13 GIU 2024 · In this episode, we delve into the student-led, anti-war activism that has been building on campus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It’s a movement that has been around long before the school’s leadership called in the police to break up a protest encampment this spring. That decision resulted in a violent crackdown during which police arrested more than 130 people who continue to face charges. The “Popular University for Gaza Encampment,” as it was known, was aimed in part at drawing attention to the university’s partnership with weapons manufacturers. Co-hosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen are joined by two guests this week: Kevin Young, a history professor at UMass Amherst, and Max Greenberg⁩, a PhD student in the university's economics department. Young is part of the group Faculty for Justice in Palestine and an elected leader in the university’s faculty union. He’s also part of the multi-union environmental coalition on campus, the Environmental and Social Action Movement. Greenberg is a union member with the Graduate Employee Organization, which represents grad-student workers on campus, and is part of the steering committee of the union’s Palestine Solidarity Caucus. He has also done organizing with the Western Mass Coalition for Palestine.

30 MAG 2024 · We have been away, out in the field, working on an important episode about the housing crisis facing western Massachusetts. First, in Easthampton we interviewed 81-year-old resident Jean Frances, who is facing a steep rent increase on a fixed income. She welcomed us into her home to talk about the reality renters are facing. Then, we sat down in Springfield to talk radical action with Rose Webster-Smith, director of Springfield No One Leaves, a grassroots group fighting against evictions and for housing justice. Rose shared her own experience with eviction and discussed strategies and resources tenants can use to fight back.

24 APR 2024 · In every month of 2023, average global temperatures exceeded 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels. That’s a first, and it’s a tipping point that climate scientists have raised concerns about for years. The Connecticut River Valley is not immune to those impacts. Last year, western Mass experienced its hottest summer ever recorded, a deluge of smoke from wildfires spreading across Canada, and the devastating flooding of the Connecticut and Mill rivers, which wiped out crops. Many plots at the farming organization Grow Food Northampton were among those that were flooded out. On this week’s episode, Dusty Christensen and Shelby Lee sit down with two guests from Grow Food Northampton: Alisa Klein, the organization’s director, and Piyush Labhsetwar, GFN's farm and land stewardship manager whose work as an agroecologist looks at finding ways to strike a sustainable balance between ecological relationships and agricultural production.

11 APR 2024 · This week on Trippin’ on the Shoestring, cohosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen talk politics in one of our most beloved cities here in western Mass: Holyoke. In recent years, it seems like there have been some big changes happening in the Paper City. Holyoke is often referred to as the most Puerto Rican city on the U.S. mainland, with around half of the city’s residents identifying as Boricuas. In 2021, the city elected its first-ever Borica mayor, Joshua Garcia, and its most racially diverse City Council ever. It was that same year that our guest this week, At-Large City Councilor Israel Rivera, was first elected to office. Izzy sat down to talk about everything from policing to how the newly seated City Council is conducting its business.

28 MAR 2024 · Trippin' on the Shoestring cohosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen bring you a dispatch from one of the most important labor struggles happening in western Massachusetts and maybe even the country. Over the past two years, the town of Hadley — best known for its asparagus — has gained fame for another reason: new union organizing. Since 2022, workers at the Hadley locations of https://theshoestring.org/2022/07/30/hadleys-trader-joes-united-wins-union-election/ https://theshoestring.org/2023/04/17/barnes-noble-workers-in-hadley-to-unionize/ https://theshoestring.org/2023/08/21/michaels-workers-in-hadley-organize-stores-first-ever-union/ moved to form the first-ever unions at their respective stores. It all began in July 2022, when employees at Trader Joe's became https://theshoestring.org/2022/07/30/hadleys-trader-joes-united-wins-union-election/, giving birth to the independent union Trader Joe’s United. And that sparked a nationwide movement to unionize other Trader Joe's. So far there have been three other successful union drives at Trader Joe's stores in Minnesota, California, and Kentucky. On this week's episode, Shelby and Dusty are joined by Jamie Edwards, who serves as the union’s president and has worked at the Hadley store for more than a decade, and Maeg Yosef, who is the communications director at Trader Joe’s United and has been a Hadley store employee since 2004.

14 MAR 2024 · Journalists and civic organizations around the country are currently taking part in Sunshine Week, a national collaboration dedicated to spotlighting just how important public records and open government are. So this week, Trippin’ on the Shoestring cohosts and investigative reporters Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen dig into some of the big stories they’ve broken recently at The Shoestring… and maybe even some of the details that didn’t make it into print.

26 FEB 2024 · On Feb. 15, community members effectively occupied the Northampton City Council chambers, ultimately shutting the meeting down as they called on councilors to pass a ceasefire resolution amid Israel’s continued invasion and bombing campaign in Gaza. Jewish Voice for Peace activist Kaia Jackson and radical social worker Lemy Coffin join hosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen to talk about local governments in western Massachusetts debating ceasefire resolutions and what it’s like to be an activist calling for action in front of those politicians.

14 FEB 2024 · State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, joins hosts Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen to discuss her work in the state Legislature, including what bills our local lawmakers are working on and which ones are dying quiet deaths on Beacon Hill. Their discussion ranges from her Medicare for All bill to non-police peer-response funding, her stance on opening the secretive House and Senate up to greater public scrutiny, and much more. Produced by Ático Studios. Music by An Archaeologist.

31 GEN 2024 · Over the last few weeks, new City Council members have been sworn in across western Mass. And in a few cities, the first order of business was to fall immediately into disfucntion and bickering. This week, we bring you: City Council Chaos! Longtime local peace activist Jeff Napolitano joins co-hosts Dusty Christensen and Shelby Lee to talk about the municipal mayhem recently afoot in Holyoke, Easthampton, and Northampton. Produced by Ático Studios. Music by An Archaeologist.

17 GEN 2024 · Last year, the United States witnessed a surge in labor militancy as rank-and-file union members worked to transform the labor movement from within. Everyone from actors to auto workers went on strike, leading to more work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers than in any year in the past decade. To talk about reform efforts within unions, Trippin’ on the Shoestring is joined this week by Barbara Madeloni, a Northampton educator who has been at the center of a reform movement within the Massachusetts Teachers Association. A decade ago, she stunned our state’s political class when she won election as president of the MTA as part of a rank-and-file caucus within that union. She’s now a staff organizer at Labor Notes, helping workers build power and democracy in their own workplaces and unions. In this episode, Madeloni talks with Shelby Lee and Dusty Christensen about the MTA’s progressive caucus, her election as union president, how the United Auto Workers strike can spark nationwide organizing, and how teachers unions statewide can provide examples for educators in the 413 to build more democratic schools. Produced in Ático Studios. Music by An Archaeologist.