There are the Patriots, the Red Sox, the Celtics... and the stone walls. That's right. Many New Englanders are absolutely enamored by the approximately 100,000 miles of stone walls, relics of early settlement, that dot the woods and roadsides of our region.

Today, Hanna Ali, WBUR associate producer for newsletters, joins The Common to tell us more about how these historic stone walls came to be, and why they've captured the hearts of so many in Massachusetts and beyond.

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

Update: Ed Augustus, the state's housing secretary, sent a letter to Milton town officials Wednesday morning saying the town failed to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, and as a result, the Healey administration will immediately stop sending "significant grant funding" to the town. Read the full letter here.

Last week, residents of Milton voted down a plan that would have allowed for the development of more multifamily housing. The vote puts Milton at odds with the MBTA Communities Act -- a state law that aims to tackle the housing crisis by requiring communities with MBTA access to create new zoning plans allowing for higher density housing.

Today, Boston Globe Housing Reporter Andrew Brinker joins The Common for a look at what happened in Milton, and what this community's response can tell us about the appetite for tackling the state's housing crisis.

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

Immigration and border security have long been hot-button issues in national politics. Now, with concerns mounting over the state's overstretched family shelter system, where nearly half of the people housed are migrants, asylum-seekers or refugees, immigration is becoming a firey point of conversation in state and local politics, too.

WBUR Senior Political Reporter Anthony Brooks joins The Common to discuss how the immigration debate is entering and informing political discourse on Beacon Hill and beyond.

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

Team Common is off today, so we’re bringing you a story from our friends in the WBUR newsroom. We'll be back with our regular show tomorrow. 

Today’s story comes from Arts Reporting Fellow, Solon Kelleher. It’s about a jukebox in Cambridge, redesigned by artist Elisa Hamilton to play stories from people in the community instead of music. 

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

Chinatown's streets will come to life on Sunday with thunderous drums and the piercing clang of cymbals as nine lion dance troupes celebrate the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese New Year Parade.

WBUR Podcast Fellow Cici Yu joins The Common to preview this year's parade, and give us a window into the vibrant history and community surrounding lion dance in Boston.

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

Online sports betting was legalized in Massachusetts just over a year ago. Since then, Bay State gamblers have wagered almost $5 billion dollars. Additionally, while it's illegal for people under the age of 21 to gamble in Massachusetts, mental health and addiction workers have noted an uptick in teens and young adults seeking help for compulsive gambling.

Today on The Common, Boston Globe Addiction Reporter Chris Serres breaks down the surge in youth gambling and how online gambling apps are fueling this growing problem.

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

Through June of this year, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is displaying 27 images taken by Stephen Shames of the women at the heart of the Black Panther Party.

WBUR Reporter Arielle Gray set out to review the exhibit, titled Comrade Sisters: Women of the Black Panther Party, and was struck by one photo in particular -- it shows a group of five unnamed teenage Black Panther volunteers, four girls and one boy, taken right here in Boston.

Today on The Common, Arielle tells us about how she managed find the young people in the photo and what she learned about their experiences with the Boston chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Note: A previous audio version of this episode stated that the Museum of Fine Arts is free on Wednesdays. This is no longer true. The MFA offers $5 minimum, pay what you wish tickets after 5 p.m. on certain dates, including upcoming dates on March 14 and May 16.

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

The Cape has a dirty water problem. The main culprit? Pee. Over the years, waterways around Cape Cod have been increasingly impacted by peoples' septic tanks, which leach nitrogen and phosphorus -- from urine -- into the Cape's ground water. This, in turn, leads to unhealthy water quality and toxic algae blooms that are dangerous for humans and wildlife alike.

Municipalities around the Cape are now looking for solutions that will keep their tourist-attracting bodies of water clean and pee-free. Among them, as WBUR Climate and Environment Correspondent Barbara Moran tells us, is one innovative method known as pee-cycling.

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

Massachusetts’ strained shelter system has been struggling to keep up with an influx of families who are in need of housing. But where are these families coming from?

Senior Health and Science Reporter Gabrielle Emmanuel set out to answer that question in a new story for WBUR. She found that roughly half of the families seeking help through the state family shelter system are newly arrived migrants, mostly from Haiti. Also, this is not the first time they’ve had to start over somewhere new.

Today Gabrielle joins The Common to tell us more about the journey these families have endured on their way from Haiti to Massachusetts.

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

This one's for all you last-minute romantics out there. While Boston is famously a reservation-first dining city, there are no shortage of walk-in-friendly restaurants available to accommodate your procrastinated Valentine's Day plans -- no matter what kind of vibe you're going for.

Today, Erika Adams, editor of Eater Boston joins The Common to walk us through six of her top reservation-free dining picks in Greater Boston.

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