The Codcast

The Codcast

Tune into spirited debate, local stories, and insightful analyses with The Codcast. Hosted each week by a CommonWealth Beacon reporter, the half-hour policy podcast delves into the heart of Massachusetts’s most pressing and intriguing topics. Hear newsmakers, historians, and policy experts tackle statewide housing struggles, immigration policies, little-known histories, surprising political fights, and even take to the sea to visit rising offshore wind turbines.

Episodes

Trump tax bill: the good, the mixed, and the still uncertain

August 4, 2025 • 26 mins
This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas talks with reporter Jennifer Smith about a series of stories, parsing the sprawling Trump tax and spending bill. They discuss why it’s so hard to know if Opportunity Zones have been effective, and why affordable housing advocates are mixed on the administration’s approach to low-income renters.
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Navigating the new broker’s fee law in Mass. (with Todd Kaplan)

July 28, 2025 • 27 mins
This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith and Todd Kaplan, senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, set the stage for a new law changing the way broker’s fees in Massachusetts have been handled for the past decade. Starting August 1, the balance is meant to shift away from the renters and towards landlords when the property owner insists on a broker’s services.
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Massachusetts leans into artificial intelligence (with AI Hub director Sabrina Mansur)

July 21, 2025 • 28 mins
This week on The Codcast, it’s the state angle on artificial intelligence. CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Sabrina Mansur, director of the Massachusetts Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub. Mansur explains how she uses AI in her daily life and why keeping Massachusetts competitive means a $100 million taxpayer-funded effort to get into the AI race.
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Reconsidering school receivership

July 14, 2025 • 28 mins
This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas joins reporter Jennifer Smith to trace the last decade in state takeovers of local school districts. The results, as Jonas has reported, are a far cry from a silver bullet to fix struggling schools.
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Keeping time with MBTA's Phil Eng

July 7, 2025 • 25 mins
More than 800,000 people ride the T everyday. This week on the Codcast, reporter Gin Dumcias is joined by Phil Eng, General Manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or "the T" to talk about the state of the system and what lies down the track.
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Michelle Wu | The introvert’s guide to being mayor

June 29, 2025 • 33 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Gintautas Dumcius interviews Boston Mayor Michelle Wu about her start in politics and being both an introvert and a politician, why she’s a Democrat, the super PACs crowding into this year’s election, and her media diet.
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Why a quasi-independent state agency needed a quick $240 million

June 23, 2025 • 28 mins
John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk to Matt Veno, executive director of the Group Insurance Commission, which handles health insurance for 460,000 public employees. They talk about the quasi-independent public entity, which recently received a last-minute $240 million infusion from state coffers to cover claims for the rest of the 2025 fiscal year.
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Decoding the state budget with Doug Howgate

June 16, 2025 • 26 mins
This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jenn Smith talks to Doug Howgate president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) about the Fiscal Year 2026 state budget. They break down differences between the House and Senate plans, discuss why some parts of the process always happen behind closed doors, and consider the future of the wealth surcharge split between education and transportation.
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Chief Justice Kimberly Budd makes the case for the state courts

June 9, 2025 • 32 mins
This week on the Codcast, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd sits down for a wide-ranging interview with CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith. They discuss trust in the judiciary, the role of the trial courts and the SJC, and if independence feels more achievable for state courts than the federal bench.
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‘Forewarned is forearmed’ on housing voucher cuts

June 2, 2025 • 19 mins
This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Kenzie Bok, head of the Boston Housing Authority, to discuss the threat of President Trump’s budget on rental assistance spending.
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How does public media survive threats from inside and out?

May 25, 2025 • 23 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Margaret Low, CEO of WBUR, to discuss the role of NPR in the news ecosystem, defending journalistic institutions and values while upholding rigorous standards, and the upcoming WBUR Festival.
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Mike Kennealy on why he's running for governor

May 18, 2025 • 29 mins
This week, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Kennealy joins Gin Dumcius of CommonWealth Beacon to discuss why he's running for governor of Massachusetts, his time as secretary of housing and economic development under Charlie Baker, his thoughts on housing and immigration policy, and more.
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How race and immigration status limit health care access

May 10, 2025 • 35 mins
John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute are joined by Tiffany Joseph, assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Northeastern University, to discuss her new book, 'Not All In: Race, Immigration, and Healthcare Exclusion in the Age of Obamacare.'
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No man is an island: The collective climate challenge of coastal Massachusetts

May 4, 2025 • 59 mins
This episode of the Codcast is a recording of a live event that took place April 30 in Provincetown, Mass., co-moderated by CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith and Eve Zuckoff of CAI (the Cape and Islands NPR station). Together with a panel of conservation, planning, and community development experts, they discussed what it means to live and plan responsibly on the Cape and Islands, understanding the realities of climate ch...
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UMass Pres. Meehan on higher ed crisis response

April 28, 2025 • 33 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Marty Meehan, president of the University of Massachusetts system, to discuss UMass's work in climate technology and its response to the federal government's attacks on higher education.
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The stakes of Western Mass. transit gaps

April 20, 2025 • 32 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa of the First Hampshire district and Laura Sylvester, public policy manager at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, to discuss transportation challenges in Western Massachusetts and how they connect with other policy areas.
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Managed retreat: not if, but when?

April 13, 2025 • 31 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Kristin Uiterwyk, director of the Urban Harbors Institute at UMass Boston, and Chris Krahforst, Director of Climate Adaptation and Conservation for the town of Hull, to discuss managed retreat in Massachusetts coastal communities threatened by rising waters and shrinking sands.
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Sec. Santiago on improving veterans services

April 6, 2025 • 28 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Jon Santiago, Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services, to discuss how the now two-year-old office is progressing, advances at the Commonwealth's Veterans Homes, how it is responding to threats from Washington, and what work he's excited about for the future.
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Primary care physicians organizing union at Mass General Brigham

March 30, 2025 • 27 mins
This week on the Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk to Michael Barnett, who is both a primary care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a professor of health policy at the T.H. Chan School, about the ongoing effort to unionize PCPs across the Mass General Brigham system.
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Sec. Augustus on housing policy base hits

March 23, 2025 • 31 mins
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith sits down with Ed Augustus, Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, to discuss how federal policy changes threaten state housing goals, the Commonwealth's response, the tools it is using to meet those goals, and much more.
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