Little Local Conversations
Discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown, MA. Visit littlelocalconversations.com to see all episodes, upcoming events, and more. Join Matt Hanna as he has conversations with various businesses owners, community leaders, creatives, and other interesting folks in Watertown to learn about what they do and get to know a bit about the people behind the work.
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Episodes
100 episodes
Event Highlight - SOLSTICE: Reflections on Winter Light
This episode is a sponsored event highlight for SOLSTICE, a reflective light and sound experience happening at Mount Auburn Cemetery this December. I sit down for a conversation with Matthew St...
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26:41
Creative Chats With Guest Margo Guernsey (Capturing and Sharing Unheard Stories Through Film)
This is a recording from a series for the podcast at the Mosesian Center for the Arts called Creative Chats. This conversation was with Margo Guernsey, do...
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30:37
Episode 69: Aliana de la Guardia (Mosesian Center for the Arts)
Meet Aliana de la Guardia! She's the Executive Director at the Mosesian Center for the Arts and a working artist herself. In this conversation we dig into her path into opera, what it's like to be a professional singer in the avant-garde world ...
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Episode 69
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47:08
Local Government Update, November 2025
Listen to the latest conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, succ...
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39:39
Episode 68: Jon Hecht (Political Activist / Former Town Councilor and State Representative)
Meet Jon Hecht! He's a longtime contributor to the Watertown community from being a town councilor, a state representative for the area, the first president of the Watertown Community Foundation and many other involvements. In this conversation...
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Episode 68
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47:01
Episode 67: Max Ritcey (Ritcey East, Owner and Chef)
Meet Max Ritcey! He's the Owner and Chef at Ritcey East here in Watertown. In this conversation we talk about growing up in a four-generation family-run restaurant in Waltham, his journey through bartending and restaurant management jobs (and s...
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Episode 67
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46:25
Episode 66: Jon Bockian (Community Volunteer / Author)
Meet Jon Bockian! He's a longtime Watertown resident with a history of community involvement and an author. In this conversation we talk about being part of the PTA, Zoning Board, the group that started the arts center at the Arsenal property, ...
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Episode 66
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46:07
Episode 65: Jim Henderson (Attorney/Singer)
Meet Jim Henderson! He's an attorney and singer here in Watertown. In this wide-ranging conversation we talk about his early years in law (including winning a state supreme court case as a junior associate), the importance of different parts of...
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Episode 65
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53:59
Creative Chats With Guest Megan Ramette (The How and Why of Zines and Watertown Zine Fest)
This is a recording from a series for the podcast at the Mosesian Center for the Arts called Creative Chats. This conversation was with Megan Ramette of t...
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32:21
Local Government Update, October 2025
Listen to the latest conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, succ...
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35:42
Watertown's Open: Small Business Support Group
This is a recording from the Watertown's Open live podcast series panel discussion recorded at Get Lively Health and Fitness Studio in Watertown in September 2025. The theme was Small Business Support Group and dived into the numerous ways smal...
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1:22:23
Episode 64: Michael Bobbitt (Mass Cultural Council)
Meet Michael Bobbitt! He's a Watertown resident and the Executive Director of the Mass Cultural Council along with being a distinguished theater artist in many ways himself (see long bio
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Episode 64
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50:57
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Creative Chats With Guests Tim Merton and Jennifer Morsches of the Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble (Building Local History Into Programming & Doing Outreach With Incarcerated Teens)
This is a recording from a series for the podcast at the Mosesian Center for the Arts called Creative Chats. This conversation was with Tim Merton and Jen...
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45:27
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Watertown Arts & Culture Roundtable, September 2025
This is an arts and culture roundtable episode where we talk about things that have been going on in Watertown arts and culture recently, what's coming up, hidden gems, and more. The discussion was with Liz Helfer (City of Watertown, Public Art...
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26:28
Episode 63: Barbara Callahan (Browne House/Historic New England)
Meet Barbara Callahan! She's the Metro Boston Regional Site Administrator for Historic New England which includes overseeing the oldest house in Watertown, the Browne House on Main Street. In this conversation we talk about Barbara's own journe...
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Episode 63
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38:04
Local Government Update, September 2025
Listen to the latest conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, succ...
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32:08
Episode 62: Fangxue Zheng (Energy Advocate for City of Watertown)
Meet Fangxue Zheng! She's the Energy Advocate for the City of Watertown. In this conversation we talk about her backpacking across China for research, her transition to sustainability work in the US, and then we get into some of the programs an...
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Episode 62
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27:51
Episode 61: Alex Patriquin (Cass School of Floral Design)
Meet Alex Patriquin! He's part of the family business at the Cass School of Floral Design here in Watertown. We talk about the beginnings of the floral shop with his Armenian immigrant refugee grandmother (and her earlier venture of putting a l...
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Episode 61
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38:07
Local Government Update, August 2025
This is a conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, success stories...
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35:41
Episode 60: Gary Beatty (Watertown Boys and Girls Club)
Meet Gary Beatty! He's the Executive Director of the Watertown Boys and Girls Club. In this conversation he shares about his experience growing up in Northern Ireland, his love of football (soccer) and how it led him to the US, and his professi...
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Episode 60
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41:52
Episode 59: Sara Keary (Caregiver Counseling and Consultation)
Meet Sara Keary! She runs Caregiver Counseling and Consultation here in Watertown along with being involved with the community in other ways. We talk about her early years growing up with a mother who was director of a homeless shelter and spen...
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Episode 59
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37:36
Episode 58: Rita Cleary (Brahma Kumaris Meditation Center)
Meet Rita Cleary! She's the activities coordinator at the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Center here in Watertown. In this conversation we talk about Rita's career path in management sciences, traveling the world for her personal explorations on the...
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Episode 58
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29:25
Local Government Update, July 2025
This is a conversation with Tyler Cote, the Community Engagement Specialist for the City of Watertown, and Victoria Weichel from WCA-TV to discuss things that have happened during the past month in Watertown through key moments, success stories...
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39:13
Creative Chats With Guest Arto Vaun (Finding Optimism and Creative Opportunity in Grief and Anxiety)
This is a recording from a series for the podcast at the Mosesian Center for the Arts called Creative Chats. This conversation was with Arto Vaun, Executive Director at Project Save Photograph Archive, musician, and poet. The topic revolved aro...
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46:40
Episode 57: Xin Peng (Community Organizer and Human Rights Activist)
Meet Xin Peng! He's involved in many things in Watertown including chairing World in Watertown, sitting on the city's Human Rights Commission, running the Chinese American Association of Watertown, and many other things. In this con...
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Episode 57
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42:46
