Commentary: "Our task is not to make vulnerable populations more adaptable to injustice, but to make the powerful more accountable for it."

I visited @elizabeth-warren.bsky.social at home for @wbur.org @cogwbur.bsky.social -- to see Bailey's Halloween costume (he was Stephen Colbert!) and talk about a lot of other things too: books, democracy, pushing back against Trump, her exercise routine and "The Wire." www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Doctors are devoting more time to debunking misinformation and explaining how immunizations work as they confront growing confusion and hesitancy about vaccines.

I've always loved the the Proust questionnaire. Now we're asking contributors to answer a shorter version (16 questions only!) for @cogwbur.bsky.social's Substack. First up: Libby DeLana open.substack.com/pub/cogwbur/...

Boston and other Mass. cities turned out for No Kings today: www.wbur.org/news/2025/10...

Essay: Instinctively, with my toes covered in surf, I grabbed Sarah’s hand. And she grabbed back. The water taught me how to do that, to reach beyond worry to trust, and hold it in the palm of my hand, writes Libby DeLana, in this excerpt from her book, "Cold Joy."

Essay: I live in a city shaped by the James River, and work in a city shaped by the Charles River, writes Kate Neale Cooper. I've been thinking about rivers change us, and we change them.

Commentary: Measuring food insecurity over the next few years will be especially critical since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included $186 billion in cuts to SNAP, write Paul Shafer and Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba.

Doug Brown collects rare books on early America. But he recently acquired a desk that once belonged to Constance Miekevicz (nee Gore-Booth), an Irish revolutionary and suffragist. He was inspired by the story of her extraordinary life.

Defend public media, defend @wbur.org. Our journalism is free, no paywalls. Our federal funding is gone, but the news won’t stop coming. We need you and we are grateful for you. Donate: donate.wbur.org/secure/heart...

Essay: Child psychologist Ellen Braaten often does media appearances, trying to reassure parents and kids in the wake of school shootings. She used to tell her audience that the adults in their lives do everything they can to keep them safe, but she doesn't say that anymore. We haven’t. We don’t.

I do not know how to fix it, but I cannot say enough how much we in the news need to figure out how to handle the “flood the zone with shit” strategy.

Healey's measures include requiring insurance carriers to cover vaccines that the state's public health department recommends and allowing pharmacies to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.

Steps away from the Capitol, victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, on Wednesday demanded that all people who received sexual favors through Epstein be identified. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

+1. I say this every year

Essay: Kathy Gunst resisted tennis as a kid. Her parents were fanatics, and on principle, she decided the sport — and the country club — wasn't for her. Then she found the game again, on a public court, at 68.

Today's my kids' first day of school. It was these kids' third. Why do we choose to live like this over and over? We are the only country in the universe where this happens. Live Updates: At Least 2 Killed and 17 Injured in Shooting at Minneapolis Catholic School www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

Commentary: While some organizations in Massachusetts work to simplify access to health care and solve for food insecurity, federal policy moves in the opposite direction, write Alister Martin and Annamarie Rapa.

We should be clear-eyed about what is happening in our nation’s capital, writes Andrew Carleen. The Trump administration is exerting its will via the power ministries of the federal government. It is a dress rehearsal for things to come. spr.ly/63320f2l7C

I am not a Hulk Hogan person, but this is a total delight. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Essay: Bees, like people, need each other, writes Linda Button. Bees, like all of us, do best when they lean on each other’s strengths.

ESSAY: "Stopping the fight against drug resistant TB today, even temporarily, will have irreversible, catastrophic effects in the long run — for generations to come," write KJ Seung and Kunda Kwabisha Mikanda. @wbur.org @pih.org @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Wondering how the good and smart folks at The Daily made an entire episode about Trump and Iran, with no mention of the deal — negotiated by the Obama administration — that Trump shredded during his first term open.spotify.com/episode/3oK4...

Commentary: El Salvador’s past and present are deeply intertwined with U.S. policy, writes Iván Espinoza-Madrigal. To understand the roots of migration, you have to understand the country’s political, social and economic realities.

COMMENTARY: Like Project 2025, "Project Esther" is also a creation of the Heritage Foundation. “It's an exercise in cynicism by an administration eager to prey on people’s worst fears,” writes Anita Diamant.

The Mass. Medication Abortion Access Project, or The MAP, runs a website offering medication by mail to people living in states that restrict abortion. In their view, they are fulfilling a basic health care need amid a fierce national debate and legal uncertainty.

ESSAY: As a child, I knew my grandfather was a victim of the Holocaust, but also thought somehow that the Holocaust had not really come to Yugoslavia, because nobody talked about it, writes Julie Brill.

this is so fun www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...

Commentary: The 250th anniversary couldn't come at a better time to remind people it's OK to have different beliefs, Concord Minute Men captain Carl Sweeney told WBUR's Cloe Axelson. But you need to talk, he said, and when push came to shove our forefathers stood up for their beliefs.

Our updated list of Trump's cruelties, collusions, corruptions, and crimes now includes video evidence. #LestWeForgetTheHorrors www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/les...

A little more than 3% of WBUR's annual budget comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. But that doesn't fully encapsulate the potential impact of CPB cuts. www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...

Remember when this happened? It was 23 days ago. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

What a story. And the photos! www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

History is cool. We should try learning from it. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

“Far too many well-meaning white Americans have been what I like to call ally ostriches, believing in progress while burying their heads in the sand when discussions around the past become uncomfortable.” - Prof. Christina Greer, Fordham www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/o...

"There’s a sameness to the ritual we use to memorialize the dead -- readings, eulogies, prayers, music -- but I somehow always learn something funny or quirky about the person who’s passed. Something that makes me wish I’d known them better." www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

“When Mister Rogers’s testimony came up at the hearing last week, one witness said that Congress shouldn’t have listened to him.” www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/b...

Rubio spoke broadly about university students vandalizing buildings and harassing students, but did not back up those claims with concrete examples or offer specifics in regards to Ozturk’s case.

This was so heartening and inspiring and refreshing and thank you thank you @theferocity.bsky.social for the public media shout out! @cogwbur.bsky.social

Oh this is so cool! One @cogwbur.bsky.social author inspiring another

We hope you share our belief that @wbur.org makes Boston and the region a better place to call home — for everyone — and that you will stand with us today. www.wbur.org/inside/2025/...

The Tufts graduate student detained by federal authorities in Somerville has been sent to a Louisiana detention facility, despite a federal judge’s order telling US Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to remove her from Massachusetts without notice.

The Atlantic has published the attack plans that Donald Trump’s advisers shared on Signal. “People should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,” @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social and @shaneharris.bsky.social write. theatln.tc/sQjzlvDQ

Teen Warned Not To Accept Group Chat Invites From National Security Advisors She Doesn’t Know

It's stunning that it took the death of someone I love dearly to show me how deeply fear and shame are embedded in the way we treat people with an addiction, writes WBUR health reporter Martha Bebinger. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Dozens more pregnant and postpartum women have died in Texas hospitals since the state banned abortion, our analysis shows. As the maternal mortality rate dropped nationally, it rose in Texas by 33%.

American war planning usually takes place in highly secure facilities. But the Trump administration planned its strikes on the Houthis using a group chat—and accidentally included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, @jeffreygoldberg.bsky.social. theatln.tc/AmsjsuT6

“The intake began with slaps. One young man sobbed when a guard pushed him to the floor. He said, ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m gay. I’m a barber.’ ….The man asked for his mother, then buried his face in his chained hands and cried as he was slapped again.”

Thank you @cogwbur.bsky.social and @cloeax.bsky.social for making a home for this piece. Thank you @jangrarup.bsky.social for inspiring it with your underground bunker photograph exhibit. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

I bought a bouquet of daffodils today and now I have them in a couple of vases in my home. I hope that if y’all see sunshine, you’re able to grab it.