One of the wonderful things about the 413 is that there's always surprises.
Like someone swimming the entire 410-mile length of the Connecticut River, a feat that Kari Kastango has just completed. Over several years and a massive amount of planning she's traversed the river both as a personal journey and to bring awareness to the state of the river along it's full length. Along with Kari we get to congratulate Rebecca Todd's recent appointment to Executive Director of the Connecticut River Conservancy and talk about how their organization has ed its board member in her extra long swim.
It is perhaps like the fungal kingdom itself, which we are still discovering things about even now. It's those mysteries that initially drew Julie Coffey to mushrooms and mushrooming. That pursuit of discovery would blossom in a basement, and evolve over the years to a full fledged warehouse, commercial kitchen, growing nursery, and soon composting facility in South Deerfield. Mycoterra Farms has been bringing mushrooms to the Pioneer Valley for years, so we go and get a tour and a science lesson about one of the earth's ongoing mysteries.
And it is right under our noses. New York Times Bestselling author Holly Black has just co-written a new picture book with co-host of The Fabulous 413, Kaliis Smith. So for the first time in the show's, granted short, history, Kaliis finds herself on the opposite side of the proverbial microphone as Monte asks the two writers about the origins of their book "Sir Morien: The Legend of a Knight of the Round Table", and how representation of this sort can really change things.