The Codcast

Mayor Michelle Wu has had to negotiate a tremendous number of labor contracts, including most recently with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. Lou Mandarini, Wu’s senior advisor for labor, joins CommonWealth’s Jennifer Smith and Gin Dumcius to discuss the BPPA contract and the city’s approach to collective bargaining.

Journalists, like everyone else, are wrestling with the impact of AI on their work. Sarah Scire, deputy editor of Nieman Lab, joins CommonWealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith to discuss predictions about AI tools in journalism, their use and misuse, and how readers feel about the technology.

This week on Health or Consequences, hosts Paul Hattis and John McDonough are joined by David Seltz, founding executive director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. They discuss what the HPC has learned about health care costs over the last decade, where Massachusetts stands relative to other states, and the HPC’s current policy priorities.

CommonWealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith is joined by former Gov. Jane Swift to discuss political changes since her time in office, her current policy work, and the process of public grieving.

This week, Paul Hattis and John McDonough of Health or Consequences are joined by Barbara Fain, executive director of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety. They discuss the state of knowledge around medical care errors, as well as ongoing efforts to respond to and reduce it.

Ranked-choice voting and rent control will not be on the 2024 ballot in Massachusetts, but supporters are still pushing the policies in the legislature and locally. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith is joined by Paul Craney and Jennifer Braceras of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance to discuss their opposition to both issues.

This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith is joined by Chrissy Lynch, the new president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, to discuss the current pivotal moment for organized labor, the changes she’s seen in the movement over the years, and her policy priorities.

Are we a beacon? This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon’s Michael Jonas is joined by Steve Koczela of the MassINC Polling Group and Erin O’Brien of UMass Boston to discuss new polling data on how Massachusetts residents see the Commonwealth relative to other states, and relative to 20 years ago.

In this live episode of The Codcast, Commonwealth Beacon‘s Jennifer Smith is joined by Danielle Allen of Harvard University and Partners in Democracy to discuss how Massachusetts’s democracy is doing.

CommonWealth’s Jennifer Smith is joined by the head of the Boston Housing Authority, Kenzie Bok, to discuss housing justice, the role of public housing in the city and commonwealth, and what’s on the horizon in the world of public housing.

John McDonough and Paul Hattis talk to Robbie Goldstein, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, who talks about the inadequate preparedness of the country’s public health infrastructure for COVID, efforts to strengthen local public health departments in Massachusetts, and his belief in the public health-focused approach to problems at Mass. and Cass in the face of criticism that they aren’t working.

Jennifer Smith talks to UMass Amherst professor Jack Schneider, who thinks high-stakes testing is the wrong way to go in the effort to improve schools and boost student achievement.

State Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s quest to audit the Massachusetts Legislature – by court, by ballot initiative, even by song and dance – is keeping her locked in an uneasy standoff with leaders of the branch of government where she previously served.

In the fight against ever-rising drug prices, attention is increasingly zeroing in on a little-noticed middleman of the pharmaceutical chain – pharmacy benefit managers.

The Worcester Chamber of Commerce recently announced its support for the launch of the Worcester Guardian, a nonprofit digital news organization. Tim Murray, the Chamber’s president, joins CommonWealth’s Michael Jonas to discuss the Guardian, local nonprofit journalism, and questions of funding and independence.

It’s been a long and winding 11-year road for the Dorchester Food Co-op, which will be opening its doors to the public this month. It marks the return of community and work-owned food co-ops to Boston, five years after the last local grocery co-op shuttered. 

Ed Augustus is the first Secretary of the newly-formed Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. He joins CommonWealth’s Jennifer Smith for a wide-ranging discussion of the challenges facing housing in Massachusetts, including shelter capacity, low vacancy rates, and changing patterns of work.

State Rep. Peter Durant and Evan Horowitz of the Tufts Center for State Policy Analysis join CommonWealth’s Bruce Mohl to discuss Massachusetts’s Right to Shelter law in relationship to the current shelter emergency and housing crisis.

Oren Sellstrom is the litigation director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which recently filed a complaint claiming that Harvard’s legacy and donor admissions preferences violate federal civil rights law. He joins CommonWealth’s Jennifer Smith to discuss the complaint, admissions preferences, affirmative action, and diversity in educational institutions.

Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston chapter of the NAACP, joins CommonWealth’s Jennifer Smith to talk about the recent national NAACP convention (the first in Boston in 40 years), its goals, and its impact.

Every lawmaker on a boat trip last week to see Vineyard Wind 1 is supporting the development of offshore wind, but actually seeing the nation’s first commercial-scale wind farm taking […]

It’s a familiar refrain in the push and pull over development in Massachusetts: When a project of some kind is proposed, local officials and residents who oppose it often say […]

Bostonians already gave the green light to ranked-choice voting in 2020, voting in favor of an ultimately doomed statewide ballot initiative that would have introduced the practice. The city might […]

Winding their way along the red brick and red painted Freedom Trail, Boston tourists eventually find themselves in front of the Old North Church. Their eyes may seek out the […]