You can find me at the @museumofscience.bsky.social tonight at 7pm playing immersive surround sound stories. DM me for a ticket discount...

Join me at the @museumofscience.bsky.social next week for a live show in the Mugar Omni theatre -- the only show to use that space without using the screen! It’s audio only, with the room blacked out, in 5.1 sorooooouuuuuund. And come get ice cream at Toscanini's after... www.mos.org/events/subsp...

Feels like so long ago now that 'Scratch & Win' came out, but wow, that too was 2025! If you missed this one, come find out how a mischievous state treasurer and a bottle of Fanta gave the world the first scratch ticket...https://podcasts.apple.com/us/room/6748038412

aaaaaaaaaall time

Scratch & Win is so good!!

I think this is my new litmus test for whether or not someone is an old school Boston pol: how do they pronounce "patronage"?

A strong, if belated, recommendation for @iancoss.bsky.social 's podcast Scratch & Win about the rise of the Mass. Lottery. A total joy with a keen sense of how the old politics actually got played. I found myself talking back to the audio in a Boston accent: www.wgbh.org/podcasts/scr...

Down in DC doing interviews for a new WGBH series. This one should be interesting.

I got the horse right here!

And Yale too!

It's a twofer on the Apple homepage today, get it while you can...

It's 🚀 Day for "WE'RE DOING THE WIZ": the story of a small-town high school trying to stage an iconic Black musical in the midst of bussing, racial integration, and general theater kid drama. Did I mention it was my high school? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

We're doin' it! Trailer is out. Premiere at Tribeca Fest is today. Episode one next week. Welcome to the world of my performing arts high school. @masshumanities.bsky.social @prx.org

"It’s like an entire political science course in one series" -- thanks @debbiejsr.bsky.social, that's exactly what we were going for! Come for the mafia bookies, stay for the tax revolt.

Backup Roman Mars, I can live with that

This idea has been on a low simmer for several years, waiting for the right combination of people and partners to do it right. So excited to say that in June of this year...We're Doing The Wiz.

@iancoss.bsky.social Just finished Scratch and win. Bravo! Loved The Big Dig as well. 👊🏻

Only the finest.

This was a great conversation, and both of these two seasons are must listens

Glad to report that Dawn Hayes has still got it folks! From our Scratch & Win live show at @wgbh.org last week, photo by Meredith Nierman

This podcast has been such a godsend for me: I crave really deep dives into political and social histories, and this season has delivered just as much as Big Dig. Also, my baby reliably falls asleep by the end of an episode; perhaps it's having Bob Crane sing him to sleep.

well this ep feels particularly timely 🎧 thanks again @iancoss.bsky.social and @wgbh.org 🙂

Our @gbhnews.bsky.social team has now done two major doc projects, one on the state lottery and one on the Big Dig. Today in the feed, I talk w Marc Dunkelman about why these two stories about government endeavors play out so so differently. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

So wonder some state lotteries make more money than others...

Hey audiophiles, I'll be at the @prx.org Podcast Garage tonight sharing a sneak preview of a new project w Radiotopia, hosted by @airmedia.bsky.social. If you want to brave the drizzle and come say hi it's freeeeee: ow.ly/FAwj50Vof7M

I was so honored to be interviewed by @iancoss.bsky.social. The entire Scratch &Win series is incredible and I’ve learned so much h from it

Once you start looking around for the lottery, it's everywhere...

Today on Scratch & Win, the fantastic historian @lilygeismer.bsky.social helps me unravel my conflicted nostalgia for the old ways of patronage and machine politics... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...

Thanks @maradavis.bsky.social for including us in this great line-up: www.pastemagazine.com/media/podcas...

Fascinating podcast from WGBH Boston:

Cannot recommend this podcast by @wgbh.org and @iancoss.bsky.social highly enough. It's like if Roland Barthes walked into a Mobil station. www.wgbh.org/podcasts/scr...

This is one of the best podcast series I've ever listened to. Kudos to the WGBH NPR team for incredible work. @npr.org www.wgbh.org/podcasts/scr...

Highly recommend this podcast by @iancoss.bsky.social and the team at @wgbh.org. Learned all sorts of interesting things about the lottery, numbers games, and #mapoli

The Audible Past more than any other book, got me thinking critically about sound, media and technology. One of those books you occasionally think back on a decade after you last picked it up because the implications of it just keep going (and coming).

I <3 scratch and win thank u @iancoss.bsky.social and @wgbh.org see you next week

If you're a podcast listener, GBH put out another banger -- their new one, Scratch & Win, is as good as The Big Dig, which I recommended to literally everyone I encountered for a solid year.

The WGBH Big Dig podcast was fantastic and I have a new Roman Empire

Thanks @leungboston.bsky.social, @esmyjimenez.bsky.social, and @askusmer.bsky.social for a great conversation about how MA became the lottery capital of America. And for those curious about where the money goes, check out Esmy's piece on the lottery formula. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/19/o...

In MA everything ties back to Prop 2 1/2. I'm told it's the same with CA and Prop 13...

1.) Red Sox 2.) Scratch tickets 3.) Church

Get a couple historians together to talk about the lottery and there is no telling where the conversation will go!

The story looming in background (foreground??) of the whole lottery series is sports betting. It's been hard for me to articulate why this story feels so big. Luckily historian Jonathan Cohen helped me think through it. Our conversation is in the feed today: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

The Scratch & Win live event next week is almost sold out, so if you were thinking of coming out you should get tix. There may or may not be a musical tribute to 'The Treasury Notes' involved... www.wgbh.org/events/scrat...

You mean the rest of the country doesn't give out scratch tickets as stocking stuffers?

Pokeno!

Not quite what it was when Billy Bulger and Treasurer Crane ran the show, but the show does go on.

The lottery: where combinatorics and machine politics meet

Stay tuned -- we've got some 'dessert episodes' (I refuse to call them bonus episodes) coming!

Heading to Boston today and might just relisten to the great Scratch & Win podcast, from @iancoss.bsky.social and the @wgbh.org team that won a Peabody for last season's on the Big Dig. Fascinating stories, gripping storytelling, very bingeable. www.wgbh.org/podcasts/scr...

If you're wrapping up the lottery series and curious for more, we are doing a LIVE event this month at @wgbh.org with untold stories from the podcast, special guests, prizes, and maybe...music? www.wgbh.org/events/scrat...