Today we’ll give you two opportunities to engage yourself and enact or acknowledge the changes you’d like to see in the area and the world, and each is in its second year of operating. 

One of those is the upcoming Equity in the 413: Western Massachusetts Racial Equity Summit, which seeks to re-align efforts to advance racial equity across the region. We’ll talk with Community Foundation CEO Megan Burke and VP for People and Culture Briana Wales-Thaxton about the need and utility of this gathering especially at a time when diversity is slowly becoming a dirty word, and how the event has grown since its inception in 2023. 

Another is Glenmeadow where they are currently accepting nominees for their “Age of Excellence” awards, honoring folx over 60 in the myriad ways they impact our lives. Dr. Kathy Martin, President and CEO of Glenmeadow, and Rania Kfuri, Vice President of Philanthropy, speak with us about the place this holds in their organization’s 140+ year history, and changing perspectives on what aging looks like. 

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College's Salman Hameed, talks about the cuts to the NSF in the big beautiful bill, including it's repercussions for NASA, and what happens to the American scientific landscape when student and research visas are unavailable or revoked.