On Rooted, we’re unpacking the “Bluey‑to‑Baddies” pipeline—and why tween media feels impossible to find in a world drowning in YouTube algorithms and AI‑generated slop. Paris taps award‑winning animator Chaz Bottoms to break down the brutal realities of making it in cartoons, especially for creators of color. Then Genie Deez and Thy Than, showrunners of the new PBS Kids series Phoebe & Jay, join her to ask the big question: Can public media’s hand‑crafted, mission‑driven storytelling still compete with the algorithm?

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound

Subscribe to the Rooted YouTube channel: •GBH News Rooted

Follow Rooted on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedgbh

Listen to Rooted on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hVZTdc...

Follow Rooted on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@rootedgbh

Follow Rooted on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rootedgbh

Subscribe to the Rooted newsletter at https://www.wgbh.org/tv-shows/gbh-new...

Visit our website: https://www.wgbh.org/news

GBH News wants to hear from YOU! We are conducting our annual audience survey 📝 https://bit.ly/3ZQXSQr. This will help us understand your interests and what you want to see more of from us. It only takes a few minutes, and we are grateful for your input. 🙌

GBH News is a premier source for in-depth local news and original story telling based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Support GBH and help shape a future where facts matter, stories unite us, and everyone has access to quality media. Join us. Fund the Future: https://bit.ly/FundtheFutureYT

The federal government just slashed how much future nurses, counselors, educators, and social workers can borrow — a move that hits women, Black students, and entire communities like a punch to the gut. Paris Alston digs into how a bureaucratic “reclassification” could gut the nursing pipeline, deepen care shortages, and widen racial health disparities. Then we head to Roxbury, where Children’s Services is doing what Washington won’t: creating a free, community‑rooted pathway to grow Black and brown mental health providers. When institutions make care harder to access, the community builds its own solutions.

In this episode, we mark 100 years since Carter G. Woodson launched Negro History Week by asking what Black History Month truly means today—and whether it still matters. We hit the streets to hear how everyday people perceive the holiday’s legacy, then sit down with Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, comedian Jason Cordova, and culture commentator Shane Faiteau for a candid conversation about the ways Black history gets flattened, who should be trusted to tell our stories, and why younger generations often feel disconnected from familiar narratives. We also speak with author and former Minneapolis City Council leader Ralph Remington, whose book Penetrating Whiteness pushes us to confront how policing, immigration enforcement, and the threat of political violence echo through Black life in 2026. Through these layered voices funny, sharp, skeptical, and deeply reflective we explore identity, diaspora, capitalism, community, and the future of resistance, reminding listeners that Black history cannot be contained to February because it shapes and is shaped by every moment we’re living now.

Rooted is brought to you by our sponsor, Britebound—helping middle and high school students to explore their passions, try out career paths, and make confident decisions about their future. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/britebound

Graduate student workers are the engine of American universities—teaching classes, grading papers, running labs—and many are doing it while earning less than a barista’s paycheck. In this episode, Paris Alston exposes the brutal reality behind the prestige: retaliation, homelessness, mental health crises, and a 206‑day strike that made history. We hear from a BU grad worker whose fight for survival turned into a battle against the very institution she served. This isn’t just a labor dispute—it’s a reckoning with who universities value, and who they quietly discard.

A raw, cultural breakdown of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl takeover — from the unity message and Latino representation debate to the nostalgia‑heavy ads that fell flat. Our roundtable featuring equity and justice reporter Trajan Warren, eXpozedtv and #GrindCon founder Katiria Colon, and Auzzy Byrdsell of The Boston Globe dig into the moments that hit, the ones that missed, and why this performance still has everyone talking.

Black families love to joke that “we’re losing recipes,” but what we’re really losing—and sometimes finally confronting—are the unspoken histories baked into every pan of mac and cheese. In this episode, Paris Alston digs into the generational drama simmering beneath our traditions, then sits down with Sarah Amos to unpack the chaotic, brilliant legacy of her father, Wally “Famous” Amos. And if that weren’t enough flavor, chef Rhonda Perscip brings receipts—and fritters—from a culinary lineage that survived emancipation, migration, and everything in between. This one’s about food, family, and the fire it takes to rewrite a recipe without repeating the trauma.

The 2026 Grammys rolled out 3,800 new voters, diverse nominees, and a whole lot of “we promise we’ve changed” energy — but in a world where careers are built on TikTok loops and viral sandwiches, does the gramophone still mean anything? Paris Alston breaks down a night where Bad Bunny used his moment to call out ICE, Kendrick Lamar made history while amplifying lesser-known artists, and the Recording Academy tried once again to prove it understands the culture it’s been catching up to for decades. From shrinking ratings to rising resistance, this episode asks the real question: when the music industry evolves faster than the institutions that reward it, who are the Grammys even for anymore?

Black folks have always had a complicated relationship with water—from West African aquatic cultures to the terror of the Middle Passage, from segregated pools to Flint and Jackson. In this episode, Paris Alston dives deep with National Geographic explorer Tara Roberts, who documents slave shipwrecks the world pretends not to care about, and champion rower Arshay Cooper, who’s reclaiming the healing power of water for young Black men. Together, they expose how water has been used against us—and how we’re taking it back.