Podcasts: Talk The Talk

Talk The Talk

Weekdays 8:00 -10:00 a.m. EST; rebroadcast 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. EST

Bill Newman and Buz Eisenberg host newsmakers, activists, authors, & artists – including:

Mayors Monday(Northampton, Holyoke, Easthampton) & Amherst Town Mgr Paul Bockelman, Salman Hameed’s Universe, the Comedy Quiz, Black In the Valley (Professor Amilcar Shabazz) Political Gold (Josh Silver), Our House (Congressman Jim McGovern), Crime & Punishment (John Pucci), DA David Sullivan, Writers Block (Megan Zinn), Science and Sensibility (Brian Adams), Community Action (Clare Higgins), Righting Wrongs (ACLUM Carol Rose), State Senators Comerford & Mark, Representatives Sabadosa, Blais, Duffy, & Domb, ArtBeat (Donnabelle Casis), Cool Films (Larry Hott), Feminist Futures (Carrie Baker), Talkin’ Baseball & Fair Play (Duke Goldman), Your State U (MTA Pres. Max Page) All That Jazz (Ruth Griggs & John Anz), Exec. Editor, DHG & Gfld Recorder, Dan Crowley.  

Flashes of Hot and Cold

5/27/25: Political consultant Josh Silver: Trump’s poll numbers going up. Cancer Connection Ex Dir Chelsea Kline: the Grateful Bed Tour. Sci-Tech Café Dir & MHC Prof Kerstin Nordstrom w/ UMass anthropologist Lynnette Leidy Sievert: menopausal hot flashes. Duke Goldman: the role of character in sports & Hall of Fame voting.

Cosmic Thoughts & Labors of Love

5/23/25: MTA Pres Max Page w/ labor expert Eric Blanc: “We are the Union…” today’s rank & file leadership. Rep Mindy Domb: the fabulous, the horrible and the future. You can see the cosmos this weekend! with Arunah Hill’s Ed Faits. Adam Hinds on Trump’s bill in the US Senate. Donnabelle Casis w/ Spfld Museum ‘s Elizabeth Kapp: “Witch Panic! Massachusetts before Salem.”

Dignity

5/22/25: JM Sorrell: Death with Dignity & legislation pending in Mass. Holyoke Housing Auth Ex Dir Matt Mainville & Dev Dir Sarah Meier-Zimbler: new affordable houses for sale. Rev Carole Bull: facing death, embracing life, reading poetry. Ruth Griggs w/ David Picchi, Director of “Jazz in July,” on inspiration, improvisation, master classes & UMass.

The Rights of Spring

5/21/25: Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, Ex Dir, Council on American-Islamic MA: Islamophobia here. ACLU MA Ex Dir Carol Rose: fighting Trump in court. Brian Adams w/ Helen Kahn from Grow Food Nhmpton & Ryan Voiland of Red Fire Farm: fed cuts to food & farms. Larry Hott w/ Wes DeShano of MA Humanities: Are Trump’s cuts-fatal? & “The Speech is the Star.”

Michael Klare

Battles

5/20/25: Rep Aaron Saunders: a good state budget, a devastating federal one. NHS teacher Jeromie Whalen: his friend Mahmoud Khalil still in immigration detention. Comedy Quiz w/ Maddy Benjamin, Scott Braidman & Dan Torres – for the birds! Hampshire Prof Michael Klare: Israel, Gaza, Russia, Ukraine, India, Pakistan, NATO, & also, Trump’s successes?

The Kids Are Amazing

5/19/25: N’hmpt Art Council’s Steve Sanderson w/ student performer—live in studio: the Bow Bow Bash. Megan Zinn w/ New Yorker cartoonist & author Harry Bliss: “You Can Never Die.” Ehmptn Mayor Nicole LaChapelle: a secret sauce for a sustainable budget? Ron Fitzsimmons, Ex Dir of Alice’s Kids, and Jo Newman on Alice’s Kids. https://www.aliceskids.org

Max Page

Steal from the Poor; Give to the Rich

5/16/25: MTA Pres Max Page: federal cuts v our commonwealth. Rep Lindsay Sabadosa: education & health care. Amherst Prof Austin Sarat: SCOTUS, birthright citizenship & autocracy. Happy Valley Guitar Orchestra’s Joe Ricker, Bob Fishman, & Rich Buckman: the Bombyx show. DNA’s Kevin McAllister: tomorrow’s BIG clean-up

Rifts and Riffs

5/15/25: Dr. Jonathan Bayuk: RFK Jr v vaccines. Gazette & Recorder Ex Ed Dan Crowley: the headlines today & tomorrow. Rabbi David Seidenberg: Gaza, genocide, Trump & antisemitism. Ruth Griggs w/ jazz great, trumpeter & vocalist, Benny Benack III: exquisite family harmony & his upcoming Drake gig.

Griesemer

“Incandescent with Life”

5/14/25: Amherst Council Pres Lynn Griesemer: schools at fiscal cliff? alternatives to policing. Author Larry Tye: “The Jazzmen: How Ellington, Armstrong & Basie Transformed America.” Brian Adams w/ author & naturalist Sy Montgomery: “The Soul of the Octopus.” Documentary filmmakers Larry Hott, Louis Alvarez & Paul Stekler.

Women, Power, People Power

5/13/25: Rep Pat Duffy: Medicaid cuts, affordable housing & unregulated cannabis. Educ Collab Ex Dir Todd Gazda, underfunded schools. Jeromie Whalen: his friend, Columbia U student Mahmoud Khalil imprisoned in LA. Prof Carrie Baker w/ author Rachel Simmons: girls & women in charge. Duke Goldman: Red Sox Nation.

Recent Headlines

2 days ago in National, Trending

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is sentenced to over 4 years in prison

Sean 'Diddy' Combs was sentenced Friday to 4 years and 2 months in prison in case involving sex workers, violence and "freak-offs."

2 days ago in National

Hegseth announces latest strike on boat near Venezuela he says was trafficking drugs

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that he ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, expanding what the Trump administration has declared is an "armed conflict" with cartels.

3 days ago in National

Trump says US is in ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels after ordering strikes in the Caribbean

President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in an "armed conflict" with them, according to a Trump administration memo obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, following recent U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

3 days ago in National, Trending

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is set to be sentenced and faces the possibility of years in prison

Sean "Diddy" Combs faces sentencing Friday in a sordid criminal case that could keep him locked up for years.

4 days ago in National, Trending

Trump uses government shutdown to dole out firings and punishment

President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting "irreversible" cuts to programs important to Democrats.