Under the Radar with Callie Crossley

On May 25, 2020, millions of people around the world watched in horror as white police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee to the neck of George Floyd, a Black man, on a Minnesota street. Nine minutes and 29 seconds later, Floyd was dead. His murder led to what some called a racial reckoning, sparking global protests, demands for police reform, community dialogues and corporate pledges to fund opportunities and programs addressing the racial divide. So where do Americans and the United States stand, five years later? Experts in psychiatry, law enforcement and DEI tell us more.

In “Sojourners,” the first play of Mfoniso Udofia's Ufot Family Cycle, audiences are introduced to Disciple, a graduate student who eventually becomes the Ufot patriarch. But as the drama unfolds play after play, Disciple grows increasingly erratic and intense, often prone to fits of rage. And it's not until the third play in the cycle – “runboyrun” – that playwright Udofia focuses on Disciple, peeling back what's led to his unraveling by centering his story and his past. What's more is his story is told not in a theater but on the air as a podcast. We speak with the playwright and the actor playing Disciple to learn more about this unique production.

In 2016, President Barack Obama appointed Dr. Carla Hayden as the 14th Librarian of Congress, making her the first woman and the first African American to hold the position. Dr. Hayden's tenure as Librarian of Congress abruptly ended on May 8, when she was fired from the position. Eight days before her dismissal, Dr. Hayden spoke with Callie Crossley in one of her final interviews with the media as part of our year-long anti-book banning series, Unbound Pages. 

For many Black women, the hair salon is a cultural safe space, where stories and secrets help build an intimate community. In SpeakEasy Stage's production of the Tony-winning play, “Jaja's African Hair Braiding,” the West African immigrants who do the braiding and the customers seeking their services come together in a funny play that also explores serious current-day immigration policies. Three members of the cast and crew join Callie to talk more about the production.

Societal and cultural norms say mothers must be kind and nurturing, they must have endless patience for their children, they must be doting, attentive and protective, and they should be able to do it all — and be thrilled to do it all. But what does it mean to be a “good” mother in this day and age? We explore the complex and nuanced nature of motherhood in honor of Mother's Day.

Rags-to-riches entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker and her daughter, A'Lelia Walker, built one of the most successful African American hair care businesses in American history. But it was only after A'Lelia broke free of her mother's singular vision that she found her calling in 1920s Harlem. That search for independence and purpose is at the center of A'Lelia Bundles' new book, “Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance.” It's our May selection for Bookmarked: the “Under the Radar” book club.

April 29, 2025 marked 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term in office. In a little over three months, the president, alongside administration officials, Cabinet members, and Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency – or DOGE –  have kept Trump's promise to reshape the government. What can Americans expect for the rest of Trump's presidency? And how have these first 100 days affected Massachusetts? It's a full hour of political analysis with the Mass Politics Profs!

Tony Cokes, a professor of modern culture and media at Brown University, is transforming the moving image to shine new light on some of history's darkest moments. By using text, music, found footage, journalistic writing and more, Cokes recontextualizes traumatic moments in American history and creates video-based artwork.  He is one of three local MacArthur “Genius” grant awardees, and the final installment of our annual series, “The Genius Next Door.”

Within his first 100 days, President Donald Trump and his administration have made major changes when it comes to environmental and climate-related policy and action. What will come of the significant shake-up of the Environmental Protection Agency? Plus, previously off-limits fishing grounds are open for business, wildfires as an East Coast problem and the relevancy of Earth Day – it's our environmental news roundtable!

Of the 50 million Catholics in America, only about 3 million are African American. The history of Black Catholics in the United States spans from colonization and enslavement to Black parishes founded by the church during the Jim Crow era. And throughout that history, Black Catholic communities have found ways to make the oldest form of Christianity their own. In honor of Easter, we examine Black Catholicism in Boston and beyond.

Book bans have been on the rise across the country in recent years prompting lawmakers to pass legislation to protect libraries and librarians. “Freedom to read” legislation has been adopted in four states, aiming to safeguard access to diverse materials in public and school libraries, and some lawmakers are hoping to make Massachusetts the fifth state on that list. This is the latest installment of Unbound Pages, our year-long series on the anti-book-banning movement in America.

Each year, thousands of Greater Bostonians observe Passover through Seder, the ceremonial meal of prayers, blessings and wine retelling the story of the Jews' exodus from ancient Egypt. It's a tradition passed down from generation to generation all over the world, but it didn't reach the White House until 2009. Author Richard Michelson wrote about this unique seder in his new children's picture book, “Next Year in the White House: Barack Obama's First Presidential Seder.”

He's known as a silversmith, a messenger and a patriot. But Paul Revere's role and contribution to the American Revolution was much more than a midnight ride.We take a walk through Revere's neighborhood and visit two pivotal locations – the Paul Revere House and the Old North Church – to learn more about the revolutionary and the world in which he lived in honor of the 250th anniversary of his famous ride.

Poet Tiana Clark's mastery of the language of emotions is fully displayed in “Scorched Earth,” her new deeply personal collection of poems, which takes readers from the charred landscape of divorce to searing moments where the intersection of history, race and gender explode on the pages. “Scorched Earth” is our April pick for Bookmarked: the “Under the Radar” book club. Callie spoke with Tiana Clark at the Boston Public Library as part of our new community-centric in-person book-club events: Bookmarked LIVE!

April is National Poetry Month! Enthusiasm for spoken-word poetry has skyrocketed in recent years, helping to increase the popularity of all poetry. We're diving into the art form and the poets who use their voices and bodies in staged performances. Who are the lyrical wordsmiths at the top of their game, including here in Massachusetts? We speak with Boston-based award-winning poet Amanda Shea, 2025 Poetry Out Loud Massachusetts champion Abigail Drumm and Grammy Award-winning spoken-word artist J. Ivy.

The Boston Comedy Festival has been showcasing comedic talent for 25 years! With so much competition from social media and digital platforms, what continues to make the festival a stand-up destination for comedians in greater Boston and across the country? We speak with the brother-sister duo who founded the festival and an up-and-coming comedian hoping to win this year's comedy competition.

It's not a moment – it's a movement. Women's sports teams from the WNBA to women's rugby teams are selling out games from coast to coast. Breakout stars like Olympian Ilona Maher, illustrious former collegiate turned pro players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and celebrity-backed teams like Angel City Football Club are in the spotlight. So are women's professional sports teams FINALLY getting the recognition they deserve?

Mfoniso Udofia's nine-play Ufot Family Cycle forges on! The latest onstage installment, “Her Portmanteau,” hits Central Square Theater later this month. And it picks up a loose thread from the very first play  — the story of Iniabasi, matriarch Abasiama's true eldest daughter. We speak with the playwright and the actress who portrays the daughter as part of our continuing coverage of the Ufot Family Cycle.

Will Smith, Jonathan Majors and Lizzo are all traveling the same road: the comeback trail. Nostalgia continues to reign – everything old is new again! Reboots and returns on the big and little screen. And Bad Bunny bares all … well, mostly all. That and more on our pop culture roundtable!

Most beer-drinking Americans choose lagers – crisp, pale beers like Modelo Especial, Bud Light or Coors Light. But Gen Zers and celebrities like Ed Sheeran, Olivia Rodrigo and Kim Kardashian have boosted renewed enthusiasm for the Irish stout, Guinness. We've drafted top beer experts to mark St Patrick's Day with a heady discussion about Guinness' culinary cache.

Boston's former ICE office director is chosen as acting director of the national agency, the latest in the controversy about the MBTA Communities Act, and can new liquor licenses in Dorchester and Mattapan help existing businesses … or are they too much trouble for restaurants AND the neighborhood? It's our local news roundtable!

It's been five years since the Covid-19 lockdown of spring 2020. Covid changed every aspect of our lives – from the way we work, to how kids went to school and even some people's views on science and vaccines. What changes have stuck around since the pandemic? And which will become so ingrained in our lives that future generations will forget they were brought about by the pandemic?

Artist and avid reader Karen Moss felt overwhelmed by the never-ending news of book bans happening all across the country. As she'd previously done in addressing other social justice issues, Karen used her canvas to make a statement — this time, intimate portraits of her loved ones and their favorite banned books. The portraits are showcased in a new exhibit at the Boston Public Library's central branch. This is the latest edition of  “Unbound Pages,” our year-long series on the book-banning movement in America.

The year 2000 ushered in an era of shiny newness – from metallic clothing and furniture to a computer evolution turned tech revolution – alongside generation-defining events: a housing and financial crisis, 9/11 and early public recognition of climate change. Author Colette Shade argues the socio-cultural shifts ushered in during the early 2000s remain significant today in her debut book, “Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (Essays on the Future That Never Was.)” It's our March selection for Bookmarked: the “Under the Radar” book club.

It's been a little over a month since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.And since his first day in office, he has kept his promise when it comes to rolling back protections and rights for people in the LGBTQ+ community, especially trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and intersex people. But communities around the country – and especially here in New England – are pushing back. That and more in this week's LGBTQ+ news roundtable!

It's been 7 years since the glitzy and glamorous romantic-comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” topped the box-office charts. The film helped break open a new era of Asian and Asian-American representation in film, streaming and TV. Has that increased representation lasted? We continue our annual conversation examining movie and streaming projects from the past year featuring significant Asian and Asian-American representation.

He studies plankton, the smallest organisms in the ocean, from the Antarctic peninsula to Greenland, looking for signs of how the oceans are changing. Oceanographer Benjamin Van Mooy also created new techniques that helped reveal more precise information about the link between plankton and the changing oceans. The researcher is one of three New England 2024 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows. We speak with Benjamin Van Mooy for our annual series, “The Genius Next Door.”

The Huntington's production of “Sojourners” in October 2024 marked the start of the two-year, city-wide production of Mfoniso Udofia's nine-play collection, the Ufot Family Cycle. Now, the Nigerian-American Ufot family story continues 31 years later in “The Grove,” the world-premiere of the second play in the cycle. Callie speaks with playwright Mfoniso Udofia and actress Abigail C. Onwunali about the second chapter of the Ufot Family Cycle.

President Donald Trump promised drastic changes in immigration policy, particularly focused on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, on Day 1 of his second administration. But with only a month into the new administration, local experts say it's hard to judge if Trump is actually sticking to his promise. It's our Latinx news roundtable!

Now that the Los Angeles fires have been contained, Angelenos face health concerns from fire pollutants among many long-term consequences. Plus, President Donald Trump withdraws the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement. Will Michael Bloomberg's offer to pay for the U.S.'s portion of the group's budget make a difference? And the homeowners' insurance crisis on Martha's Vineyard may soon be a problem for all of us. It's our environmental news roundtable!

Black limes, global spice mixes and an abundance of sauces – it's all on tap for food trends in 2025. And when it comes to wine, odds are you've foregone the cheap entry-level bottle for a higher price-point white and you've noticed shrinking wine lists at restaurants. We've got the latest news from the culinary world featuring our food and wine experts!

Is the re-elected Rhode Island State Senate President incapable of doing his job, as some senators claim? Cape Cod residents are divided over President Donald Trump's declarations on offshore wind power. Should they be concerned about Trump's claims of danger toward sea wildlife caused by wind turbines? Plus, a social security breach in Rhode Island, New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte's new COGE and Maine Republicans celebrate a pardoned January 6 rioter. It's our regional news roundtable!

After librarian Amanda Jones spoke at a local public library board meeting to express her concerns about censorship in her small town of Livingston, she faced an organized campaign of harassment from groups with a mission to ban certain books in public and school libraries. But Jones fought back and is now telling her story in her new book, “That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America.” It's our February pick for Bookmarked: The “Under the Radar” Book Club and the first installment of our year-long series on the book-banning movement.

Yiddish is a language mostly spoken by Jews in the United States, Israel and Russia. But when Jewish prisoners were interned during the Holocaust, the Yiddish language went through a metamorphosis, changing and expanding to include new words about their brutal everyday existence. What emerged and lives on today are words that represent both cultural history and a testimony of survivor resilience. We speak with scholar Hannah Pollin-Galay, whose latest book, “Occupied Words: What the Holocaust Did to Yiddish,” about that “destruction Yiddish.”

Berklee College of Music alums have collectively won more than 300 Grammys so far. Two of those previous winners who've added to Berklee's count are esperanza spalding and Jett Galindo – alums with previous wins who are up for awards at this year's Grammys. We spoke with them about their journey from Berklee's halls to the Grammys stage. 

It's an exclusive club that may or may not add to its members every four years: inaugural poets. There have only been six in the history of the United States, from Robert Frost in 1961 to Amanda Gorman in 2021. How did the tradition become part of the pomp and circumstance of Inauguration Day? And what kind of message is central to inaugural poetry? We speak with two poets – including an inaugural poet – more about this special inauguration tradition.

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once described the freedom songs of the civil rights movement as “the soul of the movement.” What would the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, the Black Lives Matter movement be like without iconic songs like “We Shall Overcome,” the Plastic Ono Band's “Give Peace A Chance” and Kendrick Lamar's “Alright”? In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're diving into the history of protest music in America.

When the Handel and Haydn Society found records detailing iconic composer George Frideric Handel's ties to the slave trade, it responded in a way only the organization could: through music and performance. Rather than “canceling” the composer or disavowing the history, two of the society's staff members created “Crossing The Deep,” a special concert series showing the parallels between the choral works of Handel and the spirituals of enslaved Africans in America. We speak with creators Dr. Anthony Trecek-King and Reginald Mobley about what's in store for this year's concerts.

History is made in the 119th Congress as three new openly LGBTQ+ members join the House of Representatives, while leaders in the Republican majority announce plans to undermine LGBTQ legal protections through Title IX. Plus a new study reveals adolescents are rarely prescribed gender-affirming drugs, despite common misconceptions. And a newly enacted law updates parental rights and protections in Massachusetts, offering parents greatly expanded and improved protections. It's our LGBTQ+ news roundtable!

Stress can contribute to myriad physical and mental ailments, increasing risks of heart disease, anxiety, depression and even Alzheimer's disease. But is it possible to live a life free from stress? Stress expert Dr. Aditi Nerurkar says the point of life isn't to eliminate stress altogether; it's to relieve toxic stress. Small, lasting changes in stress management are at the heart of her debut book, “The 5 Resets: Rewire Your Brain and Body for Less Stress And More Resilience,” the January selection for Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club.

Eight hours a day, five days a week: That's the typical workweek for many Americans. But some companies are rethinking this standard. Around the world, including here in Massachusetts, the change to a four-day, 32-hour workweek has proven positive for businesses and their employees. Will more local businesses adopt this innovative new workweek?

Elaborate world-building, intricate magical systems, wars and mythologies, and of course, dragons, witches and faeries. In this special edition of “Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club,” we're diving into one of today's most popular and best-selling genres taking over bookstores — and your social media feeds: romantasy.

Mike Wilkins, GBH and The World engineer, join Callie Crossley for their annual celebration of wacky holiday tunes – from quirky takes on classics to originals with unusual twists. Get ready for an hour of what may be your new favorite Christmas songs!

In a little more than a month, President-Elect Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. Will the Senate confirm his controversial Cabinet appointees? Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is spending his final days in office using his presidential powers to appoint federal judges, commuting sentences and issuing pardons, including one to his own son. Plus, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and the fallout of her failed property tax plan, and Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson faces federal charges. All that and more in this week's all-politics hour with the Mass Politics Profs!

She studies how the environment impacts the way organisms evolve or resist evolving. Dr. Martha Muñoz is an evolutionary biologist whose work demonstrates that some animals ignore the pressures to evolve, even in a changing environment that would seem to demand it. The Yale professor is one of the three New England 2024 MacArthur “Genius” Fellows and the first installment of our annual series, “The Genius Next Door.”