Waterfire
This time, I’m going to introduce you to the creator of an art installation, a street festival, a musical event, a tourist attraction, and a giant party that all happen at the same time throughout the summer and fall in Providence, Rhode Island: Waterfire.
Waterfire started as a one-time event in 1994, but the residents of the city liked it so much that they begged for another lighting of the fires. That led to another, and another, and another, and eventually it expanded to a huge summer tradition.
That tradition was started by a man named Barnaby Evans, and I talked to Barnaby after a lecture he gave here in Boston recently.
Boston Pedicab
On today’s show I’ll talk to a driver — or I guess I should say rider — for Boston’s most unusual taxicab company, Boston Pedicab. I found my guest at the AltWheels Festival last weekend, where he sat among million-dollar hydrogen-powered cars and hi-tech hybrids on the simplest (and probably the greenest) vehicle at the show: a giant tricycle with a 3-person seat on the back.
Brogan Graham was one of the first riders for Boston Pedicab, a human-powered cab company that opened in 2005. His job is all about being anywhere on a moment’s notice, but he sat still for a few minutes at the festival to talk about what it’s like to pedal hundreds of pounds through Boston traffic for nothing but tips.
Spare Change News
For this episode, I took a good look at something many of us find ourselves pointedly avoiding: Spare Change News, a newspaper sold - and written - by Boston’s homeless.
Of course, Spare Change News doesn’t just help the homeless; the vendors may have a place to live (and even a job). The paper is there to give anyone who needs it a way to make money.
My guest is James Shearer, President of the Homeless Empowerment Project and one of the founders of Spare Change News. He and a number of others started the paper 15 years ago while living on the streets, then turned what sounded like a crazy idea into a paper which now publishes thousands of copies every month.
I’d always been intrigued by the paper and wanted to learn more, so I visited the paper’s office in the basement of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Harvard Square for a conversation with Mr. Shearer.
Every city should have a podcast like Boston Behind the Scenes.
This one is a no brainer; add it to your rotation right away.
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