The Codcast

The Bay State is already struggling with a primary care provider crisis, and the head of the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts sees an increasingly grim road ahead if current trends persist. 

This week on the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute spoke with Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health

This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas talks with reporter Jennifer Smith about a series of stories, parsing the sprawling Trump tax and spending bill. They discuss why it’s so hard to know if Opportunity Zones have been effective, and why affordable housing advocates are mixed on the administration’s approach to low-income renters.

This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith and Todd Kaplan, senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, set the stage for a new law changing the way broker’s fees in Massachusetts have been handled for the past decade. Starting August 1, the balance is meant to shift away from the renters and towards landlords when the property owner insists on a broker’s services.

This week on The Codcast, it’s the state angle on artificial intelligence. CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Sabrina Mansur, director of the Massachusetts Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub. Mansur explains how she uses AI in her daily life and why keeping Massachusetts competitive means a $100 million taxpayer-funded effort to get into the AI race.

This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas joins reporter Jennifer Smith to trace the last decade in state takeovers of local school districts. The results, as Jonas has reported, are a far cry from a silver bullet to fix struggling schools.

More than 800,000 people ride the T everyday. This week on the Codcast, reporter Gin Dumcias is joined by Phil Eng, General Manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or "the T" to talk about the state of the system and what lies down the track.

CommonWealth Beacon reporter Gintautas Dumcius interviews Boston Mayor Michelle Wu about her start in politics and being both an introvert and a politician, why she’s a Democrat, the super PACs crowding into this year’s election, and her media diet.

John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk to Matt Veno, executive director of the Group Insurance Commission, which handles health insurance for 460,000 public employees.

They talk about the quasi-independent public entity, which recently received a last-minute $240 million infusion from state coffers to cover claims for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year.

This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jenn Smith talks to Doug Howgate president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) about the Fiscal Year 2026 state budget. They break down differences between the House and Senate plans, discuss why some parts of the process always happen behind closed doors, and consider the future of the wealth surcharge split between education and transportation.

This week on the Codcast, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd sits down for a wide-ranging interview with CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith. They discuss trust in the judiciary, the role of the trial courts and the SJC, and if independence feels more achievable for state courts than the federal bench.