Boston Decoded

There is a bench in Jamaica Plain  in Boston that will make you feel like you are seeing double, but don’t worry it is actually the way it’s designed. It sits overlooking Jamaica Pond looking very similar the other benches on either side. The difference is that this bench has two backs and no front to be seen. The...

A bench with two backs has delighted passersby at Jamaica Pond for years. We talk to the artist about how this guerilla art display turned into a permanent fixture in Boston.

There is a mystery in Boston and only one reporter can solve it — as long as he can pretend to be a grizzled 1940’s gumshoe while he does it. There has been a secret trophy room under the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 2015. The public art display appeared overnight has puzzled locals and tourists alike. It all…

The man behind the mysterious trophy room under the Longfellow Bridge in Cambridge, Mass., reveals why he created this popular art display.

Hating the Yankees is every Red Sox fan’s favorite tradition, but there are plenty of other great ones that have stood the test of time. From touching the Green Monster for good luck to singing along to classics like “Sweet Caroline,” some of your favorite Boston baseball traditions have been around for years. In this episode of Boston Decoded,...

Traditions come and go as sports teams change and evolve, but new Red Sox traditions like laundry cart rides should go the distance.

Leftover pieces of a frightening time in our nation’s history, where the threat of nuclear attack was very real, are littered throughout Boston. During the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy announced the nuclear fallout shelter program that would establish buildings and other areas that could be used to protect from the aftermath of a nuclear attack. In Boston,...

Over 1,000 places in Boston were marked as nuclear fallout shelters during the Cold War. Where are they and what has become of them today?

Oliver “Ollie” Smoot didn’t expect to become a lasting legend when he came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but that all changed the night his fraternity used his body to measure a bridge . A younger Ollie was chosen by Lambda Chi Alpha to become a measurement painted on Harvard Bridge decades ago. Now the “smoot” is an official…

Boston’s Harvard Bridge at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is covered in “smoots.” Learn about the origin of this real measurement from Ollie Smoot himself, and discover some of the lesser-known secrets it holds.

Boston, Massachusetts, is a small city packed with compelling stories, secrets and mysteries that are just begging to be uncovered. Rob Michaelson takes you through some of the most interesting bits of Boston and beyond with solid journalism (and dad jokes.) It’s a good time. From hidden secrets in the MBTA to weird laws that still exist in Massachusetts,...