This year, the world commemorates 125 years of the iconic film director Alfred Hitchcock. Although Hitchcock died in 1980, his work continues to influence filmmakers to this day. And his movies like “Psycho,” “Rear Window,” “Vertigo” and “The Birds” are still considered some of the best films ever made. John Fawell, professor emeritus at Boston University, joins us to tell us more about the life and legacy of Hitchcock.
Oct 28, 2024•26 min
It’s likely most primary voters did not recognize one of the most contested races on the ballot – the race for Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, which drew big money and high-ranking endorsements. It’s also likely that even the informed voters have no idea what Clerks of Courts do or why it is an elected position. So “Under the Radar” decided to go straight to the source – candidates Allison Cartwright, future Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County, and John...
Oct 28, 2024•32 min
Mfoniso Udofia’s play “Sojourners” is the first in a series of nine plays that make up the Ufot Family Cycle. The plays are based on the real-life experiences of Nigerian-American immigrants and spans three generations. “Sojourners,” which starts at the end of October at the Huntington Theatre, kicks off a two-year presentation of all the plays in a unique city-wide and Greater Boston festival – the first time all nine plays have ever been performed as a cycle. Udofia tells us the inspiration be...
Oct 22, 2024•25 min
$17.8 trillion: That’s how much Americans owe in consumer debt. The biggest driver of that debt? Misunderstanding about how to use money. In a survey by the credit monitoring agency Experian, 3 in 5 American adults made financial mistakes because they weren’t money savvy. Experts are urging education for young people, including making financial literacy a graduation requirement. Will mandated financial literacy become part of the Massachusetts school curriculum?
Oct 22, 2024•33 min
Our regional news roundtable is back with headlines from New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Cape Cod. This week: A new voter ID law in New Hampshire is causing confusion before Election Day, Rhode Island’s Washington Bridge saga, an offshore wind farm auction on the Cape and more!
Oct 15, 2024•34 min
In her new book, “Locker Room: A Woman’s Struggle To Get Inside,” Melissa Ludtke recounts the story of her groundbreaking legal case against officials in Major League Baseball, who denied women access to teams’ locker rooms. She won her case, and the ruling opened doors for the hundreds of female sports journalists who came after her.
Oct 15, 2024•24 min
The NBA started its pre-season games this week, and its regular season tips off on October 22. You've probably already seen NBA players dazzle on the basketball court. But what about on red carpets … walking backstage before games… or even on the catwalk? Author Mitchell S. Jackson has captured the NBA fashion evolution in his book "Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion." Mitchell Jackson joined “Under the Radar with Callie Crossley” from Phoenix back in March 2024.
Oct 07, 2024•27 min
The 2024 presidential and statewide elections have brought renewed attention to voting issues – particularly challenges or limitations to certain citizens’ right to vote. For more than 4.6 million people living in the U.S., the right to vote has been taken away due to a felony conviction, with some states even placing lifetime bans on the formerly incarcerated. And with former President Donald Trump’s numerous felony convictions, the question of who gets to keep their voting rights and who loses...
Oct 07, 2024•31 min
The Mass Politics Profs are back! This week: JD Vance and Tim Walz will face off for the only vice-presidential debate of the election season. Is this year’s VP debate more significant than past ones? Also, is anti-immigration, nativist narratives working for Trump, or are they pushing more voters toward Vice President Kamala Harris? And locally, John Deaton takes on sitting Senator Elizabeth Warren, and the latest news regarding ballot questions facing voters this November. It’s an hour of nati...
Sep 30, 2024•58 min
Author Kate Feiffer’s first adult novel “Morning Pages” is a play within a play: the main character is a playwright and much of her internal dialogue is on the page as scenes from a play. Moreover, she’s turned to a popular daily artist’s exercise to jumpstart her imagination. It’s fair to say that “Morning Pages” is pretty meta. All that as the fictional Elise Hellman is caught in a life’s passage tending to the needs of an aging mother and a teenage son. “Morning Pages” is our September select...
Sep 23, 2024•24 min
Our pop culture experts are back! After two Emmy ceremonies just this year, could the excellence in television award show be leading the charge on Hollywood’s diversity efforts? Meanwhile, the Country Music Awards have snubbed Beyonce, who received zero nominations for her critically acclaimed and record-breaking country album, “Cowboy Carter.” Plus, Kendrick Lamar scores the Super Bowl halftime show, the shocking charges behind Sean “Diddy” Combs’s arrest and bidding farewell to three titans of...
Sep 23, 2024•34 min
In 1964, Wendell Arthur Garrity was United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts – not yet a judge on the District Court of Massachusetts. Ruth Batson was a frustrated parent and civil rights activist – not yet director of Boston’s Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, or Metco, the voluntary desegregation program. Louise Day Hicks was a member of Boston’s School Board – not yet the leader of ROAR: Restore Our Alienated Rights – and the face of white opposition to the int...
Sep 16, 2024•34 min
In September, 1974 – two days after her 14th birthday – Leola Hampton boarded a school bus that would launch her into the heart of one of the most divisive and defining moments in Boston history: court-ordered school desegregation. She and her older sister, Linda Stark, were bused from their home in the predominantly Black neighborhood of Roxbury into the white, working-class neighborhood of South Boston. They navigated a violent and virulently racist high school experience so scarring that a ha...
Sep 16, 2024•24 min
Wednesday, September 11, 2024, marks the 23rd anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack in history – 9/11. In the wake of the four coordinated attacks carried out by the Islamist extremist group, al-Qaeda, America went after the attackers and moved to reshape its strategy for national security. More than two decades after 9/11, do Americans feel terrorism is still the greatest threat? And what is the state of national security in the United States today? Three experts tell us how national se...
Sep 09, 2024•34 min
For 10 years, Oberon – the American Repertory Theater’s second performance space in Cambridge – was known to locals and visitors alike for “The Donkey Show,” a disco rendition of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The show closed in 2019, and in 2021, Oberon shuttered, too. Now, a new venue called Arrow Street Arts is taking over the existing space, and it’s kicking off its grand opening in a big way with Arrowfest, a 10-day arts festival showcasing local actors, musicians, dancers, circ...
Sep 09, 2024•24 min
Cellular and molecular biologist Jason Buenrostro is one of 2023’s MacArthur Foundation fellows. Buenrostro, who is also a Harvard University associate professor, studies the mechanisms that “turn on” genes, and is the pioneer of a popular method to assess chromatin accessibility across the genome. We spoke with Professor Buenrostro for Under the Radar's series, “The Genius Next Door.”
Sep 03, 2024•23 min
Oceans, rivers and lakes are chock-full of thousands of underwater plants and algae collectively described as seaweed. Demand for seaweed — kelp, specifically — has exploded as scientists have confirmed its dietary benefits and its potential as a tool in the fight against climate change. From food to biofuel and everything in between, some experts believe this billion-year-old algae is the wave of the future.
Sep 03, 2024•35 min
They came as housekeepers, whalers and indentured servants in the 19th century: Black families who settled permanently on Martha’s Vineyard. Their hidden history is uncovered in a new book, “Black Homeownership on Martha’s Vineyard: A History,” by authors Thomas Dresser and Richard Taylor. We speak with Dresser and Taylor about tracing the existence of Black people on the Vineyard to before the Revolutionary War, unearthing centuries-old stories and why Martha’s Vineyard has been a haven for Bla...
Aug 26, 2024•29 min
More than 20 years ago, Stephen L. Carter’s debut novel, “The Emperor of Ocean Park” spent 11 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, raking up accolades and award nominations. Interest in the novel has continued, and now, “The Emperor of Ocean Park” has been adapted into a streaming series starring Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker. We speak with author Carter about the inspiration and underlying themes of the novel, and with show creator Sherman Payne about adapting the thrilling whodu...
Aug 26, 2024•29 min
Two high-profile Indian American women – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, are shining a spotlight on South Asian women in politics. They’re just two of the 4.4 million Indian Americans in this country – the largest Asian demographic identifying solely from one country, and an increasingly powerful voting bloc. As Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepts the Democratic nomination this week, will South A...
Aug 20, 2024•31 min
Boston released “Dear Summer: Volume 1” last year – its first official summer mixtape and the country's only city-sponsored one. From hip-hop to rock to jazz, the new platform showcased the talents of local musicians and Boston’s rich musical heritage and legacy. Now “Dear Summer: Volume 2” is live featuring a new set of artists: six DJs and 17 artists (6-1-7, get it?) from the Greater Boston area for a 2-hour-long soundscape. This second annual collaboration has two aims: to “connect residents ...
Aug 19, 2024•27 min
In the days when professional baseball was segregated into white and Black teams, a Black woman named Toni Stone made history. Stone was a sports phenom, and she rose through the ranks to become the first woman to play regularly in the Negro leagues, a series of men's professional baseball leagues. The teams attracted talented players including Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron. But Stone proved to be of the same caliber — when Aaron was picked up by Major League Milwaukee Braves, St...
May 19, 2024•24 min
This week on Under the Radar 's Local News Roundtable — City Hall shifts, ballot questions, lifeguard news and more. Boston’s Environmental Chief is moving on . Rev. Mariama White-Hammond used her three-year cabinet tenure to amplify equity in the city’s environmental policies from expanding the city’s green jobs to reducing heat islands in neighborhoods. She left the position to focus on her role as a pastor at Dorchester’s New Roots AME Church. Plus, advocates for rideshare companies are hypin...
May 19, 2024•34 min
Mother expressions run the gamut of familiar advice. ”If everybody jumps off the bridge, will you do it, too?” “I’m the mother; that’s why.” “We have food at home.” These and other motherly quips have lasting resonance — not always positive. “If you came to my mom and told her you were bored, you got assigned a cleaning task. Can't be bored washing the windows, you know?” Carissa Burk, author of “The Little Green Book of Mothers’ Wisdom” told Under the Radar. This Mother’s Day we reflect on the ...
May 12, 2024•22 min
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court overturned legal segregation in America’s public schools in the landmark ruling, Brown v. Board of Education . The decision dissolved the “separate but equal” doctrine, effectively ending legal segregation in American education. The ruling 70 years ago was a defining moment for the country’s racial progress — it also marked the beginning of what turned out to be a slow and arduous process of integrating Black students into majority white schools. In 1974, Bosto...
May 12, 2024•36 min
Author Suzanne Park's new rom-com, “One Last Word,” is a novel centered around a Korean tech entrepreneur — and what happens when her new app accidentally sends intimate messages to all the important people in her life. “Her goal is just to get from point A to point B. I've been conditioned to work hard and get good grades and work hard at work, and I'll get promoted, and my life will go in this trajectory that's predictable,” said Park. “And then when all of this falls apart and, crumbles aroun...
May 05, 2024•24 min
Organizations across the Bay State are joining together to take on a bold mission — eliminating hunger in Massachusetts. More than one million people in the state try to make ends meet with federal funds for food ; many of those include families with children. The new Make Hunger History Coalition includes leaders of food banks, legislators and other advocates for hungry residents whose stated goal is to make Massachusetts “the first state to end hunger, permanently.” GUESTS Jennifer Lemmerman, ...
May 05, 2024•34 min
America loves hot sauce. A 2021 Instacart survey found 74% of consumers eat hot sauce with their food , and when there was a shortage of the popular Huy Fong Foods' sriracha hot sauce last year, one bottle would go for as much as $52 on Amazon. Right now, they go for $9 . But given Greater Boston’s reputation for cuisine that is the opposite of spicy (clam chowda, anyone?) you might be surprised that Massachusetts has a long history with hot sauce — the first bottled cayenne sauces appeared here...
Apr 28, 2024•25 min
Each year more than one million American women begin menopause — an experience many don’t understand and few talk about. Often referred to as “the change,” the most common symptoms include — hot flashes, brain fog and fatigue. “I had insomnia for years,” Dr. Tina Opie, a management professor at Babson College, told Under the Radar . “I was sweating profusely. I would be at work and forget my train of thought.” What’s more, many are still in the dark about how to navigate this natural transition ...
Apr 28, 2024•33 min
From Oscar-winning movies like “Parasite” and the Oscar-nominated “Past Lives,” to the innovative modern fashion and the thumping beats of K-pop groups like BLACKPINK and BTS, South Korean culture has risen to global prominence. It’s known as the Korean Wave, or Hallyu. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts is highlighting Korean culture with “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” a new 250-piece exhibit which includes ancient art, current music and pop culture trends. The exhibit's curator, Christina Yu Yu, hopes ...
Apr 21, 2024•24 min
