Five centuries of theater history has taken root in the mountains, and is bringing audiences, thespians young and older, and more of the community together to celebrate the art of stagecraft. 

For the past 50 plus years, Shakespeare and Company has been bringing works to life on stage and  teaching others the work that goes into making staged productions spectacular. And since their move to their current grounds in 2000, they’ve been expanding on that mission and sharing their proverbial wealth with others. We head up to Lenox to take a tour of the organization's 4 theaters, meet some of the folx involved in their summer productions, and get entirely lost in their costume department in the best way possible, on a study golf cart steed lead by artistic director Allyn Burrows and director of marketing Jaclyn Stevenson.   

It’s also Corn season, and for a small farm stand along 5 & 10 in Deerfield, which is peak time that customers come calling. We visit Kolakoski Farm Stand to chat with its founder Miriam Spaulding about the 100 yr old farm that stocks the stand, and the important place it has in their operations and see for ourselves just how many folx are clamoring for the ripe ears. 

We’re headed out into the wilds to a not so clearly disclosed location in Hampshire county to witness epochs of evolution and change in the hills and dales. 

Professor and author Noah Charney takes us deep into the woods to explore one of the locations described in his book “These Trees Tell a Story: The Art of Reading Landscapes”, where along with some budding naturalists we see how the happenings during the continental shift are still having effect millions of years later on the organisms that are taking up residence in the Connecticut River Valley. 

We’ll also discover more about how the Bay State is having a bit of a problem with its legal system. Massachusetts is in the middle of an advocate crisis, which means that many folx awaiting their due process of law may never get it, and may be tossed around in a system with no support for their cases. We speak with attorneys Jack Godleski and Isaac Maas about what the bar advocates duties are, how the shortage came about, and what the commonwealth needs to do to address it. 

Good news and Bad News. 

Bad News First: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has lost over a billion dollars of funding. Billion with a "B."

Which is bad, but what does that mean for NEPM itself? A lot of us are asking that question, so to make a little more sense out of last night’s surreptitious vote to defund public media, we’ll speak with NEPM’s own president Matt Abramovitz to gain some clarity on what this means for us here on our network of western Mass. stations. 

Then we get to the good things, one of which is an upcoming performance of local singer songwriter on the rise Lucia Dostal, where we’ll celebrate her EP from this past fall, hear about working writing songs for people that aren’t herself, and get ready to see her shine at Bands on Brewster in Northampton next week, along with fellow players drummer Carlie Morales, and guitarist Joey Schuyler. 

And since we are the imbibing type and dreamers besides, we’ll pit two pretty Basque roses against each other in this week’s Tina Turner Memorial Thunderdome at Tip Top Wine Shop in Easthampton with proprietors Lauren Clark and Miranda Brown. 

Today is historical and history making. 

In Great Barrington where one of the pioneers of American Civil Rights movement and black academia was born. Author, sociologist, historian, activist, founder of the NAACP and more, W.E.B. Du Bois is getting a new tribute right in the heart of the town at the Mason Library after years of planning. We’ll speak with Ari Zorn, Dubois Thomas, Julie Michaels, and John Lewis from the team of folx who helped to make it happen with W.E.B. Du Bois Sculpture Committee and the organization Blackshires about the long very community involved process that brought it to life, and how you can celebrate its unveiling this Saturday, July 19th. 

Plus, our weekly chat with Congressman Jim McGovern much more than just the recently approved rescission package that definitely affects us here on this show directly. Indeed, the representative explores the resurgence of interest in the Epstein files, issue related to cryptocurrency, plus listener questions on tariffs, and even the state of the constitution on which we’ve built this very nation. 

We’re connecting with the Celtic diaspora on two sides of the river, much like they straddle the North Channel.

In Florence this weekend, many will gather fife, pie, and drum, don their kilts and take to Look Park for the Glasgow Lands Scottish Games, where over 700 musicians, crafters, athletes, and more will gather to celebrate, and we’ll speak with founder Peter Langmore about the new things this year brings to the festival, and hear music from Roger Bernier, Pipe Major for the Holyoke Caledonian Pipe Band, the oldest continuously operating in the country. 

Then we’ll slip west to the Irish side to hear more of the collaboration between Éilís Kennedy and Peter Blanchette.. The two have been making music together for over 2 decades, and tomorrow night at the Drake will unite again to translate music from many continents, traditional and modern, into duets of archguitar and voice, and we’ll learn what new things are in store for their show in Amherst including new works they've been developing based around the work of Emily DIckenson. 

And word nerd Emily Brewster helps us explore the word “restaurant” and “resturauteur” and the rabbit hole of linguistic lineage that opens from the suffixes "-ant" and "-eur."

We’re building legacies, and celebrating the ones already here. 

Including the 6th, 7th, and 8th generations of farmers growing blueberries for the pick your own season in Granville. But you can tell by the name of Maple Corner Farm that’s not all they do, so we brave the mountain to get a glimpse of the sweet blue treats and hear all the pots that the Ripley Family has put their farm’s proverbial fingers into

We’ll also hear from maestro Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops. This coming season will be his 30th at the institution, and the milestone is being celebrated at the end of this Tanglewood season. But we’ll learn from the man himself what’s changed about the orchestra, his style, and himself over the course of those three decades, and where he sees it going in the fourth. 

And in Westfield this weekend, one of the coolest organizations ever to be endorsed by a former president is bucking the 5k and golf standard to hold a pickleball fundraiser. The Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity is hosting this fun event on Sunday, but it turns out that neither Aimee Giroux and Brandy O’Brien of that great organization, nor we at the Fab 413 know how to play this game at all! So we bring in an expert, Owen Fernandez of the Picklr Westfield, to help us get ready for the competition. 

 We’re meeting new community through books, bows, bottles, and hurtling millions of light years from entirely different solar systems. 

Mill River Archery has gathered folx curious about the bow to make them better shots. We head out to their training grounds on the Hampshire College Campus to talk with their coaches, participants, and more about the impetus for forging their own collective, the key techniques of shooting, and perhaps take aim ourselves and see how we do with instructors Rory Palmer, Jesse Hasslinger, and more. 

And also we’re gathering bibilovores and authors alike to peruse pages in Hatfield at Black Birch Vineyard. Books and Bottles 2025 brings 8 authors together at the local winery for readings, signings, and more, and we speak with organizer Michael Parzymieso, and participating authors Mattea Kramer and Jacqueline Sheehan to talk about the density of authors in the valley, the gift of doing an event like this together and more. 

And Mr. Universe, Kainaat Studios and Hampshire College’s Salman Hameed is talking about foreign bodies, which in this case refers to a comet from another solar system that’s headed to ours.

We’re bringing it back!

And by it, we mean a beloved festival making it’s return to Springfield’s South End Community. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel is launching three days of community, festivities, food and communion in its Italian Feast and we speak with Anna Daniele and Chris DiMauro about the revitalization of the center, the festival, and how heritage can be a launch pad to engender everyone coming together. 

Oh and there’s a grease pole, but we’ll get into that. 

We’ll also speak with the Junior senator from Massachusetts, Ed Markey. The irony of course being that he’s currently the longest tenured congressperson on the hill having started as a representative in 1976. We’ll hear how he feels about the rescission package and the impact it’ll have on Public Media, as well as why he’s running for a third term. 

And the Wine Thunderdome heads to one of the lands Monte most loves for the grapes to grow in as we head to Provisions Mill District in Amherst to complete our trifecta of their locations to taste Sancerre and hear a little about a French wine tasting they’ll hold next week. 

We know that the area is rife with a legacy of abolition, but it’s very different when you get to see the places where that history happened up close. This Saturday July 12th, The Pan African History Museum is hosting an interactive tour of downtown sites significant to this movement, and we chat with PAHMUSA Vice President Drew Keaton, and Springfield Preservation Trust President Erica Swallow about the partnership bringing more people in touch with the history at their fingertips. 

We’ll also see how we as community are caring for others with a heart-wrenching memoir that also serves as a call to action. A Place Called Home recounts David Ambroz’s youth and personal experiences with homelessness, mental illness, and the foster care system right here in Massachusetts. We speak with the author about the state of that system, and the changes everyone can make to improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable citizens. 

And our weekly chat with congressman Jim McGovern sees eerie similarities in climate disaster between the catastrophic floods in Texas, and the ones that devastated the farmland in W. Mass 2 years ago, and explores any possible buyers remorse over the recently passed budget with its sweeping cuts to medicaid, SNAP, plus a look on the horizon at the election season to come. 

We got a glimpse of the devised theater work STILL last year, but it’s been in progress ever since and a new iteration will premiere this weekend at the APE Gallery. We speak with creator Marcia Gomes about the changes the work has been through. And we’ll also speak with Roberta Uno, longtime director and founder of New World Theater, has returned to the area and STILL is just one of her many projects. We’ll hear how this work fits among the rest and how her work as the production's dramaturg has shaped this incarnation of bringing one's ancestors to life. 

 Also, we had to go back and learn more about the upcoming Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival. So we’ll check in again with festival founder Kristen Neville of Blues to Green and producer Evan Plotkin to get more details on the free celebration, and hear how NAI Plotkin got involved to bring all of Springfield and beyond together with music. 

Plus word nerd Emily Brewster breaks up compound words we really should have more questions about the components of to give us better understandings of how English works.