8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Billions of Brood X Cicadas Emerge

The high-pitched buzzing of the Cicada’s mating call is one of the most familiar sounds of summer. We see, or mostly hear, small amounts of these large and noisy insects every year, but this year they are coming in the billions if not trillions. Having been underground for 17 years the phenomenon known as Brood X have been emerging from the ground on the East Coast and the Midwest shedding their exoskeletons, and performing their mating call.

Director of UW-Madison’s Insect Diagnostic Lab and insect identification and biology expert Patrick Liesch joins Friday Buzz host Jonathan Zarov to talk about this phenomenon.

 

(Image courtesy of UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences on Flickr)

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Samer Alatout on Israel and Palestine

A ceasefire just took effect in Jerusalem, between Israel and the Palestinian militant group, Hamas. In the last week, Israeli attacks killed 212 people, left 2,500 people homeless, and led to worldwide condemnation and protests in defense of Palestine.

Samer Alatout is Vilas Associate Professor of Community & Environmental Sociology at UW Madison who works on environmental politics in Palestine & Israel and has written extensively on Zionist and Israeli settler colonialism as it relates to environmental politics. He joined host Jonathan Zarov on the Friday 8 O’Clock Buzz.

 

(Images courtesy of Samer Alatout)

Amanda Starbuck, contributor to Food & Water Watch, recently penned a report “Well-Fed: A Roadmap To A Sustainable Food System That Works For All” which discusses the issues of increasing corporate control of our food systems, but outlines solutions to problems facing small farmers’ sustainability challenges, including regenerating soil, integrating crops and cattle, local control, local markets, and more.

Since 1917, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has promoted a world free of violence, inequality, and oppression, and was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 1947. Jennifer Bing directs the AFSC Palestine Activism Program, and shares the group’s experience with the “Open Air Prison” called the Gaza Strip, including the “No way to treat a child” campaign to document Israel’s imprisonment of Palestinian children by military courts, the “Gaza Unlocked” personal stories by Palestinians website, the proposed “Palestinian Children and Families Act HR2590” supported by Mark Pocan and others, and the current situation of bombings and subsequent dislocation of over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr Damita Brown (in exile) …

Fink, also known as Fin Greenall, is a DJ and multi-instrumentalist who has produced for many major artists including the late Amy Winehouse, and collaborated with celebrated musicians such as John Legend and Andre 3000.  He is releasing his retrospective, “It isn’t until it is” this summer and planning to go back on tour on “the road less traveled.”

More about Fink: https://www.finkworld.co.uk/

Photo by Hella Wittenberg

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

Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Dr Damita Brown (in exile) …

Savang Chhorm is a Madison activist who works with Freedom, Inc.  She is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge and advocates for the needs of other immigrants and survivors, as well as the Madison Southeast Asian community in general.  She joins us to talk about anti-Asian violence in the face of COVID-19, and other issues in the community.

Savang’s story, from Asian Wisconzine: http://www.asianwisconzine.com/Jan07SavangLovan.html

Provided Photo

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

Most Wisconsin history books begin their narrative with the arrival of French explorer Jean Nicolet at what is now Green Bay in 1634.  By the time of Nicolet’s landing, however, the land now known as Wisconsin had been inhabited for at least 13,000 years — a long history that typically warrants just a few paragraphs in most textbooks.  Amy Rosebrough has the enviable job of staff archaeologist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, and she’ll be giving a free presentation on her work on May 20th.

 

Image of Wisconsin copper culture tools by Yinan Chen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On May 5, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai stated that the U.S. would support international efforts to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents held by Pfizer, Moderna and other manufacturers.  Although the Biden Administration decision came after weeks of deliberation and intense lobbying, it still surprised many observers, given the U.S.’s historically staunch support of intellectual property rights.  But will the move to waive patents, or at least the threat of doing so, spur increased manufacture of vaccines in countries that desperately need them?  Joining us once again to discuss these issues is Center for International Environmental Law Board Member and University of Dayton Professor Dalindyebbo Shabalala.

 

Image of SARS-CoV2 Vaccine by Spencerbdavis, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Take a class in economics, and you will soon discover the concept of “externalities” — those effects of production or consumption that are not priced or valued in the marketplace.  Pollution and wildlife habitat loss are good examples of negative externalities.  Because neither air quality nor a healthy ecosystem have any value in a purely market-based system, the market doesn’t really care what happens to them.  With the earth facing not only a climate change crisis, but a biodiversity crisis, one approach to address the problem is to attempt to put prices or values on such ineffable things such as “nature.”  Linda Bilmes is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Public Finance at Harvard University.

 

Image of old-growth forest by Patte David, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Cecelia Condit’s I’ve Been Afraid Shows at the Wisconsin Film Festival

As fun and playful as it is harrowing, Cecelia Condit‘s new short film I’ve Been Afraid reimagines the horror genre by using images from the digital age. Condit casts a musical encyclopedia about women who have been abused, and how we get trapped in abusive relationships.

Cecelia Condit is emeritus professor of Film, Video, Animation, and New Genres at UW-Milwaukee, where she was the head of their graduate program. Cecelia talks with Friday Buzz host Jonathan Zarov to discuss her new film.

 

(Photo courtesy of Noom Peerapong on Unsplash)