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.
Special episode: Unpacking the Legislature’s July 31 flurry, and what comes next
Beacon Hill made it through the traditional end-of-formals deadline with less chaos and upheaval than 2024 and 2022. But in the process, lawmakers left many big decisions for another day.
🔉 Listen nowWhat it’s going to take to keep New England’s lights on
Rising power demand, ambitious clean energy targets, the rise of artificial intelligence, and skyrocketing electricity prices are colliding to create a profound moment of disruption in New England’s ability to plan for the needs of the future while keeping the lights on today. Dr. Vamsi Chadalavada, president and CEO of ISO New England, the operator of the region’s energy system, joins CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jordan Wolman to discuss how he’s balancing it all.
🔉 Listen nowA new book details how neoliberalism hurt America’s health care
America’s uniquely expensive, uniquely underperforming health system didn’t just result as an accident of history, John McDonough argues in his new book, but was the predictable result of a specific ideological turn taken in the early 1980s — the start of the neoliberalism era.
🔉 Listen nowNavigating Massachusetts news deserts
While several hyperlocal newsrooms have launched in communities across the state, there is an information gap forming: Many Bay State residents live in news deserts.
🔉 Listen nowWhy gas companies are spending big in ‘fossil fuel free’ communities
Starting in 2024, a group of 10 Massachusetts communities kickstarted a first-of-a-kind experiment by pledging to go fossil fuel free. But moving off gas for new buildings doesn’t preclude the utilities from needing to spend tens of millions of dollars each year upgrading the existing infrastructure by replacing pipes. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Hallie Claflin and Jordan Wolman discuss Wolman’s latest piece uncovering how gas companies have spent $100 million on natural gas infrastructure in nine of those 10 communities, roughly since they adopted their fossil fuel-free ordinances.
🔉 Listen nowWhat can Mass. learn from New Mexico’s universal child care experiment?
New Mexico is making waves, and generating questions from curious onlookers, by offering universal child care to all families. How is it funded? Is it truly universal? Are there enough caretakers to keep up with demand? And with our astronomically high child care costs, could Massachusetts achieve something similar? Jacob Vigil, the chief legislative officer of New Mexico Voices for Children, joins CommonWealth Beacon‘s Chris Lisinski to dive into the policy, the grassroots campaign behind the changes, and how money from the booming New Mexican oil and gas industry played a key role.
🔉 Listen nowBad incentives and industry headwinds vex Point32Health CEO
Patrick Gilligan has a lifetime of experience in health care. One year ago, he accepted the role of CEO of Point32Health, a regional nonprofit health insurance provider. On this month’s edition of Health or Consequences, hosts John McDonough and Paul Hattis ask Gilligan to take a deep dive into the current state of health insurance. Are patients getting what they’re paying for? How are health insurers cutting costs while remaining competitive? How is market consolidation contributing to rising health care costs? And what policies might help stem the tide?
🔉 Listen nowCan Mass. hit its housing goals? New housing secretary says yes.
Gov. Maura Healey’s administration estimates that the state will need 222,000 by 2035 to deal withe existing need and population growth. Her new housing secretary, Juana Matias, says we can meet that goal, and joins CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith to talk about chipping away at decades of sluggish housing production. Matias, who was a state representative and regional administrator at HUD, talks about what she’d like to see come from the end-of-session rush and how the state can weather federal pullbacks on fair housing an public housing.
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