Boston Public Radio Live from the Boston Public Library, Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2025

Summary

Boston Public Radio Live from the Boston Public Library features engaging conversations with notable guests like Mayor Michelle Woo, musicians from the BSO, and sports commentator Treny Casey. Discussions ranged from pressing local issues, international tariffs, to the arts and community activities. The program, hosted by Marjorie Egan and Jim Browy, also included insightful perspectives on the economic challenges posed by the Trump administration's recent policy changes, providing listeners with both information and entertainment.

Highlights

• Mayor Michelle Woo expresses concern over the economic impact of Trump's tariffs on Boston.
• Listeners share their concerns and preparations for rising costs due to tariffs.
• Live music discussion with BSO's Andress Nelsons highlights the importance of the arts.
• Treny Casey shares an emotional story on mental health struggles in sports.
• John King's political insights offer a national perspective on local issues.

Key Takeaways

• Mayor Michelle Woo discusses Boston's economic challenges posed by recent tariffs 📉
• Listeners weigh in on the impact of Trump's tariffs on everyday goods 📈
• Live updates from prominent journalists and public figures keep the community informed 📰
• Insightful musical discussions with the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Andress Nelsons 🎶
• Community engagement through caller questions and live audience interaction ☎️

Overview

The episode kicked off with an in-depth discussion led by Mayor Michelle Woo focusing on the financial challenges Boston faces, especially in light of the current economic policies under the Trump administration. The conversation addressed the city's budget constraints and strategic planning in response to federal cuts.

The broadcast featured lively interactions with listeners who shared personal experiences and concerns regarding the anticipated rise in consumer goods' prices due to the newly implemented tariffs. This segment highlighted the real-world effects of international policy shifts on local communities.

Exploring the cultural landscape, the show also welcomed music conductor Andress Nelsons from the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Nelsons offered insights into his innovative approaches to classical music and how local arts contribute to broader community well-being, drawing connections between global cultural movements and local artistic expressions.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Chapter 1: Introduction The chapter discusses various urban planning and policy issues in the city, including changes to infrastructure like bike lanes and roads, housing policies, and the functioning of the city's office of police accountability and transparency. Additionally, it touches on budget plans, a revamped youth job fair, and events such as the Boston Marathon and One Boston Day. The narrative suggests these developments are taking place under the broader context of political challenges, particularly the influence of a potential second Trump administration.
• 00:30 - 03:00: Chapter 2: News and Stocks In this chapter titled 'News and Stocks,' the setting begins with a live broadcast from Boston Public Radio at the library, which transitions into a live news segment from NPR in Washington. The key highlight is the report about stock prices on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen nearly a thousand points following three days of significant declines. The focus is on the volatility and recent recovery in stock markets.
• 03:00 - 05:00: Chapter 3: Supreme Court and Trump Administration In this chapter, the focus is on the impacts of President Trump's tariffs, which are causing anxiety among investors. NPR's Scott Horsley reports that new tariffs are being imposed on products from the EU, Japan, and China, with rates ranging from 20% to over 100%. Additionally, the US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing it to continue deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. This chapter examines both the economic and legal actions taken by the Trump administration.
• 05:00 - 09:00: Chapter 4: NPR News and GBH News Update The chapter discusses the controversial use of the Alien Enemies Act by President Trump, reported by NPR's Jasmine Gar. This act, historically used during wartime, was utilized to deport hundreds of migrants in peace time. Attorneys for the deported individuals argue that its use is illegal as many of the targeted individuals have no criminal history. The case was not ruled on regarding its constitutionality by the conservative majority of the court, as the justices indicated that the lawyers had filed in the wrong court.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Chapter 5: Weather and Sports The chapter discusses the Supreme Court's decision allowing the Trump administration to deport alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act, with conditions ensuring migrants receive adequate notice and time to challenge their removal. Additionally, it addresses a separate incident involving the mistaken deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador.
• 10:00 - 13:00: Chapter 6: GBH News Sponsorships and Programs Chapter 6: GBH News Sponsorships and Programs discusses recent judicial and governmental decisions involving major figures and policies. A lower court judge has ruled for a man's return to the US, but Chief Justice John Roberts has temporarily blocked this decision to allow the Supreme Court to review the case more thoroughly. Additionally, the chapter touches on the Trump administration's intention to revoke President Biden's zero-tolerance policy for federally licensed firearms dealers, as reported by NPR's Martin Costy. The ATF, influenced by its acting director who also serves as the FBI director, Cash Patel, plays a role in these governmental actions.
• 13:00 - 16:00: Chapter 7: Boston Public Radio Programming Notes The chapter discusses the Biden administration's repeal of an enhanced regulatory enforcement policy aimed at stricter gun control. Mark Collins from the gun control group, Brady, notes that the policy was designed to target dealers who neglected background checks. He highlights that a small number of dealers are responsible for supplying guns used in crimes. While Collins expresses disappointment over the policy's repeal, gun rights organizations, including the NRA, welcome this change.
• 16:00 - 33:00: Chapter 8: Interviews with Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu The chapter 'Interviews with Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu' seems to focus on a political discussion involving firearms legislation. It mentions a repeal viewed as a commitment to the Second Amendment during the Trump administration. Additionally, economic updates are provided, such as a significant rise in the NASDAQ. The chapter also notes the concern of the Healey administration about potential federal funding cuts impacting state spending for the next fiscal year.
• 33:00 - 34:30: Chapter 9: Video Program Summary In Chapter 9: Video Program Summary, a significant issue is raised during a budget hearing on healthcare conducted by Beacon Hill lawmakers. Kate Walsh, the state secretary of health and human services, addresses legislators about the potential dire consequences of proposed federal cuts in Washington DC. She highlights that the state lacks sufficient resources to compensate for the federal funding gaps in crucial programs like mass health, implying that these cuts will lead to challenging decisions.
• 34:30 - 37:00: Chapter 10: GBH and NPR Sponsorships The chapter discusses potential budget cuts not included in the Healey administration's upcoming fiscal year spending proposal. It notes that Massachusetts' budget process is just starting, with the House and Senate to release their proposals soon. Additionally, it mentions a $9 billion federal funding review impacting Harvard, prompting the university to issue $750 million in taxable bonds, increasing its total offering to $1.2 billion.
• 37:00 - 39:00: Chapter 11: Continuation of NPR News Chapter 11 discusses a financial strategy by a university, as explained by spokesperson Jason Newton. The university is preparing for possible financial challenges due to actions by the Trump administration by selling bonds. The chapter also provides updates on local sports events involving the Red Sox, Bruins, and Celtics. The current temperature in Boston is reported as 42 degrees. The chapter concludes with acknowledgment of support for NPR.
• 39:00 - 47:00: Chapter 12: Sports Discussion on Mental Health and NIL Settlement in NCAA Chapter 12 discusses the intersection of sports, mental health, and the name, image, and likeness (NIL) settlements in the NCAA. The conversation includes the contributions made by Joan B Croc's estate to public radio, emphasizing the role of journalism and cultural expression. Finally, it touches on a live broadcast from the Boston Public Library, showcasing the dynamic between sports and media coverage.
• 47:00 - 54:00: Chapter 13: March Madness - Yukon Women and Duke's Loss Chapter 13: March Madness - Yukon Women and Duke's Loss provides a brief overview of upcoming programming notes and events. The narrative begins by mentioning the return of an edition called 'Ask the Auditor' with Diana Daglio, scheduled for April 25th at the library. Additionally, an edition of 'Ask the Governor' will feature Governor Mora Healey at the same venue. Attendees don't need tickets to join these events. The chapter also highlights a live session featuring Andress Nelsons, the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, scheduled for 1:30 PM. The initial hour of the chapter includes an interaction with Boston's mayor.
• 54:00 - 57:00: Chapter 14: College Athletics and Student Pay In this chapter, the topic of conversation revolves around the involvement of Michelle Woo, who is participating in a Q&A session where she addresses questions from citizens in an April edition of 'Ask the Mayor.' Mayor Woo expresses gratitude for the opportunity to engage with the community and the importance of these interactions. The transcript also humorously references a question about leaving a baby in a shopping cart, though no specific details about college athletics and student pay are directly mentioned in the provided excerpt.
• 57:00 - 66:00: Chapter 15: Review of the Weekend Protest and Mass and Cass Remark The chapter discusses a conversation involving Mayor Woo, touching on the reasons behind holding a baby more frequently, noting that it's a practical way to manage baby-related messes, like spit-up stains. Additionally, the chapter hints at a discussion about the potential or actual impact of dramatic cuts by the Trump administration across the country.
• 66:00 - 79:00: Chapter 16: Shastikovich Season at the BSO This chapter discusses the implications of a new season at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) focused on Shastikovich's work. The discussion includes how the Massachusetts and Boston administrations are adjusting their budgets to accommodate local and state-level challenges. There is an emphasis on filling gaps and protecting citizens from potential harm through thoughtful budget considerations.
• 79:00 - 84:00: Chapter 17: Conclusion and Future Programming Chapter 17 delves into the potential and attempted budget cuts within the federal government, some of which have been halted by legal interventions. It discusses the impact of existing job cuts on individuals' livelihoods. Additionally, the chapter highlights threats and challenges facing higher education, healthcare, hospitals, and research, with a particular focus on areas like Boston. It implies a broader discussion about the implications of these issues for the future of programming and initiatives in these sectors.

Boston Public Radio Live from the Boston Public Library, Tuesday, Apr. 8, 2025 Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 lunch fronts from bike lanes and roads to housing mass and the city's office of police accountability and transparency We'll get her thoughts on all that plus her new budget and a doover for the city's job fair for youth And Marjgerie Egan will also ask the mayor about the coming Boston Marathon One Boston Day and the city's plans for America 250 all under the thumb of a second Trump administration Have your own question for Mayor Woo Call or text us at 877301-8970 or better yet come down to
• 00:30 - 01:00 the library and ask her in person Ask the mayor's next on the first hour of Boston Public Radio 897 GBH live from the Boston Public [Music] [Applause] [Music] Library Live from NPR News in Washington I'm Cora Coleman Stock prices are climbing on Wall Street The Dow Jones Industrials are up nearly a,000 points This follows 3 days of steep losses
• 01:00 - 01:30 Investors are worried about President Trump's tariffs NPR Scott Horsley says Trump will impose new levies tomorrow As things stand right now products from the EU are going to be slapped with a 20% tariff tomorrow Japanese goods are facing a 24% tariff and imports from China could be looking at tariffs of over 100% NPR Scott Horsley reporting The US Supreme Court says the Trump administration can continue deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members from the US under the Alien Enemies Act This power has typically been used by a
• 01:30 - 02:00 president during wartime NPR's Jasmine Gar reports Trump used it last month to deport hundreds of migrants Attorneys for the men deported and sent to a notorious detention center in El Salvador say the use of this act at a time of peace is illegal They argue many of those being targeted have no criminal history The court's conservative majority didn't rule on the constitutionality of using the Alien Enemies Act Instead the justices said lawyers had filed in the wrong court
• 02:00 - 02:30 Ultimately the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to continue using the act to deport alleged gang members but with conditions It made clear officials must give migrants adequate notice that they are being removed under the Alien Enemies Act so they have time to challenge it Jasmine Gar NPR News New York Separately the Trump administration is being challenged over the mistaken deportation of a man from Maryland to El Salvador last month
• 02:30 - 03:00 A lower court judge ordered that the man be returned to the US by yesterday but Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked that His move gives the high court time to consider that case more fully The Trump administration is revoking what's been called President Biden's zero tolerance policy for federally licensed firearms dealers who break certain rules NPR's Martin Costy has more The ATF whose acting director is also the FBI director Cash Patel has
• 03:00 - 03:30 repealed what the Biden administration called the enhanced regulatory enforcement policy Mark Collins of the gun control group Brady says the stricter enforcement was meant to crack down on dealers who for example willfully failed to do required background checks We know from all the data that it is a very small minority of gun dealers that are overwhelmingly providing the guns that are being used in crimes Collins laments the end of Biden's zero policy enforcement but gun rights groups are hailing the move In a statement the NRA said the Biden policy
• 03:30 - 04:00 had been quote a direct attack on the firearms industry unquote and that the repeal showed the Trump administration's quote commitment to the Second Amendment Martin Costi NPR News On Wall Street the NASDAQ is now up more than 500 points This is NPR Good morning with the latest from the GBH newsroom I'm Henry Santoro The Healey administration is continuing to warn that potential federal funding cuts could have a massive impact on state spending next fiscal year The
• 04:00 - 04:30 issue came up at a budget hearing focused on health care held by Beacon Hill lawmakers yesterday Kate Walsh is the state secretary of health and human services She tells legislators that cuts being weighed in Washington DC could have dire implications for mass health and other state programs We simply do not have the resources at the state level to fill in federal funding gaps through these critical programs These federal cuts will force some very very difficult choices Walsh
• 04:30 - 05:00 says the potential cuts are not accounted for in the Healey administration spending proposal for the coming fiscal year The annual state budget process just getting underway with Massachusetts House and Senate expected to release their own spending proposals in the weeks to come Following the Trump administration's announcement of a $9 billion review of Harvard's federal funding university officials say they'll issue $750 million in taxable bonds this month The move raises the university's total offering to $1.2
• 05:00 - 05:30 billion this fiscal year According to the university spokesperson Jason Newton the bond sale is part of an ongoing contingency plan for a host of financial circumstances that could arise given the current moves from the Trump administration In sports Red Sox play the Blue Jays at Fenway tonight It's a 6:45 start The Bruins are in New Jersey The Celtics are at New York We are at 42 degrees in Boston right now This is GBH News Support for NPR comes from NPR
• 05:30 - 06:00 stations Other contributors include the estate of Joan B Croc whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio and seeks to help NPR produce programming that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural [Music] expression East I am Marjgerie Egan You're listening to Boston Public Radio 897 GBH Thank you live from the Boston Public Library and streaming at
• 06:00 - 06:30 youtube.com/gbhne newsws Couple of programming notes here We're going to be back here tomorrow for another edition of Ask the Auditor with Diana Daglio She's going to be with us uh here at the library on April 25th Another edition of Ask the Governor Also here at the library with Governor Mora Healey Uh no tickets needed of course Good morning Jim Hey there And by the way we should mention that Andress Nelson's the music director of the BSO will join us uh live today here at 1:30 But for the first hour we're joined by the mayor of Boston
• 06:30 - 07:00 Michelle Woo taking our questions and yours for the April edition of Ask the Mayor Mayor Woods good to see you How are you I'm great Good to see you both Hey Mayor Woo Thank you very much as always for coming in and spending time with us If you want to call the mayor or text the mayor a question you can do it at 877301-8970 If you're at the library and would like to ask her a question face to face you go see Zoe or Tamson two of our colleagues and uh there's a decent chance you get to ask that question Would you leave the baby in a shopping cart Where's the baby Where's the baby
• 07:00 - 07:30 Nowadays um part of the reason why I'm often holding the baby is because I have her Someone needs to hold her She's with me And the other part is she easily uh covers up spit up stains I don't have the cover up today Okay It's good to see you So so uh Mayor Woo I I'm just wondering what what the impact what are your concerns or maybe not concerns or with the Trump administration a lot of you know ma dramatic cuts all around the country and
• 07:30 - 08:00 right here in Massachusetts and Boston So what what's this going to mean do you think Uh where do we start Um I am submitting my our administration's budget to the city council tomorrow morning officially And even in setting that budget every piece of consideration went into how we have to adjust what we do because at the local level and at the state level we're having to guard against or try to respond to or fill in the gaps or protect uh the harm that we
• 08:00 - 08:30 are seeing And it's not just the potential cuts that have been attempted and some of which have been stopped by the legal system so far and some of which may or may not make it through the legal system It's not just the uh jobs that have had to be slashed already in the federal government that impact people's livelihoods here The threats and attacks on higher education and health care and our hospital system research I mean so much of what Boston
• 08:30 - 09:00 is known for and what makes Boston strong is what makes our country strong and is what this administration is trying to tear down But I think the worst part of it all worse than all of the horrible things and the approaches to trying to divide people and and intimidate and and um isolate is the uncertainty of it that it just it's such a chaotic environment where a policy is announced right We're he's doing tariffs and then he doesn't
• 09:00 - 09:30 have to do tariffs on your country if you come to the table and offer something special in some kind of you know potentially corrupt exchange And so then what's real what's not real Companies are trying to decide if they keep shipping their product products or wait until the tariff is not happening and and then everything just is grounded in this sense of unpredictability where you can't plan around it So we are having most of all to plan for the unplannable and uh that means really having a cushion tightening our belt at the city to prepare for the worst case
• 09:30 - 10:00 scenario but also not jumping ahead to assume that that will happen because that would involve slashing city services and cutting in fact what residents most need right now Do you know I think you said that we get $30 million from the feds Do you know what changes you would make should that $300 million disappear We are um we are doing some scenario planning as many cities are around what different levels of immediate cuts would have to be for a
• 10:00 - 10:30 city budget where most of our resources go directly to the workforce that delivers his services That would mean layoffs and and hiring freezes Uh we are not there yet right now again not jumping ahead and it may very well come to that but I'm going to manage as hard as I possibly can for Boston to avoid that because these are really critical services that um underpin what makes our community healthy and safe and thriving
• 10:30 - 11:00 Our our number if you want to speak to the mayor directly is 8773018970 One other thing you've mentioned a few times already what our community is known for what makes our community what it is If you were a foreign student called you on the phone and said "I was thinking of coming to BEu or BC or Harvard or UMass B wherever uh I'm having serious doubts about whether or not I'll be safe uh uh there based on the stories you've read about Ms Ozurk at TUS we know uh uh all these
• 11:00 - 11:30 people being snatched." What would you say to that young person I I would say that for my own family story I know how important immigration is how much this country represents opportunity that is unreachable anywhere else And it is so painful to see that in this current federal administration uh being
• 11:30 - 12:00 trampled on in just about every way and that in Boston and with our institutions we are going to do our very best to hold the federal government to the law to civil rights to protections that are established so that people can be safe and can access the uh sense of opportunity and American dream here Uh we cannot control the federal government but we are going to do everything possibly within our power to make sure that Boston continues to be Boston So should I come or should I not come
• 12:00 - 12:30 I mean it's a personal decision for everyone I we want everyone to still see our city as a home We want to uh obviously people are going to have to think carefully about the type of protections and contingencies as we are here as well So I I also I guess the biggest point for me is that we shouldn't just think of this as quote you know the problem for international students or the problem for quote unquote those people who might not have paperwork or documentation We're at a
• 12:30 - 13:00 point where we are not sure if constitutional rights are being respected We obviously don't want to jump to conclusions but the stories and the um anecdotal information we're hearing from community members in Boston and the proof that we're seeing in other communities where people are being wrongly detained and deported where people who have no criminal record whatsoever are being taken as quote unquote collateral damage Um this is this is not what even voters who uh
• 13:00 - 13:30 might have a more conservative leaning were promised when this administration was campaigning This is uh mass deportation that is wreaking havoc on our economy and our our global relationships And it seems that there's a a significant chance this is violating civil rights and constitutional law We need to be sure that there's transparency around this We've been working with our office of police accountability and transparency in the
• 13:30 - 14:00 city which was set up to ensure that Boston police are following all protocols and uh and uh not and and held accountable if there were instances of misconduct um that we can work with community groups who have set up a separate hotline to report instances related to ICE and federal immigration officials and and that there can be some ongoing communication and collaboration around who plays what role and how do we
• 14:00 - 14:30 also help document what is happening so that there's some sense of the facts and uh a way to ensure that to check whether all the laws are being followed Our number is 877 if you want to speak to the mayor 301-8970 You know one more uh thing about the Trump administration before we get to the calls You're a Harvard alum Uh the Trump administration is threatening $9 million billion dollars excuse me taking away money if they don't uh cowtow to his uh demands in this which I which a
• 14:30 - 15:00 lot of people are calling kind of a weaponization of anti-semitism It really isn't about anti-semitism It's about controlling these institutions Um and Harvard has a decision to make about how much they're willing to couch out of his demands What do you think Harvard should do Well I think you know as you pointed out there's some question about the motivation behind these um investigations and and current actions Even so it's it's really important to call out anti-semitism and
• 15:00 - 15:30 discrimination of of every type And Boston has been historically a home for thriving vibrant Jewish communities who have played a huge role in our city and continue to have a very strong partnership with the city And we've been in close communication with many of the organizations and leaders in the Jewish community just to ensure that we are taking steps that align with what our community members also want to see Um because as you know there's there the city of Boston has also received that
• 15:30 - 16:00 same request from the Trump administration's anti-semitism task force to be investigated We have asked repeatedly for their information on sort of vague um uh statements that they've made about troubling situations within the city of Boston We have not received that yet and hope to have a productive conversation based on the uh information that is uh that they are referring to We're not haven't gotten that yet Uh they will part of the staff will be in
• 16:00 - 16:30 town from that task force tomorrow to meet with staff at the city and so we will ask again for that um in preparation potentially for a larger meeting down the line But in terms of Harvard um you know I hope that our I I know how much is on the line for hospitals for universities for cities for law firms but we've seen that even those who try to cut a deal When you do that they still come down on on
• 16:30 - 17:00 delivering harm And then it cuts out everyone else in your field because they're trying to isolate and weaken and silence each one individually so that people will just stop speaking out about the outrageous things that are happening Again many of which many of many which seem to be illegal um at this point So we locally Wilmer Hail uh one of our big law firms stood up went to court and said they were going to fight the
• 17:00 - 17:30 executive order that was targeted at them instead of cutting a deal like other law firms have And the court for now has paused that executive order while they sort it out So I would encourage institutions who have resources to use those to try to fight for what is right because there are so many in our community who cannot feel safe doing so If you are an undocumented member of our community if you are an employee of the federal government we can't expect people to speak out for
• 17:30 - 18:00 their own livelihoods and their own lives when they're putting everything at risk when so many other institutions who have a platform who have resources can do so and and need to do so in this moment Uh let's take some calls And actually there's some people actually let's start with somebody at the library Tiffany wherever Tiffany is Uh well as Tiffany is walking over let's take a call Christristen JP you're on with the mayor of the city of Boston Michelle Woo Welcome Thank you Um I just uh Hello Yeah you're
• 18:00 - 18:30 on I just I appreciate what the mayor make a plan and just first thank you for what you've been doing White Stadium Um but on to immigration Um I appreciate uh the work of your im immigrant welcoming um office Hey Chris you have a horrible connection You have two choices We can put you on hold or you can just go right to your question I'm sorry but we're better We're losing
• 18:30 - 19:00 every other word Say it again Is this better Yep it is Is this better It is Yes Thank you I appreciate I appreciate the work that the mayor has done with White Stadium So just thank you for that It'll be a great improvement Speaking on immigration I've seen in community health centers they're getting messages to their people um about their rights but I'm hearing from the larger
• 19:00 - 19:30 hospitals that they're opening the doors to ICE And I really want to encourage the mayor to get the message to all the institutions in the city about protecting the workers and um the community from um these attacks on them We got it Chris you want to respond to any of that Mayor Woo Yeah thank you Um thank you Chris and thank you for for speaking out as well We are in constant
• 19:30 - 20:00 communication with with institutions across the city and I think what's important and you know maybe each one could phrase this in a different way or there could be better consistency across the board I think everyone is wanting to communicate to their staff and and visitors or patients etc that first and foremost is it's important to follow the law And just as we know that some of the things that are happening might be
• 20:00 - 20:30 crossing that line it is there's also a line that we in Boston can't cross around u obstruction of justice or obstruction of enforcement efforts that fall within the federal government's purview So I think different institutions are trying to communicate that in different ways We've been very clear for example in the Boston public schools that uh should there be some effort uh there needs to be a warrant and um we do not in any cases uh let adults who are not um authorized to
• 20:30 - 21:00 connected to a school community to come into a school building So you know how you phrase it how you communicate it and most of most of all how you're reaching the most impacted residents is really important and we all need to do better on on getting those messages out there Tiffany is now at the mic at the library Welcome Tiffany How are you Welcome Uh thank you Uh good morning Mayor Woo Um thank you for first of all everything that you're doing So many of us were watching you while you were in
• 21:00 - 21:30 Washington defending the rights of people who don't have a platform as you mentioned Goodbye Um so we're talking a lot about the pressures that the federal government is levying against um cities and states particularly like Boston uh who are taking a stand around liberation and freedoms And while we know you're very busy with that um so I'm from the Boston Cyclist Union and want to talk really
• 21:30 - 22:00 um intentionally and transparently about the removal of the flex post that was an unannounced and didn't really give advocates and community members that work so hard to get these infrastructural improvements installed So what would you like to say to the community who uses these protected bike lanes and depends on the safety of these flex posts Um because there was no um confirmation There was no communication
• 22:00 - 22:30 prior to Tiffany Thanks Thank you for being here Tiffany I'll ask you a question just to make sure um we're we're on the same page because I think sometimes the information can get uh sort of pulled or or um communicated in in different ways How many feet of flex post in your understanding were removed that then exposed a bike lane that wasn't otherwise protected Do you have Do you know Oh can you turn the mic back on for Tiffany please Do you know I don't know
• 22:30 - 23:00 the actual So this is important because I went out there because I wanted myself to see exactly what had happened And we're talking about Massav which is the place that um I think many advocates and cyclists are referring to and Massav Um in the last several years we're very proud to have added a protected cycle lane there Even as I was out there you know it was middle of the day maybe around uh 1:00 p.m or something like that multiple uh cyclists using it very busy um going both directions The cycle
• 23:00 - 23:30 lane is protected by concrete barriers all the way down Those concrete barriers had um posts sticking out the top of them some of which uh were in okay shape some of which had been crumpled etc Um and there was one place that was probably it was maybe a 20ft stretch that flex posts had not been in concrete barriers and were directly into the ground that had been removed That was a mistake not to have the concrete barrier replacing that And so that is being put
• 23:30 - 24:00 back or hopefully if not already will be put back soon so that the entire stretch including that 20ft segment will be protected But it wasn't a removal of a bike lane It wasn't a um sort of overall decision that we are going to quietly reverse uh infrastructure that had been put in to create a safe way and separation I want to be clear that I have now do and always will support bike lanes and separated infrastructure as
• 24:00 - 24:30 the safest way for people to get around We need our roads to work for everyone for pedestrians for drivers and for cyclists But it is also undeniable that in spaces that I'm out and about all across the city in rooms with seniors in rooms with the our disability community with small businesses almost across the board in every neighborhood We are now at a point where uh we have been in in uh the progress of building out our bike network for the last 15 years as a city
• 24:30 - 25:00 and now it is extensive because we've done such a good job of getting things quickly into the ground to save lives and to protect people The way that it has been done I think has all often prioritized speed and therefore getting those safe uh separation into the ground rather than take into taking into account should there be a slight tweak in the design so that delivery trucks can also access the curb for the businesses or um spaces where we need to think about accessibility for other
• 25:00 - 25:30 residents or parking which is a necessity for many in different communities We need to be at a point where we are um holistically improving how we do this because it is a city-wide concern right now that the cycle lanes have been um causing traffic or causing inconvenience or um hurting economically this and that Now again safety is the top priority for everyone and when we install bike lanes we make the street safer for everyone But how we do what we
• 25:30 - 26:00 do really matters and we need to get to a place where the materials that we use the processes that we go through the um conversations that we have really do incorporate the holistic needs of the community and it's not just a one and done and we move on to the next place We are going through and making sure to ask community members just as we would in any other policy area has this actually been doing what it was intended to do where it has Let's make that infrastructure permanent Let's go from
• 26:00 - 26:30 flex posts that can be knocked over and then are like litter on the ground cuz they get crumpled and and messed up Let's take the resources and build out a sidewalk level separated bike lane uh like the Southwest corridor or like different places in the seapport where even drivers say it just feels so much better And in a corridor like American Legion where it was a very dangerous uh two-lane straightaway that was a frequent place for crashes to happen
• 26:30 - 27:00 from drag racing the street the roadway was narrowed It is much safer now It's been working well but it is such a large uh sea of flex posts all the way down and such a large expanse on the other side of those posts that we should really have conversations Is it about building it out and having green and trees installed Is it about uh moving that cycle track up on the sidewalks Other changes We can't just stay stuck in this uh what was intended to be fast cheap tactical to evaluate whether it
• 27:00 - 27:30 worked Let's take it to the next phase now as a city and have our infrastructure that prioritizes safety includes every everyone's need in the community and also reflects our long-term commitment uh to doing this right Thank you for your call You know in rel your question in related things I think if you were to stop uh uh this is not scientific but it was stop Bostononians on the street and asked what are some of the major priorities of this mayor they'd say things like include free buses the tea bike lanes
• 27:30 - 28:00 You didn't mention any of them in your state of the city I mentioned buses You did Okay Bike lanes and the tea Why not considering how important they are to you Yeah Um I mean I did not want to go on forever There are many many other things that I also could have mentioned but um I think if you're if the um question is really you know MIS committed to moving forward on these issues or are they as big of a motivator for the next four years as they were over these current four years I would
• 28:00 - 28:30 say there are a couple things that are um important one absolutely um we need to be moving forward as I was just saying to Tiffany on making sure that our infrastructure and our streets are safe for everyone are convenient uh and transportation is reliable The tea is a huge huge part of that Um two we are I'm very proud to say in a different place now than four years ago with general general manager a at the helm The T has now eliminated slow zones in a period of
• 28:30 - 29:00 it was very painful shutdowns and and doing that construction but they got it done and there's still improvements that are now needed for signals and other parts of the infrastructure that are very old but we are in a just much better place now in terms of MBTA reliability And I will say that I you know I will obviously the the work of the state the governor the Healey administration secretary Tibbitznut and the general manager have gotten it done But I will brag a little bit on behalf
• 29:00 - 29:30 of the city of Boston that prior to this gubernatorial administration prior to general manager Ang when there was an approach at the state level that was just let's try to where we can shut the tea down for an hour overnight on the weekends when it's least disruptive That approach was going to take more than 40 years to get through the slow zones And we made a fuss in Boston and we put our resources on the table to say do it right do it fast and we will make sure that above ground as you do the work
• 29:30 - 30:00 underground and then need to have shuttles and alternative transportation above ground that we will put our city of Boston resources to making that possible And we have we've staffed up uh transportation staff whose job is to support and be the liaison to the tea to help oversee when shutdowns need bus routes to be drawn differently or changes on our roadways to accommodate that And we really pushed to get that first orange line shutdown to happen Uh you know it mixed results on what you
• 30:00 - 30:30 know what exactly it did and whether it it worked all the Then we've had to go back and fix some of that but it did get us started as a societ as a community on this approach of of I think recognizing that it is worth it to do things urgently and the public understands that we're trying to get it right and that we will need to have some some short-term inconvenience in order to get the long-term system that we need Our number is 877301-8970 Uh Mayor Woo one of the
• 30:30 - 31:00 themes emerging from the election is that in democratic cities it takes speaking about 40 years to do something It takes it takes too long to get anything done including building more housing And Sean in Boston who texts he was reading Ezra Klein's new book Abundance is about this theme Talks about how blue city mayors have really prevented housing production Too many rules regulations red tape while cities like Austin have an abundance of housing Um as someone who makes well into six figures that's Sean He says he can't afford to buy a home in Boston He's feeling very discouraged and
• 31:00 - 31:30 disenchanted with Democrats and their commitment to bure bureaucratic red tape So is there a way to maybe speed all this up because he's got a point Yeah Um first just in terms of the the exact uh permitting process and all that we are working really hard to speed all of that up I had signed an executive order to cut in half the amount of time it takes to approve an affordable housing proposal and the findings we're about 30% faster now by the end of this
• 31:30 - 32:00 calendar year will be 50% faster than when this was signed Uh and we're taking those learnings and make speeding up the entire process We are streamlining through new zoning citywide for the first time since 1965 We are um reforming the article 80 approvals process for large-scale development for the first time in 30 years since that code was written So we are trying to do all of that However I would still push back a little bit on the overall idea that if we just make it easy for anyone
• 32:00 - 32:30 to build anything anytime they want that eventually it trickles down to the affordability that we need that has not proven to be the case and it is because one Boston is part of a larger system So we have been overperforming on the city's own housing production goals for the last 101 15 years But when all of the surrounding uh communities aren't on the same pace to produce housing and people live you know freely working in one city commuting to another back and
• 32:30 - 33:00 forth we could build much much much more housing even faster than we're doing now And if no one else is building housing in the immediate area it still means that rents in Boston won't come down because we're part of this larger metro area So I really applaud the governor and the lieutenant governor and the attorney general for focusing on housing production as a statewide issue Transportation is definitely a piece of that And if we can have uh fast reliable affordable statewide transportation that will make a difference as well But we've
• 33:00 - 33:30 been focused on not just housing production in Boston uh using city-owned land reforming our zoning code making things faster providing incentives for developers to convert from unused office buildings to residential nearly a thousand units that we'll see happening through that And we're expanding the program but we also have to focus specifically on affordability because it's not just one to the other in the very complicated uh market that we have And so under our administration Sheila Dylan our chief of housing we have
• 33:30 - 34:00 created more affordable housing in the last three years than in the last 25 years That's been a a dogged relentless focus on um funding providing the financing gaps uh to filling the gaps in in private projects that are affordable We've created a new revolving loan fund So we're taking some of the city's resources putting it out to use It will get paid back to the city to go to another set of projects And we raised the affordability expectations because we cannot have another building boom at
• 34:00 - 34:30 any point in the future when the f when the national and international markets resolve where building luxury housing gets built Boston doesn't get our share of affordable at stake right now as part of the mayor's race there is a conversation where some want to undo those affordability requirements and go back to a time uh when in fact that that wouldn't unlock the pipeline because all of those projects were permitted under the old rules So there's some confusion and misinformation out there but we're
• 34:30 - 35:00 working to get all of the projects that are permitted going and then make sure that the new development is healthy green energy efficient and meets our housing needs So you don't buy by developers line that affordability uh affordable housing requirements make it too difficult for them to make a profit It's a very tough time to build right now and I don't want to discount how hard it is for those who have put their life savings into the real estate market and are trying to uh put food on the
• 35:00 - 35:30 table for their families as well But I will say that um interest rates drive this more than anything else uh we are not just seeing you know the difference between what's happening in Boston and what's happening in cities around the country um when it comes to a slowdown is is connected to larger macroe economic factors we're also a very uh challenging place to build because our land is limited cities like Austin cities in the south or the southeast or other parts of the country have wide
• 35:30 - 36:00 swaths of land where they can build new roads and build from scratch cheaply we are talking about complicated urban urban redevelopment in a very congested area That has to be done right and it has to be done in um with respect to the history and what makes Boston special as a a city that goes back 400 years as well We only have 30 seconds before we take a break One Boston can you tell people what's happening this year Oh yes Okay I have some details here So as always April 15th is the day where we
• 36:00 - 36:30 reflect on the um tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 and how that sparked a a push to um help others and to be involved in your community So we're encouraging acts of kindness Tuesday April 15th we will have a neighborhood cleanup Saturday April 19th uh connected to this as well And we just if you go to the website uh we have suggestions for things that you could do ways that you could be involved but please uh be part of our community Then
• 36:30 - 37:00 take care of each other every day but especially on that day Go out of your way to do something nice for someone else Um and and think about how we can be even more connected in a time when we really need connection That's the voice of the mayor of Boston Michelle Woo We're going to take a quick break Uh Mayor Woo is going to be with us till the top of the hour 8773018970 is the number to call or text You're listening to Boston Public Radio 897GBH broadcasting live from the Boston Public Library and streaming at youtube.com/gbhne
• 37:00 - 37:30 [Music] newsw I'm Jared Bowen Coming up on the Culture Show right now on television we have dramatizations of American presidents who are battling super volcanoes covering up murders But can any of this compare to the real life drama unfolding in the White House That's the question the New York Times chief TV critic asks and tries to answer Plus how Vincent Van Gogh found an unlikely soulmate in a local postman That and more on the Culture Show today
• 37:30 - 38:00 at 2 on 897 GBH Our programs are made possible thanks to you and Davis Mom Their tax lawyers are committed to your most taxing matters Learn more at dav i sm.com Davis mom lean agile strategic and the Boston philarmonic with conductor Benjamin Xander performing Mer's second symphony with chorus proua
• 38:00 - 38:30 at symphony hall Boston April 18th at 8 Tickets at bostonfill.org org and Arts Emerson presenting the point intimate discussions on big questions part of GBH Forum Network presenting a conversation about art and accessibility now available at GBH.org/forum-network and Mass General Brigham health plan ranked number one in member satisfaction among commercial health plans in Massachusetts by JD Power for the second consecutive year details at mgbhp.org/
• 38:30 - 39:00 org/ [Music] everyday Welcome back to Boston Public Radio Rodriguez and Jim Browy live at the library stream ating YouTube.com/GBH News Mayor Woo is with us till noon By the way anonymous texter says "Stock market is doing pretty good today Jim Huh Medicine is working." And I would say to that person "Yeah it's only down 10 trillion rather than 11 trillion." Now uh one of the texters
• 39:00 - 39:30 here says "Why won't you interview Josh Craft?" I assume that's trolling because as we've said a hundred times we've tried to get one of your opponents to physically show up here with no luck So all I can do is quote him Here's what he said about masking Cass As you know in the last couple of days a public safety threat that the mayor meaning you does not want to talk about because she does not know how to fix it What's What's your response to Craft Um well I will say I uh am constantly sp seeking ways
• 39:30 - 40:00 that the city could be doing more on the challenges that really matter and uh what has been happening at Massav and Melia Cass with the overlap of the opioid crisis mental health and substance use um has been one of those huge challenges for the city for a very long time And I would add that it's not just about the Mastencast area but um impacting neighborhoods everywhere Some of what has been put forward in this uh
• 40:00 - 40:30 so-called plan is uh are are items that already have been in progress and and that the police department and our public health commission and the city have already implemented Some are uh points that we have evaluated and do not believe uh would move us in the right direction But overall I think what's concerning here is that there's you know this isn't a new issue and we're not parachuting into a conversation I've had the chance as a city counselor and now
• 40:30 - 41:00 as mayor to be involved from day one and within the first two months of our administration This was the number one challenge that we took action on and worked to build up low threshold housing for the first time ever Connect people to recovery and treatment and were able to remove the encampments for 200 uh people who had been living on the streets for years because we were able to set up the system to holistically address everyone's needs Since then certainly the challenge continues to
• 41:00 - 41:30 evolve because people continue to come to Boston and we see the need growing We have been working um in every phase to engage with our community members We've reformed how the police staffing structure works We have um passed ordinances We've now no more permanent encampments in the city of Boston which has been enforced very smoothly with a public health approach to it And we are also now tackling the um idea that congregate outdoor substance use should
• 41:30 - 42:00 not be happening because that is a a public safety harm and people aren't getting the services that they need There's another uh quickly another person who was almost an opponent of yours Tom O'Brien a big developer in the city Shelley Young wrote a piece She admits speculative afterwards saying she wonders whether uh the Craft family either made a threat or cut a deal with O'Brien or whether the mayor of Boston uh made a threat or cut a deal with O'Brien Did anybody on your staff or you have any discussions with O'Brien or his
• 42:00 - 42:30 people about who dropping out of the race No Um I I spoke with Tom um once up you know he had reached out right after the first article came out Um but I have not uh did not cut a deal or anything like that 8773018970 Helen in Quinsey thank you for calling the mayor You're on the phone Hi the phone with her Hello Thank you for taking my call Sure Uh I I have been subjected to uh
• 42:30 - 43:00 discrimination in one of the by one of the departments in city hall and I want to know where a person turns to uh try to resolve this situation and have it addressed Could I um well maybe I could follow up afterwards so you don't have to answer this question here but what I'll say if you could stay on the line we'll get your information It would be helpful to know if it was employment discrimination or in um somewhere where you were trying to access city services or or what the
• 43:00 - 43:30 exact context was because it it might be different people in that case but we would love to connect you to the right place Helen don't go away We're going to get your contact information and share it with the mayor's uh people So uh stay there Uh we have Diana at the Boston Public Library She has a question about the protests I think on on Saturday Here's Diana Hi Diana Good morning Good morning It's wonderful to see your baby here with some foster parents that were holding her It was lovely Um I was at the Boston
• 43:30 - 44:00 Common uh for the hands-off protest Saturday I heard it was around 10,000 people were estimating And then that night it was estimated to be maybe a 100,000 people showed between being at the common and being at city hall And the next day someone said "Oh it's about 30,000." Several newspapers didn't cover the protest And somebody put it on the 18th page I heard Do you think the protest was effective Well um thank you for being there Uh I
• 44:00 - 44:30 had the chance to see the crowd myself from the stage at at the city hall plaza stop and it was larger than any crowd I've ever seen assembled in that area So I think the numbers definitely uh reflected even with the rain even with sort of crummy weather people were energized and it made a difference I this is just my own personal view because I can't get in the heads of you know the Republican lawmakers or or
• 44:30 - 45:00 administration but I would say that at some level every elected official every uh one who works in government is responsive to what the public is communicating And you might not be responsive to uh you know a rally happening outside your jurisdiction or or this or that but it matters And for so long it had felt that you know my daughter is now uh almost 3 months old Her birthday she came into the world a
• 45:00 - 45:30 week before the inauguration So in some ways I have an easy count of how long we've been going through this administration Um and it felt that for the first part of her life almost the entire first few months there was this sense of should we really say anything because there's so much retaliation threatened there's so much at stake and um is the right thing to do just to try to not provoke more of it and just put your head down and weather it And I think we've seen again in sector after
• 45:30 - 46:00 sector law college higher education healthcare uh public sector private sector that when you just keep trying to survive it only makes it worse from a bully And now that some people are speaking out more people are speaking out and the more that we finally get to see visibly what the public actually thinks about what's happening I do think that that matters And if anything if nothing else in terms of Washington even
• 46:00 - 46:30 just here locally in Boston and in Massachusetts to keep the pressure on us to say we have to do more It's not enough just to try to be the city that is you know speaking out a little bit or talking about um the harms that are happening Do something about it Use the powers that we have in local government in the state legislature and state and the state house to take every possible step right now because again there are many people who cannot speak out and when we see those numbers we know that
• 46:30 - 47:00 they have to reflect even more um who are behind that So please keep it going Uh I would the other thing I always would recommend in terms of at least at the local level if you get involved um be specific as well right there are ways yes speaking out I am opposed to different things that are happening I don't you know the white house isn't following uh what I'm saying to to implement it but if you come to the city of Boston with a specific proposal or if you go to the state house or if you go to any other municipality with a
• 47:00 - 47:30 specific proposal that is how government is supposed to work to evaluate the the needs needs and the ideas that are out there in the community And we have to be the the beacon where we're still making progress and moving forward as the counterpoint and uh potentially even the antidote to some of what's happening nationally Uh Mayor Woo uh a couple of months ago when you were here we asked you about a uh a report on former city councelor Michael Flareity being dismissed the water and sewer commission and there were charges of cronyism and
• 47:30 - 48:00 racism You said to us two months ago you were not involved in any of that Last month we asked you again You said you were going to spend more time delving into the details going under the hood to see what's happening Since those original charges the Globe just reported uh uh use of a a private use of a public car is also alleged Have you had an opportunity to look into this at all I have gone through some of the files um and have have been in conversation with the commission um you know the the
• 48:00 - 48:30 employment relationship is no longer there and so uh I think some of what we are seeing uh is is not under consideration for further action because um former councelor flity is no longer employed there but he got a huge payout Do you think that was appropriate in retrospect now that you've reviewed some of the information Um I again the commission has their own HR and um perview to decide what they decide I think my sense is that there was a um
• 48:30 - 49:00 there's always a consideration around the potential for litigation or um other processes to result in a greater use of city resources and often coming to um terms with with a change in the employment relationship is has to be done in the best interest of um the use how city resources are used 8773018970 Joey in Boston Thank you for calling You're on with Mayor Woo Hey Joey
• 49:00 - 49:30 good morning Uh good morning Mayor Woo and Jim and Marjorie Hi Joey First of all I was at your uh launch event the other day for the campaign I am so proud and grateful that you are my mayor and I am excited to watch over these next few months as we get you reelected from students to hospitality workers um get you re-elected because you've earned that spot and we got to keep you there Um I am calling because a lot of students are scared right now here in Boston I go to SEC um and I'm I come from a pretty privileged
• 49:30 - 50:00 place overall So I'm really asking this for the students who maybe wouldn't feel comfortable asking the question Um the students are scared some of them even to go to the hands-off protest the other day I was there but I noticed students who just didn't feel comfortable given DEI programs getting attacked Um student visas being revoked for our international students Um educations being attacked at all levels Um we even saw the Trump administration try to abolish the Department of Ed when
• 50:00 - 50:30 they're not even reading their own signal chats Um and so what I want to ask is how can students use their voice and get involved when education is getting attacked and when our students are getting scared Can you just give us some hope and maybe some guidance in such a difficult moment Yeah Um first of all thank you I I so appreciate your support Um and I'm really excited about the chance to uh keep make uh the
• 50:30 - 51:00 conversation in Boston strong when it comes to what we can do and and exactly what you're asking about not just feeling like something's wrong but how to do something about it I would So what comes to my mind Two different things Um well first of all showing up always matters And it doesn't have to be at a mass demonstration or a protest It could be at a city council meeting It could be at a neighborhood association meeting It could be at the board meeting of a nonprofit that's committed to a cause
• 51:00 - 51:30 that you care about So there are many many ways to be involved and to strengthen the kind of civic infrastructure across our city So many opportunities and entry points Um I think when it comes to politics and policies in particular here are two other ideas that I have one Um again if it's not the right pathway to be the front person at a protest or a rally although you know power to those who are leading the way on on that front you could try to be involved on the inside uh come intern for city hall for example
• 51:30 - 52:00 or um volunteer your time to uh again an organization that might be tackling an issue that's really important whether it's research that you can contribute or um administrative work or um just helping spread the word on social media or doing some of the backend work There are lots and lots of great organizations that are underst staffed right now and facing a lot of pressure and could use that extra human power Um and then the second thing which is you know somewhat
• 52:00 - 52:30 different is stories also really matter Some of what has fueled the silence and fear is this sense that um you know things are going to happen this way no matter what and there's nothing we can do about it because you know there's a majority in this country that voted this way I am really I think we're starting to see in in different parts of the country and in some of the um news headlines that are coming out that many
• 52:30 - 53:00 people voted because they were frustrated with how life was not going well how costs are too high how government didn't seem responsive and it wasn't necessarily for um a particular set of actions or this or that And even if it was for a particular direction in immigration it still shocks the conscience when good decent human beings are being pulled out of their lives or subjected to um potentially unconstitutional um you know removed
• 53:00 - 53:30 from protections that we all believe are basic to our humanity And when you have examples of that happening it matters when people know about real people who have experienced real things It matters for us to then be able to anchor our frustration to something that is factual and based in in evidence that can't be refuted Now people might need to tell their stories anonymously in some cases but helping to connect with u those organizations that are advocating that can go a long way as well Share your own
• 53:30 - 54:00 story Why do you feel so passionate and motivated and help empower and inspire others to then feel like they can do something about it too Thanks for that By the way I was going to ask you or Marjorie was about your the new website for the 250th anniversary but then all of a sudden an anonymous texter with a related question With American 250 coming can the mayor weigh in on secession Boston with Massachusetts and other states now So you can answer either question or both if you'd like Mayor I heard I saw some people on blue
• 54:00 - 54:30 sky posting about new New England which is an interesting concept Um you know we are we are in a a country of laws and a country that was founded on the revolutionary ideals of justice and equality and freedom Although it has taken time to continue expanding who that actually applies to and we have more work to do but it's pretty remarkable that the same streets we walk on today the same uh sites and and uh
• 54:30 - 55:00 grass that we we walk on is rooted in the very individuals who took up this cause Um I heard a talk by Professor Robert Allison uh who's based in South Boston and and this is his specialty And uh when we were celebrating the um evacuation day commemoration 250 years of of uh 249 years of evacuation day he talked about how today those of us in
• 55:00 - 55:30 2025 looking back at history we can trace how one set of frustrations led to a protest led to action led to a skirmish led to a battle and then over the course of eight years those residents of Boston helped build a new country But those residents of Boston 250 years ago didn't know that that's where they were headed when they first started taking those actions They didn't know that the chain of events that would be triggered They were just trying to do
• 55:30 - 56:00 the next right thing to protect their families and to fight for the people that they loved And I think there's some lesson for us right now in this moment It can feel impossible sometimes It can feel overwhelming It can feel like we don't know the exact road map of or pathway of how we're going to get to the outcome that we want to get to But if we do the next right thing for our communities for our neighbors for our families we will be doing the next right thing for history Boston has always taken that role in our country and in
• 56:00 - 56:30 our world's history So if you go to boston.gov/250 uh we are kicking off the official commemorations It's April 18th uh is the official kickoff 250 years since Paul Rivervier's Midnight Ride And in these 250 years it's not just about old stuff and things that happened long ago It's the idea that we were willing to speak out to try to do what's right to try to change uh the circumstances for the
• 56:30 - 57:00 people we care about We need that sense of innovation and um and love and community today and we are going to keep it going as we commemorate our 250th and our role in this country's founding So before you go last year you played Mozart at the BSO Andress Nelson is going to be your 1:30 Are you playing second base this year Well yeah this is this is the um Oh it's a gift Special gift for today Love that Okay I have to explain this I have a minute Um these are really special
• 57:00 - 57:30 because every year the Red Sox distribute a hat a special hat uh to every single student in the Boston public schools So more than 40,000 BPS hats go out on BPS hat days It's a special design that only BPS students have And so now it's BPS Plus Jim and Marjorie who have it But I love when I see young people wearing these hats all around the city It's their sense of belonging it's that we're all on the same team here in Boston and you can always pick out sometimes you know I've
• 57:30 - 58:00 been outside the city of Boston and run into someone um you always know that that person is um on your team and that we're going to take care of each other So thanks to the Red Sox and thanks to all of the institutions who find ways to connect all of us starting from instilling uh that in our youngest learners Did you take into account that Margie and I have the single biggest heads in Boston It's just assuredly as Jim's is bigger than mine Not by a lot Very well We really appreciate your time Thank you very much Thank you very much Thank you We have
• 58:00 - 58:30 been speaking with Boston Mayor Michelle was kindly left after Environmental Protection Agency announced it would start a review of the scientific information on quote potential health risk of fluoride in drinking water Fluoride is commonly added to drinking water to prevent tooth decay It's considered a great public health success Research has found fluoride is not harmful at the levels recommended in the US drinking water supply but data does show the possibility of harms to children's neuro development when the
• 58:30 - 59:00 fluoride levels are more than twice what's recommended Maria Gdoy reporting It's NPR Good afternoon with the latest from the GBH newsroom I'm Henry Santoro Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell one of several attorneys general calling on the US Supreme Court to reject a taxpayerf funed religious charter school Mass Live reports that the school in question whether the taxpayers should pay for a religious charter school will be decided on by the US Supreme Court later this month The school in question is St Isidor of
• 59:00 - 59:30 Seville Catholic Virtual School It's in Oklahoma and could be the nation's first publicly funded religious charter school If it does happen it's a case that could reshape the role of religion in public education However the answer from Andrea Campbell and 17 of her colleagues nationwide is an emphatic no They don't want it to be approved A pioneering guitarist known for his tenure with the Boston hardcore punk band SSD has died Al Burrill rose to frame in in the 1980s
• 59:30 - 60:00 thanks in part to his onstage energy regularly doing jump scissor kicks while playing his guitar He later formed the band Gage with TJ Welch Welsh remembers Burell as an icon of Boston punk I think the entire world credits him for creating some of the best and most meaningful uh hardcore and punk music uh that that's ever been done Baril wrote songs about the importance of sticking together and the harms of smoking He was famously straightedge abstaining from
• 60:00 - 60:30 drugs and alcohol all his life While Burril wasn't on stage he was an engineer who at one point built parts for jet engines Al Burrill was 63 He was a friend He will be missed 40° in Boston This is GBH News Support for NPR comes from NPR stations Other contributors include Bank of America From local shops to global enterprises Bank of America is committed to helping businesses of all sizes make every move matter Learn more
• 60:30 - 61:00 at Bank of America.com/banking for business [Music] Friday I am Marjgerie Egan Welcome to hour number two of Boston Public Radio 897 GBH Thank you We are broadcasting live from the Boston Public Library and streaming at YouTube.com/GBH News We'll be back here tomorrow with Juliet Kameron our national security expert and another edition of Ask the Auditor with Diana Daglio uh taking our questions and yours
• 61:00 - 61:30 And on April 25th more Healey the governor will be here with us at the Boston Public Library again Hello Jim Hey And later today in about 25 minutes John King from CNN will join us to discuss the mess in Washington And at 1:30 Andress Nelson's music director and one of our favorite people uh from the BSO will join us live at the library But first we're joined at the library by Treny Casey anchor and reporter for NBC Sports Boston Welcome Treny Hi guys Hey
• 61:30 - 62:00 there So Tony um let's start with this uh Netflix series about the Red Sox the clubhouse a year with the Boston Red Sox Yes So Netflix spent uh all of last season uh with the Red Sox um most of it Although the director is coming out now and saying that as the season progressed uh we all know the Red Sox didn't do all that well last year There was some internal turmoil They didn't they were going to film every single day He says budgetary reasons and whatnot that they didn't end up filming every day but they
• 62:00 - 62:30 spent a lot of time last year with the Red Sox But the story that's making headlines and while it's a sad story it is also an inspiring one um and one that um just I can't say enough good things about It's Jiren Duran So Jiren Duran is the um center fielder for the uh Boston Red Sox and sorry excuse me left fielder for the Boston Red Sox Um and he has been very open about his struggles with mental health issues Um he's talked
• 62:30 - 63:00 about it for the last year or so but until this documentary came out and the Boston Globe and The Athletic got to see it it was released today So you watch it as of right now Um but before it was released these publications got a sneak preview um into it And in it have you heard the audio Okay I'll let you play it Here's some sound This is during the 2022 season when Duran was receiving let's say harsh reactions from the fan for some of his performances And this sound as Treny said is from the fourth
• 63:00 - 63:30 episode of the just released Netflix series The Clubhouse a year with the Red Sox Here's Durant I got to the point where I was sitting in my room I had my um my rifle and I had a bullet and I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked but nothing happened So to this day like I think God just
• 63:30 - 64:00 didn't let me take my own life because I seriously don't know like why it didn't go off But I took it as a sign of like all right I might have to be here for a reason Wow Yeah I know It's powerful Um and listen let's be honest Uh many pro aletes um have talked particularly male pro proathletes have talked more about their mental health struggles um I would say in the last decade than we've ever seen before But I'm not sure we've ever
• 64:00 - 64:30 heard anyone talk this way so openly and candidly and with such a vulnerability to talk about a suicide attempt Um and the fact that Jiren Duran is still here and to talk about it I I give him so much credit He doesn't need to share this story He didn't need to share whatever relationship he developed with the director and the producer of this he felt comfortable enough or felt compelled to tell everybody what he was going through and he will save lives
• 64:30 - 65:00 because of this Tom Karen who is the pre and postgame host for the Red Sox on Nessen on uh New England Sports Network um I heard a clip from the from I believe it was either pregame or postgame last night but he said that when they were talking about this they had put the um number out the national helpline number but they had also told young people about Samaritans And Samaritans is a is a um a mental health organization um that has worked really hard to help everyone but in particular
• 65:00 - 65:30 young people And they have a text line called Hey Sam and you can text Hey Sam and you will have peer-to-peer access Uh if you're a young person a teenager struggling with mental health issues And Tom Karen said when they mentioned it on the broadcast yesterday Samaritans reached out and they said they had seen a massive increase in kids reaching out Wow And what that says is those kids may have talked to no one before hearing Jirean Jared Duran talk about this They may not have t they may not have um
• 65:30 - 66:00 reached out to anyone They may not have um they may have kept it to themselves Maybe they themselves would have attempted suicide But instead they hear Jiren Duran talking about what he went through a millionaire professional athlete with all of the talent in the world all of the resources in the world that that he struggles the way they struggle and that implored them to call and try and get help This I I cannot say enough good things about what Jiren Durant has done By the way every time Treny compliments a high-profile person
• 66:00 - 66:30 for this kind of courage she understandably never mentions the courage you have shown through all your years of work on mental health issues and your courage and transparency And I think you have helped tons of people yourself Tony Casey So it's pretty important stuff By the way when you see him you know what I did last night after I listened to the sound I went on YouTube and just watched him play and he won the MVP at the All-Star G and when you see this young man playing baseball
• 66:30 - 67:00 with this ferocity in the best sense of the word and then you listen to the sound it's just it's even more jarring than is on its own it really I think is hard to visualize for people sometimes and you know he also talks about in this documentary um and it's not getting as much play but he talks about how um when he was open about his mental health struggles the way people used it against him and I remember people have always used it against me I remember being on the radio in the past on morning shows um you know which sometimes
• 67:00 - 67:30 uh attract an interesting audience um a sports morning talk show and if I said something that they didn't like I would get all these messages about how I should be back on my medication and I'm unhinged and I'm crazy and you know that I shouldn't be allowed on TV because I admit I've admitted to having depression and anxiety and you get to a point I think where hopefully you've done work um like I you know like I did through myriad types of of therapy where you can separate and you can see the pain in
• 67:30 - 68:00 that person um and why they're lashing out at you but that's not something you can do right away and some people can never do that So for him to push through and not stop talking like to to get that kind of reaction when he just sort of dipped his toes into the water of talking about his mental health but then pushed even further and talked about this a suicide at times which we I'm sure we all remember a lot of times when famous people die by suicide it is not seen as tragic it is seen as selfish um
• 68:00 - 68:30 and so for him to talk about this and talk about his you know him being here for a reason I mean his reason is to save lives and I I truly believe that he even if he saves one life he it it what he has done has been worth it One last thing uh uh because I haven't seen the whole episode I've just seen the excerpts that we played and one other it were the Red Sox aware of this after the fact and did they That's a great question and I didn't see it um I I actually didn't know because we didn't have advanced access to this the way
• 68:30 - 69:00 some of the Red Sox beat writers did like many of the Red Sox beat writers are actually featured in this um in this documentary and I'm pretty close with Jen McAffrey who is the Red Sox beat writer for the Athletic and she actually texted me yesterday and said I'm so sorry they didn't tell you about this first but we were sort of under wraps and and to about this article and about this piece And I said "Well you don't owe it to me to tell me about it." But nowhere in the article in the Globe or the article in the Athletic did I see anything um about the Red Sox knowing before and and quite frankly I saw Jen
• 69:00 - 69:30 write a follow-up piece today that I didn't have a chance to read but the headline of her article was that that basically Alex Kora um you know lauded him It applauded so did Sam Kennedy the president Yeah Jiren Durant for coming out and being open about this So he certainly at the very least he has the support of the Red Sox organization We're talking to Treny Casey So a lot of people have been watching March Madness for days now We got this uh $2.8 billion NCAA settlement So what is this going to mean So this is interesting This is the
• 69:30 - 70:00 it's it's House versus the NCAA And House is a swimmer who is suing the NCAA over NIL which is name image and likeness Um for those of you who don't know what that is for years um college athletes could not receive any sort of compensation So if a coach um wanted to do a bunch of commercials and make 10 million extra dollars a year they could If a coach wanted to leave the school and go to a better opportunity a coach could but the athletes that they were coaching and promoting and making
• 70:00 - 70:30 billions of dollars off of were not able to profit from that Well that has changed in recent years But now what we're seeing is while I think most people feel it's a good thing that these kids are being able to you know use their name image and likeness to make more money for themselves um it's also got some real gray areas and big holes in it And so this $2.8 8 billion settlement is supposed to sort of it's I guess allegedly it should make it more equitable across schools because each
• 70:30 - 71:00 school is going to get I think like $20.5 million something bigger schools are going to get $20.5 million to spend on basically bringing athletes in But the problem is well who does that money go to How do you decide They're talking about the needing um rosters being smaller like the the one that's cited in the article is football is going to go from 128 um person roster to 105 kids that are going to be able to be on a football roster So are there fewer scholarships fewer opportunities for
• 71:00 - 71:30 athletes What happens to Olympic athletes swimmers Libby Dunn Olivia Dunn um who if you don't follow um gymnastics um if you don't wear Vori which is like a very fancy sweatuit company she's like their big spokesperson If you don't follow anyone dating she's Paul Ske's girlfriend Yes Paul is like one of the best young pitchers in baseball I pitchers for the Pittsburgh Pirates Um she is named in this lawsuit So there's all these other athletes who are saying "Hold on a second You're saying this is supposed to make it more fair but we see this as even more unfair because now how
• 71:30 - 72:00 is a school like," and I can't remember if the Big East is named in this or if it's all football schools Um I don't know if Marjorie has the article and she can quick glance I know Big 10 is in there tennis ACC like all the big football schools but like um let's say the Big East isn't named in this and they don't get part of this settlement Like there's basketball schools So what happens to a school like North Carolina or Duke that have that are better basketball schools than they are football schools but
• 72:00 - 72:30 they're going to get this money So then how does the Big East compare with it It's just there's a lot of like pitfalls um to this Like they think it's solving a problem but I think in the end it's sort of creating more problems What's the difference between uh uh if this goes into place and the judge I think yesterday said she has a few more issues She wants the parties to go and for those who don't remember the former governor of Massachusetts he says it's a huge to college sports especially at the highest level My biggest problem with the way the whole thing works now is the schools
• 72:30 - 73:00 have been removed from the primary relationship with the student athletes And so the judge said yesterday she favors this There are a few more details they'd like them to work out likely to be implemented by her in the near future What's the difference between $20 million in NIL payments and having them just be employees of Ohio State I I don't mean this in a cynical way I mean it's just Jim I don't I I don't disagree Um and I don't know again like I suppose it's you may you might be facing some of
• 73:00 - 73:30 some similar issues like let's say we'll use Ohio State um as the example So let's say Ohio State like do you then automatically pay your football team the most money because they bring in the most money Is it is it revenue driven Is it fair across the board I mean you know like your your head football coach certainly makes more than your head swimming and diving coach at Ohio I don't even know if Ohio State has a swimming and diving program but we'll just go with it Um you know those there's probably a massive disparity
• 73:30 - 74:00 between those two contracts And is it just like hey this is what we've decided to invest in Um do kids not even go to school anymore Is there are just to me and let me be clear I think they should be paid They I I agree but I think it's it's gotten to a point now where they're not student athletes anymore Not like maybe just make them paid employees of the school And then if you want to take if you want to take classes you know I don't know maybe they lobs like if you say "Yeah I want to go to college here as well." Well okay you
• 74:00 - 74:30 can take classes at you know that's part of your salary but we'll negotiate that into your contract Then maybe you set um a salary cap similar to the NFL similar to other sports where you have you know this like cap that you have to reach and you can't go over it so that there's some equity and competitive balance in sports because I think what's going to end up happening and I think we're definitely see we certainly saw it I think in um college basketball this year and men's college basketball it's the halves and the have nots How much can your boosters and how much can your
• 74:30 - 75:00 university afford to pay your student athletes through this NIL portal You're going to get the best people By the way in addition I don't want to give people more of a headache than we're giving them In addition it's hard donors and and alumni can give additional money to pay these people Oh yeah I get hit up all the time from Marquette I get like I get emails and you can I can donate if I so choose directly to an NIL fund I refuse to do it I mean I love Marquette basketball Um
• 75:00 - 75:30 but like to me that's not what how I choose to spend my alumni dollars but that's how that's how they get money now for kids You can check a box when you donate to your university if you want to donate to the name image and likeness fund to recruit athletes to go to your school Can I say one more thing for those who are old school and don't think college athletes should be paid I don't know if it's true in every state but most states in America the highest paid public employee in the state is the football or basketball coach for the big public university in the uh state So uh
• 75:30 - 76:00 you know we keep saying this we really have to invite Governor Baker on here to talk about a variety of things including He could probably certainly explain it better than I and better than us I would say Yeah So staying on uh college let's do the good story first Yukon Yukon women win their 12th title Uh first since first since 2016 and totally crush the defending national champion South Carolina University of South Carolina Yeah So can we discuss the thing we discuss every single year
• 76:00 - 76:30 that Yukon does well you and I How do you feel about uh uh a man uh he's the most successful coach in I think in the history of women's college basketball Uh Gino Arama uh he's the guy here How do you feel about that You know I've never cared about it because to me I don't care about it either He's hung up on it You're hung up on it He's hung up on it But like here's the thing If you're the best person for the job Yeah I want you as my head coach And if you haven't done anything like
• 76:30 - 77:00 we've seen female coaches do really terrible things to female athletes Like maybe it's not sexual assault or sexual harassment like we've seen but we've certainly seen female head coaches There's a there's a lawsuit going on right now at Harvard for a a female head coach that you so desperately want to coach all of your women Yes You know berating them for their bodies berating them for their their um ethnicity Like this idea that women are automatically always better at the job for women isn't
• 77:00 - 77:30 necessarily right And we have a text from Bill from Beverly regarding this Jim oh I want to hear Well not sure why you always have to point out the coach at women's sports team is a male If a woman coached a man's team wouldn't that be would that be unfair I think you'd be celebrating it Well I mean that's the answer I'll tell you the answer to that question is women in coaching positions until recently virtually didn't exist So it wouldn't be unfair because essentially that would be trying to level If you look across college basketball Gino Oramma is now the exception not the rule There are very
• 77:30 - 78:00 few male head coaches And like when I when you think What's your problem with it Jim That's I guess I don't understand what your problem is opportunities for women who have been held down in terms of coaching positions in women's college sports Says that's not true But well I mean listen if if we were watching the women's NCAA um tournament and all we saw were men on the sidelines and Gino was pushing for for that to be the case across the board then yeah I would agree with you But
• 78:00 - 78:30 it's not like you look AC you look across college basketball and it's men men Now it's Gino and the ladies and and I think for him I mean he he he was very vocal prior to the national title game He was very vocal about how great it was to see more women like his the entire press room was all almost all women covering you know the women Can we play that sound He praised the fact he's looks out at his press conference This is Zorah who I was just criticizing He's expressing I guess his pride over the number of women are present at the press
• 78:30 - 79:00 conference This is right before the national championship game which they won Here's coach Oramama Before I leave here though I do have to say this and not just cuz it's women basketball but I've been to these final fours for 24 years This is the most women I've ever seen at a press conference since I started this 40 years ago and I'm just really really proud of you all There you go I love this guy I've always loved the guy You're going to sing He's going to sing about the little tiny gymnast in the Olympics You don't like it You don't
• 79:00 - 79:30 like it when you saw the men coaches of the young women that were in the Olympics getting hugged by their coaches Isn't that your problem They were not just being hugged by their coaches is part of the problem But that to me that to me is is a different thing Is different right That doesn't mean opportunity Okay I give up I give up I again I would say if the opportunity wasn't there for women anymore then you have a valid argument But I that's one area I think that we've seen some pretty significant growth This is a big moment Trendy Marjorie won Jim Zero Okay fine
• 79:30 - 80:00 Thank you It's great It's about time Marjorie and Gino or And to Gino's credit so he does that before the game Then after his team goes out and wins the national title and and blows out um South Carolina South Carolina he comes out and then complains to the NCAA about the unfair conditions that women and women's basketball players face that men don't Like the women play all these games lumped together Um they only have two sites for
• 80:00 - 80:30 their re like regionals instead of four for the men He doesn't like the travel schedule where the men have six seven days between games and the women have two or three They're going cross country from Spokane down to Tampa like you It's hard as a professional athlete even a young professional athlete to compete at the highest level Didn't you hear me say you won I said you won already Gina she wants you to be six feet under Jim very can I take another unpopular position while you're here Certainly I don't think I I am very careful about
• 80:30 - 81:00 not using words like choke when it comes to college athletes because they're young Yes People But are you going to say that about Houston No I have never seen a worse fade than Duke Duke in the men's champ men's semifinals I assume people even if you don't follow you know who Cooper Flag is The won all the awards Best college basketball player freshman at Duke He's from Maine which obviously is the dreaded local angle That was one of the worst collapses in the last three minutes of the game They were up 14
• 81:00 - 81:30 points with like six minutes seven minutes to go in the second half and they completely fell apart Now in in Duke's defense Houston is the Ken Palm number one best ranked defense Like they were they're an unbelievable defensive team Houston is they're not as talented Like their their players aren't as talented but Kelvin Samson is an experienced head coach and he just dial them up But I think you know what I think I think Duke thought "Oh we're up 14 We're gonna win We're gonna go and we've got Cooper flag and we're gonna win the title." I think they took their
• 81:30 - 82:00 lead for granted Weren't they up like six with like 30 seconds or something I think they were up like six 14 just They were up 14 like with like six and a half or seven minutes to go You didn't watch your game You're a big basketball fan I I missed it I'm sorry Can I ask you a question What do you think about Gino Oryma coaching the women's mid UN Oh we did that already I'm sorry He's the best He is the best by far That's hard You know one last question about this since you know I don't I know almost no By the way Houston lost in the national title game too They completely blew it in the final seconds They didn't They were up
• 82:00 - 82:30 by double digits They were up They blew it They had They couldn't even get a shot off in the final like seven seconds and and Florida held on to win They turned the ball over in Florida Question for you who've been in and around professional athletes some friends Obviously you've covered zillions of them through the years Margory and I off the air still talk She talks about a horrible column she wrote 24 years ago I talk about a horrible radio show we did 12 years ago when a and a great athlete
• 82:30 - 83:00 like Cooper Flag arguably blows the game at the end with a miss shot and a foul Y the same day that he wins the best player in college basketball Does that stay with that level of an athlete forever or do or do they have the ability to just move on and go to the next game I I hope Well I I think there's a balance right Because I as soon as you started talking about that I thought about I my mind immediately went to football and went to Aaron Rogers and Tom Brady Those were two guys who even
• 83:00 - 83:30 though they ended up excelling at great levels they always held on to slights or missteps in the past you know but that was always they always found something that they underestimated in Michigan right Underestimated at Michigan Aaron Rogers falls in the draft Um you know the Patriots go out and draft Jimmy Garopppolo and suddenly Tom Brady gets better Uh you know so you see it all the time I think And so if Cooper Flag is an elite great athlete he won't completely
• 83:30 - 84:00 forget that He'll remember that he blew it and had an opportunity to win a national title and then go on to the NBA And hopefully he doesn't let it like cloud his um cloud his ability or his confidence But hopefully he uses it and says "I never want that to happen again." Did you read his GPA in the paper this morning No I didn't 4.0 Wow Wow That's impressive I mean but you know what I always wonder when you're watching the NBA games somebody be that they're having an off night They just can't hit the side of a barn but they
• 84:00 - 84:30 keep doing the three-pointers anyway They're missing and they're missing and they're missing and they're missing Yeah but would you when you think after you miss like you know 12 out of 15 you might think that's not what you say What do you say every time we're watching an NBA game Too many three-point shots What do you say What do I say Look at that body Oh well do you say that or do you not say that And you can't help but notice the man in the NBA Marjorie I said this on my show Or the men in the NFL for that matter I said this on my show yesterday Um you know the Patriots just um traded away Joe Milton the like
• 84:30 - 85:00 the quarterback Like he told everybody that the reason he was unhappy in New England apparently behind the scenes told everyone is cuz he thought that he should be challenging Drake May to be the number one quarterback on the Patriots And to your point they keep putting up and I said "Boy I wish I had the confidence of a of a young of a 20some man." It is It is sort of unbelievable I figured they have been they've been superstars since they were 11 probably So they they probably feel pretty good about things to always think of Treny Casey who's anchor and reporter NBC Sports Boston and BPR contributor
• 85:00 - 85:30 Thank you so much Treny Love to talk to you Coming up after a quick break CNN's John King zooms in on the latest political headlines Of course we're going to talk to him about the tariff situation We're going to talk about some pre-court decisions on deportations and the marches that took place all across America uh last Saturday You're listening to Boston Public Radio 897GBH broadcasting live from the Boston Public Library and streaming at youtube.com/GBH News [Music]
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• 86:30 - 87:00 [Music] Welcome back to Boston Public Radio She is Marjorie Egan I am uh Jim Browy We are back here tomorrow with Juliet Cayam We have Ask the Auditor Diana Daglio joins us You can call in your questions or ask them right here in the 1:00 hour And on the 25th of April whenever that is the governor will be here for an hour as well Uh and by the way today at 1:30
• 87:00 - 87:30 Andres Nelson's uh music director the BSO will join us in person at the library Joined now on Zoom by uh John King chief national correspondent for CNN man behind the great reporting project all over the map Welcome John Greetings from Totally Peaceful Nothing happening here Welcome to YouTube Yeah exactly Yeah nothing happening down there That's true We're going to get to some of what has been happening in just a second but uh well the tariffs have been happening So uh what is the latest The market's not quite so bad today as it has been uh before but
• 87:30 - 88:00 um people are kind of panicking nonetheless What do you think What's happening It's a really Look this is a this is a really interesting political decision We've talked about before Um Donald Trump you know doing this It's one issue he's believed in for some time doing it despite all the market turmoil um being um much less reactive to market market turmoil than he was in his first term when he closely followed the stock market and kind of sometimes corrected himself when the markets were down You're right the market stabilized late
• 88:00 - 88:30 yesterday and relatively stable today even a rally today Um I'm not smart enough to get into the psychology of all that I think that you know if but if you look at go back to day one of the Trump presidency the markets are down uh and there's considerable turmoil and you have more and more big players in financial markets like Jamie Diamond saying the possibility of a recession is on the rise and urging the president to reverse course Um he did speak to the acting president of South Korea and they seem to be on the verge of some kind of an agreement The Trump White House says
• 88:30 - 89:00 that you know he's using this essentially as a giant club uh to bully or scare or incentivize you pick your word for it countries to come to the table Um but they're also saying things that one of his trade people is on Capitol Hill talking about the relationship with Australia Uh again a you know a democracy a very important national security partner a very important um piece of the how do you contain China conversation Um a lot of what they're saying it just isn't true It doesn't sniff the you know pass the
• 89:00 - 89:30 fact check sniff Uh but the turmoil on the tumult is self-inflicted and um you're getting a lot of grumbling most of it private from Republicans uh saying "Mr President okay but um you know try to fix this or at least stabilize this because the longer this goes on the more likely the party thinks it pays the political price." Trump doesn't seem to care about that right now You know John I I have to say well obviously you're right about the grumbling from Republicans mostly being behind the scenes but I have to say this is the greatest number of Republicans in
• 89:30 - 90:00 Congress that I've seen who are actually saying some things publicly when you have Ted Cruz uh uh being critical when you have in the business community big-time supporters of Donald Trump like Bill Aman who we've talked about a lot because he was involved in making sure that Claudian Gay was no longer the president of uh Harvard And then this is unbelievable Peter Navaro his key trade guy who people have seen sort of like an attack dog You've seen him on television
• 90:00 - 90:30 and Elon Musk get into it I'll start at the end and then you can explain to people what's going on Here is uh what uh Musk uh tweeted this morning according to the Washington the New York Post Navaro again this is Elon Musk talking about a key member of the Trump trade team Navaro is truly a What he says here is demonstrably false Tesla has the most Americanmade cars Navaro is dumber than a sack of bricks Wow
• 90:30 - 91:00 So uh can you work backwards and then tell us what you think the impact of uh Musk going after Navaro is going to be Well it's interesting to me and that Navaro has been with Trump from day one and he has Trump's ear on this issue Musk has been with Trump in this last campaign uh and in the early days of this new administration U he's been very important to Trump in terms of pumping political money in doing the quote unquote Doge work going through federal agencies That's caused a lot of controversy too But Trump by and large
• 91:00 - 91:30 supports it because he wants to take a slice out of the federal government But Musk is now in a public fight with the president of the United States By the way when you're fighting with Peter Navaro you're fighting with Donald Trump U most of Musk's criticism has been about tariffs not without Trump's names or about Navaro where it's highly personal A lot of what Musk does and just look at X the former Twitter It it's a personality attackbased cesspool Uh and Musk accelerates that game Everything's personal If you say you know I don't know if I like Wednesdays
• 91:30 - 92:00 he attacks you It becomes personal It doesn't become a calendar conversation But it's a remarkable split between two people who are very close to the president of the United States who have almost unfettered access to the Oval Office Um Musk making a big break saying that the approach on tariffs is bad Now Musk is an international businessman who trying to sell Teslas around the world who has an international satellite based internet company Uh so he is impacted here um just as he's impacted when he's going into all these agencies and cutting government spending when he has all these government contracts So
• 92:00 - 92:30 there's a there's a should Musk be involved in this question which you know if the Trump administration had any serious ethics people maybe they would look at those questions but then it is remarkable um to have a public blood feud between two very senior advisers to the president over what is a central economic policy of Trump period but especially this early Trump administration that you know I'm talking about it I I talked about it first and it's my bad actually in terms of the the angst among Republicans and you're right Jim more and more are
• 92:30 - 93:00 speaking Yeah this is an this is like an unwiring um an attempt to unwire or disconnect a global economic order that has been in place for some time that yes always has periodic issues and fights you know with China more than anybody else because they are an unfair player in the practice with our neighbors to the north Canada and Mexico with the European Union there's always fights over this issue that issue this product that product but this that's not what this is about this is about Trump trying to say the United States can dictate the economic terms terms of the global
• 93:00 - 93:30 economy not just the US economy You know I I yesterday it was Netanyahu The press conference was yesterday right The Trump Netanyahu press conference and I happened to be able to watch the whole thing I I I I don't think I've ever watched or maybe I have before but um I it was so disheartening You know the president is calling this person stupid and that person a disgrace and this thing this other thing a disgrace and and no sort of grace for the people who've lost their jobs you know or for
• 93:30 - 94:00 the people who were in a panic about their retirement funds No sort of comfort at all to what people are going through And it was just I don't know I I can't imagine what it's like to be in a room with that guy um by yourself when the cameras on because that's what he was doing when the cameras were on And I guess that's just standard operating procedure Everybody's stupid Everybody's disgraced Nobody knows what they're talking about and not a word of comfort Empathy is not part of his you know play
• 94:00 - 94:30 deck if you will Um back when Joe Biden who's never a great communicator but back when Joe Biden you know early on when he was vice president under Barack Obama and early on in his presidency that was one thing he was actually quite well known for is his empathy Being able to go into a room because of all the personal loss Biden went through to go into a room and even if you're doing hard things you know have some compassion for the person you're dealing with or be able to draw them into a conversation about grief or about difficulty Uh that's not that's not how Donald Trump does it It just isn't And uh and you're right it can be very off-putting at times and it can seem
• 94:30 - 95:00 insensitive and it can seem cold Um again I go back to the point about the economic turmoil he's caused with the terrorists Um he often doesn't seem to care He thinks he's right and he's going to do it his way Well that is one of the one of the theories you know about why he's done this in such a haphazard way like Doge not kind of carefully thinking it through and figuring out which countries and how to go about kind of a slash and and burn thing but that he doesn't care He's he's I mean he's talking about running for a third term but I think the consensus is he doesn't
• 95:00 - 95:30 have to worry about getting elected a third time And if if the ship goes down the ship goes down He's had this What does that mean the ship goes down That this he wants to be he wants to reset the the global order He wants everybody to come begging him to to reduce their tariffs He wants to have power over every country in the world uh and wants to see them crawl to him for relief and that that's what this is about It's about asserting his dominance over the the world Well I I hear that
• 95:30 - 96:00 but John and I tend to agree with it until you see he threatened China and China says essentially screw you and now the tariffs are going up to 100% which I'm sure will thrill people in America who buy iPhones and computers and other electronic kinds of things So I you know I know it's discussed on CNN all the time and as you know we're faithful watchers I I don't accept Marjory's analysis of this even though that's the
• 96:00 - 96:30 dominant that he doesn't give a damn anymore When more and more Republicans start getting screamed at back home and you know this 10 times better than we about the price of everything about my retirement account disappearing despite one good day today It seems to me more and more Republicans are finally going to grow a you know what he needs and do something 67 So does he hold the does he hold the line on everything for forever as Marjorie is suggesting I think it's an excellent question worth watching in
• 96:30 - 97:00 the sense that one of the things we do know about the pace of Trump in this second term is that he um remembers very well you know the midterm elections in 2018 Nancy Pelosi becomes speaker of the house the Democrats can then block and frustrate um the Trump agenda They weren't getting much done in Congress anyway Remember they were going to repeal and replace Obamacare They were going to do a whole lot of things in the Trump term and they passed the Trump tax cuts and they really couldn't get much else done legislatively in the first term But then Nancy Pelosi came along and they got nothing done Not only that
• 97:00 - 97:30 um he doesn't like you know strong opponents in the Oval Office um getting in his face especially if that happens to be a strong woman In this case it would be Hakeem Jeff we assume if Democrats take the House There is that theory Jim that he should listen to Republicans and that he's mindful of what happened in 2018 So maybe he will listen to Republicans when in the last week 10 days or so you're right increasingly over the last week or 10 days more and more have been seeking private meetings with him but also have been speaking publicly about sir this is too much too fast too far too unfocused and undisiplined Uh that's what's coming through But I'll give you the other
• 97:30 - 98:00 theory at this very same moment that that pressure has been coming or that criticism has been coming he is now talking openly more and more about the idea that he can have a third term that there is no bar on him having a third term So if you're not uh if you don't pay any attention to the rules and the fact that been pretty established constitutional law in the United States for a long time um that a president can serve two terms and then has to go u you don't care about elections if you're planning on keeping power anyway Um and so you know back to the empathy question
• 98:00 - 98:30 does he have empathy for federal workers You know do I'm not going to argue that the federal government can't be downsized or leaned ma made more efficient and leaner and meaner and a lot of departments would shrink and maybe some departments would grow Uh but the way he's doing it certainly does not show a lot of compassion and empathy Um there are a lot of Republicans who complained about this in the first term and we'll see where it goes in this term They didn't have a lot of empathy for them either More political empathy if you will understanding of their difficult situation back home So you could make a case that the lessons of the first term should tell him it's
• 98:30 - 99:00 going to be really hard not to lose the house Really hard The majority you you know put up a hand and you got a couple fingers left over in terms of the size of the Republican majority in the House Pretty hard given history not to lose that majority So why would he make it worse and make it even harder I get that argument but I think there's a flip side argument that um this is about Trump and it's not about them and um so be it You know uh John uh uh one last thing I didn't see the Netanyahu press conference so my apologies if both of
• 99:00 - 99:30 you know Well I just happened to be home and I turned it on and I was standing there like a fool watching the whole thing getting more and more upset But yesterday we had Fiona Hill in studio and we talked about the mess that uh the uh the non ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia has evolved into when uh Trump two nights ago flying back from Florida did that uh ad hoc press availability on Air Force One and he was asked what he was going to discuss with Netanyahu and he leaned forward and said tariffs and
• 99:30 - 100:00 never mentioned the fact that what 24 hours earlier what is it how many hours earlier it was earlier than that those 14 aid workers right uh which uh Israel said uh were threatening and moving in the direction of their troops in fact the video the New York Times got showed that their their uh emergency lights were on They were the vehicles were identified Did the the hard show in Gaza even become part of the conversation As far as we know the way it became part of
• 100:00 - 100:30 the conversation is Trump stood by the idea that he thinks the United States should take it over and own it Um that that's the way to make it work Uh there was not any um there were no words from Trump about how you know the Israeli military or the Netanyahu government should be more careful uh that the Netanyahu government should go back to a ceasefire No no that that's the you know um again there was a lot of criticism of the Biden administration obviously in um in for a lot of people understandably saying why did why is there no effort or at least a more public effort or more you know tough policy effort sticks
• 100:30 - 101:00 effort denying weapons and all that and Biden did a few pauses here and there but think about the criticism of Biden for not doing enough um under Trump not only is the fighting back underway Israeli attacks back underway in Gaza but Israel is doing uh additional expansion in the West Bank as well And they lied about the ambulances right They lied to say that they didn't have their lights on and they were traveling in the wrong way It turns out they did have their lights on and they were traveling in the right way and and the Israeli Netanyahu has a green light from Trump and he knows it Yeah we're talking
• 101:00 - 101:30 to John King So John we're always hoping there's something great to look forward to Marjorie and I agree the hundred million dollar military parade on June 14th should be a great great day Is this real I rem I think I remember in Trump one he wanted to have a military parade because he was jealous that Putin gets to have one and he doesn't get to have one Is this real Is this going to happen It's his birthday by the way I should say June 14th Is this going to happen It's an anniversary of the United States Army and it's his birthday on the same
• 101:30 - 102:00 day Um they are certainly um laying plans to do it They tried to do it You're right That's a little bit of cautionary note there They did think about this and talk about it in Trump one and it never happened Uh but there the mayor of DC says uh that what she has heard is a parade from the Pentagon across the bridges into DC to Pennsylvania and you and the White House Um I drive across those bridges quite frequently I'd be careful how much heavy equipment you bring across we may finally get infrastructure
• 102:00 - 102:30 week in a Trump administration Horrible Forgive the bad joke there It was a bad joke but God was a great joke No it was it was horri was horrible And this is where you end up sometimes You're trying to find a This is actually I I talk to myself about this all the time because I'm a parent in addition to what I do for a living And you try you try to find sarcasm or cynicism or dark humor sometimes to just we do just hit the pause button and to try to shake things off and uh and things like that you know that's that's
• 102:30 - 103:00 bad That's a bad joke Um it's a bad joke Does it this is this is a conversation you know it's not my call It's the call of voters around the country And I know you know you saw some protests this a lot of protests a lot of marches over the past weekend This is a conversation the American people no matter who you voted for should be in constantly no matter who your president is But this one is kind of action-packed and controversial outside the box about what do you want your president to do and do we want you know Mayday style parades like they have in Moscow or Kim Jong-un
• 103:00 - 103:30 style parades like they have in Pyongyang um where the military parades by the house you know the house the White House in this case where our leader lives or where the central square of our country is and they have the full salute and we have the marching band Is that something we want Okay Not my call Not my call Um but I I do think that in this administration you know a lot of these conversations are being stirred Um how strong do we want our president to be What happened to our legislative and our judicial branches in our supposedly
• 103:30 - 104:00 you know three tiered three stool um equal branches of government Um how do we want our president to talk about federal workers Even if you make a decision to lay a lot of them off and even if you think that's the right decision how do you want to talk about that So I I could go on and on and on do think there are a number of conversations being stirred beyond the specifics of what the new administration is doing It's not so new anymore We're getting closer to 100 days anyway But beyond the specifics of what they're doing but how they're doing it and what it says about America And again
• 104:00 - 104:30 whether you love everything you've seen whether you dislike everything you've seen or you're somewhere you know in that range in between um I think this should be part of our civic debate is what do we want and is this what is this anywhere close to what we want Talking to CNN's John King So there have been a couple decisions from the Supreme Court 72 decision that they can uh that it was okay to fire the provisional workers in these various uh uh federal departments So clearly Trump won on that one It's kind of a split decision I think on the
• 104:30 - 105:00 on the Venezuelan deportations On the one hand they're saying you can use this ancient war act uh to deport uh people out of the country like the alleged Venezuelan gang members But they also said you got to have due process So that means that the head of ICE Honen who talks about uh deporting people based on their tattoos um is going to have to do more than that So it's I think it's a win for due process at least I think that one's more of a split
• 105:00 - 105:30 decision in the sense the White House is you know saying it's good for them uh in that they have the the power They do have the authority but you're right the Supreme Court did say you can't just do it willy-nilly You have to have process due process Um and then in the provisional workers case um the 7 to2 tells you um that you know even some of the liberals read the law and said well like it or not I think the law says the president has the power here when it comes to provisional or temporary workers But that's not a final decision That's just stopping a judge who said you have to rehire them Y they're going to go through the process So you have
• 105:30 - 106:00 two cases there Marjorie of what are going to end up being you know a dozen or more um questions about executive authority executive power what can and cannot the president do in the case of the deportations What maybe can a president do but not the way this president is doing it You know do you have to have a step Do you have to have a pro more of a clear process that give people at least time to make their case before you can't automatically throw them out of the country Um you've heard Trump talk the other day again about the idea that he hopes El Salvador you know would take um non-immigrants who are in
• 106:00 - 106:30 American prisons criminals Uh well you know again those people may have committed crimes for which they deserve to be incarcerated or a jury and a judge have said they should be incarcerated but they still have constitutional rights and I don't think they can be thrown out of their country By the way all of these questions are going to be tested for for months and I think years I think the entire term I'm so glad you mentioned that We get constant texts about people saying that people who are here they have they do have a lot of rights They have due process rights right to legal counsel They uh cannot be
• 106:30 - 107:00 uh thrown out of the country for their first amendment rights They have rights under the fourth amendment for reasonable searches and seizures They they have most of the rights if not all but most of the rights And I think there's a great understanding from like dozens of our texters every day It goes it goes back to the question I was raising earlier that you know that that he has stirred so many conversations about who are we right as a country and who do we want to be and how do we want to treat the people that we might be furious at who may have committed crimes in our communities um but but do they at
• 107:00 - 107:30 least deserve a basic portfolio of rights because there but for the grace of God goes you and I um you know whether rightly accused or wrongly accused that you know how where do we want the default to be right you know you know we don't have double jeopardy in this treat You know we respect the process when the whistle when the whistle's blown the game is supposed to be over When the whistle is the judge making the final decision and you exhaust all your appeals or some else and Trump has raised a lot of questions about you know he didn't lose the 2020 election for example Um you at some point the process has to stop but I just
• 107:30 - 108:00 spoke that sentence To agree with that sentence you have to respect the process right Even if you lose and again that's one of the conversations we're having So John we only have a minute left Uh if you combine Cy Booker's 24 hours without going to the bathroom which I I think is even more impressive than the content of his his uh speech making as a man of a certain age Amen That's right Well there's another one He's standing talking to you right now too Uh obviously the Wisconsin elections
• 108:00 - 108:30 smaller margins of victory in Florida over uh for Republicans and obviously a pretty huge gathering across this country of people who want to resist uh the worst of uh Donald Trump Is this in I know it's anecdotal but are Democrats emboldened by this or are we where we were two weeks ago in terms of uh a lowp profofile Democratic opposition with some exceptions Obviously I don't think we're where we were two or three weeks
• 108:30 - 109:00 ago I do think you do see evidence of the beginning of a fight uh the beginning of a resistance the beginning of trying to channel the frustration whether it's frustration whether it's anger whether it's you know some emotion of your choice in between I don't I don't know where it's going Uh I don't know how effective it's going to be I don't know you know if if is Senator Booker or someone else go going to become a leader You know I think there will be leaders plural in the Democratic party trying to step up and we'll see in 2026 and then onto 2028 you know as that somebody does somebody or just a couple of people emerge as the key people Uh but I do think you see the beginning of
• 109:00 - 109:30 a fight I do think you see that a lot of this conversation understandably has been louder in Washington and around Washington because more federal workers live here The White House is here The national media is here the political media is here Um and I think you're beginning to see that it is starting to reach further out into the country Um and and so I I I it's not two or 3 weeks ago I I don't know exactly what it is or what it means or how big it is and how important it is but you do see some energy and some fight in the Democrats
• 109:30 - 110:00 and and people progressive movements Trump critics some people fighting probably don't consider themselves Democrats but they're mad about something or they're angry about something And and I think again you know so that that if if you want to say the bear was asleep and now the bear is awake uh I think we need to keep an eye on the bear Before you go uh we're out of time but just want to say to make you smile at the end Mayor Woo brought Marjorie and me Red Sox hats today Oh yes And if it fit my head I'd be wearing it for you but it doesn't So in any case John it's great to see you We'll talk to you soon John King
• 110:00 - 110:30 Thank you We have been speaking with John King chief national correspondent for CNN and the man behind the reporting project all over the map Coming up after a quick break just enough time for two more things but it's only going to be one more thing because Jim today did not get his act together You're listening to Boston Radio 897 GBH Horrible Well I didn't get my act together the other day You didn't get your act together today You're listening to it We're broadcasting from the Boston Public Library
• 110:30 - 111:00 The Trump administration is offering refugee status to some white South Africans That's expanding racial divisions in that country and encouraging those who want to secede The next logical step is to recognize a territory where we can make our own decisions where we are free I'm Ari Shapiro The Rainbow Nation reels on All Things Considered from NPR News today at 4 here on GBH News 897 [Music]
• 111:00 - 111:30 Support for our programs comes from you and Boston Lyric Opera presenting Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel an 80th anniversary production featuring Jamie Barton and more Directed by Anne Bogart April 4th through 13th at the Emerson Colonial Theater Tickets at blow.org And Mass General Brigham Health Plan ranked number one in member satisfaction among commercial health plans in Massachusetts by JD Power for the second consecutive year Details at mgbhp.org/ everyday
• 111:30 - 112:00 I'm Jim Brady [Music] Welcome back to Boston Public Radio Jim Brady Marjorie Egan At 1:30 today we'll be joined by Andress Nelson's from BSO Marjorie already outed me I was unprepared So it's one more thing Take it away I think it's going to have to be a very quick one because we're almost out of time here But anyway you know you think about it Jim Vaccines against death and suffering from horrible diseases like measles Florida in the
• 112:00 - 112:30 water protects you know from endless cavities and having your teeth fall out You know these are things I think we want Uh no measles or almost no measles and and good teeth Haven't you noticed Americans really have good teeth compared to the rest of the country Uh but that's the problem We have a conspiracy theorist running our healthcare at the federal level That would be RFK Jr and he seems to be against everything that seems to be a good idea for our health Now he wants the CDC to stop recommending fluoride in the water alleging that even in the
• 112:30 - 113:00 small amounts this in most water uh systems uh with absolutely no credible evidence to back it up It's been debunked over and over He says fluoride causes all sorts of horrible diseases This is maybe in big amounts but not in the small amounts that are regulated But you know what the good news is We're almost out of time here No The good news is the CDC can't do that It's mostly local decision Yeah it's a local decision I think there are 12 states that do it statewide but it's a local decision I do not see us in the city of Boston falling for this guy's bunk I don't have time to get into the terrible
• 113:00 - 113:30 disgrace over the measles where a second uh child has died and even then he can't be fullthroated about the importance of getting a a measles vaccination That was a very healthy child unvaccinated died from the measles 8 years old totally unnecessary death Anyway coming up after the 1:00 news going to talk about tariffs open the text lines and call lines How you feeling [Music]
• 113:30 - 114:00 [Music] 8773018970 Cozy up with a good book at GBH's virtual book club Beyond the Page Here's how it works Check out any of the books by this month's featured author Then join us for a virtual discussion with the author Learn more at gbh.org/events Support for GBH comes from you and Atlantic Design Center by Eldridge Lumber and Hardware Committed to helping you achieve your vision for a new kitchen or bathroom and guiding you from design to completion with showrooms
• 114:00 - 114:30 in York and Portland Maine AtlanticDesignctctr.com and Turkish Airlines flying to over 300 destinations worldwide including Athens Seoul Mumbai and more A complete list of destinations and more information is available at turkishairines.com You're listening to 897 WGBHD1 Boston online at gbhnews.org
• 114:30 - 115:00 GBH News what matters to you 897 GBH live from the Boston Public [Applause] [Music] Library Live from NPR News I'm Lakshmi Sang The US Supreme Court is clearing the path for the Trump administration to lay off more than 16,000 probationary employees at least for now The dismissals are part of a much bigger
• 115:00 - 115:30 costcutting campaign that has cost the jobs of tens of thousands of people throughout the federal government In a 7 to2 decision affecting probationary workers the court granted the government's request for a stay on a preliminary lower court injunction that blocked the firings The stay is temporary It is centered on the question of whether nine nonprofits who are challenging the dismissals have standing to sue After a three-day nose dive US stocks are rebounding sharply on hopes the US and its trading partners will put
• 115:30 - 116:00 their trade war to rest President Trump's betting his policies will give you or if the economy slows down or falls into recession there won't be any question about whose economy this is President Trump has made a historically dramatic economic policy move here based on a conviction that he has held since the 1980s If he succeeds he can claim all the credit but if he fails he and his party will get all of the blame Tamar Keith reporting The administration's telling migrants who enter the US using an online app to
• 116:00 - 116:30 leave immediately Here's NPR's Joel Rose The Department of Homeland Security says it sent formal termination notices to migrants who are allowed to enter the US through the CBP1 app though DHS did not say how many have received those notices More than 900,000 migrants used the app to schedule appointments at ports of entry CBP-1 was a central part of the Biden administration's strategy to relieve pressure at the border by creating temporary legal pathways under an authority known as humanitarian parole The Trump administration quickly dismantled that policy and is now urging
• 116:30 - 117:00 migrants to leave immediately It's not clear how the termination notices will affect migrants who've already applied for asylum or other protections in the US Joel Rose NPR News Washington Egypt France and Jordan say they held a joint phone call with Trump yesterday about reinstating an Israel Hamas ceasefire in Gaza More from NPR's Hadil Alchi Egyptian officials close to talks to end the war in Gaza tell NPR that the mediator's latest proposal includes a 40 to 60day ceasefire in exchange for a
• 117:00 - 117:30 number of hostages The Trump administration's sweeping tariffs could destabilize the global economy As Jill Kaufman reports Western Mass travel and tourism is expected to feel that impact The enemy of travel and tourism is a decline in disposable income says Jonathan Butler at one Bergkshire among the regional tourism councils in Massachusetts Butler says the Bergkshire's economy has some delicate components to it from healthcare to the performing arts Because of our population and the geographic nature of the Birkers anything that's going to
• 117:30 - 118:00 continue to raise costs for consumers is something that we're exceptionally concerned about We're very fortunate where we are situated in that we are close to major population bases like New York and Boston The tariffs will have an impact says Mary Kay Widra with Explore Western Mass But location location location Those are primary feeder markets for us There are a lot of people in those markets all with different levels of spending when they plan a trip Widra says they'll continue to promote Western Mass as a quote great value
• 118:00 - 118:30 destination and see how this all plays out Jill Kaufman reporting Starting today Felmouth police officers will be wearing body cameras with their uniforms That's according to a Facebook post by the police department The body bodywn camera program was piloted this past winter Facebook post says that the program is meant to increase transparency and strengthen the community trust in police Depending on the situation the post says you may be recorded Red Sox play the Blue Jays at
• 118:30 - 119:00 Fenway tonight 6:45 start at the Bruins in New Jersey the Celtics at New York It is 41° in Boston This is GBH News Support for NPR comes from NPR stations Other contributors include Dana Farber Cancer Institute whose scientists worked to lay the foundation for CDK46 inhibitors which are increasing the survival rate for many advanced breast cancers dana.org/ / [Music]
• 119:00 - 119:30 everywhere to rowdy I am Marjgerie Egan Welcome to hour number three of Boston Public Radio 897GBH We are broadcasting live from the Boston Public Library and streaming at YouTube.com/gbhnews Thank you We're going to be joined in about a half an hour by Andress Nelson's the music director conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra We're very excited to talk to him Tomorrow we're going to be joined here at the library by Juliet Cayam and Diana Daglio She is the auditor for another edition of Ask the Auditor taking our questions and yours
• 119:30 - 120:00 Hello again Jim Hello again Marjorie So Shark Tank billionaire Mark Cuban took to the internet recently to tell consumers to buy buy It's not a bad idea he wrote on Blue Sky to go to the local Walmart or big box retailer and buy lots of consumables right now even if it's made in the USA They will jack up the price and blame it on tariffs But much like Trump's own tariff roll out Cuban has since deleted his post and admitted he has no idea what will happen to the market So when the billionaires are confused about what happens next what
• 120:00 - 120:30 does that mean for everybody else Are you stockpiling basic necessities all the early days of co or maybe rushing to replace items expensive items like cell phones or cars or computers that are made overseas before they run out and prices skyrocket So day whatever 3 4 whatever it is of Trump tariff talk 8773018970 are you doing anything to prepare for these tariffs early buying of big ticket items and stockpiling of
• 120:30 - 121:00 average cost items where the price is going to go up in all likelihood pretty dramatically everything I've read Marjorie says the average cost to a consumer not including a huge purchase like a computer or a cell phone or a car or a truck or that sort of will be somewhere between $2,100 and $3,500 a year That is a huge amount of money It's $40 to $70 a week in additional expenses because of these tariffs Yeah Somebody just texted about Nintendo announcing
• 121:00 - 121:30 their new gaming console the Switch 2 moments before the Trump unveiled liberation day tariffs And Nintendo postponed all pre-ordering of the console while they evaluate the tar the tariffs You got a story about that the price of them um for the Nintendo Switch too and a lot of electronic equipment Apple phones uh a lot of kind of scary stuff about how much the Apple phone could cost But we have a text from John from Westford who says "Go tariffs The US is finally putting Americans first and not screwing over the next generation." Um John you know you're a
• 121:30 - 122:00 really John's a really good caller He's a fairly conservative person I hope you'd call because every single person who does not work for Donald Trump who speaks about the quote benefit of the tariffs meaning American manufacturing is going to come back here talks about it for the most part being years There was a guy last night on CNN who's one of the international experts on consumer electronics He said bringing the iPhone to the United States to be manufactured here which requires great precision and there apparently scores of locations in
• 122:00 - 122:30 China where it's done he said would take on average two and a half years And you know what he said the price of a thousand dollar self uh iPhone would be 3,400 $3,400 Boy that's a great deal Bring it back to the United States Well the other thing that they talk about and again I am not an economist Oh you're not No I'm not But I've been reading a lot of them and they also talk about the uncertainty that you know and that's that's one of the concerns about getting out of this mess because even if three weeks from now Trump said never mind never mind and changed a lot of this the
• 122:30 - 123:00 uncertainty other countries feel they talk about Apple and a lot of other companies moved a lot of their manufacturing from China because of the tariffs in the first Vietnam to Vietnam and now Vietnam has got this 46% tariff Now Vietnam apparently is willing to talk to the president about some kind of u deal Um but but that's the problem that they that you don't want to move your plant and spend all that kind of money if you don't know if these are going to last or not last right No investment Uh and by the way I'm not an
• 123:00 - 123:30 economist either I'll give you an example By the way my daughter has my younger daughter has a lease car The lease expires in July She's looking to buy something now even though frankly she can't afford it terribly well right now because the prices are going to drop dramatically Well exactly She did That's what I mean It didn't go so well 877301897 We want to know preparation you're doing I mean it is analogous whether you were buying toilet paper tuna fish whatever was in short supply
• 123:30 - 124:00 during what Somebody just texted and they just bought a year supply of toilet paper just in case Just in case Exactly 87730189 By the way why would somebody not if you have enough money to buy early something that it's a major ticket item where the price is likely to go up dramatically or if you can stockpile staples that aren't going to go bad Like for example you know what that apparently people are buying tons of Hair products makeup I guess that stuff doesn't go bad Shampoo that sort of
• 124:00 - 124:30 thing Cuz I guess apparently a lot of that stuff is made overseas Okay I I can't keep track of all these prices Here's interesting to see Joel in Connecticut read that That's a cautionary tale Jo I am hoarding the Boston library tickets and recording every moldy chestnut from Boston Public Library I can from the Boston Public Radio I should say in case tariffs are imposed on us here at BPR Exactly Guess who is on the phone One of our all-time favorites from Fall River That would be Liliana Hi Liliana How are you Liliana Oh Bondor Bond to you too Yeah What's up
• 124:30 - 125:00 Yes Okay I went to to the uh uh to the um to the I'm sorry I'm sorry That's okay It's okay I'm having That's fine Okay No what I am providing now I'm buying now is a lot of Italian pasta The imported one Yeah Uh the tomato to put away you know in a can A
• 125:00 - 125:30 can Yeah Lavatra coffee Yeah I like that And then I am going to Italy in June Oh and I am bringing an extra suitcase and I'm putting all the parigano cheese I can Oh you are something else The parmesano is $24 a pound now It's crazy Amazing Crazy Yes Yes Liliana did you did you go
• 125:30 - 126:00 to the protest Is that it says on this call screen or you went to the protest in Fall River or someplace else Tell us about it Fall River didn't have it We went to Tton There must have been about 300 people Wow And mostly women though Yeah I was very disappointed on that There was one guy that had the courage to come with a m car with a Tesla
• 126:00 - 126:30 you know the ugly the ugly car and he parked the right where we were parking and then when he left they got a a sounding boo So Liliana I have a question for you How do you feel about people who are your friends who own Teslas How do you feel about them I don't have any Oh I have I have You're off the list Voted for Trump
• 126:30 - 127:00 Oh god I'm sick Go ahead We play we play we play cards together Yeah And we cannot express our feelings and that really hurts me That really bothers me Especially I do not understand how people that are religious they are Catholic that they voted for Trump Let me tell you Liliana you are a gem No other Oh I'm coming I'm coming to Boston with a train When Oh you should come to
• 127:00 - 127:30 the I'm coming When are you coming Hey Liliana I'm going to put you on hold Uh talk to one of our producers about when you're coming to town and we'll make sure we'll see you at the library You're going to come over and see us Liliana Okay Oh yes absolutely With with gifts I bring gifts from forever Uh Liliana don't go away We're going to put you on hold and get the info on when you're coming to town I'm dying to meet this woman Yes me too Liliana is one of the great 8773018970 What was her first call about
• 127:30 - 128:00 Do you remember what the topic was Was about the mortadella down with the woman sued down Woman sued on procedur at Italy Do you know what's going to happen to the price of prochido I I roof to think what is going to happen But you know we have an anonymous texter who's who's thought ahead all the way through here This person says "I've been paying extra I've been buying extra toilet paper and paper towels every week since Trump was elected Pandemic me once shame on you Pandemic me twice shame on
• 128:00 - 128:30 me." There you go Christina in a car you're next on Boston Public Radio We're talking about how people are preparing for tariffs Hey there Hi Good Good afternoon You too So I just booked uh to have my heating system and my central air replaced Wow Wow Which I really didn't want to do right now but I figured in the long run it's the price is just going to keep going up
• 128:30 - 129:00 and up and up So were you worried about the infrastructure What is it metal aluminum whatever it is or the the the source of energy What were you worried about that caused you to act Uh the physical equipment The physical equipment Wow that's a major expenditure Yeah no kidding And I had to sell Whoops we lost you You had to sell in the toilet Oh you had to sell stock to buy this Boy it's like the double whammy
• 129:00 - 129:30 Christina thanks Good luck We appreciate your call You know a lot of people are saying they're they they're going out or or they already have bought new laptops bought new phones Uh uh uh our is it Dan our UPS driver who said that He's he's done that All awful A lot of people are planning ahead Yeah Woody the UPS driver I'm sorry I said Dan Woody the UPS driver Um Dan from Waltham bought new cell phones before the first round of of tariffs Um um Marine from London stockpiling absolutely electronics
• 129:30 - 130:00 uh a new tablet big items like a car and she says "I have no intention of buying an American car I wish I could buy a Canadian car." Well you know the point that we'll get back to your calls in a second the point that Mark Cuban made I'll quote him again Even if it's made in the USA they'll jack up the price and blame it on tariffs Don't you think it's going to Don't you think that kind of price gouging is going to happen from unethical business people who see an opportunity to make an extra buck I do I you know I do And you talk about business people upset about what's
• 130:00 - 130:30 happening the guy that co-founded Home Depot is one of the people that was speaking out today This Ken uh Lejun whatever his last name is saying well he he said he didn't understand the goddamn formula what was going on here Um and uh you know he's one of many business people that's been upset about this And the How about Bill Aman Harvard The tech guys the the bromance between Trump and the and the tech guys is not going uh that well As we know Mr Tech himself Elon Musk what he call what did he call Peter Navaro A
• 130:30 - 131:00 Dumb as a sack of bricks is what he said about Mororrow Anyway let's go to John in Westford Hi Oh this is Oh it is John Hey John Good to talk to you What's up Hi Thanks for calling Thank you for reading my Thank you for reading my text Of course Yeah Um yeah The only thing that I'm buying I think it's actually a good thing Um I think it will lower the deficit with these countries Uh the EU already agreed to zero tariffs which would be nice I think these are more recipical than or that's although I didn't know that talking about it Well
• 131:00 - 131:30 talking about it and doing it or two Go ahead Keep going Yeah I don't think they've done it Anyways but the the only thing that um I've I stockpile I guess you could say is medication Um because all of our medication comes from India or China And if there is a trade war something does go south like COVID with the supply chain distribution issues um a lot of medication the macrolytes Zpack um a moaticillin elixir for kids So I
• 131:30 - 132:00 recommend that everybody that has a monthly prescription try to get 90 days instead of one month You know John I don't know what we talked to you a lot and we really appreciate you calling Uh especially since we don't agree on much but uh let's assume Marjorie and I I think it's fair to say are upper middle class and can probably make it through a difficult handful of months How do you how do you feel about people who even if you and Trump are right who uh are
• 132:00 - 132:30 worried about their retirement savings disappearing and they're 68 years old ready to retire and their necessities the things they have to buy at the grocery store are probably within a few days going to go up dramatically So if even if down the line again you and Trump are right how do you feel about their plight and fear John Oh it feels terrible It's going to it is it's going to be painful all around I don't think it will be though But the next the way the rate we're going our
• 132:30 - 133:00 our grandkids our kids they're going to be screwed The economy was great You know when despite what Trump and Vance and all these other people say you know the economy was in pretty fabulous shape when Trump decided to bring it down a week or so ago You know that right I I don't No I don't agree with that at all Okay Well I mean people that live on a can of poop inflation was coming down dramatically But I guess John when I when I think about why the economy was a
• 133:00 - 133:30 mess I I think it's because uh rich people in the United States of America have since since Reagan in the 80s haven't paid their fair share fair share They get away with murder every year from the IRS because the IRS can't go after them because we don't want to raise the minimum wage to any place that's that's going to be enable people to get a job I don't think it's because of the trade uh situation we're in that that that the rich Yeah the I agree I agree The rich they don't pay taxes but it's because they don't have an earned
• 133:30 - 134:00 income Everything is capital gain Well it's because the way the tax laws are written I mean that's they can escape So it it seems to me that John is always great to talk to It just seems the crisis in America is we can't pay for housing we can't pay for medical care we can't pay for college These are all things that we could fix that have nothing to do with I'll tell you what the problem America is We don't care about anybody except ourselves I mean this whole while we trash and Musk and others for a lack of empathy don't you think the empathy quotient for the average American is going down pretty
• 134:00 - 134:30 dramatically too Well you know we always talk about how you know there's no more religion in the United States People were more worried about hell Jim they might rethink They are Why you looking at me when you're saying that I'm just saying if Donald Trump were worried about having a make you know meeting his maker maybe he'd behave himself better Let's go to Jenny in Providence Welcome to Boston Public Radio Jenny How are you Hey good good Hi Am I doing something weird with my phone No if you're getting an echo that happens But we hear you fine So if you
• 134:30 - 135:00 can suffer through uh we'll we're good Well I just have a question No one is talking Actually we're not good Jenny we're going to put you on hold We'll take one call and then we'll get back to you By the way the uh press person Carolyn Levit for the president is making official there'll be an extra 50% tariff on China starting at midnight which means the tariff on for example electronics from there will be a mere 104% And I just quickly looked it up but
• 135:00 - 135:30 our staff should double check me I don't think the European Union has agreed to any uh zero tariff talking about retaliatory tariffs against us but I could be I could be wrong Daniel from Danver thank you for calling Hello Daniel How are you today Thanks for taking me listening to listen to your conversation I mean you know I don't want Trump to wreck the economy and a lot of retirees are taking a big uh hit in the last week uh on uncertainty but um like there's optimism
• 135:30 - 136:00 I think in that like Vietnam offered 0% reciprocity and it's being discussed and maybe maybe we can get some better deals you know who knows But um whatever Trump does he's got to do it quickly It can't go months and a year He's got midterm elections next year and it's a big risk for him So um well it's a bigger risk for people who can't afford to suffer the economic consequences And listen if you and John and others are right and Trump gets better deals and does it
• 136:00 - 136:30 lightning fast then so be it But I don't think there's any indication other than random examples like the one you spoke Daniel where uh uh the vast majority of countries particularly the biggest ones like China are ready to tow the line But thank you much for your call We appreciate it So this might be what John was talking about but it was zero to zero on both sides The EU offered this weeks ago that they would there would be free trade basically between us and who's advocating for that too Elon Musk Elon Musk Yeah He Well he's a big free
• 136:30 - 137:00 trader and lots of Republicans used to be big free traders but they've changed their How do you think Donald I mean in light of the fact that Peter Navaro is arguably the most important trade mind if for uh uh for Trump other than maybe the secretary of the treasury Besson how do you think he feels that Elon Musk is co-president is calling him a and dumb as a sack of bricks well we had the head of Exxon who called Trump a Tillerson and dumb basically well didn't he didn't say it while he was there he said it when he left Elon Musk is still there I think he said it while he was
• 137:00 - 137:30 there but he didn't come out on the record but yeah I I think he had said it early on in his acquaintance with with uh President Trump And that's the other thing when Trump says these crazy things about how great things were back in you know 1890 and 2000 in 1913 He's quite the historian No he's got it all he's got all backwards You know he he tells these he's spouse these things off That was the guilded age when everybody was really broke That was when the Vanderbilts were able to build their summer cottage in Newport because there was no income tax and they had so much money He tells these stories that are
• 137:30 - 138:00 incorrect Well you're not being fair though because when he said Frederick Douglas is doing a great job is he not right Would anyone deny that Frederick Douglas is doing a great job Can we all agree Fabulous work No he lives right over there in Mar I think he does He came to the library last week Do you remember Wasn't looking that good but he came to the library Jenny in Providence we're going to try again Hi honey I don't understand why no one is talking about the fact that American businesses moved overseas because they
• 138:00 - 138:30 didn't want to pay American wages Well exactly Labor the labor is much cheaper overseas If you bring manufacturing back to the United States you're going to have to pay American wages I don't understand why nobody is saying anything about this Well by the way the guy the guy who I whose name I can't remember who was on CNN last night who talked about how if we were manufacturing iPhones in the south it would take two
• 138:30 - 139:00 and a half years to build the factory and then the iPhone would cost $3,400 One of the elements that goes into that beyond the physical infrastructure is exactly what you're talking about So he was more explicit than we and you make a wonderful point Jenny Thanks for the call Appreciate it Yeah buying American is going to mean paying a lot a lot I mean you notice that with clothes people that do the ma made in America clothing I mean a lot of times they're much better made and they're real cotton and real linen and real nice materials but they cost you a lot more If I say something I've said many times on the air are you going to
• 139:00 - 139:30 yell at me because I've told the story before Oh go ahead Okay Thank you You want to talk about leather merchandise I'm going to talk about the fear factor I've told the story My mother uh uh ran an office right and uh uh uh an advertising uh firm and she was quite smart and quite skillful And I this is a true story If she would get a bill from Macy's for $23 that said it was $3 late three days late she'd call me on the phone She was in Philly I was then living in New York in a panic And the
• 139:30 - 140:00 the reason I even tell that story is for those who discount the fear factor for people who are low and moderate income with the tariff increasing prices who are on fixed incomes and see their retirement savings or semi-fixed incomes disappearing hear that uh you can't get the phone answered at social security most of the time because they fired so many workers there Fear is a real thing which you don't just recover from when
• 140:00 - 140:30 Donald Trump capitulates on this and said he had some great victory in two weeks It's a it's a real horrible thing that's being inflicted on people who are not as lucky as we are Did you read in some of the states like I think South Dakota was among them where the social security offices are um are far apart because it's a big state People having to drive 46 miles one way to get to the social security office because no one answers the damn phone Well a lot of people that are you know older they can't figure do it online So they want to do it in the phone And since they
• 140:30 - 141:00 can't do it online they can't call anymore They got to drive there spend the day uh trying to straighten out their social security situation Lori from South Boston thank you for calling Hi Lori Hi Um I bought a Toyota a few months ago Yeah and I had to put it on a lease because um they told me there were no rebates at the time because the battery is constructed
• 141:00 - 141:30 abroad So I put it on a lease and then I called Toyota to see if the price for buying the lease would increase due to these um these tariffs and nobody could answer nobody could answer the question So on March 31st which was Monday I spoke to Toyota got all the paperwork downloaded uh printed everything out and uh ran to the bank and picked up a check
• 141:30 - 142:00 and uh ma went to the post office and mailed uh everything all the documentation overnight mail And then I checked on Tuesday that it arrived because I wanted to do it all before Wednesday the 2nd when the tariffs would start And luckily uh it arrived and they said that everything is fine but I still have to wait another three to four weeks for everything to close But it was scary
• 142:00 - 142:30 because you have a certain price that in your mind of what it's going to cost and then all of a sudden this um you know this might change because of the tariffs And I do have one other little point that's totally separate You mentioned Peter Navaro Yeah And I read online that the book that he wrote that was recommended to Trump uh uh talking about tariffs that was given to Trump by his
• 142:30 - 143:00 good for-no son-in-law But anyway uh Navarro quotes an economist uh who doesn't exist Yeah I heard about this No he it's the economist is a what's the word when you rearrange the letters in your name It makes up Navaro the economist I can't remember what his name is Oh anagram or something Ron something An anagram It was Ronist Yeah he doesn't exist Oh yeah Somebody texted
• 143:00 - 143:30 about that Man is ruining our economy and he has absolutely no basis for it I can't imagine anybody in leadership in our government making something up Lori Lori thank you for the call Really appreciate it for that call We're getting a text from a guy who says he's an investment professional Jim So he says that's what he says And he says he's now retired in Hilton Head Island South Carolina So maybe he is Anyway he says "Today's increase in the market is what's known as a dead cat bounce You
• 143:30 - 144:00 ever heard of that?" No Watch the two-year treasuries for the best tea leaves Yeah So I don't know what the way I mean or two-year treasuries When we get in every morning first thing we do is check the two-year treasuries Unfortunately we don't know what they are So it's very hard to check them but if we did we would is what I'm basically telling you We have time for maybe one more Jim and Newton thank you for calling Hello Jim and Newton Oh hi Hi Yeah I love your show I just
• 144:00 - 144:30 wanted to to give you two things that um that I wanted to have out there Please One of them is the issue is a balance of payment I don't think that people understand that the we buy stuff from someone they don't buy something from us And that's the reason there's a balance of payment We can't have people in Bangladesh are not interested in our product And uh and we're not we're
• 144:30 - 145:00 raising their their fee for the import tariff to fit 45% And that's true of everything Jim you don't want to buy stuff from them It's clear that you know more than we do But one thing I know that I bet you know is that every economist who doesn't work for Donald Trump says if you want to address that imbalance issue there's a way to do it that doesn't inflict immeasurable pain on low and middle inome people which is the route he's chosen So no one's quarreling with the goal What they're I
• 145:00 - 145:30 don't think they are What they're quarreling with is the sadistic way that Trump Navaro and all these other characters are going about it Jim thanks for the call I mean I mean it's same thing with Doge No one is going to deny that there's waste in the and bure the bureaucracy is huge and there's a lot of problems with the Department of Education but you don't kind of get there by just chopping it off at the knees And the same thing has been said about these tariffs that there was a thoughtful way to go about this really analyzing our relationship with country
• 145:30 - 146:00 A and country B and country C instead of just this boom um across the board cutting off the whole deal at the knees once again And that that's the problem It's kind of like reckless and out of control and and it's making people very um nervous Now can I tell you what we're doing here a little odd We're about to talk to Jared Bowen Now that may cause you to think it's the end of the show It is not because we're going to be joined by Chad Smith and Amress Nelson's from the BSO in a minute and we didn't want to interrupt them so we decided to interrupt ourselves Hello Jared How are
• 146:00 - 146:30 you I know I'm all confused too Do I not start my show right now I have no idea I'm so lost No you don't So you doing any uh tariff uh prepare preparation You buying anything What are you doing I'm not But I I have to say that I keep getting all these emails like I'm sure we're all getting beat the tariff by buying this and that And so many of them come from the small businesses and I just think this is what they're facing because they know their sales are about to crater once this takes effect And so every time I get one of those emails I think about this Well I shouldn't have asked the question because as we know
• 146:30 - 147:00 Jared has absolutely nothing in his refrigerator So what would you stockpile The answer is absolutely nothing Vodka and olives Is that what you have in your fridge Well I do love avocados So I would stockpile avocados Maybe champagne Champagne By the way that's another thing we haven't talked about Like our urban grape friends remember where they were here when they were talking about tariffs a few months ago Could be a nightmare Our stockpiling booze to get through the next uh pandemic like situation So what are you uh doing on that show of yours at 2:00 So we're going to be talking about actors
• 147:00 - 147:30 Shakespeare Project has a a new consideration of a Midsummer Night's Dream but this has a culture club twist a club culture twist to it So it'll be set in modern day We'll talk about that And then you may have seen this piece by the New York Times chief TV critic James Panawazic who looked at why all of a sudden all the TV presidents that we've seen for years are very strange and weird because it barely keeps up with what we're seeing coming out of the White House now Uh so we'll have that conversation and then a beautiful
• 147:30 - 148:00 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts right now looking at Vincent Van Gogh and this amazing relationship he had with Postman and his family who took them into their embrace at the end of his life Hey there's a huge line outside the MFA driving there down Huntington Avenue I mean you got to get tickets in advance I would think Correct Especially for a show like Van Go I would expect Yeah Hey Jared Marjorie and I on Sunday went to see the Boston Lyric Opera's Carousel Have you seen it yet I haven't seen it yet It is By the way just two more performances Friday night and Sunday afternoon It is spectacular It is
• 148:00 - 148:30 really 80th anniversary We said this when they were here last Friday 80th anniversary and the previews for when the show Carousel went to Broadway were in the exact same theater the Emerson Colonial 80 years ago It's really it's almost like it's really pretty exciting Jared we'll be listening 2 o'clock Thanks so much for your time See you then Thank you Jared Okay we're speaking to Jared Bowen of course and the Culture Show is on uh right after two o'clock right after we speak with our next guest the Boston Symphony Orchestra CEO Chad
• 148:30 - 149:00 Smith and music director Andress Nelson is ahead of a show this week with Yoyo Ma the extraordinary chist performing the work of Soviet Russian composer Shastikovich You are listening to Boston Public Radio 897GBH live from the Boston Public Library and streaming at youtube.com/gbhnews [Music] I'm Arun Roth Coming up on GBH's All Things Considered more international students at local colleges are getting
• 149:00 - 149:30 their visas revoked by the Trump administration Members of the public are sharing their opinions of Governor Healey's budget proposal for the coming fiscal year And the Trump administration is offering refugee status to some white South Africans Those stories and all the today's news starting at 4 on GBH897 [Music] Our programs are made possible thanks to you and Johnson and Wales University Committed to going beyond the classroom by helping students develop networks
• 149:30 - 150:00 obtain real world experience and providing hands-on learning that makes an impact More at jwu.edu And Liberty Mutual Insurance Liberty believes progress happens when people feel secure and exists to help people embrace today and pursue tomorrow Learn more at [Music]
• 150:00 - 150:30 [Applause] libertymutual.com Welcome back to Boston Public Radio Marjorie Egan and Jim Browy live at the library stream at youtube.com/gbhnews I think our guests know what that is That is the sound of Andress Nelson's in the BSO's Grammyinning recording of Symphony number 11 by Shastikovich from 2017 The Soviet born Shastikovich has a long history with the BSO And that streak
• 150:30 - 151:00 continues with a new string of a dozen or more concerts including one with the legendary local guy Yoyo Ma this Friday the 11th and again at Carnegie Hall on the 24th And unfortunately they are sold out but lots of other things are still available There's still time catch a string of shows coming up That's in addition to a massive 19 disk box set of Shastikovich at the BSO 19 hours of music four Grammy awards to date bso.org for tickets and info Here with us now at the library desk Boston Symphony
• 151:00 - 151:30 Orchestra CEO Chad Smith Chad it's great to see you again Thanks for joining us Thank you And BSO music director and second degree taekwondo black belt and half of his former self Andress Nelson's Andress look at you Andress Nelson hi So glad to say to be here and see you Can we discuss you for a second You look unbelievable What' you do I don't eat I mean are you feel good I feel great No I I do I do eat I just in uh I enjoy
• 151:30 - 152:00 actually being coming back to to my my my my slimmer myself with cutting out carbs and eating vegetables and and you know there's so wonderful many wonderful new things I to eat actually besides and of course I do I do my takea and and so yeah it just feels better you know you look fabulous you look fabulous So so Andre Nelson's I saw you conduct when you were a little bit heavier than you are now And I saw you more recently at the Beethoven They we do it all night symphonies conducting and you conduct
• 152:00 - 152:30 differently People must have told that you used to lean against the podium when you were heavy You don't do that anymore I mean how has it affected conducting because it's a very physical job to conduct Yes you know to I mean it is it is physical and it you how you say decide how much physical you can be and you can be less or more but but uh it's so interesting how how we human beings I can analyze myself when I was as a pig you know I really
• 152:30 - 153:00 not that don't say and it's one of it's one of the nicest animals actually I think and and I and then you get used and you think okay It's fine but but then you realize that self- discipline is very important part of of of of well-being of yourself and and so first if you discipline yourself then you can you know you can feel pressure and then you can you know influence and encourage other people to do good things if you do
• 153:00 - 153:30 good that's better than you do wrong and then you ask other others to Are you worried he's going to disappear I mean you know the funny thing and he's putting us all to shame but um one of the things that I've noticed and I I always want to say is like um you know you you've lost a lot of weight obviously but you haven't lost any of that intensity Yeah That you bring um to the podium every time that you are are in front of the orchestra And and it's remarkable to me I I like you was at you know those concerts and the Beethoven concerts which were just thrilling Um
• 153:30 - 154:00 and it was a it was a marathon right It is this physical thing to be able to do those nine symphonies kind of back to back to back which is nothing compared to the marathon that you're about to go into You know in in you know we're we're of course kind of focused on Shastikovich over the next couple of weeks and we're going to talk about that I'm sure But in May Andress is taking the orchestra to Germany and across Europe and we're going to be in Leipig where he's going to do 14 of the 15 symphonies in something like 20 days Wow
• 154:00 - 154:30 So this is a this is a feat that just almost no one has anyone ever done this I mean it's it is a remarkable feat of kind of physical energy but just the the the mind the the the requirements of the brain and uh and to to be able to kind of keep all of that music By the way he will be the first I did some research this morning Chad He will be the first 87B conductor I don't know if you're aware I just want before we get to Sha I just want to mention because you mentioned the Beethoven and I was lucky enough to go to the eth and the ninth and I've never seen what happened at the end of
• 154:30 - 155:00 the ninth symphony where the moment you stopped it was like everybody in like an instant was on their feet cheering wildly going crazy not even a hesitation the back rows the front rows I mean pretty impressive you know we had we had a lot of people in the audience who we called them the ners uh and they came to every one of the concerts Wow And some of those people were the first to jump up right Because they had kind of they had seen this incredible journey of this wonderful composer's um you know
• 155:00 - 155:30 masterpieces in you know the hands of of a master By the way some of us couldn't get tickets so we couldn't see it You know what I mean If only you knew someone to call Exactly So Andress Nelson's you've explained this to us before but in light of the fact that you're about to engage as a young boy young student I I always was attracted to his music And somehow uh firstly he's a genius music independently from that it was written you know in the difficult times and terrible times of of studying but actually it's somehow you know
• 155:30 - 156:00 through the music as this is a art who which really shows the humanity and and and deals in his highest highest art form in my opinion which is so much to do with humanity is as a boy I had a feeling that I feel sorry for him cuz he had such a challenging times You know he was almost he was firstly neglected from from studying as a wrong person to live in that writing wrong music and he he basically was very close
• 156:00 - 156:30 to be killed or or or in a best circumstances sent to Siberia wherever but I felt ohitri or I I I understand what you feel it's in this kind of very human human way and and I think his way of expressing the op opinion or his feelings It was through his music He couldn't talk He couldn't say things I mean it's very very close to nowadays unfortunately But yes which makes it so so shocking from
• 156:30 - 157:00 one sense but from the other sense if you analyze the whatever political whatever situation the dictatorship what he lived in he and he needed to express he him through music that was the only way and and uh and now after these so many years when we come come and see what happens in the in the world I think we can understand totally where where he's coming from and and what he
• 157:00 - 157:30 experienced and for me as a postsviet born and studied in in that system it was I I kind of sympathized and felt very much similar because we couldn't I couldn't talk when my parents knew the history about you know all the occupations So but they couldn't talk because it was dangerous to be and now we can't talk either You know I I just I I read in preparation for talking to you today about how uh Stalin came to see
• 157:30 - 158:00 Lady McBth the opera that Shastikovich did and he apparently walked out before the final act and then got a message through to Shastikovich that things could go very badly for Shastikovich because Stalin didn't like the opera And then Shastikovich turned around and wrote this um uh Skirtzo that was um supposed to be a musical portrayal of the craze dictator that was like going 90 miles an hour I mean that's really uh courageous that Shastiko would do that
• 158:00 - 158:30 and really scary that to get this message that things could go badly for him as you say wind up in the goolog Yes I mean that was so he was a young we know when he wrote this opera he was a young 23-year-old genius uh exciting composer loving life loving his country he wrote this genius operating mcbth and yeah stallion I don't know whether people say you know he he he could have understand anything really but at least he's his him and his let's say his team
• 158:30 - 159:00 if you can say that they said that oh it's not it's it's a too dark music took dark story and they put that he's formalist he's from the most talented and most exciting uh composer he in one night became blacklisted right blacklist and so it was it it influenced his life I think for the rest of his so don't you think it not only means more to you I would argue it's maybe it's obvious it means more to the audience now too considering
• 159:00 - 159:30 the state of the world you're nodding in agreement there Chad yeah I I think that's Right I think that's well personal I personally think that the great works of music um are meaningful to every generation which is what makes them a great piece of music If there's resonance that that we find in these pieces of Beethoven or whether it is Shastikovich in 2024 that speaks to something inherent in the music But you're right Um you know Shastikovich was was writing this music and he was he was coding it um with secret messages
• 159:30 - 160:00 and and you know for example there's a a string quartet the eighth string quartet one of the great great string quartets he wrote um which uh which in which he embeds his name throughout the work Um and it's um this this code that and so in in you know it's it's a musical uh there there ways in in music where you can you can spell out your name and he spells out his name throughout this piece and many pieces of music and for example in that Shastikovich quartet he's spelling out his name and then the end of the piece
• 160:00 - 160:30 is a quote from a re revolutionary Russian revolutionary song um it's called in grievous captivity as if he was saying he himself was kind enclosed in this bondage uh which was the Soviet system So across the next several weeks we're doing some of these big important symphonic works and we're contextualizing it with with lectures and other kinds of activities that we hope give our audiences insight into this these kind of coded messages um
• 160:30 - 161:00 that have existed in this work for well since they were written You know I mentioned that uh Friday one of two things Yoyo Ma is going to participate when people ask me and Marjorie knows this to be true You don't know this to be true What was the my favorite television episode I ever did I always include in the top five when you played the trumpet live for the first time But when you and Yoyo Ma were on together it was almost like I didn't need to be there These two geniuses had their heads like two inches apart Here's a little bit of that conversation from 2018 on
• 161:00 - 161:30 Greater Boston with Yoyo and Andress Here it is Today you asked uh [Music] Yeah Who chose to go and then you started going the trumpets play trumpets play you know soal prato and then so did Andress Nelson's ever tell you what happened right before we started taping that segment No Okay So
• 161:30 - 162:00 our former boss John Abbott comes in because he is a great admire of both Yoyo Man Andress Nelson's and he comes in to shake I wasn't allowed to tell the story until John retired Uh and John comes in and when he reaches out to shake Andress's hands he steps on Yo-Yo's cello which was not a good idea and you could hear the wood slightly cracking and Yo-Yo acted like it was nothing cuz he's such an incredible incredible gentleman Okay so that's Yoyo Ma We can't get tickets G Chad give us a
• 162:00 - 162:30 brief description of what the rest of the whole Shasta deal is going to be with the BSO So we have a we have a number of we're doing the sixth uh uh symphony We're doing the 11th symphony the 15th symphony the eth the eighth symphony um over the over the next four weeks We have the shastikovich cello conerto with with yo-yo this Friday night We're doing uh the violin certo with screed and and woven in there is are two programs we're taking down to Carnegie Hall One of them we're going to be taking with uh Mitsuko Ucha the wonderful uh pianist But one one thing
• 162:30 - 163:00 that I I wanted to kind of share is that you know again woven throughout this there will be these interesting um contextual programs One is a a program looking at at the Jewish themes that Shastikovich wrove into his music and we're doing that up at the Beacon Hill at the Vilnul We're partnering with uh the Fletcher School of Diplomacy uh to do a talk about um cultural diplomacy how you know in in in the 70s and 80s orchestras were trotted out by the state department if you can believe it uh to do tours as as goodwill tours for the United States and so we're looking at
• 163:00 - 163:30 cultural diplomacy that now exactly so many more um aspects of this beyond the the extraordinary performances with the orchestra and I will say you know if you can't make it to the performances the recording is uh it's pretty darn good so is this what I'm holding in my handdeed 19 of these babies uh go get it I've heard a lot of this and it is just other worldly beautiful Uh how excited do you how excited are you about the Shastikovich run Are you Of course I'm it's unbelievable I think it's unbel
• 163:30 - 164:00 unbelievable what what uh what amazing music it is But how how much chance we had we were given to record this and to perform I started this idea to perform one of the symphonies 10 years 11 years ago and then it ended up to do few every season and to record and I but the most exciting to be honest is you know when when when in January we had this Beethoven anniversary notary but run of Bman symphonies and as you said the
• 164:00 - 164:30 audience and the or everyone together were so so excited and I and it was because of this the charge and energy and the depth of this music and I think there's a connection to shikovich as well that uh uh the this expectation of people feel it right that people feel the strength and up and and and and it's of of the music and and the humanity of the music they because these you know these days you never know what you say
• 164:30 - 165:00 wrong or or you you might be fired you might be killed or not got or whatever you know but there are the values of humanity which go through the music and that that's why I think people in these these days even more they really want to hear the music and we invite them and and they and they get up in their feet if they be idea of humanism of millions coming together or idea also of the peace the peace humanity love it's it
• 165:00 - 165:30 seems so simple and so human but it should but it's so hard it's we need to we need to fight for this these days really to emphasize that I really do You know um Andre says "I remember when the first time we talked to you you talked about your parents taking you to the symphony I think in lipstick when you were 5 years old and you were like hooked." And I had Lafia Lafia excuse me Yeah And I had the chance um my my daughter said to me she wanted to take a granddaughter to the symphony and she's only three I said "That's a little young
• 165:30 - 166:00 but you have these concerts with Thomas Wilkins for little kids." So we went and it was unbelievable kids who've got uh autistic um things going on They got on the spectrum they got the headsets if it's too much for them But you I saw three and four my own grandkid three years old four and five and sixy old kids just sitting there absolutely transfixed and I thought what a wonderful outreach this is to get young kids into it because now and then you can play the violins before and you can play the you can play with the drums and
• 166:00 - 166:30 stuff You know she wants to play the violin now because she's gone to this concert So that's a wonderful wonderful thing No it's it's wonderful to hear but it's it's it emphasizes so so much that the education education it it's one of the critical and and so and we I think we really need to to to not to fight in with a weapons but really to react to anything which is against or anything which somehow diminishes the importance
• 166:30 - 167:00 of education or any education in institution is just the future of any country of any do you want to host the show instead of me I'm serious This is what I've been trying to say for weeks and I can't get it out And you how many what do you speak Like 11 languages and you're doing it better than me Yeah I think you get a good education Jim If you all everything coming up I mean the the 25 26 season I think is days away from being announced Tanglewood has been announced All bso.org has got everything anything you want to highlight in a
• 167:00 - 167:30 minute that is really knocking your I'll say we've got 11 great programs this summer uh with uh uh Andress at the at Tangle Wood and uh you know something our our your audience might not know is that in addition to being a great conductor um and leaving this this terrific orchestra he's a great teacher he hates this by the way do you look at him when I do I know that's why I don't look at this guy hate any compliment he he'sard me say this before you know last year he became the head of conducting and it means that he spends time each summer with a couple of these the truly finest young conductors early 20s who
• 167:30 - 168:00 are just kind of on that cusp of getting out there and to watch Andress teach and to see him kind of not tell them what to do but lead them to uh this kind of moment of self-discovery around this music which of course he knows so well is something something very special and we we have a couple of opportunities this summer where people can come and watch and I would just say like if you have a chance to watch Andress teach like it's a special thing Oh wow Look at him turning red
• 168:00 - 168:30 It's just done by uh we are thrilled We can't wait for the shots to go which I can't wait to listen to this and the whole season sounds it just sounds spectacular So congratulations to you both It's wonderful to see you both Great to be here for much appreciate it We've been speaking with Boston Symphony Orchestra CEO Ch Can I say one more thing Just one more thing Yes I've said this almost every time Andress has been on you know that I had almost never seen a symphony until Andress was on the show for the first time and I was so humiliated that I hadn't I went because
• 168:30 - 169:00 when you see if you're not into symphonic music is the first second you see a live orchestra with the players and a brilliant conductor like this changes everything just so go buy and go Good to see you They have a show this week with Yoya Ma performing the work of Soviet Russian composer Shastikovich For more info go to bso.org and they got a whole great season of Shastikovich coming up So please check that out Not to mention the great season coming up at Tanglewood
• 169:00 - 169:30 bso.org Thank you for listening to another edition of Boston Public Radio Thanks everybody who came down to the show for library Keep up with this 247 way of our podcast or check out our Tik Tok page at Boston Public Radio Tomorrow we'll be back here at the Boston Public Library with national security expert Juliet Cayenne from Harvard GBH's Jared Bowen a restaurant panel with the Jewish deli Mamales and Lair House Tavern Yeah For Passover and ask the auditor with Diana Dagio She'll take our questions
• 169:30 - 170:00 and yours You want And the governor's here on the 25th That's correct We want to thank our crew So