Capitol Hill has been awfully aggressive with a constant barrage of cuts to many federally funded programs and departments. Today, we show you how some of those cuts are directly impacting kids in western Massachusetts and beyond. 

School lunch programs are just one of the many slashes in the USDA, and we hear from Melanie Wilk, Brianna Jackson and Abby Getman Skillicorn about the Massachusetts Farm to School Program, its specific impact in Chicopee and what lays ahead without federal support.

Which might incline one to imbibe. We find ourselves comfortably in Women’s History Month and, lucky for us, there are two awesome women behind Tip Top Wine Shop who bring us two Oregon wines from women-led vineyards for the latest Thunderdome.

And, Live Music Friday brings world champion Cory Pesaturo to the studio before you can catch him at the next Watermelon Wednesday. We also talk with Paul Newlin, one of the originators of the Watermelon Wednesday series, which often does not occur on that central day of the week.

 We’re headed to Whip City!

But we’re not looking at whips, we’re checking out quilts! Internationally renowned fiber artist Ed Johnetta Miller currently has an exhibit showing in Westfield called “Journey Stories” that uses her work to highlight key moments in her life, and we’ll chat with the artist herself about the tales textiles can tell. 

 It’s being shown at Westfield on Weekends Center, and we’ll chat with board member Kathi Bradford about the program, and the classes connected to the exhibit as well as get to check out some of Edjohnetta Miller’s work right here in the studio!

And Congressman McGovern is having a hard week. In fact it’s been 7 straight weeks of difficulties, but this one sees the representative in the shadow of a government shutdown with a lot of fingers pointing at a lot of folx, and a slew of announcements about cuts in the USDA. All things we chat with him about today, and which folx may end up talking to him about when he’s here next week for his town hall

Although we are in the midst of a housing crisis, the Baystate is making changes. To hear how Gov. Maura Healy’s plans to combat this problem impacts us locally, we talk to Secretary of Housing and Livable Communities Edward Augustus.

And we gather flowers and herbs with Susan Pincus of Sawmill Herb Farm. We hear how a changing focus to perennials and moving to Montague has allowed for more community to blossom.

Plus, Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster, shows us a plethora of linguistic discoveries.

It’s been 5 years since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic that has lasting impacts to this day. So today, we head to UMass Amherst to check in with virologist Mandy Muller to help us understand more of what was happening in the uncertain, confusing beginnings of the COVID-induced shutdown. Since coronaviruses are not her main focus, we also learn about her favorite virus, herpes, and get to see it up close in her lab.

And, speaking of things with global impact, the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival is just one of the few places where you can see the 2025 Oscar-winning documentary, “No Other Land,” along with more films within the theme of “Documenting Dissent.” We speak with organizers Jim Hicks and Celia Sainz, and Mount Holyoke College professor Adriana Pitetta about the next three free movie screenings you can see to expand your celluloid borders.

We’re taking roads less traveled and encountering folx who are carving their own paths in history, not always in plain sight.

A new queer-centered multipurpose space in Pittsfield is encouraging people of all walks of life to grab a camera and venture out. We head to WANDER Berkshires and meet with owner Jay Santangelo to show us around the space, give a little history of the building they occupy and how small dreams of a public dark room grew into so much more. 

The new book, “In Defiance: 20 Abolitionists You Were Never Taught in School,” celebrates the work of champions in the cause against slavery in America, including those who may be overlooked in history books. We chat with authors Tom Weiner and Amilcar Shabazz about the origins of the idea, some of the abolitionists they studied and what we can expect during their book launch at Odyssey Bookshop March 13.

And Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed of Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College, walks us through some recent successes and failures with rockets as many witnessed the sorry defeat of the SpaceX rocket in the battle against gravity. He also tells us about some wondrous things in the heavens you can see this week sans telescope.

We’re kicking off 3 days of music with more than 60 artists across 10 venues across the city of Northampton. The 11th Back Porch Festival is here to turn our chilly western Massachusetts into a New Orleans-inspired roots and Americana extravaganza.  

Despite power outages across the city, with some quick thinking on the part of our engineers, we broadcast live and in the dark from the stage at The Iron Horse, one of those 10 venues!

We hear how the changes in format and the lineup of artists are still resonating with the music lovers of western Mass. with Jim Olsen of Signature Sounds, whose own back porch show on WRSI, our alma mater, was the impetus of the whole thing.  

Before you ramble through the streets, we give you a taste of the program with the classic bluegrass sounds of Old Hat Stringband, the catchy licks of Jake McKelvie and an artist who is no stranger to the greater music scenes of Northampton, Mike Flood.

An extra special thanks to Bart Rankin, Jared Libby, Cara Foster and everyone that helped us make this show happen!

Today we take a local perspective of global happenings in art, in the environment and in the legislature. 

It is the very beginning of maple season, and the Bay State is celebrating this weekend as many producers open their sugarhouses and welcome the public to see their operations up close. We take a trip to Shattuck Sugarhouse in Belchertown to chat with the mother-son team, Judy and Nick Shattuck, about their 50 years of turning sap into syrup and more. 

And a new program is headed to Springfield Symphony Orchestra (SSO) next week. “Eternal Echoes” takes timeless themes in music of connection, loss and community and pairs them with a local maestro, Cailin Marcel-Manson, a local soprano soloist, Jamie-Rose Guarrine. We sit with Manson, Guarrine and SSO President Paul Lambert about bringing these works and topics close to home. 

Plus, our weekly chat with Rep. Jim McGovern recounts the 47th president’s recent address to Congress, budget cuts to local environmental offices, the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Congress on the DOGE debacle and more listener questions.

Today we are a bit playful, cause we all need more art and more laughter. 

So we bring back a guest from last week who’s got way too many projects going, one of which will be performing at the Back Porch Festival this weekend. Cowperson is the Americana outlet for Michael Hanson and Keith Dusoe, and we hear how this particular project stands out in its field from the rest in an impromptu Live Music Wednesday. 

It's also in the laughs just around the corner from our station because three decades of comedy are being celebrated at White Lion Brewery this Friday. We speak with the organizer and celebrant of the occasion, comedian Gerald Kelly, whose appearances span stage, screen, and beyond, about the night’s program which includes his sons.

It’s in the words we use, some of which are not as proper as others, shall we say. Which is a great time for Word Nerd Emily Brewster, senior-editor at Merriam Webster, to chat us up on slang and how it has had an impact on English for centuries, which is wicked cool and hella fun, yo… 

In the words of John M. McCrea, "we are widening the corridors and adding more lanes." 

In one case, this means expanding where art can go and who gets to make it. At Berkshire Community College, the Justice Dance Performance Project is presenting “Unmuting,” a piece that highlights the lives of incarcerated people in their own words and movements. We talk with director Judy Dworin about the importance of getting these tales outside both for the storyteller and audience.

It is also in making more space for the art we love. In Williamstown, Images Cinema is making a huge push to raise funds to double their screening capabilities, and we sit with Executive Director Dan Hudson to talk about the need for more screen time, discuss the Oscars, and highlight the community built in each curated showing. 

And, speaking of community, we find out how, once again, bunnies are bringing us together to help those in need. Author and illustrator Mo Willems joins us at R. Michelson Galleries to discuss his new book, "Me and Other Bunnies," and this year’s benefit exhibition. We learn how to relate to one another while still staying true to oneself with animals, the cutest way to bring a little unity wherever you are.

It’s officially maple season, so we head for the forests to get a taste of the Bay State’s very first agricultural product, and the sweetest by far.

We go as far west as we can to Hancock and Ioka Valley Farm where thousands of maple trees are being tapped to bring sweetness to our tables. Co-owner and third-generation farmer Missy Leab walks us through her farm's journey in maple production and how agro-forestry fits into the farm’s greater mission, including some delicious lemonade and some super cute cows. We also hear from Ben Crockett, Climate Smart Agricultural program manager at Berkshire Agricultural Ventures, to help us put forestry into a better perspective for local farms. 

And Mr. Universe,  Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College's  Salman Hameed, stumbles into the rocky territory of "astroturf astronauts" as a certain owner of Amazon prepares to send a mission of hand selected women on a space voyage. And, we take a quick pause from science to rundown of the Oscars.