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A Cape Cod Notebook

A Cape Cod Notebook can be heard every Tuesday morning at 8:45am and afternoon at 5:45pm.

It's commentary on the unique people, wildlife, and environment of our coastal region.

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A Cape Cod Notebook commentators include:

Mary Bergman, originally from Provincetown, now lives on Nantucket. She is a writer and historian, working in historic preservation and writing a novel.

Seth Rolbein began his journalistic career on Cape Cod in the 1970s, then joined WGBH-TV as a writer, reporter and documentary filmmaker. He has written for many regional and national publications. His magazine and book-length fiction and non-fiction has spanned continents, and documentaries on National Public Television have won multiple national awards. Throughout, the Cape has been his home. He became editor-in-chief of the region’s weekly newspaper chain before starting The Cape Cod Voice; a weekly emailed column of the same name continues that effort.

Susan Moeller is a freelance writer and editor who was a reporter and editor with the Boston Herald and Cape Cod Times. She’s lived on the Cape for 45 years and when not working, swims, plays handbells, pretends to garden, and walks her dog, Dug. She lives in Cummaquid.

Tom Moroney is a veteran journalist and radio host whose love affair with Cape Cod began when he was a child. Before retiring in 2023, he was managing editor overseeing radio and television in Boston for Bloomberg, the global financial news company. He co-hosted Baystate Business, a daily radio program focused on the region’s economy. He also served as Bloomberg's Boston bureau chief. Moroney has been a print reporter with stints at The Boston Globe and People magazine. In the 1980s and ‘90s he wrote an award-winning column for the MetroWest Daily News in Framingham and was a correspondent for Greater Boston, the public affairs program on WGBH-TV.

Dennis Minsky's career as a field biologist began in 1974, at Cape Cod National Seashore, protecting nesting terns and plovers. A Provincetown resident since 1968, he returned full time in 2005. He is involved in many local conservation projects, works as a naturalist on the Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch, and tries to write.

Cape Cod Notebook contributors from left to right: Mary Bergman, Seth Rolbein, Susan Moeller, Dennis Minsky, Tom Moroney
Cape Cod Notebook contributors from left to right: Mary Bergman, Seth Rolbein, Susan Moeller, Dennis Minsky, Tom Moroney

Robert Finch, in memoriam, a nature writer living in Wellfleet who created, 'A Cape Cod Notebook.' It won the 2006 New England Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Radio Writing. He has lived on and written about Cape Cod for forty years. He is the author of six collections of essays, including "The Iambics of Newfoundland" (Counterpoint Press), and co-editor of "The Norton Book of Nature Writing." His new book, "The Outer Beach: A Thousand-Mile Walk Along Cape Cod’s Atlantic Shore." Bob passed away on September 30, 2024. Read more about him and hear some of his work here.

  • From "Happy as a Clam" to "Squeezed Inn," a Cape Cod cottage-naming saga full of bad puns, a 92-year-old sign-maker's wisdom, and the realization that some things resist a name.
  • This week Robert Finch tells us why there is nothing more soothing than the sound of rain.
  • A surprising etymology of "tourist," from ancient pilgrims to the invention of the "tourist trap," and a case for seeing visitors as individuals rather than a crowd.
  • After a long winter on Cape Cod, Mary Bergman laces up her boots and heads to Portugal's rugged Atlantic coast to hike the Fisherman's Trail. She travels through the last stretch of undeveloped coastline in Europe, where ancient cliffs, turquoise water, and fearless local fishermen offer a world apart from home.
  • A dog's unblinking vigil at a Cape Cod window becomes a quiet reflection on attention, perception, and all the things just outside the frame of human awareness.
  • From hydrangea fun facts to backyard storytelling, Tom Moroney shares a charming and humorous vision of what he calls “The People’s Stop” on the festival tour.
  • One of many mysteries that attends living on Cape Cod manifests in an unlikely location: Route 6, Harwich, around what most people still call Exit 10 at Route 124, now officially Exit 82.
  • A quiet nighttime journey to count horseshoe crabs becomes an exploration of Nantucket’s seasonal transformations. From blooming lilacs to shifting shorelines, Mary Bergman reflects on the beauty, fragility, and resilience of coastal life.
  • In the middle of a snowy Cape Cod winter, a dog, an opossum, and a pair of neighbors create an unforgettable moment of surprise, humor, and connection.
  • Tom Moroney explores the efforts to protect the herring population on the Cape and the volunteers and infrastructure that make its recovery possible.