Like Frampton, Mutual Aid Comes Alive! In an exercise of either efficiency or laziness, this week’s episode is a live talk we were graciously asked to do at the Framingham Public Library (great Instagram presence). Many are saying it was the Best Talk Ever Given. More and more people are saying it’s the greatest Mutual Aid 102 to a Mutual Aid 101 ever Given by Leftist Agitators.This podcast began talking about mutual aid, it was literally the first thing we did… To have taken the next rejoinder out on the road, in front of real people who came out when it was SOO COLD, was really cool. Anyway, we talk about Kropotkin and spend some much-needed time talking about how mutual aid and cooperative structures are in fact and evidence the natural order of things, revisit what mutual aid is and how it’s different from charity and actually, expose the difficult truths that Bill and I are indeed very well-paid Soros agitators. We both bake a mean lasagna.

A few relevant links from the talk…

LUCE Immigrant Justice Network

Bill’s 2020 WoMag story on Chris’s COVID kits

Interview with The Nation about Mutual Aid – Dean Spade

Armed community defense episode of “It Could Happen Here.”

Mutual Aid: A Grassroots Model for Justice and Equity in Emergency Management

Various schools of Anarchism explained with tacos.

Not relevant to the talk but…Thoughts and prayers up for DJ Michael “5000” Watts, founder of Swishahouse and godfather of “chopped and screwed” music. Guys, gals, and non-binary pals: We’ve just clocked something like just past the first anniversary of Outdoor Cats. I have so much fun doing this podcast, there’s not much I like more than combining a guaranteed hang with one of the people I enjoy hanging out with most but also I get to do some mild research. I look forward to it every week, sincerely. (Bill ask for money here)

Ok Chris here goes. There’s no way we could put out all the stuff we put out—a lot of stuff for an outlet with only one (1) full time staffer!—without contributions from our readers and listeners. It is the only source of revenue and we like it that way because we have only our people to please and do not have to think for a second of how it’ll be received over at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. Three ways to do it and the first one is best: Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store.

Sound off in the comments or chat if you also look forward to this every week!

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∿Outro: “Walking In The Snow” Run The Jewels

∿Intro by Bill Shaner 1.31.26

MLK continuing to call out Worcester’s political establishment from beyond the grave every damn day. In 1961 he spoke at Temple Emanuel right here in Worcester and called out both the cowardly rush to hide behind the “moderate” position and the northern liberal’s willfully obtuse view of the world, in which social problems are something that exist elsewhere. Not here, surely.

In case you missed it, my reporting on the fact Worcester has $15 million invested in ICE’s forced removal operation: Tangled Up In Ice

We wrap with an extended discussion of the Dead, this being the first time we’ve been able to talk about the late, great Bob Weir with the mics running. RIP to the Other One, up there in Rosa’s Cantina in the sky.

If you appreciate what we’re doing here, it’s on you to keep us in business. This podcast and this outlet in general are 100 percent reader funded. There are three main ways to help: Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store.

Well, four, because word of mouth is the only advertising we have, so that’s also on you I’m afraid to say. Help us get the word out!

And don’t forget what I mentioned at the beginning of the show: We’ll be at the Framingham Public Library next Thursday, Jan. 29, giving a free talk about mutual aid. It starts at 7 p.m. More details here.

Some other links from the show:

“Are You Afraid Now?” (You’ve Heard About Who ICE Is Recruiting. The Truth Is Far Worse. I’m the Proof)That time the city council forced the Grateful Dead out of town

“In all, 102 Deadheads were arrested for a variety of mostly nonviolent infractions including vagrancy, loitering and possession of LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs.

Worse, though, were the piles of trash and waste left in the wake of the city-hopping hippie hordes who camped in public parks and vacant lots downtown”

Playing In The Band, and Bobby WeirThe Pizza TapesChris’ favorite Grateful Dead song: “Crazy Fingers” (hilariously this version is from Foxboro in 1989, the year after reactionary leadership in Worcester caused them to stop playing here). Most people would not consider this a “Bobby song” but I think it’s a perfect example of Bobby setting the table for Jerry and the rest of the band. I also love Crazy Fingers because it’s not “about” anything. It’s really just a collection of poetic vignettes that work together. Also, if you want to hear the Dead played by some of your favorite contemporary artists, “Day Of The Dead” is kinda mind-blowing. (Spotify link because that was the easiest place to find it assembled). Everybody from The War On Drugs to Bruce Hornsby to Courtney Barnett to Kurt Vile to Bela Fleck to to Marijauana Death Squads to Lucinda Willims to The Flaming Lips is on it. Bob Weir does “St. Stephen” with Wilco, and “I Know You Rider” with The National. A real testament to your music is the people who will show up to cover it. Bill’s favorite Grateful Dead song: “Wharf Rat” or “Terrapin Station” depending on the day

Intro by Bill ShanerOutro: “Playing In The Band” Live in Jersey City, NJ, 9/28/72

Very happy to announce that somewhere in the middle of this episode we debut Wicked Wistah #1: Spags. Al Griggs AKA Kool Kojak, our esteemed guest a few episodes back, called in as promised. We abruptly shift gears to talk Spags and some other things. He shares a story you simply will not believe before jetting off to some damn place. Then, just as abruptly, we return to the matter at hand: IBPO President Thomas Duffy’s long strange hissy fit, culminating recently in a defamation lawsuit filed against This Week In Worcester’s Tom Marino for factual, well-sourced and perfectly legal reporting. To catch up: Our reporting, the Telegram’s reporting, This Week In Worcester podcast episode, the dossier I put together on Duffy back in 2024, the Rich Rafferty Adam Vinatieri commercial.

If you enjoy this podcast as much as we enjoy putting it together please consider helping us continue to have the time to do so! Every couple bucks counts. Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store

And help us get the word out!

Venice ambulance beat

Franklin clip

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∿Outro: Knock Over City- “Birds 2: Crowfeeedin” / Knock Over City’s Bandcamp

∿Intro by Bill Shaner 1.12.26

We catch up on some council funnies, talk about how the only way to handle this incoming council is as a long ongoing bit. Like the Moe Bergman pipes moment from the last council… it’s all ROFL from here on out, baby. Like so…

This Westerling guy is all right.

We revisit our winners and losers of 2024 to see how the proverbial tables have turned, we again turn to Ray Mariano for three stooges style physical comedy: trotting around with pie on his face going ‘it’s not pie’ over and over and over.

Our winners and losers of 2024. Our predictions were a…mixed bag!83% of “assaults” at WPS were committed by elementary schoolers

Ray Mariano- WPS “manipulated the numbers” by uhhhh…reporting them.

Then we talk music!

Please buy an outdoor cat shirt if you enjoy this program!!

Oooo ahhhhh you’d look great in it! And just $20? In a post-Brandon world?

We did 50 episodes! Look at us. Would you just look at us. Couldn’t have done it without you fine folks out there listening. Think about someone else who might like the show and give it a share will ya? Word of mouth is really the only way this newsletter gets around and it’s done us perfectly well so far.

Also we couldn’t do this if I (Bill) was working another job because hooo boy it actually takes a lot of back-end work to get these episodes out, on top of all the other writing and editing that goes into this outlet in general. Subscriptions or tips would be appreciated!

For folks reading this in the pod description and not on Substack: Subscribe / Tips / Merch Store

Chris’ favorite albums of 2025: For each of these, I’m going to link to one of my favorite tracks from the album. You can find the entire album if you want because you are smart. Cannibal Ox, “Aireplane”Viagra Boys, “viagr aboys”Nate Smith, “LIVE-ACTION”

(Bonus Nate Smith, “Red Arrow” drum solo live at the Blue Note for the recording of Fearless Flyers IV. I have this and all of the Fearless Flyers catalog on vinyl and I will play it real loud for anyone who asks nicely)clipping. “Dead Channel Sky”Anna Buchegger, “Soiz”Ohhhh I forgot the new De La Soul album!

Bill’s: Gelli Haha, “Switcheroo.” S.G. Goodman, “Planting By The Signs.” Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band, “New Threats From The Soul.”

Neither’s: Geese, “Getting Killed”

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∿Intro music by yours truly (Bill)

∿Outro: “King Harvest” by The Band

Hey, Chris here: I have to sound in at least briefly about what a truly magical moment this interview was.I came in with the information that a guy who was Brendan Melican’s friend made the Wings Over commercial we talked about in the last episode, and that he was willing to talk to us about it, and that eating a lot of mushrooms was a key component of filming, and basically zero other information. At the beginning of the interview, I say how I am a fan of his work, and he asks which work, and I say “Oh the only work I know, which is this commercial”. He takes that real graciously for a guy who we discover in real time during the episode has also had a career working with Ke$ha, Onyx, Waka Flocka Flame, DMX, Icona Pop, Sean Paul, Travis Barker, ODB, Doja Cat, Britney Spears, etc etc etc. I also had zero idea that he worked on one of my extremely very favorite albums, The Spirit Of Apollo, which we talk about.

I hope the joy of finding out that Al is so much more than Bill and I knew in terms of a story and also him being a Real Wistah Guy comes through. I also really loved that we discovered we have a whole bunch of mutual friends between the three of us. This is a record of one of the best hours I have ever spent completely unprepared to be on the phone with someone who it turns out is kind of one of my heroes. We’ll definitely be having Al back again for Wicked Wistah.O Pato videoWay Down/bird gang war videoWings Over Worcester fightWings Over Outtakes

Weed Ova Worcester

They really did light up in there by the way…

We can keep doing this podcast and everything else we do at Worcester Sucks because of the wonderfully generous readers and/or listeners who subscribe or drop some money in the tip jar or buy some merch!

Subscription page — Tip Jar — Merch Store (there’s a new shirt on there!)

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∿Outro: N.A.S.A. - O Pato (feat. Kool Kojak & DJ Babão)

∿Intro by Bill Shaner 12.8.25

We catch up on some news before getting into the main event: the 2007 Wings Over Worcester commercial that proves we used to be a god damn proper city, man.

St. V already looking for a new new CEO again.

Ray Mariano’s dumb school safety column

Dianna Biancheria’s “vision for the future”

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Cliff vs. the Manson clan

“Train Dreams” trailer

WINGS OVER WORCESTER Commercial

Does someone have the Frankenstein’s commercial recorded? Also this is why we need an ephemera archive.

Thanks for supporting us! We’re thankful for everyone who listens. Those who listen and have a paid sub—double thankful!

Subscription page — Tip Jar — Merch Store (there’s a new shirt on there!)

Also: join us at the punk rock flea market this weekend! We’ll be there the whole time Sunday, part of the time Saturday.

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∿Outro: “Black Ice/Sky High”

∿Intro by Bill Shaner 12.8.25

A weird and decidedly non-newsy one this week, recorded in the throes of post-Thanksgiving fogginess on Friday night. Using a piece by Karl Ove Knausgård in Harpers on technology and the suffocating and/or liberating effects of such, we talk about local journalism and The Platforms mostly.

“The Reenchanted World”

Here’s that synth I built. The one I was talking about. Also featured in the outro! It’s the lead tone.

Thanks for supporting us! We’re thankful for everyone who listens. Those who listen and have a paid sub—double thankful!

Subscription page — Tip Jar — Merch Store

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∿Intro & outro music by Bill Shaner original composition 11.30.25

Hey! Chris here with my own solo episode. Look, we’ve all been through a lot in the past few weeks, and this podcast has been accordingly a bit intense. Not today! This one is about beans.I sat down with my old friend Jen Burt, who some of you may know as the person behind the Worcester Mammoth Horticultural Bean Fair. The Worcester Mammoth is a bean that was sold and grown widely throughout the area from roughly the late 1890s until the 1950s, when it largely seems to have disappeared. Fast-forward to COVID times, when Jen rediscovered the bean in an old seed catalog and decided to hunt it down and bring it back.

We talk about that process, the cultural importance of local heirloom foods and the cultural responsibility of reviving them appropriately, being “pro or anti-GMO” as a sort of reductive concept, other favorite beans, agricultural fairs and how cool they are, and a few other things, but really…it’s just about beans at the end of the day. Don’t overthink it. We didn’t.

THE BEAN HAS AN EMAIL: If you would like to get the bean and/or to know more about the bean, hit up [email protected]

Quick pause from the money man to ask you humbly that you help this little outlet grow into a mammoth outlet! Paid subscriptions are best, but dropping a few bucks in the tip jar or ordering something from the merch store is also great. Thank you! —Bill

We also talked about some historical events that happened at the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds, but we didn’t talk about the time Worcester people chased a massive Klan rally out of the city by…uh…any means necessary? No idea why things like this are kicking around in my head. Roll that beautiful bean coverage!

Some relevant links: Seed Savers ExchangeHappiness Pony

Jacob’s Cattle BeanThe Worcester Agricultural Fairground

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∿Outro music: “Celebrate” by Anderson .Paak

∿Intro music by Bill Shaner

After a surprise loss in the District 5 race, Etel Haxhiaj and I sat down for a candid chat. It was late in the afternoon Friday. Both of us were exhausted and the conversation is a winding one. But we hit on several of the nastier elements of local politics in this city—the nativism, the sexism, the routine harassment… not to mention the stranglehold of the police unions and chamber of commerce on the supposedly democratic processes of city government. We discuss “civility” and the other buzzwords used as a cudgel against the progressive movement.

We do some light analysis of the results, thinking about where Rivera’s 900 new votes came from. But more so, the interview was a public airing of observations about the sort of pervasive cultural problems that, over the past several years, Etel and I would often talk about privately. Ahead of recording, Etel told me she felt strongly that there wasn’t any use in keeping a lid on the stuff any longer. People should know what it’s like. Early in the conversation she said:

One of the hopes that I have for this conversation is to shed some light on how I’m experiencing it. And maybe that gives some language to, and some perspective to people who, you know, have been reaching out and saying, ‘we don’t understand what happened on Tuesday.’ And again, not just looking at me as a person, but mostly sort of the, what does this mean for Worcester and where do we go from here?

For what it’s worth there hasn’t been nor will there likely be another interview with Haxhiaj of this length and depth on the results of this election. One of many reasons I think it’s worth it to keep this little outfit in business. Subscribe here or drop a few bucks in the tip jar or even visit the merch store!

Did this one solo (Chris had work) but if all goes according to plan Chris will be coming in with his own solo episode for the next one!

Help us spread the word!

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∿Outro music: “Backlash Blues,” Nina Simone, live version 1970

∿Intro music by me

Continuing on the ‘welp’ theme we get through the election results as quickly as we can, here’s a quick summary if you haven’t caught up on Tuesday’s results yet, then we discuss at length what the story of Heather Prunier exposes about the political culture and attendant media of this city. Taking a breather, Chris lets on the depths of his sandwich-based worldview. Then, finally, the story behind the gong sound in the last episode. Speaking of, we highly suggest you listen to that one before this one: Episode 43: That Is My File (ft. Heather Prunier, Tom Marino)

Thank you for all of the support the past week. Subscriptions are up (subscribe here just $5! One Dunkies), people are making great use of the tip jar, the Instagram is going freakin loco (shouts out Kelly Cashman, IG Editor extraordinaire).

As we talk about in the episode, we believe in what we’re doing here and we believe in the impact it’s already making but more than that we believe in its ability to grow into a real institution. That takes time and time is mostly a slog but if you’re with us, we’re in it for the long haul.

One last thing: I (Bill) will be at the Sinclair from 4-6 p.m. on Saturday, reading some of my work, sharing a stage with some of the most talented writers I know. It’s the book launch party for Luke O’Neil’s new one, “We Had It Coming,” a book that is devastatingly good for anyone but especially for someone who grew up in Massachusetts amid the townies and the decay and the ‘do your job’ fascism.

I have never done a reading such as this before and I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be reading. If there is a piece of mine or a passage or even a riff from this podcast you think would make for a good live reading, chuck it in the chat please!

Or the comments or billshaner [at] substack.com

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∿Intro by me (Bill Shaner), written and recorded special for the episode. “Make It Look So Nice In Here,” 11.5.25.

∿Outro: “We Have Survived” by No Fixed Address

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