The Common

Spring is upon us, and with it comes a whole new slate of recommendations from WBUR's Arts and Culture team as a part of their seasonal arts guides. From new albums, to visual arts, to movies, there's something for everyone in Boston's art scene this spring.

WBUR Senior Arts and Culture Editor Dianna Bell joins The Common with some of her favorite recommendations from this season's guides.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Last fall WBUR Investigations Correspondent Todd Wallack joined The Common after he published an investigation into Massachusetts’ public housing waitlist system. In the investigation, he found that despite the state being in a record housing shortage, almost 2,300 state-funded units were sitting vacant across the Commonwealth, sometimes for years. In the aftermath of the investigation, the state announced it would make a 90-day push to significantly reduce the number of empty units.

Six months later, only 72 more units have been filled and more than 180,000 people remain on the waitlist.

Today on The Common Todd joins us again to provide a look into Massachusetts' public housing waitlist system, and how it is and isn't working for housing authorities and potential tenants alike.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Almost a year after affirmative action was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, Massachusetts lawmakers are working to institute a ban on legacy preferences at colleges in the state. Legacy preference, or legacy admissions, is the practice of favoring college applicants who have familial connections to the school, and it often disproportionately benefits white and wealthier students.

Today on The Common WBUR Education Reporter Max Larkin discusses the bill's background and how it's being received in Mass. education communities.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Introducing the trailer for ‘Beyond All Repair,’ a brand new WBUR podcast about an unsolved murder and a woman who wasn’t believed.

Note: This is the trailer for Beyond All Repair from WBUR and ZSP Media. Episodes 1 & 2 are already waiting for you: Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

We're back with our second installment of Sound On: The series where WBUR Senior Arts and Culture Reporter and Critic Amelia Mason joins The Common to share a new album from a rising artist or band in Massachusetts.

Today, we're discussing "i know i know i know," an expansive new album from Western Massachusetts-based band, Cloudbelly.

Check out Amelia's full write-up on Cloudbelly here.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Last year, Governor Maura Healey set a cap on the number of families served by the state family shelter system at 7500. Families beyond that number are put on a waitlist. Some have found temporary shelter in overflow sites set up by the state. The thing is, those shelters are not all open during the day, leaving day-side support options limited.

Enter La Colaborativa, a Chelsea-based immigrant services non-profit, which opened a day service center late last month. Today, La Colaborativa president Gladys Vega joins The Common to discuss the services the organization is offering to support recently arrived migrant families on the state family shelter waitlist.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Yesterday was Super Tuesday - the day voters in Massachusetts and 14 other states, plus one territory, cast their votes for the candidates they’d like to see face off in the general presidential election in November.

By the time you hear this episode, some results from Super Tuesday may already be known, but what we want to focus on in this episode is not who got the most votes, but how voters are thinking about the election cycle more broadly, and what that means for the future of our country.

Boston Globe Politics Reporter Matt Stout joins The Common with his insights from a day reporting at the polls.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

Our region is experiencing its first El Niño in five years, and, bolstered by climate change,  we have an unusually warm winter to prove it.

Today, Tom Di Liberto, climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, joins The Common to discuss how El Niño impacts weather patterns in the region, and what other factors are contributing to our unseasonably warm winter.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

The Massachusetts State Senate recently unveiled a new bust in their renovated chambers in the statehouse. It honors Frederick Douglass – a Black civil rights leader who worked to abolish slavery in the United States. The sculpture puts Douglass in the company of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Ben Franklin, and other historical figures. It's the first permanent bust added to the chamber in over 125 years, and it occupies one of two new spots. State Senate President Karen Spilka says the other spot will go to a woman.

Today,  Boston Globe Senior Opinion Writer Kimberly Atkins Stohr joins The Common to discuss Maria W. Stewart, a groundbreaking Black Bostonian who she believes should be honored with a bust in the Senate chambers.

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

March is the month that brings us spring, at last! But it's also a long month, with no observed holidays to give us a break. To help motivate us all to get out and explore this March, WBUR Assistant Director of CitySpace Candice Springer joins The Common with three DIY craft classes that offer an opportunity to learn a new creative skill.

Candice recommends...

Greater Boston’s weekly podcast where news and culture meet.