The Codcast

On this month’s edition of Health or Consequences, hosts John McDonough and Paul Hattis are joined by Victoria Pulos, a health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, to discuss the fallout of OB3, or the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” for Massachusetts residents. Who is likely to lose coverage? How has the state responded to federal cuts? And if Democrats win the midterms, can any of these actions be reversed?

Hosts:

• John McDonough of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute

Guest:

• Victoria Pulos, senior health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI)

Dave Denison was the first editor of CommonWealth Magazine and oversaw the publication of its first issue 30 years ago, in the spring of 1996. Mirroring similar publications in other states, CommonWealth’s mission was to dive deep into how policy actually impacts people, no easy task in a state where politicians held their cards close. Today, Laura Colarusso, editor of CommonWealth Beacon, helms the publication with a similar goal. Although much has changed about the country, the state, and the organization since the 1990s, Denison and Colarusso discuss the enduring mission of creating a more transparent political system for the common good.

Host:

Laura Colarusso, editor of CommonWealth Beacon

Guest:

Dave Denison, writer at large for The Baffler

Defining the middle class is harder than it might seem – it might mean owning a home, having steady work, keeping a pot of savings, or the kids and white picket fence vision of the “American Dream.” Historian Andrew Seal, whose research and writings focus on how the middle class thinks of itself, joins CommonWealth Beacon senior reporter Jennifer Smith on The Codcast to interpret recent Bay State polling and dive into how a middle-class identity intersects with race, media portrayals, and American individualism.

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Host:

• Jennifer Smith, senior reporter for CommonWealth Beacon

Guests:

• Andrew Seal, senior lecturer at the University of New Hampshire 

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https://commonwealthbeacon.org/middle-class/in-mass-the-middle-class-is-holding-on-but-financial-anxiety-continues-to-climb/

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/middle-class/for-mass-residents-housing-is-where-affordability-hits-hardest/

https://paulcollege.unh.edu/person/andrew-seal

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Join us on May 14th for our 30th anniversary celebration:

www.commonwealthbeacon.org/30th

Massachusetts’s extreme housing crunch is no secret, but who is actually in charge of fixing it? This week on The Codcast, state Sen. Julian Cyr and Local Journalism Project executive director Janet Lesniak join CommonWealth beacon reporter Jennifer Smith to talk about the role of employee housing on the Cape and Islands – how sustainable is it to expect small businesses to become landlords for their workers, what happens when there’s nowhere for workers to live, and what should the state be doing to help seasonal communities help themselves with new housing tools?

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Guests

• Janet Lesniak, Local Journalism Project executive director
• State Sen. Julian Cyr

Host

• Jennifer Smith, senior reporter for CommonWealth Beacon

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commonwealthbeacon.org/30th

What does the latest executive order aimed at changing how people cast their votes mean for Massachusetts? Two lawsuits are currently working their way through District Court in the state challenging a directive from President Trump that the US Postal Service only deliver mail ballots to voters on a federal citizenship list. Celia Canavan, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, and Davin Rosborough of the ACLU Voting Rights Project join to discuss their suit.

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Host:

• Jennifer Smith, senior reporter for CommonWealth Beacon

Guests:

• Celia Canavan, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts 
• Davin Rosborough, ACLU Voting Rights Project

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Join us May 11

www.commonwealthbeacon.org/30th

Policymakers in Massachusetts are increasingly eager to impose tighter restrictions on how young people use social media like Instagram and TikTok, repeatedly slamming the platforms for exploiting minors and fueling malaise. This week on The Codcast, we take a look at how the research of brain development overlaps with social media use, what regulatory attempts in other states and countries could teach Massachusetts, and what makes social media different from prior technology-fueled moral panics.

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Host:

Chris Lisinski, senior reporter for CommonWealth Beacon

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Guests:

John Wihbey, professor at Northeastern University and the author of “Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech – and What Comes Next”

Dr. Ana M. Martinez-Aleman, professor at Boston College

commonwealthbeacon.org/30th

On April 12, 2006, at Faneuil Hall, Gov. Mitt Romney signed the Massachusetts Health Insurance Reform Act, commonly known as Chapter 58 or "RomneyCare." The groundbreaking legislation established the Massachusetts Health Connector, it expanded Medicaid, it required employers to provide insurance, it subsidized health care insurance for low income residents and ultimately drastically reduced the number of uninsured. In this month’s installment of Health or Consequences, John McDonough moves into the interviewee seat, along with Cheri Andes, the former Lead Organizer of Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, to tell the story of how they built and led the coalition behind the historic bill, and how RomneyCare laid the foundation for the Affordable Care Act.

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Host:

Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute

Guests:

John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, former Director of Health Care for All

Cheri Andes, Independent Consultant, former Lead Organizer of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO)