8 O'Clock Buzz

From the early withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement to last minute rulings on EPA science, wildlife protections, and drilling access on public lands, the Trump administration had sought major reforms to environmental rules over the span of those four years. But now with the Biden Administration underway, we already can see a stark difference in the way each President approaches climate policy at both the domestic and international levels. In just the first 100 days, President Biden has already introduced a number of sweeping Executive Orders to protect key areas of the environment and take climate action, but will that be enough? WORT producer Kai Brito spoke with Bill Ritter Jr., former Colorado State Governor and director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University.

The Conversation | Biden plans to fight climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before

 

 

Photo of Joe Biden by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0

Less than a month after rioters carrying confederate battle flags stormed the U.S. Capitol, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Treasury Department would accelerate plans to replace the likeness of former President and General Andrew Jackson on the twenty dollar bill with abolitionist Harriet Tubman.  By reviving the Obama-era plan, which became moribund under the Trump Administration, Psaki said the time had come for U.S. currency to “reflect the history and diversity of our country.”  But is putting Tubman’s face on a means of commercial exchange the best way to honor someone who spent her life challenging ideas of property?  Christy Clark-Pujara is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin Madison Department of Afro-American Studies.  Her research focuses on the experiences of black people in French and British North America in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries.

Sandee Seiberlich has been a regular guest on this show, somewhat irregularly, for more than two decades. We’re thrilled to welcome her back and to continue to do so the first Friday of each month. Below is a roundup of virtual activities.

 

Wine Tasting (with or without food pairing or cooking)

Bon Vivants wine club The Alliance Francaise Chicago has a monthly wine tasting. The next is Wednesday at 6 p.m. via Zoom. There is a small fee to attend, but you can join the organization for a small annual fee and pay half price. (They have other interesting events.) There is no requirement to have wine and the suggested food pairings, as this is an educational event.

Kari’s Kitchen Join Madison native winemaker Kari Auringer from Napa for cooking and wine pairing on Facebook live most Thursdays at 6 p.m. Central Time for live viewing. The wines are mentioned at the beginning of each segment, then Kari and her husband Jeff cook and share some of their favorite paired recipes. The sessions are recorded if you would like to watch them at your leisure and it’s free if you don’t choose to order wine.

V is for vino Sommelier Vince Anter hosts the number one rated wine show on Amazon prime. Vince sells the wine at a discount, or you can drink your own similar (or not). He also has a restaurant cooking segment in each show and provides the recipes if you would like to recreate them and watching is free.

Virtual Travel

Rick Steves has a Monday night travel session that is free and a lot of fun. Rick shows clips from various shows and tells stories while enjoying his own happy hour. He has featured drinks and snacks from the regions that he shares in an email reminder the day before the event to make things more interactive. He also takes questions at the end as time allows. You can register to be part of one of the Zoom calls, or watch the videos after the fact. 

Viaggi di Gusto is a local travel company specializing in Italian travel that has been offering various virtual cooking events with Italian chefs over the last few months. Their next event is a travel segment with a tour of Naples on February 20th at 9 a.m. The event is free, and you will have an opportunity to tip your guide after the tour.

Girl Travel Tours Has a wide variety of Zoom tours, where you can ask questions via chat. They also have their previous virtual tour recordings available on their site. The tours are free, and the tour guides (local to the countries) are happy to accept gratuities.

Exercise

The Conqueror Virtual Challenge You can complete these as an individual or a team (collaborate or compete), and you can share postcards you receive from various locations along the way. These are less expensive than entering in person events, and they often run sales or have bulk discounts. You receive an impressive medal when you finish.

TNW ensemble theatre is offering weekly tap classes for various levels via zoom. The classes  started in late January, but you can contact them to see if you can still join

Mad...

Country music is often thought of as a bastion of conservatism, patriotism, and, sometimes, racism. But its history is more complicated than that—it’s full of performers of all stripes and political leanings. Country music seems to be heading many directions at once, so we thought we’d check in with friend of the show Dr. Charles L. Hughes, Dr. Hughes is the Director of the Lynne and Henry Turley Memphis Center at Rhodes College. His acclaimed first book, Country Soul: Making Music and Making Race in the American South, was named one of the Best Music Books of 2015 by Rolling Stone.

 

Photo by Steve Harvey on Unsplash

The February/March edition of The Progressive magazine draws from progressives from a variety of skill sets and backgrounds in order to lay out a progressive blueprint for President Biden’s next four years, according to this interview with Norman Stockwell, Publisher and Bill Lueders, Editor. With contributors featuring John Nichols, Dr. Rev. William Barber II, Diane Ravitch, Amy Goodman, and more, this issue talks about why Biden (and Democrats) need to go Bold, and not settle for centrist goals.

Poverty is not a character flaw, it is the inability to meet basic need with a low living wage — so says Colleen Shaddox, co-author of the book “Broke in America: Seeing, Understanding, and Ending U.S. Poverty”. In the book, she talks about some of the issues: inability to meet basic needs, oppression of a people (racism, sexism, et al), and solutions of policy and local and national activism.

As Jan says, “This should be a textbook for all high school students”.

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

Laura Gray, Director of Diversity & Cultural Responsiveness for Iowa City School District joins us to talk about her work for  Restorative Justice and Equity and Diversity in education.  Laura is the founder of Educational Consultancy Restorative Community Partners, and the Captivate Conference.  She’s working on a new book titled “Seeing Beyond the Behavior” about how to look beyond the current moment and seeing the bigger picture.

Tiffany Mikell, Digital Artist and Software Engineer and Program Director for South East Chicago Commission joins us to talk about using technology to do good.  Currently working to design programs to bridge the digital divide and bring the ability to bring high tech infrastructure entrepreneurship to traditionally underprivileged groups and improve neighborhoods.

On January 30, the U.S. Center for Disease Control extended its tenant eviction moratorium through March of 2021.  Designed as a means to keep people in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and therefore reduce transmission of the disease, the moratorium extends to both public and private landowners.  The moratorium is important, but is it enough?  And what else is needed to make a dent in the need for affordable housing, especially in still-hot real estate markets like Madison.  Heidi Wegleitner is an attorney with Legal Action Wisconsin and also represents District 2 on the Dane County Board of Supervisors.

Ten years ago, recently elected Wisconsin governor Scott Walker “dropped the bomb” on public sector workers when he and the Republican legislature eliminated collective bargaining rights for most public sector employees.  The effect in Wisconsin has been devastating to public sector unions, with statewide membership in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, declining precipitously.  In other states with longer histories of anti-union government, however, public sector unions have successfully organized.  Darrion Smith is the Vice President of the UE Eastern Region and a member of UE Local 150 .  Smith spoke on February 1 as part of an online panel entitled “Organizing Without Permission.”

If you live in the United States, you likely have heard the wild, baseless theory that Anthony Fauci or Bill Gates created the COVID-19 virus for their own nefarious purposes.  But, if you live in China, you would be more likely to have heard rumours the U.S. government created the COVID-19 virus as a bioweapon.  It turns out that conspiracy theories speak in regional dialects — the tin foil hat narratives of one country differ substantially from those of another.  Kaiping Chen is a professor of communication at the University of Wisconsin who has studied conspiracy theories circulated on Chinese social media.