Advertisement
How Olympic controversy is hitting home for young Boston skaters
Resume
This is the rundown for Radio Boston for February 16. Tiziana Dearing is our host.
- Russian figure skating phenom Kamila Valieva stands at the top of the leader board after the short program at the Beijing Olympics. Coming into the games, she was the clear favorite to win the gold. However, it recently came out that she'd tested positive for a banned heart medication that can help with endurance back in December. An international court ruled that she can still compete, but if she wins, there will be no medal ceremony. As the saga continues to unfold on the other side of the world, how is this story resonating with skaters here in Boston? We speak with Karin Shimizu-Brennan, who skates at the Boston Skating Club. She's been skating for seven years and, like Valieva, she's 15. We also talk with one of the coaches at the Skating Club of Boston, Fred Palascak, who is also a former national pair skater.
- Boston prides itself on being prosperous and progressive. But why are white people disproportionately prospering? And what barriers to prosperity does the city put before Black Bostonians? Those are the questions at the center of a Massachusetts documentary film, "A Reckoning in Boston." With the film currently available to stream through PBS, we revisit a conversation we had with the filmmaker James Rutenbeck and one of the film's producers, Kafi Dixon, whose journey is also one of the stories told in the film.
- As part of our election year coverage, we're inviting major candidates running for state office in Massachusetts to come on the show and make their case. Today, we round out our interviews with the three declared candidates for Attorney General with Democratic candidate and labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan. Plus, with Harvard professor Danielle Allen announcing Tuesday that she is dropping out of the race for governor of Massachusetts, we talk with WBUR senior political reporter Anthony Brooks about Allen's campaign and what led her to this moment.
This program aired on February 16, 2022.