We're seeking to close some distance today.

We're doing it by chatting with Juan Falcon of the Hispanic American Library, nestled in the core of Union Station here in Springfield. They're hosting the first ever New England Latino Festival on August 25-26th at Riverside Park. We explore why it's important to keep Spanish literacy alive locally, and to make sure that all folx in the Hispanic and Latino/x diaspora feel seen and heard.

And we're seeing how families come together. "The Longest Goodbye" is a new movie about a psychologist tasked with helping astronauts adjust to space, and more recently, helping them adjust to the possibility of life on Mars. As part of this film, it explores the experiences of local astronaut Cady Coleman and her family during the times of her training and ISS assignments. We get to talk to filmmaker Ido Mizrahy as well as Coleman, her husband glass artist Josh Simpson, and her son Jamey Coleman, whose experiences we can all witness when the film is shown at Amherst Cinemas on August 17th.