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Podcasts – Pie and Coffee
Podcasts – Pie and Coffee episodes
- 508 #256: This Drone Survived 508
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s guest is drone enthusiast and “This Car Survived Kelley Square” creator Chris Markman. We talk about unmanned flying machines and Worcester’s capital budget.
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24 min - 508 #255: Election Introduction
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s panel is Brendan Melican and Paul Cooney. We hash out the questions we’d like to ask this year’s Worcester City Council challengers.
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30 min - 508 #254: Questions
Every election year, inspired by Jay Rosen, we ask: “What do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes in this year’s Worcester City Council election?”
We sift through the suggested questions and pick 3 or 4. Then, we try to interview every City Council challenger on the show, asking those same questions.
To prime the pump, this week we get some suggestions from Brendan Melican, Bill Coleman, and Virginia Ryan.
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27 min - 508 #253: Making Our Mark
508 is a show about Worcester. This week, we talk with some Worcester Public Schools art teachers, at the opening of their group show at the Sprinkler Factory, “Making Our Mark.” Guests include Keri Anderson, Jay Benotti, Christine Cross, Alana Juneau, Stacy Lord, Cory Shepherd, Michael Walden, and Fran Warner.
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29 min - 508 #252: You Won’t Believe What These Journalists Just Said About Worcester
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s guests are former Worcester Magazine editor Brittany Durgin, and former T&G online director Mark Henderson, now of The Worcester Sun. We talk about the state of Worcester journalism, exciting new projects, and staying warm.
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Staying warm:
- Warm clothing
- Heating the person instead of the house
- Mike’s #1 secret weapon is a used, slightly-burned version of this hoody
29 min - 508 #251: #blacklivesmatter
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s guest is Julius Jones. We talk about the Pulse’s “Ones to Watch” list, Communities United and #BlackLivesMatter, and the rapidly diminishing ranks of local pro journalists. Also: Follow us on Twitter.
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Headline stories:
- “Pulse Magazine’s 15 to Watch in 2015”.
- Brittney Durgin leaves Worcester Magazine. Thomas Caywood leaves the Telegram & Gazette.
- “With shootings on rise, Worcester police, black leaders at odds”.
- Feb 7: Chili Cookoff
- “Worcester scrubs MIA voters from rolls; clerk suspects many were students”.
30 min - 508 #250: So Much Stuff
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s guest is Chris Robarge. We talk about our new permanent City Manager, eight stolen gargoyles, and Jodorowsky.
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Headline stories:
- New City Manager
- ICP visits Worcester (see 508’s own “Interview with the Juggalo”)
- There have been gang shootings, with drug arrests in response
- 20 trucks have crashed into the low Canterbury Street railroad bridge this year
- Our cable access station may be forced to a new channel
- Eight 3000-pound gargoyles have gone missing
- You better register to vote soon if you want to vote in November
Discussion: so we have a new permanent City Manager. Chris’s letter of resignation [PDF] in response.
Letters: Jim May suggests we discuss “the ongoing expansion of the urban core from Kilby/Gardner to Osgood Bradley to WAM/Gateway; and how the “internationalism” of that area will force Worcester to contend with its parochialism.”
Recommendations: Mike plugs the Hip Hip Her Race 3K supporting Abby’s House; will be going to see the Pirates of Penzance; liked Brian Goslow’s article on riding the bus; and is overjoyed that there’s going to be a local series of activities and screenings relating to the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky.
27 min - 508 #249: Politics and Journalism
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s guest is Noah Bombard of MassLive. We recap this week’s primary election, talk about the state of the Telegram & Gazette and the future of local news, and ask if there’s any non-conspiracy-theory way to understand Worcester’s City Manager search.
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30 min - 508 #248: The Presence of Metal
508 is a show about Worcester. This week, Mike and Brendan talk about crosswalks, internet silliness, and municipal broadband.
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Municipal Broadband Thoughts from Brendan
There is a plan for Comcast to move into Central MA if their mergers receive FCC approval. You may not be aware of just how abhorrent a company Comcast is, and how bad their takeover of MA (Worcester Co being the only area they don’t have a monopoly on) would be. With that, I compiled a quick list a reading material that might helpful in seeing why this proposal may have negative, unintended consequences for the city:
- They’re literally the worst company in America, according to Americans
- They actively lobby to keep municipalities from providing competing services to keep rates artificially high
- They openly guarantee price increases for stagnant services
- As the country’s largest provider of internet service, they own responsibility for the US placing behind Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Uruguay in internet speeds
- They’re actively engaged in a campaign to destroy the philosophy behind Net Neutrality
- The lobbying effort assembled by Comcast to approve their merger with TWC is not only one of the largest is history, it runs so deep it threatens to undermine the very regulatory process overseeing the merger
This merger offers the City the opportunity to at least explore the feasibility of a municipal fiber project, something a fair number of medium sized cities have undertaken successfully as a component of a larger EcDev strategy. If we’re serious about expanded development in life sciences, higher ed and retention of the entrepreneurial spirit that accompanies both; and equally serious about making Worcester as attractive as possible to residents shopping for an affordable place to live and work, we really need to be thinking forward as a city. In just a few short years, not having access to a gigabit fiber network in a city is going to be akin to not having electrical service. Comcast has made it clear they do not intend to invest in the infrastructure necessary to provide such services, and once they’re here their size as a corporation will make it all but impossible to attract competition that would. And at a higher cost to the consumer.
Worcester Emergency Management: “Height pointy shape & isolation are the dominant factors controlling where lightning will strike The presence of metal makes no difference”
Worcester Telegram, Jan 20, 1965.I am told there's a guy standing by a Worcester Police Dept. crosswalk sting (Chandler & Wellington) holding a sign: IT'S A CROSSWALK TRAP.
— delnieve (@delnieve) July 29, 2014
Worcester City Council Agenda, March 18, 2014:
7m. Matthew Kracher request to stop the police crosswalk stings in Lancaster Street where it intersects with Dix Street. Petitioner heard – Referred to City Manager [PDF with more]ME UNDERSTAND GARY ROSEN WANT WORCESTER TO HOST THE 2024 OLYMPICS?? NEED NEW LOCAL GAMES!!!!!!!! #WORCOLYMPICS
— SEKUL ANITNATNSOK (@BIZARROLUKES) August 2, 2014
30 min - 508 #247: Indian Lake
508 is a show about Worcester. This week’s guest is Jim Kersten. This week’s show was taped on a raft floating in Worcester’s Indian Lake. We talk about blue-green algae in the lake, the search for a new head librarian, the American Antiquarian Society and Wormtown Brewery winning national awards, and openings on Worcester’s municipal boards and commissions.
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