Her excellency the governor of the commonwealth of Massachusetts Maura Healey stops by the studio ahead of a visit to the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. As she is up for re-election there’s a number of issues coming to the fore that we are looking for her take on including the budget that’ll be reviewed next week, ICE activity, her task force on hunger, Rural transportation and education and a couple of listener questions to boot. 

Also, you've got a chance to see the conversations about the FY 2027 budget presented at UMass Amherst next week. 

And for Live Music Friday, we’re joined by Noam Schatz and Anand Nayak one half of local band the Unlucky Shots, who are about to release their first EP with that particular name. Because you might have read about their plight concerning their nomenclature in the Boston Globe, but it turns out that story is longer and way more nuanced than even that article could include so we get more of the details about their journey to the name change.  

Today we're centered on construction and destruction. 

In the creation end, the Jones Library is in the middle of its massive restoration project and is spotting an end point on the horizon. So we head out to Amherst to see how things are going as the building keeps its historic facade and gets updated to the 21st century.

Decked out in hard hats and safety gear, we get a glimpse at some of the changes and improvements that are headed to the building, and learn how you can be a part of this new construction with their top off ceremony this week, where you can put your proverbial "John Hancock" on an actual part of the new building. library director Sharon Sharry, Dev. director Lisa DeGrace, Facilities supervisor George Hicks-Richards, and Project supervisor Karl Beaumier take us around the site to see the edifice’s progress. .

And on the other end, our weekly chat with congressman Jim McGovern is extremely alarmed by the war instigating actions of our nation, especially as they attempt to bypass required congressional action, the issues with the latest farm bill, and his reflections on the Texas primaries. 

We're encouraging you to go out and sing.

Tim Eriksen, musical bon-vivant and renaissance performer, Amherst College professor of ethnomusicology, frequent collaborator with a wide swath of artists, founder of Cordelia’s Dad and most importantly this weekend on March 7 & 8, Chair of the Western Mass Sacred Harp Convention taking place in Florence at Bombyx. But in addition to teaching the next generation and helping 300+ folx to sing together in one place, he has a number of other projects in the works

We learn more about Sacred Harp singing as American tradition, as the nation peers into its 250th year, and learn about the many other things he’s getting up to including a performance with a new ensemble at the Drake later this month, working with Rhiannon Giddens, touring the UK and Ireland and lots more. 

And a listener question that explores the ties between you and me...or is it you and I?

It’s both and everyone cares, so word nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam Webster helps us discover why your ears lean towards pronouns the way that they do. 

We’re looking at the past to see its influence on the present in a new book. The Judgment of Gender: How Women are Centered and Silenced in Pop Culture from UMass professor Allison Butler comes out on International Women’s Day, March 8th, and we chat with the author about what she discovered, and changes we all can make to shift things for the better. 

Towards the future, March means it’s almost time to get growing. The Greenfield Farmer’s Co-operative Exchange is one a few of its kind in the state, bringing folx the tools and supplies that they need for 108 years. We speak with Jeff Budine about the importance of making sure our local growers can get what they need locally. 

And right now, we’re celebrating in Pittsfield. Wander has recently received two awards from the greater community for their work so far. We speak with Jay Santangello about some of the events they have planned, and the important space their place has created in so short a period of time. 

Today on the Fabulous 413, we head to Greenfield to see an incredible relic that city is housing. Turns out it is in possession of a 160 year old stagecoach, which itself is at the root of some mystery. We meet with city council and historical society member Sarah Bolduc to see the sight for ourselves, hear some of the history they’ve been able to unravel about the vehicle and how you can help revive it to its former glory. 

We also dig into the super fun pages of the debut novel from Easthampton author M.J. Beasi. I Was a Teenage Death God is not just about a young trans teen’s heightening circumstances, but an incredible metaphor for young adult and non binary experience across its many adventures and western Mass. setting. We speak with the author about their journey to writing, and more before you can meet them at the very first appearance on their book tour tomorrow March 3rd at the Easthampton Public Library. 

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed is as concerned and exhausted by our country’s military actions over the weekend as you might also be, and so we explore some science based ways to gain some hope about the bigger picture that may help. 

The kids of today are having a chance to interact and learn from the people who have been on this continent for millenia. This Sunday, March 1st, the Nolumbeka Project hosts “Sharing Mohican Knowledge and Presence in the Berkshires” with Shawn Stevens and Wanonah Kosbab connecting us with the peoples of the Swansea Munson Mohican peoples who were forcibly removed from this area. We’ll chat with the two of them about what reconnection with their ancestral lands means.

We’ll also head to UMass where the oldest student lead group on campus is celebrating a milestone with a huge party. The UMass Theater guild has 120 years under its belt and nearly 200 students participating in its productions and we’ll hear about its legacy and upcoming Gala from co-marketing director Kelly Duncan. 

Across the river at Smith, theater is being used to make people more present in the governance of their communities. The Policy playhouse festival connects local lawmakers and council members with students and issues through theatrical performance and we speak with founder Mary Clark Michael about using the arts to build better understanding of each other. 

And live music Friday returns Westfield native and The Voice contestant Madison Curbelo back to the studio as she prepares for her upcoming show at the Drake in Amherst on March 5th. 

Maple has broken like the first dawning, and the commonwealth celebrates next weekend with Massachusetts Maple Weekend. 

And celebrate we shall, by heading to the hilltowns to meet some of the folx that are being recognized not just locally, but internationally for the way they handle sap. Boyden Bros Maple in Conway has been sugaring for 4 generations, and it’s current stewards are utilizing methods old and new to create a wide swath of maple products all season long and beyond. 

We meet Howard Boyden, the latest of his line to helm the endeavor, and learn much more about the nuances of sugaring, including his role in supporting maple producers across the continent, his family’s history in the business, his wife Jeanne’s award winning candy and more, and some of the ways their production differs from others. . 

And our weekly chat with congressman for the 2nd district Jim McGovern traverses the weirdness of the state of the union, venturing into the comments and behavior of the president at the event, and the ripples they have into the many issues that affect all of us. Plus a great listener question on fact checking.

Note: We inccorectly refer in this episode to Mass Maple Weekend as happening on this weekend Feb 27-March 1st. Mass Maple weekend is actually occurring on March 7 & 8th. 

Older practices are making their ways in to new routines and creations.

In music that means bringing the roots of black sound into the times of now, which Corey Harris has been doing for decades. The MacArthur Grant recipient has been writing and performing the blues, reggae and more sounds of the afro-diaspora since 1990, and with 19 albums under his belt is bringing all he’s learned to a residency at the Springfield Conservatory of the Arts and a show at Bombyx Center for Arts and Equity in Florence on Friday Feb. 27th, we bring the pioneer to the studio to hear those sounds in their purest form. 

We also learn how the grapes of old are delighting the palates and practices of the new. Winemaker Filipa Pato and chef William Wouters are the husband and wife team fostering the wines under the Patowouters label using their experiences from the past 25 years in wine to establish practices influential in her native Portugal and beyond. At Provisions, who’ll host her for an event tomorrow afternoon on Feb 26th at their Thorne's Marketplace location, we learn about some of her methods the importance of native grapes, where you can meet them tonight, Feb 25th in Great Barrington and more. 

And Word Nerd Emily Brewster helps us explore a new facet of Merriam Webster’s website that might help you stay a little more with the times as we take a dive into their new page on Slang.

In Easthampton, we head to Eastworks where at 50 Arrow Gallery a new exhibit shows the not so hidden lives of a people often relegated to afterthought. A Time, A Place, Our Gaze: Re-framing the Subaltern looks at the black communities of New Brunswick, and shows through photos a glimpse of their daily lives in a way that is often overlooked in favor of sensationalism. We speak with Slavery North Initiative Director Charmaine Nelson and gallery director Jason Montgomery about expanding the horizon of what black life can and does look like, and how that can affect more than just history. 

Easthampton also happens to be the former home for local wrestling. However with the loss and sale of The Pulaski Club, the search began to bring the rings elsewhere. We talk with Perry Von Vicious, The Human Monster Truck and current title belt holder for Pro Wrestling Grind, about that company’s move to Florence's VFW with the start of this year’s local wrestling season this Friday, and some of the amazing nuances to this very bombastic sport.  

We’ll visit the Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield’s Public Library, and learn about how they are offering more than books with the inclusion of a brand new on-site social worker. We’ll meet library director Alex Reczkowski, adult services and programming librarian Caroline Villarreal, and the brand-new social worker Gabriela Leon to hear how they are keeping community care in steady circulation with references to what their patrons need the most.

At The Hope Center for the Arts in Springfield this coming weekend, two legendary groups join forces to pay tribute to a beloved member at the center of their venn diagram. The musical sensations Sweet Honey in The Rock and the Young@Heart Chorus join forces to pay tribute to the late Evelyn Harris with a special concert this weekend, and we chat with folx about the memories and impact of her presence.

 And as our trees eagerly await the time when the weather triggers the sap to run, Mr Universe ponders whether trees can predict eclipses. Hampshire College’ Salman Hameed takes a look at an intellectual spat that looks at both sides of the possibility.