The Hingham 'Cast

This was supposed to be a year of healing and recovery for local schools. Instead the highly-contagious Delta variant is making this Back-to-School feel like deja vu. Ally sits down with Hingham's interim superintendant Gary Maestes. He weighs in on everything from mandating vaccines for teachers to making masks optional for some students. She also talks with Dr. Benjamin Linas from Boston Medical Center about the evidence of potential social and developmental damage for kids wearing masks and Dr. Vandana Madhavan of Mass General Hospital for Children. She helps listeners navigate the latest data on Covid and kids and what we do and don't know about long Covid in children.

"I don't feel like the high risk community as a whole is being seen." Just when things started to feel pretty normal again, the Delta variant and its brethren came in to slap us back down. Many are angry, frustrated, exhausted at the prospect of renewed restrictions, mask mandates, another abnormal school year. But people like Sonia Steele, who are immunocompromised, never got to let their guard down and now she's calling on her community to step up.

James "Woody" Wood owns the food truck Woody's Goodies. He parks it near the commuter ferry into Boston at the Hingham Shipyard. When Covid hit last year, pushing hundreds of Boston offices to shut down, nearly his entire customer base was wiped out with work from home. Woody was terrified. How would he feed his family? What would happen to the business he worked so hard to build? The answers were with his customers. He shares beautiful stories of struggle and generosity that saved his business and fed his soul. But as the Delta variant looms, Woody worries offices will shut down again and take his customers with them.

Opening a restaurant is challenging in the best of times, but throw in a global pandemic and it's brutal. Just ask Brian McLaughlin, owner of soon-to-launch Locales Tacos y Tequila in Hingham, Massachusetts. McLaughlin had planned to open his taco shop in July 2020, but sourcing equipment, finding tradespeople to commit to the job, ever-evolving Covid protocols and regulations, supply chain disruptions, skyrocketing food costs and a restaurant staff shortage hampered his efforts. Join the conversation as McLaughlin shares the hurdles he had to clear and why pivoting to a new business model may have been the best thing that could have happened.

Hingham Public Schools is losing its superintendent and two of six principals after a difficult pandemic year plus. Experts say being a superintendent is more challenging than ever with high expectations, demanding accountability and a "loss of civility" in interactions with some parents. Hingham is among 45 or 15% of districts in the state needing new leadership and competition will be stiff. Join us for a conversation with Tom Scott, executive directors of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents; Kerry Ni, chair of the Hingham School Committee; and June Gustafson, head of the Hingham Education Association, representing teachers.

The Hingham 'Cast team took a break to celebrate the 4th of July holiday. We are reairing our conversation with Finn and Moira Congdon. Finn was born into a girl’s body. He spent his entire childhood trying to figure out why his life didn’t feel right. He wore baggy, body-hiding clothes. He avoided mirrors and sank into a deep depression. The Hingham man had a loving, accepting family, but was still terrified to finally come out as transgender. It’s a painful, but beautiful journey to self acceptance and love. #Pride

The Hingham 'Cast teams up with local news site the Hingham Anchor to launch a new travel series. Ally and Laura & Hilary from the Anchor head 80 miles south of Hingham to Watch Hill, Rhode Island. Watch Hill is home to beautiful beaches, stunning homes, a historic light house, the only operating "flying horse" carousel, a terrific mix of local inns and restaurants–and did we mention the Taylor Swift connection? Swift bought a summer home in Watch Hill in 2013 and penned her new song "The Last Great Dynasty" about the history of her house and its colorful former owner. Tag along as we explore this undersung New England vacation destination.

"Completely humiliated and defeated:" that's how Leslie Badger describes reading aloud in her first grade classroom. It's the first time Hingham's Animal Control Officer shares publicly the story of her learning disablity and how a parakeet named Charlie changed the course of her life. "Animals don't judge," she says. It's a great conversation on her path to become an ACO (she was on course to work on the water!), the wacky wild stories of the animals of Hingham (do not mention spiders) and the terrifying call that threatened to end her career.

Aldous Collins has emerged from the quiet of Covid to a rebirth of sorts. Like all of us, the frontman for The Aldous Collins Band is thinking more about how he wants to live, to work, to show up for his family. We talk about what that will look like in his music and why he's making changes to his high-energy, funk band. He's a father of seven kids with his second wife Melanie, a novice bassist, live-out-loud painter, beer collaborator...spiritual gangster.

We dive into the hot-from-the-oven world of South Shore bar pizza. There are fierce rivalries, ferocious loyalties and opinions on everything from burnt edges to baked beans. It's a fascinating conversation with Kerry Byrne who founded the South Shore Bar Pizza Social Club during the pandemic. The Facebook group is a landing page and debate stage for its more than 30-thousand followers. Venus? Alumni? Town Spa? Lynwood? Don't even get them started on pineapple. We also follow along with a Cohasset father and son who set out to rate their top spots. What began as covid field trips for Mark and Tyler Gould, strengthened a bond over bar pizza that has now passed down generations.