islamic State target. (Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi/AP)

The True Toll Of 9/11

Sep 10, 2021

A week after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, a newspaper vendor sells copies of the New York Daily News with the face of Osama bin Laden and a cowboy-era outlaw's headline of 'Dead or Alive,' September 18, 2001.(Richard Baker/ Getty Images)

For My Journalism Students, Much Of 9/11 Is A Case Study Of What Not To Do

Sep 9, 2021

More From Cog

What Do You Do In A World Gone Mad? You Bake

Life is uncertain and often cruel. 'Crisis baking' can offer predictability and a sweet ending, writes Joanna Weiss.

Sep 9, 2021

Susan D’Agostino and her daughter on the Hanover Green at Dartmouth College in 2003, where D’Agostino earned a Ph.D. in mathematics. (Courtesy Susan D'Agostino)

Sept. 11 Helped Us Discover A 'Small Dream': We Wanted A Family

Susan D'Agostino's husband, Esteban, was scheduled to fly from Logan on Sept. 11, 2001. The terrorists likely flew over him, she writes.

Sep 8, 2021

Mikal Petersen and his children, Elle, 7, and Jude, 4, looked at the North Pool of the National September 11 Memorial on Sept. 5, 2017, in New York. "I tell them this represents a building that once stood here, where many people lost their lives, and that now it is a sacred spot," said Petersen. (Mark Lennihan/AP)

How We Talk To Our Children About Sept. 11

Innocence does not seep away, writes Heidi Pitlor. It floods out in bursts, and witnessing this in our children can emotionally paralyze us.

Sep 7, 2021

The author swimming in the Salmon Falls River in October 2020. (Courtesy Kathy Gunst)

In The Water, The World Falls Away

I don’t clock my swims by distance, writes Kathy Gunst. I’m after something else, something other than the number of laps or miles.

Sep 3, 2021

Ed Asner behind his desk on the television drama "Lou Grant" in Los Angeles, Jan. 13, 1978. (AP Photo)

Ed Asner's Gone But America Needs Another Show Like 'Lou Grant'

Newer shows about newsrooms are melodramatic, writes Karen Brown. Americans confuse reporters with bloggers, pundits or celebrity talk-show hosts — and that's bad for journalism.

Sep 3, 2021

Blanche Ames, a women's rights activist, artist and inventor. (Courtesy BCN Productions)

There's A Long History Of Fighting For Reproductive Freedom In Mass.

Reproductive freedom in the United States is under attack, write Ames Sheldon and Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak. It's a good time to remember that advocates for choice have a long history...

Sep 2, 2021

Protesters hold up signs at a protest outside the Texas state capitol on May 29, 2021 in Austin, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images)

They Laughed When We Warned A Ban On Abortion Was Coming. Now It's Here

Protecting abortion rights is a top priority, writes Jesse Mermell. It’s time for our leaders to act like it.

Sep 1, 2021

A couple walks past beach houses in Norfolk, England. (David Mbiyu/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Abusive Customers, Nervous Renters: What It's Like To Run An Airbnb During The Pandemic

Guests staying at Danielle Monroe's Airbnb rental this summer have been angrier and more demanding. But that’s not all, she writes. Sometimes, our correspondence has felt more like therapy than...

Sep 1, 2021

In this Aug. 6, 2021 photo, deer wander among homes and vehicles destroyed by the Dixie Fire in the Greenville community of Plumas County, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP)

What To Do About Our Wounded Earth

After this season's heat, droughts, wildfires and floods, there can be no more equivocating, greenwashing or phony debates about climate change, writes Frederick Hewett.

Aug 31, 2021

Dr. Michael Nguyen tends to a patient in a hallway at the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital on August 18, 2021 in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

After So Much Uncertainty And Loss, We Need The Grace Of Connection

Writer Adam Stumacher describes how a chance encounter with a former student gave him hope.

05:54Aug 30, 2021

Sandra Young arrives at Whittier Elementary School with her daughters Baylin, 5, and Paytin, 2, on Tues., Aug. 24, 2021, in Salt Lake City. Kids in Salt Lake City are headed back to school wearing masks after the mayor issued a mandate order despite heavy restrictions on mask mandates imposed by the GOP-dominated Legislature. (Rick Bowmer/AP)

The Pandemic Is Still Here. How Can We Help Kids Return To School?

Parents can help children through uncertain times by developing their own narratives, write Archana Basu and Karestan C. Koenen.

Aug 26, 2021

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. acknowledges the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial for his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington, D.C. in this file photo of Aug. 28, 1963. (AP)

Nearly 60 Years Later, We’re Still Chasing Dr. King’s Dream

We must imagine new ways that economic and racial justice can be met in Massachusetts, writes Imari K. Paris Jeffries. Here are some ideas.

Aug 25, 2021

A sign promotes COVID-19 vaccines at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital on August 10, 2021 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The Unvaccinated Should Pay More For Health Insurance

Mandatory vaccination would be ideal. But charging Anti-vaxxers for their heedlessness is a worthy Plan B, writes Rich Barlow.

Aug 24, 2021

Participants behind a banner reading COVID BEHIND BARS = DEATH at the rally in Rikers Island. ( (ErikMcGregor/ LightRocket via Getty Images)

The Education Judges Don't Get Is Potentially Deadly

Prisons are the perfect incubators for COVID-19, write Wendy E. Parmet and Mackenzie Darling. Yet, thus far, judges have offered too few compassionate releases. They need to better understand the...

Aug 23, 2021

In this Sunday, July 11, 2021 file photo, a woman receives the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Kabul, Afghanistan, donated by the United States and delivered through the U.N.-backed COVAX program. (Rahmat Gul/AP)

Donating Vaccines Overseas Isn’t Enough. We Need To Make Sure They Get Into Arms

The U.S. is donating 500 million vaccines to the world. Hold the fanfare, write Iván Espinoza-Madrigal and Alizeh Ahmed.

Aug 20, 2021

Hundreds of young climate activists rally in Lafayette Square on the north side of the White House to demand that U.S. President Joe Biden work to make the Green New Deal into law on June 28, 2021 in Washington, DC. Organized by the Sunrise Movement, the 'No Climate, No Deal' marchers demanded a meeting with Biden to insist on an 'infrastructure package that truly invests in job creation and acts to combat the climate crisis.' (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

'Personal Choice' Won't Stop The Climate Crisis. Join A Movement Instead

There is no amount of personal greening or neighborhood clean-ups that will make a dent in the climate crisis, writes Shoshana Meira Friedman.

Aug 19, 2021

An Afghan family rushes to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 16, 2021. (Haroon Sabawoon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A Veteran Considers America's Moral Failure In Afghanistan — And His Own Culpability

Former U.S. Navy officer Andrew Carleen considers America's hasty departure from Afghanistan -- what he calls, "a betrayal of biblical proportions."

Aug 17, 2021

A picture taken on May 14, 2012 in Paris, shows an illustration made with a figurine set up in front of Facebook's homepage. (Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images)

Facebook Has Only Itself To Blame

If Facebook is ever to rise again, writes Julie Wittes Schlack, it has to do so on the basis of truth -- not Likes.

Aug 12, 2021

In this still image from video, Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news conference where he announced his resignation in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021. (Office of the Governor of New York via AP)

Andrew Cuomo Finally Resigned But He Still Doesn't Get It

The scars of unwanted touch live on in the cells and the psyche of the victim, invisible and often unacknowledged, writes Deborah Sosin.

Aug 11, 2021

A recent photo of the author and her father. (Courtesy Aimee Christian)

How COVID Helped Me Show My Parents I Loved Them

My father’s health took a dramatic nosedive and it didn’t matter that I lived 200 miles away, or that we were all on lockdown, writes Aimee Christian.

Aug 10, 2021