The Fabulous 413

The Fabulous 413 is a western Massachusetts show that treats local life as big enough to hold politics, farms, books, drag, Black history, wine, birds, music, and a little studio chaos. It is rooted in interviews, but the real engine is attention. Recent episodes begin with the Berkshire Athenaeum, Dusty Goat Farm in East Longmeadow, Elms College, the Hope Center for the Arts in Springfield, the Triplex in Great Barrington, and the Leverett Village Co-op. These are not used as generic backdrops. They are the point. The show lets each place bring its own vocabulary, whether that means microgreens, congressional procedure, Sankofa, video-game writing, restorative art, or Italian varietals. It can move fast. It can also pause when the subject requires care. A February episode on Ashes to Ashes carries explicit warnings around lynching, racial attacks, depictions of death, and PTSD, while another Black History Month conversation centers the preservation of Black history through Elms College’s Black Experience Summit. The same feed also has room for Drag Story Hour Berkshires, Acting Class, Too Fast, Too Furious, and live music from Yahodi. That range is the show’s personality, not a grab bag. The Fabulous 413 keeps asking what local culture does for the people living near it. Sometimes that means policy with U.S. Congressman G. McGovern. Sometimes it means a 413 Day trivia round with Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, David Sibley, and Ken Washburn. Sometimes it means letting a guest explain why games can tell stories differently than film or TV. The tone stays casual and warm, with dry asides when the room gets too tidy. It is not polished tourism copy. It sounds closer to public radio that knows which road it took to get there. For PlayNext, the appeal is the texture: civic life at street level, with enough specificity that western Massachusetts feels lived in rather than summarized.