It’s easy to feel as if the world is falling apart. My new show, The Connection with Marty Moss-Coane, features wide-ranging conversations about the bonds that hold us together, the forces that drive us apart, the conflicts that keep us from exploring life’s possibilities and the qualities that make us unique and human. Listen to the trailer now and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts ..read more

Radio Times ends Friday after 35 years on air. Fifty-two weeks a year, five days a week, loyal listeners tuned in to hear host MARTY MOSS-COANE’s live conversations with authors, politicians, poets, community organizers, scientists, artists, journalists and many others. In those thousands of hours, the show covered all kinds of topics from underfunded schools to plastic pollution, polarization in politics to reality TV,  gun violence in Philadelphia to urban farming, and an hour on why we love shoes. Last week, we celebrated Marty Moss-Coane and Radio Times at a live event at the National ..read more

As fall leaves blanket yards and sidewalks, the gas-powered leaf blowers come out in full force and there’s no escaping the din – sometimes with a volume that reaches 100 decibels. And while we can’t ignore the noise, many people aren’t aware of the pollution two-stroke engine leaf blowers emit. In one often-cited study, 30 minutes of yard work with a gas leaf blower releases the equivalent hydrocarbon emissions as driving a pickup truck from Texas to Alaska. There’s also health concerns for workers who operate them for many hours a day and for the communities where they’re used the most. All ..read more

At the climate summit in Egypt, United Nations secretary general António Guterres told world leaders that we are on a “highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.” He explained that our planet’s future will be decided by how we act this decade. This frightening warning reinforces what some have experienced in our own lives – devastating hurricanes, wildfires and droughts – and what others have seen on the news and in headlines. This year also saw record levels of carbon dioxide emissions and the past seven years have continued to be the hottest on record. So ..read more

Russian forces retreated from the regional capital city of Kherson last week in a significant setback for Putin. Videos spread of both joyous residents welcoming and hugging Ukraine troops and the devastated city that the Russian military left behind after 8 months of occupation. But even with this defeat, Russia was simultaneously hammering other regions of the country, including the port city of Mykolaiv. With winter approaching, there are concerns about the country’s access to electricity, water and heat as well as the prospect of troops fighting in sub-zero conditions. Today we’ll look at ..read more

The CDC recently refined opioid prescription guidelines, encouraging physicians to work with pain patients individually instead of taking a blanket approach that, in the past few years, led to swift tapering of medications or even a full stop to some prescriptions. Recommendations also support the use of treatments like methadone for patients with opioid use disorder. We’ll talk with Dr. Jeanmarie Perrone, director of the Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy at Penn Medicine. (@CAMP_Penn) Veteran broadcaster Jim Gardner has been a familiar and welcomed TV presence in households across the ..read more

Although we are still waiting for the final election results from some key races, it’s fair to say that the midterms weren’t the red wave Republicans and history predicted. Even if they manage to win a small majority in U.S. House and Senate, Democrats fared better than expected with voters motivated by abortion rights and the issue of safeguarding democracy. And many far-right election deniers lost in key races, a rebuke of Trumpism. In his new book, The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party, Washington Post political columnist DANA MILBANK traces the GOP’s tr ..read more

REBECCA SOFFER wished she had a handbook on how to grieve after losing both of her parents in her thirties. Trying to navigate profound sadness alone led her to create the website Modern Loss, which turned into a global community for people experiencing grief to share and support one another. In her new book, The Modern Loss Handbook: An Interactive Guide to Moving Through Grief and Building Your Resilience, Soffer offers tools, exercises and insights for surviving loss — which she’s gleaned from her own experience, therapists, researchers and Modern Loss mem ..read more

The morning after the midterm election, we will discuss the results that are in–including John Fetterman Senate win and Josh Shapiro’s gubernatorial victory in Pennsylvania–and what we know about the races still being tallied. This midterm was the most expensive in history, exceeding $16.7 billion in spending for both state and federal races with control of the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, state legislatures and courts on the line. We’ll talk about the election process and how it went, voter turnout and the issues that motivated people to get to the polls, and what we know about ..read more

William Still, a leading 19th century abolitionist working in Philadelphia, conducted hundreds of enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, but his name is often forgotten. In a new biography, historian ANDREW DIEMER returns William Still to his rightful place in history alongside the more widely recognized figures like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglas and John Brown. Diemer details Still’s life, from poverty, to becoming a leader in the abolitionist movement, then a wealthy coal merchant. Born in 1821, Still grew up in the New Jersey Pinelands, the youngest of 18 children to pa ..read more