It takes a lot of important attributes to be a successful gardener: patience, kindness, empathy, determination, and discipline, among others. These are just some of the many important lessons students in Cambridge and Boston Public Schools are learning through partnerships with Cambridge non-profit "City Sprouts". Susan Diller, Executive Director of City Sprouts, joins Nichole to explore how the program teaches local kids these valuable skills through hands-on learning in the dirt, and share details about their upcoming conference for educators and gardeners.

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It's been a frigid, unforgiving winter, but sometimes, that doesn't matter if you're a young person in an unsafe situation and feel you need to get away, quick. Instead of leaving them on the streets to suffer in the elements, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is working overtime to make sure homeless, at-risk, and runaway youth have a secure, warm place to stay. Executive Director Elisabeth Jackson returns to the show this week to talk about her team's efforts on the front lines and why so many youth find themselves without a safe place to go.

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With another round of bitter, Arctic cold coming into the region, you may want to crank the heat and keep your house toasty warm. Unfortunately, many Massachusetts residents are nervous about doing so because the cost of energy is so high these days, and doesn't appear to be getting much better anytime soon. An under-utilized program called HEAP can offer some relief, but community action groups say many residents don't even realize they qualify. Liz Berube, Executive Director of Citizens for Citizens in Fall River, shares all the details with Nichole on this week's show.

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February is Black History Month, and the Freedom Trail Foundation in Boston is celebrating by offering "African-American Patriots" tours. These special tours highlight Black Bostonians, civil rights leaders, politicians, and others who helped to shape the city, and our country, as we know it today. Kelli Strong, a guide with the Freedom Trail Foundation, returns to the show to share all the information you need about these meaningful tours.

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For more than a century, the Melrose Symphony Orchestra has been performing for the community, sharing the joy of live music with people of all ages. This winter, they've been busy preparing for a pair of concerts in March that will appeal to opera lovers, local kids, and everyone in between! Yoichi Udagawa, the Symphony's longtime Conductor and Musical Director, returns to the show to talk with Nichole about the Orchestra's storied history, how they try to make classical music accessible to every music lover, and details of the upcoming shows.

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Dynamic pricing, like surging rideshare prices during a storm, has been around for some time. Companies are now embracing a tactic called "algorithmic pricing", where the personal data it gets from your shopping habits, apps, discount cards, browsing, and much more is used to set prices for you, personally, in real-time for various items. Noah Giansiracusa, Bentley University professor and author of "Robin Hood Math", joins the show to break down how this all works and explain what it means for the future of shopping.

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It's rare these days to save your memories in a physical photo album, but there's nothing like being able to hold a photo or family artifact in your hands to remember loved ones. In an increasingly digital world, two Harvard Business School students decided to embrace generative AI to capture and preserve memories through illustrated books, which they're now doing with a new kiosk at the Harvard COOP. Co-founder Brayan Romero talks with Nichole about the technology, how his family motivated its development, and how you can try it out for yourself.

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Families all over the country, including right here in Massachusetts, are struggling to find proper beds for their children to sleep in each night. Almost 15 years after helping a neighbor in his home state of Idaho, Luke Mickelson vowed to ensure as many children as possible would be able to sleep comfortably at night, and he's teamed up with volunteers around the country to build hundreds of thousands of beds. However, he says they need more help here in New England. He joins Nichole this week to tell his story, talk about their efforts, and share information about how you can start a chapter to help kids sleep soundly.

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You may live in a city or town that has those red fire boxes in place, where you can walk up to them and pull the lever if you need help and a phone isn't available. Those systems were state-of-the-art many years ago, but now, with modern technology in place, city officials in Salem say the system is becoming more problematic than helpful. Fire Chief Alan Dionne joins the show to talk with Nichole about the history of the boxes, the decision to retire them this summer, and what this means for residents who rely on the system for safety.

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