8 O'Clock Buzz

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Chef Lily Gets The Kids Cooking The Yums

Lily Kilfoy graduated from the Madison Area Technical College with a culinary arts degree and had dreams of opening up her own restaurant.  Instead, she now finds herself working for the Lakeview and Meadowridge public libraries teaching kids and families about food literacy.  The classes, “Cooking With Chef Lily” evolved out of snacks the library provided for hungry kids and have now become a huge hit.  Now, her classes have expanded to online video offerings to reach kids and families in other neighborhoods as well.

 

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Audifax Brings Street Art Sensibility to the Library

Our next guest started drawing at the age of 4, soon graduated to 6-foot wide canvases, and then, as an adult,  sold everything and ran away to Europe, where painting on walls is legal, and the spray paint is cheap.  Going by the name Audifax, she honed her craft as a street artist.  Now, back on this side of the pond, Audifax landed a gig as the Madison Public Library’s Artist in Residence.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Cheap Gas Undercuts Climate Change Progress

In a 2020 presidential debate in Nashville, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would “transition away from the oil industry” to mitigate the effects of fossil fuels on climate change.  Two years later, President Biden has ordered the sale of 195 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserves – the largest release in history.  At the same time, the Biden Administration has opened up domestic oil drilling again, and unsuccessfully lobbied the Saudi Arabian government and OPEC to ramp up oil production.  All of this has been done in an attempt to lower gasoline prices that had soared following the Russo-Ukrainian War.  With the U.S. midterms coming up, is our climate future being sacrificed for short-term political gain?  Professor Gregory Nemet researches energy systems and environmental policy at the University of Wisconsin’s LaFollette Institute.

Photo of ExxonMobil oil refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana by WClarke, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The River Alliance of Wisconsin wants to empower all Wisconsin residents to protect and restore Wisconsin’s clean water and waterways. Battling mining, farm runoff, and more, Director Allison Werner’s Core Team has identified 12 elements needed to assure clean Wisconsin waters. The group also provides resources with an interactive river paddling map, a watershed map, and coordinating volunteer groups.

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Investing tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, the World Bank supports emerging markets worldwide. But Friends of the Earth Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Kelly McNamara, says that instead of supporting conglomerate factory farming practices which degrade the environment and enrich large corporations, the World Bank should be investing in more sustainable alternatives. McNamara chaired a forum of concerned organizations at the recent World Bank Annual Meeting and participated in protests outside the meetings.

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With the goal of “bringing people together through creative experiences and activating and strengthening Wisconsin’s creative economy, workforce and communities”, Create Wisconsin‘s Executive Director, Anne Katz, talks about the history of the organization and some of their projects to encourage investments in creativity in order to reap the rewards.

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Artists Night 2022

Fall in Madison has traditionally been a time for local artists to open up their galleries to the curious public.  This year, there are more opportunities than ever to take up the tradition of gallery hopping in the cool autumn evening.  On Friday, October 28th, Communication will sponsor an Artist’s Night, featuring the work of a variety of artists from Madison and elsewhere at venues throughout town.  Organizers have proposed the event as an alternative to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art’s Gallery Night, in solidarity with Wisconsin Triennial artists boycotting MMOCA.  We have five artists joining us today. Jennifer Bastian is a photographer and multimedia artist and director of Communication.  Also on the line is Erica Hainz a fabric crafter, and owner of Fiddlestick Knits.  Kat (Karmalover) Culbertson is a full time artist from Beloit, who’s now living in Monona.  KT is a fiber artist studying at the University of Wisconsin.  Last but not least, Jenny Hefferan is a small business owner, woodworker, and maker who is organizing the Bodgery’s participation in Artists’ Night.

 

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WORT 89.9FM Madison · Medea Benjamin: Making Sense Of A Senseless Conflict

As the Russo-Ukrainian War enters its eighth month, hostilities have escalated.  Ukrainian forces launched several counter offensives in areas near Kharkiv, Dnipo and Kherson and recaptured territory held by Russian forces.  Destruction of a bridge in Crimea by Ukrainian forces has led to Russian drone attacks on Kyiv.  With all the new bombs and shells falling, civilian casualties continue to mount, perhaps as high as 22,000 dead, by some estimates.  Peace seems like a distant prospect indeed.  Medea Benjamin founded CodePink in 2002 as a response to the U.S. War in Iraq.  Since then she has co-founded the human rights group Global Exchange and the Peace In Ukraine Coalition, and has won the Martin Luther King Peace Prize, the Gandhi Peace Prize and many others.  Together with journalist Nicolas JS Davies, Benjamin has authored “War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict,” out now from CodePink.

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She was a bold sex therapist on TV and radio, a sharp-shooter, writer, humorist, educator, Holocaust survivor, and so much more. Dr. Ruth Westheimer is one of a kind and still working at the age of 94. Her story has been brought to life by playwright, Mark St. Germain, in Becoming Dr. Ruth, a solo performance by Atlanta-based actor, Eileen Koteles.

Jonathan Zarov caught up with Donna Peckett of Madison’s TNW Ensemble Theater and performer Eileen Koteles on the October 14, 2022 edition of the 8 O’Clock Buzz to learn more about the fascinating life of iconic sex therapist Dr. Ruth.

Becoming Dr. Ruth was staged at the Brink Lounge October 13, 14 and 16 and was produced by TNW Ensemble Theater, formerly known as TAPIT/newworks.

Photo courtesy of TNW Ensemble Theater.

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SoundWaves is a series presented by UW-Madison that combines scientific lectures about the world with live classical music performances. Each event revolves around a theme, exploring it first from many scientific angles and then through the lens of music.

One such event presented for the Wisconsin Science Festival revolves around the theme of glass. The event examines glass through the lenses of astronomy and physics, chemistry, civil and environmental engineering, art history, and of course–music.

Daniel Grabois is the curator and founder of the SoundWaves series. He’s also Assistant Professor of Horn at the UW-Madison School of Music, and the horn player in the Meridian Arts Ensemble and the Wisconsin Brass Quintet.

Grabois joins WORT’s own Jonathan Zarov on the 8 O’Clock Buzz to talk about the intersection of glass and music.

Photograph courtesy of Giogio Trovato on Unsplash.

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