On this edition of the Spotlight, our intrepid volunteer, Christian rambles on over to 687 Belmont Street and chats with the manager Ari about all that Ani's Catering & Cafe offers.

Hannah Fischer, Community Calendar Producer, highlights events happening in May and June and interviews Gladys Unger of the Belmont LGBTQ+ Alliance about their organization and upcoming Pride Parade.

Mario Livio, the distinguished former astrophysicist at Hubble Space Telescope (until 2015) and best-selling science author, discusses his latest book, co-authored with Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak, "Is Earth Exceptional?" One of the most fascinating questions is whether there is life -and especially intelligent life- beyond our planet? His book provides the best information about the requirements for life and how scientists search for life in the cosmos. Dr. Livio explains the challenge of identifying life elsewhere when we have only the example of life’s emergence on Earth.

Belmont HS Girls Varsity Rugby: Marauders vs Weymouth Wildcats, 05/15/26; Commentators: Becca Michaud, Tabby Kambazza; Harris Field, Belmont MA 01:16:37

Our Record-Breaking Global Heat: The record-breaking heat of the last few years is, climate scientists say, “not just summer.” Two distinguished researchers, Mathew Barlow and Jeffrey Basara, discuss their recent important article about the sudden uptick in global temperature, why is worrying climate experts, how they analyze the global heat patterns and what must be done to address the problem. 00:30:04

Science for the Public: Using Gravitational Lensing to Detect Dark Matter , January 14th, 2025. Recorded live at the Beech Street Center, Belmont MA. Guest: Jacqueline McCleary, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Physics, Northeastern University. Dark matter accounts for some 27 percent of the universe but is invisible. One promising technique to reveal it is the analysis of gravitational lensing that very occasionally aligns galaxy clusters. The much-noted “cosmic question mark” image for this event is the result of a rare alignment between two distant galaxies due to gravitational lensing.

Belmont HS Girls Varsity Rugby: Marauders vs Brookline Warriors, 06/03/26; MIAA Division 1 Semifinal; Commentators: Erin Wholey, Hannah Jacoby; Harris Field, Belmont MA 01:28:13

Talk About Jazz With Doug Hall - Doug speaks with up and coming rhythm and blues artist Jarrod Lawson. Features two cuts from Lawson's new album Just Let It. 00:25:14

Belmont HS Girls Varsity Rugby: Marauders vs Weymouth Wildcats, 05/15/26; Commentators: Becca Michaud, Tabby Kambazza; Harris Field, Belmont MA 01:16:37