Cloe Axelson

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Hi! Did you know @cogwbur.bsky.social has a weekly newsletter? Comes out Sunday mornings. Includes an original essay by one of the editors and links to all our must-reads of the week. Sign up! www.wbur.org/opinion/sect...

We need our military leaders to show their moral courage "It seems it’s only a matter of time before U.S. soldiers are deployed against the American people," writes Navy veteran Andrew Carleen. "When that moment comes, I wonder what kind of moral courage wi...

Commentary: "It seems it’s only a matter of time before U.S. soldiers are deployed against the American people," writes Navy veteran Andrew Carleen. "When that moment comes, I wonder what kind of moral courage will we see from uniformed leadership?"

Resilience is no substitute for justice The development sector's embrace of “resilience” redirected attention away from governments as duty bearers, writes Jehane Sedky, and made it easier for donors to fund a patchwork of NGO projects rath...

Commentary: "Our task is not to make vulnerable populations more adaptable to injustice, but to make the powerful more accountable for it."

Elizabeth Warren takes her dog's Halloween costume seriously Cog editor Cloe Axelson interviewed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and her dog Bailey, who's dressing up as Stephen Colbert for Halloween this year. They talked about dogs, political humor in a democracy, and...

I visited @elizabeth-warren.bsky.social at home for @wbur.org @cogwbur.bsky.social -- to see Bailey's Halloween costume (he was Stephen Colbert!) and talk about a lot of other things too: books, democracy, pushing back against Trump, her exercise routine and "The Wire." www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

How Mass. pediatricians are fighting vaccine hesitancy, one patient at a time Pediatricians across Greater Boston said they are extending patient visits and booking follow-up appointments to talk to families about vaccines, sometimes at the expense of other important topics lik...

Doctors are devoting more time to debunking misinformation and explaining how immunizations work as they confront growing confusion and hesitancy about vaccines.

The Proust Questionnaire: Libby DeLana " ... [S]ometimes, I lie to myself. Quietly."

I've always loved the the Proust questionnaire. Now we're asking contributors to answer a shorter version (16 questions only!) for @cogwbur.bsky.social's Substack. First up: Libby DeLana open.substack.com/pub/cogwbur/...

'No Kings' rally fills Boston Common, as thousands of other protests take place across the country Demonstrators in Boston and around the country took to the streets to decry what they describe as "abuses of power, cruelty and corruption" in the Trump administration.

Boston and other Mass. cities turned out for No Kings today: www.wbur.org/news/2025/10...

Getting to calm. Getting to warm Instinctively, with my toes covered in surf, I grabbed Sarah’s hand. And she grabbed back. The water taught me how to do that, to reach beyond worry to trust, and hold it in the palm of my hand, write...

Essay: Instinctively, with my toes covered in surf, I grabbed Sarah’s hand. And she grabbed back. The water taught me how to do that, to reach beyond worry to trust, and hold it in the palm of my hand, writes Libby DeLana, in this excerpt from her book, "Cold Joy."

How river shape cities — and us In the 19th century, urban planners and engineers did what we’ve all been guilty of doing with our problems: They buried them, writes Cog editor Kate Neale Cooper. Sometimes, rivers once poisoned by i...

Essay: I live in a city shaped by the James River, and work in a city shaped by the Charles River, writes Kate Neale Cooper. I've been thinking about rivers change us, and we change them.

First, the Trump administration cut SNAP benefits. Now it wants to stop measuring food insecurity On the heels of $186 billion in cuts to SNAP, the Trump Administrations announced plans to cancel a long-running annual report on food security. But stopping the count doesn’t stop the suffering, writ...

Commentary: Measuring food insecurity over the next few years will be especially critical since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act included $186 billion in cuts to SNAP, write Paul Shafer and Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba.

Why 'history is more thrilling than any romance' Doug Brown collects rare books on early America. But he recently acquired a desk that once belonged to Constance Miekevicz (nee Gore-Booth), an Irish revolutionary and suffragist. He was inspired by t...

Doug Brown collects rare books on early America. But he recently acquired a desk that once belonged to Constance Miekevicz (nee Gore-Booth), an Irish revolutionary and suffragist. He was inspired by the story of her extraordinary life.

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The more I talk about gun violence, the less I have to say Child psychologist Ellen Braaten wasn't an expert on gun violence when she received a call from a TV producer in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy. But I did know how to comfort and advise parents af...

Essay: Child psychologist Ellen Braaten often does media appearances, trying to reassure parents and kids in the wake of school shootings. She used to tell her audience that the adults in their lives do everything they can to keep them safe, but she doesn't say that anymore. We haven’t. We don’t.

I do not know how to fix it, but I cannot say enough how much we in the news need to figure out how to handle the “flood the zone with shit” strategy.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is first in U.S. to require insurers to pay for COVID vaccine Healey's measures include requiring insurance carriers to cover vaccines that the state's public health department recommends and allowing pharmacies to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.

Healey's measures include requiring insurance carriers to cover vaccines that the state's public health department recommends and allowing pharmacies to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.

Steps away from the Capitol, victims of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, on Wednesday demanded that all people who received sexual favors through Epstein be identified. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

+1. I say this every year

I started playing tennis again. It's great, mostly Kathy Gunst resisted tennis as a kid. Her parents were fanatics, and on principle, she decided the sport — and the country club — wasn't for her. Then she found the game again, on a public court, at 6...

Essay: Kathy Gunst resisted tennis as a kid. Her parents were fanatics, and on principle, she decided the sport — and the country club — wasn't for her. Then she found the game again, on a public court, at 68.

Live Updates: At Least 2 Killed and 17 Injured in Shooting at Minneapolis Catholic School

Today's my kids' first day of school. It was these kids' third. Why do we choose to live like this over and over? We are the only country in the universe where this happens.

Live Updates: At Least 2 Killed and 17 Injured in Shooting at Minneapolis Catholic School www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

New requirements make it harder for Americans who need help to get it The One Big Beautiful Bill Act added work requirements and other administrative burdens for people seeking government benefits, write Alister Martin and Annamarie Rapp. These things sound reasonable i...

Commentary: While some organizations in Massachusetts work to simplify access to health care and solve for food insecurity, federal policy moves in the opposite direction, write Alister Martin and Annamarie Rapa.

Is the slide into autocracy supposed to feel so humdrum? Trump is consolidating power over government entities with the authority to unleash violence. Such a brazen power grab would be one thing if the administration were more popular, writes Andrew Carleen, but this government is not comporting itself as though it fears the consequences of future elections.

We should be clear-eyed about what is happening in our nation’s capital, writes Andrew Carleen. The Trump administration is exerting its will via the power ministries of the federal government. It is a dress rehearsal for things to come. spr.ly/63320f2l7C

I am not a Hulk Hogan person, but this is a total delight. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Bees, like people, need each other When Linda Button's other half decided to become a beekeeper, he transformed their backyard. He cleared a space for the hives, lining it with rocks and building trellises with flowering vines to guide...

Essay: Bees, like people, need each other, writes Linda Button. Bees, like all of us, do best when they lean on each other’s strengths.

Tuberculosis doesn't respect borders Tuberculosis kills 1.3 million people each year, making it the deadliest infectious disease in the world, write KJ Seung and Kunda Kwabisha Mikanda. Eliminating U.S. funding to combat it around the gl...

ESSAY: "Stopping the fight against drug resistant TB today, even temporarily, will have irreversible, catastrophic effects in the long run — for generations to come," write KJ Seung and Kunda Kwabisha Mikanda. @wbur.org @pih.org @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

Will the U.S. Join Israel’s War With Iran? The Daily · Episode

Wondering how the good and smart folks at The Daily made an entire episode about Trump and Iran, with no mention of the deal — negotiated by the Obama administration — that Trump shredded during his first term open.spotify.com/episode/3oK4...

5 things to know about El Salvador El Salvador has been in the headlines for weeks, primarily because of an agreement its president struck with the Trump administration to accept and detain deported migrants. But the country’s past and...

Commentary: El Salvador’s past and present are deeply intertwined with U.S. policy, writes Iván Espinoza-Madrigal. To understand the roots of migration, you have to understand the country’s political, social and economic realities.

‘Project Esther’ and Trump’s playbook against antisemitism Many people believe President Trump is weaponizing antisemitism in his war against diversity, equity and inclusion. What many may not realize, however, is that his administration seems to be following...

COMMENTARY: Like Project 2025, "Project Esther" is also a creation of the Heritage Foundation. “It's an exercise in cynicism by an administration eager to prey on people’s worst fears,” writes Anita Diamant.

In Mass., volunteers pack thousands of abortion pills destined for states with bans Huddled around a small conference table in Greater Boston, volunteers form an ad hoc assembly line to slip hundreds of pills into padded envelopes. It's not an illegal drug operation, at least not her...

The Mass. Medication Abortion Access Project, or The MAP, runs a website offering medication by mail to people living in states that restrict abortion. In their view, they are fulfilling a basic health care need amid a fierce national debate and legal uncertainty.

'Hidden in Plain Sight': The forgotten history of the Holocaust in Serbia Julie Brill's grandfather died in the Holocaust -- he was imprisoned in a camp, and murdered by the Nazis outside of Belgrade. But no one ever really talked about the Holocaust in the former Yugoslavi...

ESSAY: As a child, I knew my grandfather was a victim of the Holocaust, but also thought somehow that the Holocaust had not really come to Yugoslavia, because nobody talked about it, writes Julie Brill.

Run through these 26.2 marathon facts ahead of Boston's big race Limber up and eat some pasta, because we're about to test you with a bit of Boston Marathon trivia for every mile of the run.

this is so fun www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...