THE CODCAST
Tune into spirited debate, local stories, and insightful analyses with The Codcast. Hosted each week by a CommonWealth Beacon reporter, the half-hour policy podcast delves into the heart of Massachusetts’s most pressing and intriguing topics.
Hear newsmakers, historians, and policy experts tackle statewide housing struggles, immigration policies, little-known histories, surprising political fights, and even take to the sea to visit rising offshore wind turbines.
Without employee housing, fears the Cape will crumble
Massachusetts’s extreme housing crunch is no secret, but who is actually in charge of fixing it? This week on The Codcast, state Sen. Julian Cyr and Local Journalism Project executive director Janet Lesniak join CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith to talk about the role of employee housing on the Cape and Islands – how sustainable is it to expect small businesses to become landlords for their workers, what happens when there’s nowhere for workers to live, and what should the state be doing to help seasonal communities help themselves with new housing tools?
🔉 Listen nowTrump’s mail-in-ballot order puts Massachusetts voters in the crosshairs
What does the latest executive order aimed at changing how people cast their votes mean for Massachusetts? Two lawsuits are currently working their way through District Court in the state challenging a directive from President Trump that the US Postal Service only deliver mail ballots to voters on a federal citizenship list.
🔉 Listen nowThe growing movement to keep kids off social media
This week on The Codcast, two experts dive into what’s behind the surge in momentum for government regulation of social media use by minors.
🔉 Listen nowThe grassroots campaign that changed health care
On the latest episode of The Codcast’s Health or Consequences, Paul Hattis interviews his normal co-host John McDonough and Cheri Andes about their work 20 years ago to secure passage of a landmark health care reform law.
🔉 Listen nowWhat it means that a state ‘AI assistant’ will handle your data
This week on The Codcast, we dig into the new partnership between Massachusetts and OpenAI to roll out an AI assistant to help with daily governmental tasks. CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Technology Secretary Jason Snyder, who says his goals include “democratizing innovation” and helping streamline bureaucratic systems like the DMV. Snyder discusses the contract with OpenAI, concerns around data privacy and bias in AI systems, and explains why the state is leaning so hard into AI adoption.
🔉 Listen nowTrying to measure primary care’s downward spiral
On the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Barbra Rabson, president and CEO of Massachusetts Health Quality Partners. They discuss the primary care crisis, how data transparency improves patient outcomes, and tease upcoming recommendations from the primary care task force.
🔉 Listen nowThe Bay State angle into the US Senate housing bill
This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Matt Noyes, director of state and federal advocacy for the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA). They dig into the Bay State implications of the sprawling bipartisan “meatball” of a housing bill that recently passed the US Senate, and take a look at how efforts at home might interact with federal policy.
🔉 Listen nowImmigration enforcement and declines in public school enrollment
This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Jennifer Smith and Hallie Claflin discuss Claflin‘s latest piece on how immigration enforcement step ups are impacting school enrollment. They zero in on the state’s Gateway Cities, which are home to a disproportionate share of Massachusetts‘s immigrant population and are sounding the alarm over the psychological and fiscal effects of federal enforcement actions on their school communities.
🔉 Listen nowHow energy affordability in Massachusetts reached crisis mode
This week on The Codcast, we unpack how increasingly expensive utility bills are shaping the energy debate in Massachusetts and reaching a fever pitch on Beacon Hill. With energy costs now the top household concern in the Bay State, how should policymakers respond to the affordability crisis as power demand is expected to rise and with the due date on ambitious climate commitments creeping closer? Our guests, Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation in Massachusetts at the environmental nonprofit Acadia Center, and Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, hash it all out.
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