8 O'Clock Buzz

We’re all familiar with a gallery walk, but how about a gallery ride?  That’s what the Lake Loop Art Tour offers to art and bicycle aficionados.  Now in its second year, on September 19, the bicycle tour of working art studios will follow the popular Lake Loop bike route around Madison’s Lake Monona.  Jackie Sullivan is the founder of Toast Ceramics, one of the stops on the tour, and organizer of the Lake Loop Art Show.  Jackie joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on August 31, 2026.

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For the last four years, the Institute for Policy Studies has taken a deep dive into what it calls the “Low-Pay 100,” the 100 publicly traded corporations that pay their employees the least. Not coincidentally, many of those companies also have some of the highest ratios of Chief Executive Officer pay compared with their workers.  The 2026 Executive Excess report just came out, and Institute for Policy Studies Program Director and report author Sarah Anderson joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing with the details.

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“Fascism, not anti-fascism, is the threat, both domestically and internationally” according to John Feffer in his recent article “The Myth of a Global Antifa” in the Institute for Policy Studies. Trump has called the “antifa” movement a terrorist group, Rubio has stated that “militants and their comrades travel from across Europe and to the Americas to participate in each other’s attacks, to funnel propaganda and training, materials, and target information through shared encrypted channels”. All to demonize and intimidate resistance and those who dare speak the truth against the Trump regime.

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Dr. Stephanie Woolhandler, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at Hunter College, recently wrote in a recent New York Times article, “When the Republican-led Congress decided to cut federal funding for Medicaid and ACA-plan premium subsidies, some politicians and policy experts assured us that many of the people affected would manage to hold onto coverage, either by paying more or finding alternative insurance. That is simply not happening”. Woolhandler talks with Jan Miyasaki, stating that virtually ALL patients from the ACA (ObamaCare or Affordable Care Act) are NOT insured, and many safety-net hospitals, which are required to provide service regardless of reimbursement, are struggling and may go under. And this does not include the cuts to Medicaid, which are scheduled to be cut in January, 2027. The answer, according to Woolhandler, is single-payer insurance for all.

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In a recent article in FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) entitled “Corporate Media Portray DSA’s Grassroots Organizing as a Sinister Conspiracy“, Raina Lipsitz reports that the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) has been singled out as a threat to the Democratic Party by many of the mainstream media centers. One article in the Atlantic suggests that “ideologues on the left are attempting a hostile takeover of the [Democratic] party.”, and an Axios story portrays it as a disease whose “transmission is slower” than Trumpism. Lipsitz asserts that the Democratic party (which has lost to Trump twice) could learn from the DSA.

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Today on the Too Turnt Up Tuesday 8:00 Buzz with Tara Wilhelmi featuring Jackie Brodean and LaVerne Buchanan, Myra Renee McNair, CEO and Founder of Anesis Mental Health,  and LaTonya Jackson-Flynn, CEO of Community Essence Consulting, join us to talk about taking care of the community mental health, the launch of Anesis Foundation, and the upcoming 10th anniversary of Anesis.

More on Anesis’ 10th anniversary party, to register, donate or sponsor: https://anesistherapycenter.com/events/10-year-anniversary 

More on Anesis Foundation and their work with the community: https://anesistherapycenter.com/anesis-foundation 

To get help from Anesis, visit https://anesistherapycenter.com/ and click “Start Here” or call with any questions at (608) 268-6530.

Get out for some R&B:

Check in with Urban League at https://ulgm.org/calendar/ and https://ulgmhub.org/calendar/  for info on resume and job seeking workshops, banking workshops, home ownership clinics, information on Expungement, childcare assistance, fatherhood support, healthcare administration, food safety and trades training, and more!

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

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If you’re looking for something to keep the small fry occupied on a Saturday, rejoice, Madison’s Overture Center’s Kids in the Rotunda has you covered.  From music to magic to dance to participatory theatre to yoyos, the new Kids in the Rotunda schedule offers kid-friendly events of all stripes nearly every Saturday from September until April, all absolutely free.  Elainee Stanley is the Education and Community Engagement Coordinator for the Overture Center, and she joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on August 24, 2026.

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It’s been a year and a half since self-styled genius Elon Musk wielded a literal chainsaw onstage at a Conservative Political Action Committee event, crowing about slashing federal bureaucracy. Since then, the Trump Administration has made good on its promise to slash non-Pentagon federal agencies. Since then, federal agencies have lost over 220,000 employees, bringing federal employment down to levels not seen since the 1930s. The feds have clawed back over 112 billion dollars in already awarded grants, with another 145 billion dollars in new competitive grants also eliminated. On top of all that, federal agencies like Health and Human Services and the Department of Interior continue to churn out quasi-scientific propaganda designed to bolster the Administration’s anti-science agenda. Liz Neeley is a science reporter and activist who’s founded a variety of pro-science resources, including the weekly news summary Meeting the Moment, the shadow government information site Unbreaking and the science education portal Liminal. Liz Neeley joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on August 24, 2026.

The post Turning the Tide on Science Misinformation appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

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In 2021, pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson and Johnson, and distributors McKesson, Cardinal Health, and AmerisourceBergen agreed to settle, to the tune of $26 billion, a class action lawsuit brought by 46 states and hundreds of local governments alleging that the companies conspired to overpromote the use of opioid drugs.  A year later, pharmacy chains Walgreens, CVS and Walmart as well as manufacturers Allergan and Teva settled similar lawsuits, bringing the total damages to a staggering $70 billion paid out over the next several years.  Under the terms of the settlements, 85% of the funds must be used for abatement of the opioid epidemic – but each state has considerable latitude about how precisely to spend that money.  Wisconsin’s slice of that pie totals $874 million between now and 2038.  The Wisconsin Department of Health Services wants to know your opinion about where that money should go.  Michelle Haese (Haze), is the DHS Director of Substance Use Initiatives and she joined the Monday Buzz on August 24, 2026.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services opioid data dashboard.

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) can prosecute people worldwide for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. 125 nations are members of the Court, but neither the US nor Israel have chosen to become members. In 2024, the ICC issued arrect warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu, and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s then defense minister — and in 2025, Donald Trump issued an executive order against the ICC, imposing sanctions against its leadership. Lauren Brownlee, Department General Secretary at the Friends Committee on National Legislation, talks about their lawsuit against Trump’s actions.

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