Fiasco: The Battle for Boston

With Pushkin+ audiobooks, you'll get access to a new Pushkin+ audiobook every other month. That's 6 free audiobooks a year! From May 1 to June 30th, listen to Fiasco: The Battle for Boston by Leon Neyfakh. Pushkin+ subscribers also get access to ad-free listening, exclusive bonus episodes of podcasts like Cautionary Tales and Revisionist History, full binges to our top shows like Deep Cover and Medal of Honor, and more. Sign up now on the Fiasco: The Battle for Boston show page or at pushkin.com/plus. In 1974, a federal judge ruled that Boston’s public schools were unconstitutionally segregated. The solution? A controversial experiment in desegregation known as “busing,” which would take children from majority-white schools and bus them to predominantly Black schools, and vice versa. What followed was a year of upheaval, violence, and fierce protests, as Boston became a battleground for the heated national debate over school integration and racism in the North.In this dramatic audiobook full of surprising twists and fascinating characters, journalist Leon Neyfakh (co-creator of the podcasts Slow Burn and Fiasco) unpacks the history of busing in Boston and brings to life the human stories behind the headlines by talking to the people who saw what happened with their own eyes. Combining historical analysis with firsthand accounts, Fiasco explores not only the impact of busing in Boston, but the larger questions about race, politics, and the struggle for equal education that continue to reverberate in America half a century later.