8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · “Love Wisconsin” Tells the Story of Our State

Love Wisconsin is a digital storytelling project from the Wisconsin Humanities Council that showcases everyday people from all over Wisconsin. Executive Producer Jen Rubin and Humanities Council Digital Communications Director Jessica Becker join to talk about this love-letter to the state of Wisconsin.

Image courtesy: Dave Hoefler / UNSPLASH

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · What Is Considered “Legitimate Public Discourse?”

On February 4, the Republican National Committee voted to censure U.S. Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois for their participation in the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.  The RNC maintains that the events on January 6th constituted “legitimate political discourse.”  To help us decipher what “legitimate political discourse” means, we are joined by Timothy J. Shaffer, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies at Kansas State University and Director, Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy. Doctor Jennifer R. Mercieca, Professor, Department of Communication, Texas A&M University also joins this discussion.

Image courtesy: Mayer Tawfik / UNSPLASH

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Senator Kelda Roys On Electric Vehicles Infrastructure In Wisconsin

Last week, the Biden-Harris administration announced it would be distributing five billion dollars to states across the country to fund electric vehicle charging stations. The initiative, funded via the bipartisan infrastructure package, is just one part of the administration’s plans to encourage electric vehicle usage across the country.

Joining Friday Buzz host, Jonah Chester, to talk about what those plans will mean for electric vehicles in Wisconsin is state Senator Kelda Roys.

 

 

(Images courtesy of Michael Marais on on Unsplash and Kelda Roys)

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New producer Eli Wilz joins Tony Castaneda in the studio for the first time. They talk about local Madison comedy, the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl and Eli’s parents.

When he’s not producing for the Buzz, Eli is a local comedian. He is 1/3 of the sketch group Grapefruit Bubbly, performs regularly with Atlas Improv and can be seen performing at open mics all around town.

Image courtesy of Eli Wilz

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Presidential candidate Joe Biden promised to end new fossil fuel leasing in the Gulf, but President Joe Biden has offered more oil leases than President Trump. A recent federal judge ruling has invalidated Biden’s recent sale of leases in the Gulf of Mexico, saying the administration didn’t adequately consider the costs to the world’s climate. Brettny Hardy, Senior Attorney at the Oceans Program at Earth Justice has pushed for Biden’s Interior Department to stop these leases.

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Elizabeth Gotein, Director, Liberty & National Security at the Brennan Center for Justice, has recently issued an updated positon paper: “2022 Update: Reforming Executive Powers“, where she talks about reforming the incredible unchecked powers available to the President as a result of the National Emergencies Act (NEA). This act allows the President, with a signature to affect change in over 120 laws, and was the source of Trump’s abuse of allocation of taxpayer money to build sections of his “wall” without Congressional approval.

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Mark your calendars for March: The U.W. Department of Theatre and Drama is performing the play “A Piece of My Heart“: true stories of 6 women who were changed by their participation in the Vietnam War and the reactions of people when they returned. Director Baron Kelly, himself a four-time Fulbright Scholar and a member of the National Theatre Conference, talks about the play — true stories of stereotypes, negative images, and true humanity. The play run from March 3-11, 2022 in the Gilbert V. Hemsley Theatre on U.W. campus.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown, Gabes Torres joins us for the whole show talking about her world, her work studying intergenerational trauma, the impact of capitalism on the global South, building our communities, our interconnectedness, and what is “normal,” anyway?

More on Gabes: https://gabestorres.com/ 

To read The Pursuit of Rest Under Capitalism in Yes Magazine: https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2021/10/21/rest-under-capitalism 

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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Gabes (she/they/siya) was raised in the countryside of the Philippines. She comes from an ancestral lineage of educators, revolutionaries, artists, and healers. She lives their legacy onward as a therapist, organizer, singer-songwriter, and teacher today.

At present, Gabes has been in different parts of the global South where she organizes with other unionizers and activists to advance international human rights. Even with some geographical movement, Gabes virtually teaches at a variety of universities and academic events in the West on the topics of intergenerational trauma and healing, as well as anti-colonial methods to providing therapy. Her teaching also focuses on building community safety and accountability infrastructures from a transformative justice lens.

Gabes founded and co-facilitates the Heritage Workshop, a virtual workshop for people of color around the world where they explore and process ancestral lineage, stories, and medicine as a community.

Gabes is an avid reader and a lover of the ocean, of poetry and good conversation. She believes that her friendships are her greatest romance (including the friendship she has with herself), and that it is necessary for the revolution to be infused with laughter, feasting, and singing and dancing. 

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · The Great Amazon Land Grab

The Amazon rainforest has been described as the lungs of the earth, and its protection is critical to absorbing atmospheric carbon.

Now we learn that deforestation has been deliberately encouraged by the Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro, with public land selloffs on a previously unimagined scale.

We’ll talk with Gabriel Carrero, a Graduate Student Fellow and PhD Candidate in Geography at the University of Florida, and Robert Walker, Professor of Latin American Studies and Geography at the University of Florida.

Image courtesy: Ivars Utināns / Unsplash

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Wisconsin’s Affordable Housing Crisis

As the global COVID-19 pandemic upended the economy, millions lost work and stood at risk of losing their homes.

In 2020 and 2021,  Congress appropriated over forty billion dollars for the Emergency Rental Assistance program to try to help keep people in their homes. The federal dollars wended their way through the states and into the hands of Community Action Agencies, who distribute the funds directly to renters in need.

With federal appropriations drying up, what will happen to renters receiving housing assistance?

Wisconsin Community Action Program or WISCAP is the umbrella organization for the state’s 16 anti-poverty Community Action Agencies. WISCAP’s Executive Director Brad Paul and Housing Program Manager Andy Heidt discuss Wisconsin’s housing crisis.

Image courtesy: Zac Gudakov / Unsplash

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