8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · The Wisconsin Science Festival Returns

The Wisconsin Science Festival kicked off once again Thursday, hosting 100 events in dozens of communities across the state through this Sunday, Oct. 24. The festival has taken place annually since 2011 and blends science with both the arts and humanities to cultivate curiosity, inspire discovery, and grow knowledge.

Laura Heisler is the co-founder and director for the festival as well as the director of programming for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and director of outreach for the Morgridge Institute for Research. She joins Friday Buzz host, Jonathan Zarov, to talk more about the festival.

 

 

(Images courtesy of Laura Heisler and The Wisconsin Science Festival)

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Medea Benjamin, Co-founder of CODEPINK, which is “a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs”, talks about their “Campaign for World Bank to Release Funds to Pay Afghan Teachers“, following the U.S. withdrawal of Afghanistan.

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In an effort the stem the tide of global warming, in August of 2015, with the support of Our Children’s Trust, a non-profit public interest law firm that provides strategic, campaign-based legal services to youth from diverse backgrounds to secure their legal rights to a safe climate, filed suit charging the U. S. government, by purposeful support of a fossil fuel energy system and affirmative actions that cause climate change, has violated the youngest generation’s constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources. Attorney for Our Children’s Trust, Philip Gregory, discusses the status of these litigations.

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A key component of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), a product used in fuel-type fire fighting for over 40 years, is combination of chemicals which fall under the designation of PFAS — for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which have been flagged recently as potential cancer-causing agents. Laura Olah, Executive Director of Citizens for Safe Water around Badger (Munitions Plant), has been a strong advocate for testing and dealing with drinking water contamination, and talks about the poor record of testing wells in Wisconsin, and what you can do to help.

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown…

Alexandra Wilburn is an organizer with Black Umbrella, a safety net organization bringing together activists and organizers to share support and better serve the community.  Black Umbrella fights to dismantle institutional racism and rebuild America so that it reflects everybody and provides for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness through nonviolent direct action.

Madison Common Council meeting tonight, get involved and contact your alder to give input for the final budget deliberations on November 9th.

More on Black Umbrella: https://blackumbrella.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/BLKUmbrella/ Common Council Meetings and Connection and Comment links: https://www.cityofmadison.com/city-hall/committees/common-council

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

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Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr. Damita Brown…

Rachel Williams is a PhD Candidate at University of California Berkeley, writing her dissertation bringing new analysis to modern segregation.  She uses qualitative and spatial methods to examine charter growth in relationship to new modes of segregation, such as predatory housing policies and county secession, while drawing linkages to Black politics in a majority Black city in the U.S. South, and joins us to talk about what her research shows!

Rachel is giving a presentation Friday, “Chartering Exploitation: 21st Century Black Schooling and the (Re)making of a Southern City” presented by UW-Madison, noon-1 Central Time: https://today.wisc.edu/events/view/163784 

More on Rachel, her CV and her work: https://gse.berkeley.edu/rachel-elizabeth-williams 

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

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Faiths 4 Climate Justice Protest

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference is starting at the end of this month and Green Faith International has organized a global multi-religious action, Faiths 4 Climate Justice, to send a message to world leaders before the conference that destroying the planet is against their religions. Sunday, Oct. 17 there will be a city-wide “No F-35” bike and car caravan meeting on the State St. corner of Capitol Square. After that there will be a “No F-35 Creative Celebration” at East Madison Community Center with live music, art making, and free food. The event will be outdoors and socially distanced.

Nancy Vedder-Shults is a founding member of the Wisconsin Creation Care Ambassadors, co-chair of the First Unitarian Sustainability Team, and a spokesperson for these events. She joins Friday Buzz host, Jonathan Zarov, to talk about these events.

 

(image courtesy of Building Unity)

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Madison Bicycle Center

Freewheel Bicycle Co is a local non-profit dedicated to transportation justice and teaching people to build, repair, and maintain their own bicycles. Freewheel and the city of Madison have collaborated to create the Madison Bicycle Center – a bicycle-focused, non-profit community center. The center is part of the current Judge Doyle Square development downtown at 202 S Pinckney Street. The center aims to make commuting downtown by bike easier by offering memberships that include secure bike and item storage, showers, changing rooms, same-day turnaround on most repairs, and use of a bike wash station.

Lang Schmitt is the executive director of Freewheel and he joins Friday Buzz host, Jonathan Zarov, to talk about the new center downtown.

 

(Image courtesy of Madison Bicycle Center)

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · As Madison Grows It Needs To Focus On Sustainability

On Tuesday livability.com released its annual “100 Best Places to Live” and declared Madison the number one best place to live. But the city is changing and growing, and will need to do so in smart, sustainable ways to retain this status.

2020 Census data shows that the Madison Metro Area was the fastest growing in the state with a 12.4% increase in population. Increasing population density can exacerbate problems in growing cities: Poor air and water quality, insufficient water availability, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption, among them.

James LaGro is a professor of urban and regional planning at the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at UW Madison and is an expert on urban planning and design, land use policy, and sustainably built environments. He joins Friday Buzz host, Jonathan Zarov, to discuss urbanization in Madison and sustainable development options and policies.

 

 

(Images courtesy of mostofa meraji on Pixabay and James LaGro Jr.)

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The latest release of the “Pandora Papers” is the culmination of review of 600 members of the “International Consortium of Investigative Journalists” of documents released from fourteen international wealth management groups. Chuck Collins, Senior Researcher of the Institute for Policy Studies, describes the “U. S. becoming a tax haven for wealthy and criminal, with South Dakota as a leader, with laws rewritten under advisement of the “Wealth Defense Industry” providing for anonymous perpetual trusts with no taxes.

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