8 O'Clock Buzz

Sustain Dane is working with the City of Madison and The Carton Council to help you learn the ins and outs of our local recycling system. In The Master Recycling Program you’ll learn all about recycling and how to teach others about it as well. Lorenza Zebell is the sustainability project manager for Sustain Dane and the instructor for the course. The first sessions are April 7th from 12pm – 1:30pm and April 14th from 12pm – 1:30pm. Find more information at sustaindane.org.

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

In the wake of the murders in Atlanta on Tuesday of 8 people, 6 of whom were Asian American women, Representative Francesca Hong and Senator Melissa Agard introduced a joint resolution in the assembly and the senate condemning violence against the Asian Pacific Islander Desi community. Notably, the resolution doesn’t mention the murders in Atlanta, but rather the disturbing rising trend of violence against Asians and Asian Americans in this country, much of it directed at women. Representative Francesca Hong joins us to talk about the resolution, what needs to change, and what we can do.

Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash

The documentary follows Guy Clark, his wife, Susanna Clark, and Townes Van Zandt, (all three songwriters) documenting their hits, misses, and the complicated relationship between the three, who lived together for a time. Tamara Saviano is a Milwaukee native and the author of the biography “Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark.” She co-directed the film with her husband Paul Whitfield. Without Getting Killed or Caught had its world debut this week at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival. For more info and tickets to a virtual screening, go to withoutgettingkilledorcaught.com

Photo courtesy withoutgettingkilledorcaught.com

In 2020, the World Economic Forum published its latest assessment of the Global Gender Gap. The report, which looks at education, income, political representation and health disparities, came to the grim conclusion that, although progress has been made, no -one alive today will see global gender equity in their lifetimes.  In their rankings of 153 nations, the report names Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden as the most equitable countries, while Syria, Pakistan and Yemen ranked among the worst.  The United States ranked 53rd, behind not only the Scandinavian countries, but also behind Canada, New Zealand much of Western Europe, Mexico, Jamaica, Rwanda, Philippines, Belarus, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe.  Rollie Lal, professor of international affairs at George Washington University, argues that the time is right for the U.S. to pursue a “feminist” foreign policy.

The Conversation | How a ‘feminist’ foreign policy would change the world

Image: The White House (CC)

In a last effort of the Trump administration, a full month after losing the November 3rd election and hidden behind cries of a “rigged election”, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services launched an experiment with the goal of fully privatizing Medicare. Diane Archer, President of Just Care USA, recently exposed this experiment, and her article in Common Dreams entitled “The Ghost of the Trump Administration Is Haunting Medicare” says that this experiment should be halted.

Since 1966, the Bayview Foundation has provided housing and services to a historically diverse community in the Bayview–Triangle housing neighborhood in Madison, with 320 multicultural residents in 102 housing units. The Foundation supports the community with affordable housing, financial literacy, food access, daily remote learning support for children, and much more. Executive Director Alexis London talks about their community support programs.

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

Founding members, Sei Kidau, Patrick Fau, and Yusuf Bin-Rella join us from the Trade Roots Culinary Collective to talk about food sovereignty and their work to build urban gardening and community in Madison.

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

Hip hop educator and activist, Michele Byrd-McPhee joins us to talk about her amazing work, her January 2021 Guggenheim fellowship for The Black Dancing Bodies Project, her time as Fall 2020 Artist in Residence at UW-Madison, and the upcoming 2021 Ladies of Hip Hop Festival!

Each year, Madison’s Arts and Literature Laboratory offers a prize to University of Wisconsin Madison Masters of Fine Arts students who demonstrate outstanding artistic merit.  This year, one of the two awards goes to Rita Mauwena Benissan, whose exhibit, “Mo Apiafo,” runs at A.L.L. through May 1, 2021.  Rita Mauwena Benissan has a truly globe trotting history, born in Cotes d’Ivoire to Ghanaian parents, she emigrated to Michigan as a baby, and has just finished her graduate degree here in Wisconsin.

In March of 2020, Wisconsin Policy Forum’s Jason Stein appeared on WORT’s Evening News to talk about a Policy Forum report on Wisconsin State Government’s ability to weather an economic recession.  The report rated the state’s financial resiliency as “about average” among U.S. states.  With the global pandemic still in its early stages, the word “coronavirus” appeared only a few times in that report.  Now, here we are, a year later, with 626,000 cases of COVID-19, and over seven thousand dead from the virus.  Daily life has been turned upside down, with businesses shut down or operating at reduced capacity, millions working from home, and hundreds of thousands thrown out of work.  So, in retrospect, how well did Wisconsin’s financial resiliency hold up?  With Governor Evers’ budget now out and a new Wisconsin Policy Forum Budget Brief out, we thought it would be a good time to check back in with Jason Stein.

Source: Wisconsin Policy Forum | Budget Brief