The Common

Housing prices in Boston's Chinatown have been surging for decades, resulting in one of the most competitive real estate markets in the city. That's why housing advocates with the Chinatown Community Land Trust have turned to an alternative model for home ownership that helps working-class and immigrant residents stay in the neighborhood.

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

Team Common is taking the day off. So instead, we'd like to share this great recent story from the WBUR Newsroom.

Boston wants the majority of new cars purchased to be electric by 2050. And of course, all of those cars need to be charged somewhere. The city has a plan to give every household access to an electric vehicle charger or car share facility within a 10 minute walk by 2040. However equity issues make it more of a challenge for some neighborhoods than others. WBUR Climate and Environment Reporter Paula Moura has the story. 

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

February break is here for Boston-area students and their families. Associate Producer for WBUR newsletters Hanna Ali gives The Common a run down of fun and affordable activities for families to check out around the city next week. 

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

PFAS are a class of man-made chemicals used to make products ranging from firefighting foam to waterproof mascara. And as a result, they're basically in everything else too – including the bodies of about 97% of Americans. In the second of a two-part series on PFAS, The Common speaks with WBUR Senior Health and Science Reporter Gabrielle Emanuel about how PFAS can impact our health. 

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

PFAS are a class of man-made chemicals used to make products ranging from firefighting foam to waterproof mascara. And as a result, they're basically in everything else too – including the bodies of about 97% of Americans. In the first of a two-part series, The Common talks with WBUR Climate and Environment Correspondent Barbara Moran about PFAS levels in Massachusetts drinking water, and the high cost of managing it. 

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

Dinner with Cupid is a column from The Boston Globe Magazine that matches up two willing singles on a blind date and then features details on how the evening goes. This Valentine's Day, The Common sits down with Cupid herself, aka contributing editor Melissa Schorr, for a peak behind the scenes of Dinner with Cupid and the latest dating trends here in Boston.

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

Last month, Eversource broke ground on a new electrical substation in East Boston, a piece of infrastructure that has raised significant environmental justice concerns in the community since it was proposed more than eight years ago. WBUR's Miriam Wasser joins The Common to walk us through this controversial project.

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

In late January, Mei Mei Dumpling Factory and Cafe opened its doors to sold-out crowds for the first time since the pandemic. The story of Mei Mei, which was co-founded by James Beard Leadership Award winning chef Irene Li and her siblings, has been defined by adaptivity and Irene's ambition to rethink the restaurant industry from the ground up. The Common pays a visit to Mei Mei and finds out what this latest evolution is all about.

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

A new report from a Boston-based research and policy institute focused on higher education finds that eight out of ten students attending a four-year public university have $12,000 in unmet financial needs each year. For 9 out of 10 students attending community colleges, that number is nearly $9,000 each year.

Today on The Common, Managing Director of the Hildreth Institute, Bahar Akman Imboden dives into the systemic challenges of accessing affordable higher education in Massachusetts.

Check out the Hildreth Institute's full report, "Rising Barriers, Shrinking Aid" for more. 

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

Households receiving SNAP benefits saw an additional boost of at least $95 per payment from the program during the pandemic. After almost three years, that increase is set to end this month. That means some recipients will have less money for food now priced higher than it was before the pandemic.

Juan Camilo Saavedra, joins The Common to give us an idea of how this loss of additional benefits could impact local communities. He’s the director of food and nutrition at La Colaborativa, a social services organization focused on empowering Latinx immigrants in Chelsea.

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