What do we mean when we talk about the immi­nent threat of rapid and irre­versible cli­mate change? And what eth­ical respon­si­bil­i­ties do we — espe­cially those of us in the soci­eties … read more »

With the release of a long-​​​​awaited trans­porta­tion financing report (PDF) on Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick is proposing to expand rail ser­vice across the state. Patrick is endorsing a plan by the … read more »

On Wednesday, House Speaker Robert DeLeo named Jack McDe­vitt, an asso­ciate dean at North­eastern Uni­ver­sity, to lead a spe­cial com­mis­sion on gun vio­lence with a pos­sible focus on keeping weapons … read more »

A rou­tine trip home from a brief vaca­tion in Canada turned into a bit of an adven­ture for WBUR’s Steve Brown. Here’s a lesson you might draw from his adven­ture: … read more »

His hard-​​​​fought reelec­tion cam­paign behind him, Pres­i­dent Barack Obama is undoubt­edly taking stock of the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges that await him in his second term. To help us under­stand those key … read more »

We could be looking at one of the worst mass shoot­ings in U.S. his­tory, exceeded only by the Vir­ginia Tech mas­sacre in 2007. The latest num­bers are at least 27 people … read more »

After last month’s elec­tions, both par­ties seem ready to make a serious effort to revise and update the nation’s immi­gra­tion laws. What should com­pre­hen­sive immi­gra­tion reform look like? Should the United … read more »

AUDIO: Mass­a­chu­setts stu­dents are among the best in the world in math and sci­ence. We’ll take a look at what’s hap­pening inside class­rooms across the state and if what we’re … read more »

As the fed­eral government’s role in K-​​​​12 edu­ca­tion has grown, so has the debate over whether, when and how it should inter­vene in what has tra­di­tion­ally been a state and … read more »

AUDIO: In our weekly Com­mon­Health seg­ment we dis­cuss a new move to make a drug over­dose anti­dote more avail­able. Some say it will save lives, but others worry it will … read more »

You hear a lot these days about the national epi­demic of painkiller over­doses. What you don’t hear so much about is what you can do to respond to those over­doses … read more »

Is gun vio­lence inevitably a per­va­sive fact of life in urban neigh­bor­hoods of 21st cen­tury America? Or can the stag­ger­ingly high murder rates — and the ongoing trauma that results — … read more »