Medford Bytes

Today's conversation includes a conversation with Andrea James, independent candidate for Governor of Massachusetts.

Andrea is a graduate of The University of Massachusetts, Boston and Northeastern

University School of Law graduate, a former attorney, widow, and mother of five

children, two dogs, and a cat.

Her family has been part of Massachusetts communities for seven generations; 5

of those all raised in the same family home in Roxbury, MA.

She is the Founder and Executive Director of The National Council for Incarcerated

and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, Founder of Families for Justice as

Healing, host of the FreeHer Podcast, and author of Upper Bunkies Unite: And

Other Thoughts on the Politics of Mass Incarceration. She is the 2025 recipient of

the Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys Justice Geraldine Hines Public

Service Award, a 2015 Soros Justice Fellow, and the 2016 Robert F. Kennedy

Human Rights Award honoree. Andrea is also a Independent candidate for

Governor of Massachusetts in 2026.

As a former criminal defense attorney and a formerly incarcerated woman,

Andrea draws on both lived and professional experience to expose the

devastating impact of incarcerating women on families and communities. Her

life’s work is dedicated to ending the incarceration of women and girls and

building a future rooted not in prisons and policing, but in community-led

solutions, dignity, and accountability.

To learn more about her campaign please visit her website https://www.ajforma.com/.

Today's episode includes a conversation with Alvaro and Mateo from El Tacuba/Tenoch/Localito and Bryan Roof from America's Test Kichen and On the Road.

We talk about the roots of El Tacuba, lots about food and get into some details about their newest restaurant. Hope you enjoy!

This episode includes a conversation with Christine Barber about updates to her work as State Rep as well as her campaign for State Senate.

Thanks for Listening!

Today's episode includes a conversation with Erika Uyterhoeven about her campaign or State Senate. For more information about her campaign, visit https://www.electerika.com/.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to vote on September 1st!

 Today’s episode includes a conversation with Micah Kesselman about his role in the progress of the Values Aligned Investing Ordinance and his recent letter to Gotta know Medford. His letter follows:

I am writing in regard to the response to the letter about Christine Barber from Chadi Salamoun and Joshua Eckart-Lee, published on August 6, 2026. The response's author, Ms. Schwartz, writes that she feels "a responsibility to respond" and proceeds to push a narrative that falsely presents Jewish opinion as a relative monolith minimizing, if not outright denying, the ongoing genocide in Gaza and all of Palestine. She does this by relying entirely on a letter published by an out-of-state collection of cherrypicked institutional actors of the sort which are so often granted a complete monopoly of "the Jewish perspective" by media outlets. Almost always, and without a doubt, this media messaging is to the utter detriment of Jewish discourse and safety.

Here in Massachusetts, as in virtually every state, myriad Jewish institutions do, in fact, accurately label Israeli conduct as both genocidal in character as well as apartheid. The Boston Worker's Circle (BWC), among the oldest Jewish institutions in Massachusetts, was forced out of the Boston Jewish Community Relations Council. And there is incredible pride, righteousness, and honor to the memory of our ancestors in the BWC refusing to taint its fundamental values to acquiesse Zionist cooption of our culture. Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) and If Not Now (INN) are both sprawling Jewish organizations, with strong ties to Massachusetts, that unflinchingly identify Israel's conduct as genocidal. There are shuls, right here in the Greater Boston Area, as well as elsewhere, that publicly and vocally recognize the apartheid and genocide Israel is guilty of, and its distressing roots in political Zionism as a movement completely distinct from Jewish identity and values. Both internationally and right here in New England, the International Jewish Labor Bund is experiencing a revivification not seen over half a century.

Indeed, it is fair to say that Zionism has always been a fringe movement within the Jewish community and only within the last six to eight decades has it held any legitimacy--largely granted by the intensive and focused support of non-Jewish elements. The historical reality is that many voices in the Jewish community long  ago understood the political underpinnings of Israel, Zionism, to be nothing more than a fetid sibling to what was at that time called Hitlerism, eloquently highlighted by Jacob "Yankev" Pat in Warsaw of 1933 when he demanded in an open letter in the Yiddish papers, "Ask yourself, is 'Arabs out' [a Zionist slogan of the time] not the very same slogan as 'Juden raus'?"

The unblemished and shameful reality is that it is the ongoing denial and revisionism of Jewish institutional actors, granted an unearned and inauthentic monopoly on Jewish perspectives by our mass media, that is actually among the most responsible culprits for rising antisemitism. The true irony is that this breathless advancement of a narrative conflating Jewish identity, and safety, with that of the state of Israel is itself an example of one of the most abhorrent and dangerous forms of antisemitism based on the historical record.

And let us be clear that the data is very clear that the majority of American Jews are beginning to understand why the foundational movements for the modern Israeli state were so detested by so many of their forebears--and they responding as you would expect. This phenomenon is only heightened in the Greater Boston Area, and the Northeastern United States in general, which has long been home to Jewish communities with traditional leftist values. So, no, as a Jewish resident in Medford, I would absolutely not say that a bunch of rabbis from a different state offer a more balanced perspective on Gaza (and Israel) than your Jewish neighbors right here in town.

Today's episode includes a conversation with Paul Ruseau, current School Committee member in Medford, about his campaign for State Representative. For more information about Paul's campaign, see his website https://www.electpaul.org/.

Thank you for listening!

Today's episode includes a conversation with Chris Oates, candidate for State Representative.

For more information on his campaign, check out his website https://www.chrisoates.org/

Today's episode includes a conversation with State Representative Christine Barber about her campaign for State Senate.

Today's episode includes a conversation with Medford resident Christina Allain and Tyler Frank of Garbage to Gardens all about Medford's composting program.

For more information and to enroll in the FREE program, visit https://medfordcomposts.com/

Thank you for listening!

Today's episode includes a conversation with Breanna Laquidara, about her non-profit Defend Our Community and their fundraiser planned for April 30th, 2026.

For more information about the fundraiser, its vendors, and how they will support marginalized communities, follow this link https://www.eventbrite.com/e/defend-our-community-benefit-tickets-1774644622839?aff=oddtdtcreator