For Thanksgiving, we take an audio tour deep inside the Polar Seltzer factory in Worcester, Mass.

Although Republicans didn’t break their losing streak in New York statewide elections in the midterms, they made big gains in races for Congress that could prove pivotal. It comes after the original redistricted maps were deemed too partisan, dealing Democrats a crucial blow in their efforts to retain control of the House. One person with plenty of insight into the maps, running statewide and representing the Hudson Valley in Congress is John Faso.

In this post-election, post-World Series moment, the intersection of baseball and politics nearly a century ago is the subject of a lecture this week at the New York State Museum. University of Maryland historian Robert Chiles will speak Thursday in Albany with a talk titled “Babe Ruth Gets Political: Sports and Identity Politics in the Roaring Twenties.” Chiles, research associate in history with the state museum, is co-editor of “New York History” and the author of a book on Gov. Al Smith and the progressive era.

On Election Day, Democrats held off Republicans enough to avoid a “red wave” election. But defying expectations of an Obama midterm-like shellacking doesn’t mean it’s all good news for the party. One of the stinging defeats for Democrats was that of five-term Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, who became the first Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee head to lose their seat in 40 years. Maloney lost to first-term Republican Assemblyman Mike Lawler in New York’s new 17th district. We break down the results with Alexis Grenell of The Nation and Pythia Public.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul became the first woman ever elected to the role Tuesday, turning away a challenge from Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin. The race was one of the closest in the Empire State in recent history, but in the end, Democrats extended their 20-year statewide winning streak. Capitol Correspondent Karen DeWitt was at Hochul’s victory party in Manhattan.

Colleges and universities are adapting and changing in response to the educational disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Robert Johnson arrived on the still-closed campus of Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts in the summer of 2020 to be introduced as the new president. With decades of experience as a higher education administrator, Johnson firmly believes in-person learning is essential.

We don’t know what the results will be yet, but Massachusetts voters will definitely elect a new governor on Nov. 8, with Republican Charlie Baker stepping aside after two terms. That is among the closely-watched state races in this midterm cycle. Nationally, Republicans are hoping to make inroads in key House and Senate races as they bid to regain control in Washington. For perspective, we speak with former two-term Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat who is now teaching at Harvard.

Many people from the Northeast head south for the winter, but scientist Lija Treibergs will be taking it to the extreme. The Paul Smith’s College Adirondack Watershed Institute research associate is going to Antarctica for three months starting in late November. It’s her second deployment to Antarctica to study lakes in dry valleys and conduct lab analysis at McMurdo Station. Treibergs says the work there helps inform her research in the Adirondacks.

With Election Day fast approaching, New York Governor Kathy Hochul holds a 52-to-41-point lead over her Republican opponent, Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin, according to a new Siena College Research Institute poll. But Zeldin is making gains in some areas of the state. For analysis we speak with Siena’s Steve Greenberg.

We speak with the mayor of Kingston, N.Y., Democrat Steve Noble, about his $50 million budget proposal for a city that has seen an influx of residents and spending from downstate.