8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Neil DeGrasse Tyson Welcomes Us to the “Universe in 3D”

Even if you can’t just fire up the warp drives and fly millions of light-years away, there’s still the possibility of a virtual tour of outer space.

Astrophysicist, author and television host Neil deGrasse Tyson has directed the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History since 1996.

deGrasse Tyson, Michael Strauss, J. Richard Gott, and Robert Vanderbei, have just released a new book that uses some curiously old technology to send would-be starship captains beyond the galaxy.

Neil deGrasse Tyson joins to talk about his new book, Welcome to the Universe in 3D: A Virtual Tour.

 

Image Courtesy: NASA / UNSPLASH

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort our Thinking

Think about adding 1/4 of a cup to ⅓ of a cup of flour or deciding which wrench is larger, ⅜” or ½” or trying to understand what the 1-in-1000 odds of winning a raffle really means. If contemplating those ideas immediately sends you back to panicked middle school math class, you are not alone. Our next guest suggests that the human brain is simply not set up to intuitively understand fractions. When he’s not studying red blood cell alloimmunity in blood transfusions and organ transplants at his lab at the University of Virginia, pathologist James C. Zimring writes science primers for a general audience. In 2019, Zimring wrote “What Science is and How it Works.” Now he’s back with a new book, “Partial Truths: How Fractions Distort our Thinking.”

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Gabriel Winant, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Chicago and the author of “The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America” will be giving a talk at the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice in Madison on April 29, 2022, on “In the Crucible of Care: Deindustrialization and the Rise of the Care Economy”. He previews his upcoming on-line talk with Jan Miyasaki on how low-wage “care jobs”, such as some healthcare workers, childcare, and nursing home workers, are falling to women and minorities to support more wealthy members of society. Register to view the talk at the Havens Center, above.

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Jan Miyasaki revisits Andre Kamenshikov, NonViolence International‘s Ukraine Director, who is located in Kyiv, for an update on life in Kyiv amidst continued assaults by Russia and their continuing work on achieving a nonviolent end to the war.

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Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, founder and Director of the Palestine Museum of Natural History, talks about life in Gaza, where regular attacks and killings on Muslims and Christians by Israeli captors on citizens attempting to get to religious sites for prayer is sprinkled with attempts of normalcy, including an egg hunt on Easter at his Museum. He recently wrote “On Palestine: Most political leaders globally remain reactive, not proactive, to deal with our existential challenges…”, but he remains optimistic that a solution can be found.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, President and CEO of the National Urban League, Marc H Morial joins us to talk about the 2022 State of Black America, his work, the assault on voting rights, and saving our democracy. 

For more information on the State of Black America and the National Urban League: https://nul.org/state-of-black-america

Listen in Madison at 89.9FM or online anywhere at wortfm.org.  Support your community radio with a donation online at wortfm.org!

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Marc H. Morial is the President and CEO of the National Urban League. Over the last 15 years, Marc has expanded the reach of our services by empowering our affiliate movement and created a framework to create policies that serve communities of color. 

As Mayor of New Orleans from 1994 to 2002, Morial led New Orleans’ renaissance and left office with a 70% approval rating. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics and African American Studies and holds a law degree from Georgetown University. He also is the author of The Gumbo Coalition, a collection of lessons on the power of unity in our Democracy and a leadership framework for America’s changemakers.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, poet and activist Hannah Lenzo joins us to talk about her work, story and using poetry for political change and healing.

Poetry is Political Virtual Event and Workshops 4/30 at 11AM Central.  Tickets at https://bit.ly/3xkkgna

For more information on LOTUS Legal Clinic at https://www.lotuslegal.org/ and last week on the Tuesday Buzz: https://www.wortfm.org/empowering-survivors-to-heal-and-thrive/ 

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Hannah Lenzo has been writing for as long as she can remember. She writes to survive, to heal, and to thrive. She received her JD from the University of Wisconsin law school, where she developed a passion for restorative and transformative justice. She dreams of the demise of all systems of oppression and exploitation. She loves water and dogs and people. She collects crystals and makes jewelry for fun. She studies for the Illinois Bar Exam but not for fun.

Recently, she has been published in Untold Stories and End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin’s Coalition Chronicles. She is publishing a chapbook of poetry with Adjunct Press this spring, and will be reciting a poem at the National Crime Victims’ Rights Ceremony in Madison next week. She is also participating in a Rise and Thrive collaboration through LOTUS legal clinic in Milwaukee, in which participants’ poems are turned into songs by a collaborating musician, which will be showcased in May.

She publishes her poetry on her personal patreon page as well as the newly created Themmoirs Creatives Collective patreon page. Hannah will be co-facilitating a virtual poetry-writing event with Themmoirs co-founders Yaz and LaTierra called Poetry is Political on the last day of National Poetry Month, Saturday April 30th. Yaz will be leading a breakout session on the theme of migration and grief, LaTierra will be leading a breakout session centering the experience and impact of misogynoir, and Hannah will be leading a “fuck the patriarchy” writing circle. More information about this event and everything else Themmoirs is up to can be found on our Themmoirs instagram account: themmoirscreativescollective.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, Danielle Dresden, co-founder of TNW Ensemble Theater joins us to talk about the work of TNW, her story, and their upcoming production, “The Floridians,” opening Thursday!

More information on TNW Ensemble Theatre on their website: http://www.tnwensembletheater.org/ 

The Floridians opens Thursday, April 21st and runs until May 1st at Governor’s Mansion Hill Inn.

10% of the proceeds go to Ukranian relief

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Danielle Dresden is co-founder and co-producing artistic director of TNW Ensemble Theater. An award-winning and published playwright, she has written 38 plays, all of which are produced. She was Guest Artist for the Blaine Quarnstrom Playwright Series at the University of Southern Mississippi in 2016 and has been a featured artist at Alaska’s Last Frontier Theater Conference since 2002. She is a member and one of three Ambassadors for Wisconsin for the Dramatists Guild. She serves on the Barrymore Theater Board of Directors and the Bolz Center for Arts Administration Advisory Board.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · “Heathers” the Musical to Play at Vilas Hall

The University of Wisconsin Theater Department stages the Gen-X dark comedy cult classic “Heathers” in a musical rendition.

The musical runs through April 24 in the Mitchell Theater at Vilas Hall.

We talk with music director Ross Shenker and director Jake Penner.

 

Photo Courtesy: Manos Gkikas / UNSPLASH

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Madison West Sends Two Teams to National Rocketry Competition

Madison West High School is sending not one, but two teams to the National Rocketry Competition in Virginia.

720 teams from around the country competed in the initial round of the American Rocketry Challenge, and only 101 teams will compete in Virginia.

This challenge consists of taking two eggs, finding a way to launch them precisely 835 feet in the air, and returning them safely to earth, all within a total of 44 seconds.

We talk with student rocketeers Emilia Nicometo, Oliver Gartler and Natalie Lesnjak.

 

Photo Courtesy: NASA / UNSPLASH

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