Boston Calling

The amount of weaponry Saudi Arabia buys from the US has risen dramatically over the past decade or so. We take the latest arms sales data and present it as an audio experience. Also, the human cost behind seemingly ordinary groceries; some states in the US are tightening abortion laws, leading some women to buy abortion pills online; a US fast-food chain introduces a new meat-free burger; and why burping cows are causing climate change. (Image: Supporters of Houthis gather at Babul Yemen street to protest the US government's sale of $1.29 billion in smart bombs to Saudi Arabia, in Sanaa, Yemen on November 20, 2015. (Photo by Mohammed Hamoud/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A ban went into effect this week on athletes with high testosterone competing in women’s track events. South African runner Caster Semenya last week lost her challenge to a new rule by the International Association of Athletics Federations that keeps her out of women’s competitions because of her hormone levels. Many athletes have expressed opposition to the latest ruling, but we hear from a transgender runner who is happy with the ban. We also speak with the author of a graphic memoir trying to make sense of skin colour and identity; we hear about efforts in California to make police more sensitive to indigenous people; we visit a street in New Jersey City named in honour of an Indian human rights campaigner; and we hear the music of a self-described intergalactic feminist. (Image: South Africa's Caster Semenya celebrates after winning the women's 800m during the IAAF Diamond League competition on May 3, 2019 in Doha. Credit: KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Seattle, Washington, is widely seen as a pro-immigrant city. So many residents were shocked to learn that a nearby airport has been used to deport some 34,000 people in the last eight years. Now King County, where the airport is located, is signalling its opposition to those deportations. We also learn about a subversive hand sign adopted from Hollywood and used in Thailand; we visit a radio program whose signals connect families split between central California and southern Mexico; we meet a teacher who’s helping kids feel proud to communicate in their native tongues; we hear from a man who learned how to deal with a misreading of his name; and we hear the music of a man who won’t yield to pressure to spell it all out. (Detainees are loaded onto a Swift Air charter flight at King County International Airport (Boeing Field) in Seattle, WA, for a February 26 ICE Air flight. Credit: Still image from video by Alex Montalvo and Wadii Boughdir for the University of Washington Center for Human Rights)

The US Department of Homeland Security is turning to facial recognition technology to keep track of people leaving and entering the US, but privacy advocates have serious concerns. Now, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has obtained documents from US Customs and Border Protection that backup their fears. Also, we visit a hair salon in Boston strictly for women who wear hijab; Thando Hopa makes history by being the first model with albinism on the cover of Vogue magazine; the phenomenon of blackface persists around the globe; and Orthodox Jewish women in New York observe an old tradition in a very modern way. (Image: A facial recognition program is demonstrated during the 2004 Biometrics exhibition and conference in London. (Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

Migrant families are being released to communities around the US. They often have no money and no support. Volunteers are stepping in to help. Also: the White House is considering a plan that would send immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities; climate refugees arrive in a small city in the state of Georgia; a peek inside a KGB Spy Museum in New York City, and the Turkish embassy in Washington DC was once a place to hear jazz legends. (Image: A sign welcomes arrivals at the Refugee Coffee Shop in Clarkston, Georgia. Credit:Jason Margolis)