The Fabulous 413

We get to go both forward and backward in time today, which is fitting for a Monday somehow.

Mr. Universe, Salman Hameed tells us about the ESA's new probe JUICE (already taking selfies in space), its mission to the moons of Jupiter, and the lengths we do to make sure the probe looks but doesn't touch.

Then we digress quite a bit about pizza and semantics with Jarrett J. Krosoczka. He's got a new graphic memoir out called "Sunshine" that will receive a full cast reading treatment on April 18th at the Academy of Music in Northampton. We pick his brain about the origins of the book and the ways the events have influenced his life today.

Plus it was the holiday that only 5 other states celebrate, and on which we look east to watch folx run 26.2 miles into the state capital. Neither of our hosts are particularly fond of running, however, so they look to you for other marathon-esque activities you may have participated in!

(Do tell us at [email protected], we are curious indeed)

We explore language today!

What's that? We explore language every Wednesday because of The Word Nerd?

To that we rebut: indeed. But how is this Wednesday different from any other Wednesday?

Perhaps it's because we had a great listener question from a listener about the origins of certain English phrases (inspired by our look at the origins of the language in a previous show). So Emily Brewster, resident wordster and senior editor at Merriam-Webster, dives right into the Middle-English of things to show us how some common phrases have evolved, and giving us more food for thought in the process.

Or perhaps it is because we spent time with Polly Byers of the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding. Their Building Resilience Against Violent Extremism in Schools (or the BRAVE Schools) program seeks to help middle and high school students, as well as the staff in those institutions, in using dialogue to deescalate instances of violence and hate. This weekend, they host "Bringing the Lessons Home:The Power of Dialogue, Locally and Globally" at the Amherst Women's Center to help folx see the applicability of the word to help everyone near and far.

But mostly we're thinking it's because we have a bonus Live Music Wednesday. On tour from Boston, and making a stop at the Jewish Community of Amherst, is Levyosn. With their name taken from the Ashkenazi Hebrew for “Leviathan”, the group specializes in Yiddish song and klezmer, but they also sing in Hebrew, Ladino, and English and draw from adjacent Eastern European folk traditions, all of which you can hear on their brand new album "Lullabye". Lucky for us, they dropped by the studio to give us a taste of that new album in person.

We eat tasty treats at East Longmeadow's The Apple Place, delve into the evolution of the singular "you" with The Word Nerd Emily Brewster, and laugh for good causes with the folx of Comedy Cause 5.

To break up your Monday doldrums, we brought out some big names. That, we're told, is how you do it.

Mr. Universe, Dr. Salman Hameed, teaches us a lot about "moon time", and a little about how awesome the song "Naatu Naatu" is. (You can see videos about everything Monte and Mr. Universe chatted about at Kainaat Studios)

Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll visited to explain the nuances of a new position developed for the current administration: Director of Rural Affairs, and we got to nerd out about policy.

Dr. Mandy Muller gave us some clarity on where western Massachusetts is with COVID, as we celebrated the 3rd anniversary of "The Last Normal Day".

And Dave Hayes, The Weather Nut, snow-casted with us, to preview the storm tonight as it passes our way!

With all of the stress of the week, we figured we would not only double but triple down on the relaxing today.

We head to West Springfield for the Wine Thunderdome once again. It's Sardenga versus Tuscany as Michael Quinlan of Table & Vine brings us two Vermentinos to try out.

Just ahead of their show at the Academy of Music, Langhorne Slim and John Craigie join us in studio. Each has a new album out, and although their songwriting styles seem very different from each other, their partnership dovetails them well, and as does their love for both The Beatles and the late Harry Belafonte.

And pillar of the local rock scene, and endless font of stories about said scene, Ray Mason pays us a visit. He's got a new album coming out soon called "Is There Wiggle Room?" about which we are quite excited.