8 O'Clock Buzz

Tina Cordova, organizer of the Tularosa Basin Trinity Downwinders, and Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Watchdog from Beyond Nuclear, team up on today’s show with updates of healthcare legislation aimed to protect those suffering radiation exposure of the many U. S. open air nuclear warhead tests plus and update on storage of nuclear waste in the country.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Matthew Rothschild, Executive Director at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign — a non-profit that tracks Wisconsin election spending sources — talks about some of the record spending of various elections in the state, including the governor’s race, U.S. Senate, and other local and state elections. His recent article, “Three things to be thankful for“, lists Evers’ re-election, a recently created democracy watchdog law firm “Law Forward“, and new local radio stations in the state under the umbrella of “Civic Media“.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Madison-area band The German Art Students has been performing what they call "nimble-witted new wave pop" since they formed in 1997. Now coming up on their 25th anniversary as bandmates, Randy Ballwahn, Annelies Howell and Kirk Wall visit the Friday 8 O'Clock Buzz to talk to host Andy Moore about their band's inception and journey over more than two decades. 

The German Art Students will be celebrating 25 years of deconstructing music together at a special performance next Thursday, December 1st at the Bur Oak on Winnebago Street. More information about the event can be found at their website, www.germanartstudents.com

Photo courtesy of The German Art Students

Daniel Aston

Raymond Green Vance

Kelly Loving

Ashley Paugh

Derrick Rump

These people were killed in the attack last Saturday at the Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub, Club Q. At least 19 others were injured, mostly by gunfire. The 22-year-old suspect is being held without bond and faces preliminary charges that include five-charges of first-degree murder and five counts of what they call in Colorado “bias motivated crimes,” –aka hate crimes.

The criminal and legal words of this tragedy tend to obscure the deeper cultural dysfunction at work in the U.S. that’s the propellent for these insidious acts. It’s these areas that host Andy Moore explores with Finn Enke, a UW-Madison Professor of History and Gender and Women's Studies. On this episode of the Friday 8 O'Clock Buzz, Finn and Andy talk about how bigotry from commentators like Matt Walsh, as well as supposed "neutrality" from institutions that provide a platform for them, have contributed towards a cultural climate that delegitimizes trans and non-binary identities and encourages violence against them.

Finn Enke is a professor of both History and Gender and Women's studies at UW-Madison. They are the director of the undergraduate LGBTQ+ Studies Certificate Program, and primarily study the history of sexuality and gender in the 20th century. Enke has authored more than a dozen published works, and is currently working on two books: Pedagogies of the Impossible: From the Trans on Campus Collection, and a graphic memoir, With Finn and Wing: Archive of an Amphibious Childhood in a Nuclear Age.

Special thanks to Trans Advocacy Madison for their contribution. TAM is a grassroots organization that provides support for trans and non-binary people in the Madison, Wisconsin area.  They can be found on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Photo courtesy of Tedd Eytan via Flickr

WORT 89.9FM Madison · New Glarus Brewery Recaptures Its CO2

Fermentation is the process of introducing hungry yeast to carbohydrates to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.  The process produces so much CO2 that breweries traditionally vent the stuff to the atmosphere just to get rid of it.  As strange as it may seem, breweries also buy tanks of CO2 on the commercial market.  Despite way too much of the notorious greenhouse gas wandering around in the atmosphere, a global shortage of commercial bottled carbon dioxide is creating big problems for the brewing industry.  Sound crazy?  Well, the folks at Wisconsin’s New Glarus Brewery think they’ve found a better way.  Dan Carey is a co-founder and master brewer at New Glarus Brewery, and he joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on November 21, 2022.

Photo of beer carbonation by cyclonebill, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Farewell To The Leap Second

Human beings have an obsession with regularity.  We like neat squares, right angles and intervals of time that are precisely the same, no matter when or where we measure them.  Natural and astronomical phenomena, however, do not care about our preferences.  Take the rotation of the earth… we like to think that it rotates once every 24 hours, with an hour made up of 60 minutes and a minute made up of 60 seconds. In truth, though, the earth’s rotation on its axis is quite erratic – sometimes slowing down, sometimes speeding up.  That discrepancy between counted time and apparent solar time has caused meteorologists, astronomers and computer engineers fits.  Since 1972, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, known by its French acronym the BIPM, has compensated for this discrepancy by introducing a “leap second” at midnight, Universal Time Coordinated occasionally when the difference becomes too great.  This week, the BIPM voted to ditch the leap second and just ignore the difference between apparent and counted time.  Judah Levine is a Professor Adjoint of Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Chair of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures Committee on GPS and GLONASS Time Transfer Standards.

To convert from UTC time (without the “leap second”) to apparent solar time, see:

* International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service Bulletin A (latest version).

Photo of crescent earth from Apollo 4, NASA.

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Striking Starbucks Workers Speak From The Picket Line

On Thursday, November 17, over 2,000 workers at over a hundred Starbucks coffee shops across the nation walked off the job as part of a one-day strike.  In Madison, the unionized store on Capitol Square shut down completely as the entire staff walked out.  Monday Buzz host Brian Standing caught up with Starbucks strikers and sympathy protestors on the picket line.

 

Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Artist Elaine Scheer paints watercolors that blend single original portraits with narratives of the sublime and the down-to-earth, from the front seat of a vintage car to Disneyland's Matterhorn. Scheer dishes up these bites of her past via Instagram, accompanied by sometimes cheeky, always thought-provoking captions and hashtags. 8 O'Clock Buzz host Andy Moore picks Scheer's brain about her paintings, the experiences behind them and why she chose Instagram as her platform.

Elaine Scheer is a professor of art at UW-Madison. Her art can be found on Instagram @elainescheer.

Image courtesy of Elaine Scheer

www.instagram.com/p/CkEdRndOMlw/

America, 1955: Thousands of wives and mothers spontaneously transform into dragons, eat their spouses, burn down their homes and then fly off to other parts of the world. What, didn't you learn about it in history class?

If you didn't, that's because it's the plot of Kelly Barnhill's new novel "When Women Were Dragons," a feminist tale that brilliantly mixes history, science and fantasy. Barnhill joins 8 O'Clock Buzz host Andy Moore for a discussion on the book's themes, her creative process and why she chose our town of Madison, Wisconsin as her setting.

Kelly Barnhill is an accomplished children's author and was awarded the John Newberry medal for her book, “The Girl Who Drank the Moon.” Her most recent work of adult fiction, "When Women Were Dragons," is available now in print, digital and audiobook formats. She currently lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Photo via Penguin Random House

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/69582…y-barnhill/

Musician Corey Hart comes on the Friday 8 O'Clock Buzz to premiere his newest song, "Heaven Help Me" and talk with Andy Moore the story of how it came to be.

Corey Hart is a Madison singer and songwriter. His folk/Americana songs and talented voice have earned him two Madison Area Music Awards. His new single "Heaven Help Me" is out now. Hart has an upcoming show on November 26th on the High Noon Saloon. More information about his upcoming gigs can be found at coreymathewhart.com

Photo courtesy of Corey Hart

coreymathewhart.com/bio