This week on The Montclair Pod, Farnoosh Torabi and Mike Schreiber revisit the Pod's first candidate forum, co-hosted with MPACT, featuring the six candidates running for three open seats on the Montclair Board of Education in the Nov. 3, 2026, election. They play two exchanges: how each candidate voted in the March school referendum, and what academic success should look like for Montclair students. Then they talk through what surprised them. Farnoosh also owns up to a Google Form mishap with the councilor-at-large candidates.
Next, longtime friend Allison Fishman Task, a Montclair career coach and former TV cook, joins the show. Her videos went viral after she described what she says she reported about Cornell fraternities as a freshman more than 30 years ago. They come as Cornell University faces a new lawsuit and a reopened criminal investigation. Content note: this conversation involves allegations of sexual assault.
Also this week: a new "What the Hell" on why the YMCA stairs in downtown Montclair were closed for months, NJ Transit's five-week Midtown Direct diversion to Hoboken, a proposed protected bike lane on Glenridge Avenue, the Montclair Township newsletter you probably didn't know existed, and Darryl "DMC" McDaniels of Run-DMC headlining a Montclair Helps fundraiser. Farnoosh recaps her yard sale, which Mike missed.