For the past 21 years, Bang On A Can has been performing their innovative and interesting take on concert music in North Adams at Mass MoCA. But what started as an elongated performance series has stretched into a 3 week long festival workshop for budding virtuosos seeking broader horizons in which to stretch their musical wings. It concludes with a three day extravaganza in the spirit of the original concert: 11+ hr performance marathons with a wealth of musical types, interactions, and explorations.

To get a taste of what Bang On A Can, The Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the summer festival fellows have been up to, we head to North Adams to hear from co-founder of Bang On A Can, Michael Gordon and a handful of very gracious participants: accordionist Iwo Jedynecki, violist Santiago Velo Quintairos, cellist Nick Photinos, plus two current members of the Bang On A Can All-Stars; cellist Arlen Hlusko, and pianist Vicky Chow. We also get a chance to discuss the history of the festival with Sue Killam, Managing Director for the Performing Arts and Film at MASS MoCA, who has seen this particular group's relationship with the museum blossom over the last two decades.

Loud Weekend happens this weekend, starting on July 27th. Iif this preview is any indication, it's going to be especially awesome, and we cannot wait.

Today we're making time to come together and improve things.

A lot of this has to do with recent announcements about funds and systems being developed to help the many farmers who have lost some or all of their crops over the course of this year. Since FEMA funds are restricted to infrastructure, the Bay State is finding the funds to help its farmers through other means. One of them is the Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund, which sees its structure rooted in The United Way. Another is the very recently proposed supplementary budget through the State senate. Each seeks to address different aspects of this growing loss and devastation, and we speak with Tim Garvin of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, as well as Senator Jo Comerford, and Senate President Karen Spilka about the purpose of each endeavor as well as why it's important to handle a calamity of this nature by working in tandem from different angles.

It's also in the kismet of a new library and an equally new president. It's the 100th anniversary of Calvin Coolidge's inauguration. His official presidential library, which resides within Forbes Library, is celebrating the occasion of our 30th president with an event we are fondly dubbing: Calvinmania. We speak with vice president of the Calvin Coolidge Library and Museum Standing Committee Bill Scher, and librarian and archivist Julie Bartlett Nelson about the local connections that still pervade Northampton's landscape.

And it's in pop culture making the most interesting mashups. Such is the case with Barbenheimer: a colloquialization of both the fact that the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies were released on the same day, and the idealized double feature one might partake of due to this fact. We talk with Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed about the importance of both films alongside local filmmaker Bob Krzykowski.

A Friday edition of McGoverning with Congressman McGovern. Is FEMA involved in helping our flooded farms? And where does he stand on Barbenheimer? We’ll forgo the Wine Thunderdome for the Cider Gauntlet and taste with cidermaker Suzy Fortgang from Muse Cider Bar and Valley View Farm in Williamsburg. Filmmaker Jason Berry who’s screening his film, City of A Million Dreams, about New Orleans Jazz funerals in Springfield this weekend. And Live Music Friday with the folk singer playing Bombyx in Florence, Willie Carlisle.

The Fabulous 413 is live in the streets of the Fabulous 413. We’re broadcasting live from the kick off to the Springfield Jazz & Roots Festival. The free 10th Annual Festival begins this evening on Fort St. in front of The Student Prince, The festival has become the city's premier annual cultural event, showcasing a diverse lineup of national stars and local talent spanning jazz, blues, funk, hip hop, Latin, and African musical genres.We'll be joined live in front of The Student Prince on Fort St. by Festival Founders Kristin and Khalif Neville, the family of the late Charles Neville from the legendary New Orleans group The Neville Brothers. I’ll also talk with Evan Plotkin, Springfield native, festival founder and the Springfield Chamber of Commerce's 2022 Citizen of the Year. We’ll talk with producer Kyle Homstead from Laudable Productions. And we’ll round out the hour with the group kicking off the free festival tonight-the Garifuna Collective

Today is a sandwich, which is great because we are hungry for bookends.

Perhaps ironically, this is an important part of a... whoops, that was about to be a spoiler for Double Edge Theater's Summer spectacular, "The Hidden Territories of the Bacchae", currently showing at their Ashfield facilities. This work is a re-imagining of the work that started the company and takes the audience on a journey not just through story, but across meadows and barns and more. We spoke with several members of the cast and crew about this production and broadening the scope of what theater can do, including co-founder and artistic director Stacy Klein.

Double Edge played a tangential part in the establishment of The Ohketeau Cultural Center, of which Rhonda Anderson is a co-founder. But Rhonda is also the western Massachusetts commissioner of Indian affairs, and now has become a board member of the Woodlands Partnership of Western Massachusetts. We speak with her about increasing visibility for indigenous communities, about reconnecting with the land, and healing the wounds in both.

And one might find the mistaken histories we've attributed to those indigenous communities craven. Or maybe you've noticed a shift in how that word is utilized lately. The Word Nerd, our resident wordster and senior editor at Merriam-Webster in Springfield, Emily Brewster, takes on a question from one of our listeners about a shift they've noticed in usage for two adjectives: mortifying and craven. The results are not shame-y, we promise.

We are making a way for the things we need today.

It happens with newly made government offices. One of Gov. Healey's actions in her first 100 days in office was to create the Office of Rural Affairs, and former State senator Anne Gobi has recently been appointed to the post. We talk to her about the challenges her office is facing in light of the area's recent environmental disasters, about the ongoing transportation questions of the region, and which apples she likes best.

It happens when a farm makes it's appeal a bit broader. Gran-Val Scoops in Granville is much more than an ice cream shop. In addition to offering gourmet ice cream in a wealth of flavors, they also sell dairy products from several farms, raise grass fed beef, have a petting zoo on premises, and more. We chat with Avola Bernt, co-owner about keeping their flavors local, and the rich intertwined history of their farm and family.

It happens in dance. Within the wealth of the Jacob's Pillow Festival in Becket, a company seeking to make dance truly for every body makes its way to Western Mass. Axis Dance Company has purposefully sought to include professional dancers of all abilities, all disabilities, and all neurodivergences since 1987. We speak with their artistic director, Nadia Adame, about making equitable movement for all, and how we can have more folx dancing in more places everywhere.

**Transcript of the interview with Nadia Adame will be available shortly, and the notes will be updated with a link as soon as they are completed**

This episode is a phoenix. Which is to say, we get to look at successes found in failures.

This is one of the main tenets of Dr. Andrew Lam's latest book "The Masters of Medicine: Our Greatest Triumphs in the Race to Cure Humanity’s Deadliest Diseases". He joins us in studio to talk about the medical successes that emerged from our defeats, and how those may direct future breakthroughs.

Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed, explains that it is behind the recent success of ISRO, or the Indian Space Research Organization, which successfully launched a rover and lander this past weekend. In addition to re-igniting the space race, it allows us to look at the world's previous rover/launcher missions and what nations are hoping to encounter with these endeavors.

And it's in Pizza Quest volume 5. We have previously failed to eat a pie in Franklin County, but remedy that with a quick trip to Magpie in Greenfield. There we are joined by the rest of the Belmonte Family in our pursuit of the best pizza in western Massachusetts

It's our 100th episode! Can you believe it? Neither can we!

So we head to Franklin County to share our celebrations with a whole building as we broadcast live from the brand new library in Greenfield. We speak with outgoing director Ellen Boyer, head of children's services Ellen Lavoie, teen libarian Francesca Passiglia, Jeremiah Rood of borrower services, and incoming director Anna Bognolo.

To help us stay focused with our line of questioning, we bring in author/illustrator and previous guest Mo Willems as our guest co-host. Plus, it's still live music Friday, so we have Scottish harpist and Silk Road Ensemble member Maeve Gilchrist stop by just before her set at Antenna Cloud Farm.

We're getting the feeling this has happened before.

That feeling is the impetus behind the new podcast "Deja News", where current events are linked to those with of the past with chilling, nigh prescient, similarities. At the helm of this endeavor is Rachel Maddow, and along with her co-host Isaac-Davey Aronson, we talk about adjusting to a more radio-like medium, journalistic integrity, and mocktails.

Despite the flooding, highland games will return to Northampton this week. The Glasgow Lands Scottish Festival is in its 28th year, and has more pipe and drum bands than ever. After surveying its Look Park locale, organizer Peter Langmore swings through the studios to give us the run-down on all the food, music, dancing and more that will happen July 15th at the park, plus a brief history of caber tossing.

And speaking of the floods, which are on all of our minds, especially with more rain slated for this weekend, our chat with congressman Jim McGovern focuses on what comes next for agriculture in western Massachusetts after this series of devastating blows.

Today we are arriving on shores after being underwater.

The recent rains have lead to dams breaking, riverbanks overflowing, and hundreds if not thousands of acres of farmland being awash in several feet of water. After the February and May frosts, this is a gut wrenching third punch in a growing season that has already been a struggle. We speak with the farmers and organizers at Grow Food Northampton, CISA, MDAR, and State Senator Jo Comerford about the effects of the flooding and what comes next.

After spending 3 years in sanctuary in Northampton, Irida Kakhtiranova is back at home, and the pirogi business that she started while in exile, P’frōgi, is thriving at local stores and a growing number of farmers markets. We speak with her about her ongoing pursuit of citizenship, the unforseen setbacks of that pursuit, and what makes a good dumpling.

And the word nerd, Emily Brewster, resident wordster and senior editor at Merriam Webster, tackles a reader question from John Dionne about "irregardless". Though this word is much reviled, it is very much real and in the dictionary, which sparks a larger conversation about the evolution of certain prefixes.