Today on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz in exile…

Damita Brown talks packing the polls, how to vote and voting issues with Dane County Voter ID Coalition co-chair Earnestine Moss, Treasurer of Dane County NAACP, and Tim Cordon, Social Justice Coordinator for First Unitarian Society.

In the second half, Damita talks with Justin Novotny about Dane County Time Bank’s 100 Strong project to fight violence against Black people!

Photo by Jon Miner

Acclaimed artist Shephard Fairey, the artist behind the iconic Hope campaign print and poster for Barack Obama, has just completed a voting-themed mural titled Voting Rights are Human Rights in downtown Milwaukee, on the side of the Colby Abbot Building.

Fairey and his Obey Giant team partnered on the large mural with four Wisconsin artists. Jonathan speaks with one, Tom Jones, assistant professor of photography at UW–Madison, who collaborated with  Sheperd Fairey on the mural.

(Photo: Khara Woods on Unsplash)

 

A coalition of 200 bi-partisan groups make up the Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), formed in 2009 as a result of risky investing by Wall Street and resultant market crash of 2008, and passage of the Dodd-Frank bill and formation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Their recent poll showed that 73% of Americans still favor tougher regulations of Wall Street and 83% support the goals of the CFPB, despite Trump appointees gutting that bureau.

Janet Jakobsen, Chair and Claire Tow Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University, talks about her recent book, “The Sex Obsession, Perversity and Politics in American Politics”. In the book, she looks at how the last 50 years has infused politics and economics with sex, from originalism & religion to power control, and how this may be affecting the latest supreme court nominee.

Welcome to the third and final installment of WORT’s Innovations in Democracy series. We’ve been exploring new ways of using digital technology to expand participatory democracy to a larger population of diverse citizens.  Innovations in Democracy is produced by Roslyn Fuller, with assistance from Ahmed Teleb.  In this episode, we focus on the ideas of online deliberation and voting.  Our panelists include:

* John Richardson is the founder and CEO of Ethelo, a Canadian online platform that is used by governments and organizations to engage large groups in participatory decision processes. In 2001, he founded Pivot Legal Society, which conducts strategic litigation for marginalized communities, and in 2005, was awarded an Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs.  John Richardson joins us from Vancouver, British Columbia.

* Nick Mastronardi is the founder of Polco, an online survey platform for local governments.  He has served in the Air Force, the Pentagon and the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.  He also led data science projects for Amazon as a Senior Economist. Nick joins us from Madison, Wisconsin.  Welcome, Nick.

 

* Davide Casaleggio is CEO and partner of Casaleggio Associati, an online consultancy company, and president and founder of the Rousseau Association, the direct democracy platform of the 5 Star Movement. He lectures on Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and issues related to the fourth industrial revolution in relation to the effects on the economy. Davide Casaleggio joins us from Ivrea, Italy.

 

* Nir Kshetri is Professor at University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a research fellow at Kobe University. He is a two-time winner of the Pacific Telecommunication Council’s Meheroo Jussawalla Research Paper Prize. He has provided consulting services to Asian Development Bank, various UN agencies and a number of private companies.  He joins us from Greensboro, North Carolina.

Welcome to the second installment of WORT’s Innovations in Democracy series. In this three-part series, we’ll be talking to global experts to explore new ways of using digital technology to expand participatory democracy to a larger population of diverse citizens. Innovations in Democracy is produced by Roslyn Fuller, with assistance from Ahmed Teleb.  In this episode, we focus on the idea of citizen referendum.  Our panelists include:

* Bruno Kaufmann is the Global Democracy Correspondent at the Swiss Broadcasting Company, is the co-founder of the Global Forum on Modern Direct Democracy and chairs the Initiative and Referendum Institute Europe. He is also a representative in the River Council of the Arboga River.  Bruno Kaufmann joins us from Arboga, Sweden.

* Claire Fox is the director of the Academy of Ideas, where she convenes the annual Battle of Ideas Festival.  In May 2019, she was elected as an MEP for the North West England constituency of the UK in the European Parliament elections until her seat was abolished with the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.  She currently works as  a visiting professor in professional practice at the University of Buckingham. Claire Fox joins us from Buckley, Wales.

* Donal O’Brolcháin is an Irish activist who has worked on citizen-initiated referendum issues for over thirty years.  He participated in the Irish Citizen Assembly and experienced both the original 1983 Irish abortion referendum and the subsequent 2018 referendum that liberalized abortion access in the Irish Constitution. Donal O’Brolcháin joins us from Dublin, Ireland.

Welcome to the first installment of WORT’s Innovations in Democracy series. Over the next three episodes, we’ll be exploring new ways of using digital technology to expand participatory democracy to a larger population of diverse citizens.  Innovations in Democracy is produced by Roslyn Fuller, with assistance from Ahmed Teleb.  In this episode, we focus on the idea of participatory budgeting.  Our panelists include:

* Jez Hall is a founding director of Shared Future CIC, has worked as a consultant for the World Bank and sits on the advisory board of the North American Participatory Budgeting Project. Jez Hall joins us from Manchester, England.

* Rose Wanjiru is the Executive Director of the Centre for Economic Governance, a lead expert in participating budgeting in Kenya, and has worked for the County Governments Executive and Assembly of State and Public Officials.  Rose Wanjiru joins us from Nairobi, Kenya.

* Robert Bjarnason is an experienced serial entrepreneur and a software developer.  He has created technology used in award winning mobile games, the first 3D games on mobiles, by leading industry players such as EA, Square Enix, Eidos and Activision. In 2008 Robert co-founded the non-profit Citizens Foundation that specializes in citizen participation and digital democracy. Robert Bjarnason joins us from Selfoss, Iceland.

* Celina Su is the Marilyn J. Gittell Chair in Urban Studies and a Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York. She is the author of Streetwise for Book Smarts: Grassroots Organizing and Education Reform in the Bronx,  and is a recipient of the Berlin Prize fellowship.  Celina Su joins us from New York.

United States African Command (AFRICOM) was established October 1, 2008 to use U.S. military power to impose U.S. control of African land, resources and labor to service the needs of U.S. multi-national corporations and the wealthy in the United States. Tunde Osazua, Coordinator of U.S. Out of Africa Network, talks with Jan about how AFRICOM, started by President Bush, is a destabilizing presence in Africa, eroding self-determination and sovereignty of those countries, and encouraging insurgency and instability.

The “Polluter Elites” have maintained their grip on energy sources, according to Jennie C. Stephens, Director of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, and our society needs to change to an “Energy Democracy” to move forward. Her recent book, “Diversifying Power: Why We Need Antiracist Feminist Leadership on Climate and Energy” describes how technology and social change can provide local distributed power and control.

It’s an arts takeover on the Tuesday 8:00 Buzz! Host Damita Brown talks with…

Prestigious Serbian flutist and UW-Madison Alumna Iva Urgčić about her upcoming LunART Festival celebrating Black women in the arts October 10th and 17th, 2020

Araceli Esparza from Wisconsin Mujer about Wisconsin Mujer and her upcoming event, “Art and the Intersections of Our Lives” October 11th.

Madison Poet Laureate Angela Trudell Vasquez with Araceli Esparza about arts, poetry and LatinX issues in Madison.

Photo by Tipocracia on Flickr