A Public Affair

On today’s show host Ali Muldrow is joined in the studio by Alder Sabrina Madison to talk about updates on the Madison Common Council. They talk about mental health, New Year’s resolutions, self-care, practicing love, and working toward equitable development in Madison. They also cover what it’s like to work in a dysfunctional environment, supporting survivors of harassment and domestic violence, accountability, and the prevalence of domestic violence in our community.

At yesterday’s Common Council meeting, community members turned out to ask the Council to fund the ice rinks. Muldrow and Alder Madison talk about the importance of young people participating in public life. As Alder Madison says, anyone can be a nerd about public office. Yesterday the Common Council reached an agreement to keep the ice rinks functional. 

Alder Sabrina Madison represents Madison’s District 17. She is also the Founder & CEO of the Progress Center for Black Women as well as the Founder of the Black Women’s Leadership Conference. 

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes opened up the phone lines to hear from our devoted listeners about what topics they want to hear more about in 2025. You told us you want to hear more about the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, local transportation, issues older adults face, international news like Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and more. 

You also told us you really cared about our coverage of environmental issues, including the effects of the climate crisis and the harms of the fossil fuel industry. 

Several guests joined us from the downtown office of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources where groups were gathering in protest of the DNR’s approval of a permit for Enbridge’s Line 5 reroute in northern Wisconsin which followed on the heels of a spill from Enbridge’s Line 6 in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Protesters say the DNR needs to respond to the widespread opposition to the pipeline from the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, Indigenous Water Protectors, international climate justice organizations, and local activists. 

Related listening: 

Featured image via Chali Pittman/WORT News Department.

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This weekend is the Building Unity conference at the Wisconsin state capital. Today’s guests are speakers, organizers, and participants in the conference. First, we’re joined by Canadian climate activist, Olivier Huard, who talks about cross-national organizing and the work of the Antigone Collective, a group of climber-activists.

As wildfires burn in LA and an Enbridge Line 6 oil spill pollutes our neighbors in Jefferson County, Huard insists on making the connection between fossil fuels and climate change. He says that Canadians are frustrated with Big Oil’s increasing influence in government. Next, Rebecca Kemble gives an update on the spill, and Greg Mikkelson says that the amount of oil transported via Enbridge’s Line 5 is equivalent to the amount of global heating caused by detonating hundreds of atomic bombs every day. 

We then check in with Tim Cordon who is organizing the Building Unity conference which will bring together people committed to defending democracy and will leave no one out. One participant, Nookomis Debra Topping talks about her opposition to Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, at one point holding of Enbridge’s expansion for 8 days. Then, Debra Gilispie is the founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence. She describes her work on the responsible gun ownership bill and how she supports the victims of gun violence through the arts, like the bus shelter installations in Milwaukee. 

Olivier Huard is a climate activist who has resisted pipelines for 15 years. Based in Montreal, he has worked mostly there but also in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Europe. Olivier co-founded a collective of climber-activists, the Antigone Collective. Their mission is to creatively escalate pressure on governments and support allied progressive groups. Olivier also founded Life Defends Itself, a citizen campaign focused on the shut down of the Enbridge Line 9B.

Rebecca Kemble is a grandmother and water protector who lives with her extended family on Ho Chunk territory in Madison, WI. As a journalist, she has covered water protection actions against mining and pipelines for over a decade for the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative, Progressive Magazine, and Toward Freedom. An elected Alderperson on the Madison Common Council from 2015 – 2021, Rebecca is currently involved with many projects, including the Cross Border Organizing Work Group of the Line 5 Coalition, Madison Mutual Aid Network, Solidarity Economy Principles Project, regional food systems advocacy, worker cooperative development, and various media projects.

Greg Mikkelson was born in Madison and worked in Canada as a tenured professor of environmental studies until 2020. In that capacity, he lectured and published in ecology, philosophy, and economics, with a focus on the nature, causes, and value of biological diversity.  He also helped divest his university from fossil fuel. He now serves as an interdependent (not “independent”) scientist and activist.  In 2021, he joined a wonderful and growing bunch of people campaigning to shut down tar sands pipelines in the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence watershed.

Timothy Cordon is the Building Unity Coordinator. He is also the father of three daughters, a lover of people, and all of life. Tim has worked as a nurse, an elementary school teacher, a farmer, and an activist. He dedicates his retirement to organizing for a united movement for people, justice, sustainability, and democracy.

Nookomis Debra Topping is the co-founder of R.I.S.E. (Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging) Coalition. She is from Nagajiiwanong (Fond du Lac Reservation) Minnesota, and is a grandma, a land defender, and a water drinker.

Debra Gilispie is a Milwaukee native, a devoted wife, and a “childless mother.” Debra strongly believes that faith calls for action. As the founder of Mothers Against Gun Violence (MAGV), she advocates for equity in the media and strives to amplify the voices of gun violence survivors.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons.

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President Jimmy Carter’s funeral is today, and to commemorate his presidency, host Allen Ruff is joined by Stephen Zunes to take stock of what is remembered and misremembered about President Carter. They take on the challenge of critically assessing the legacy of a former president as most media tend to overlook the low points of Carter’s time in office.

They discuss how Carter inherited the presidency at the height of US imperialism with limited foreign-policy experience, propping up dictatorships, including his role in East Timor, Morocco, and Turkey. Ruff and Zunes then appraise how Carter used his influence after he left office to contribute positively to what Zunes calls a “moral foreign policy” by speaking out against human rights violations. 

There’s plenty to cover about Carter’s long political life including the issue of nuclear non-proliferation, the Carter Doctrine, the Camp David Accords of 1978, and Carter’s opposition to Palestinian statehood. Read Stephen Zunes’s most recent article about Carter’s relationship to Israel in the Progressive.

Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he served as founding director of the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is currently serving as 2024 Torgny Segerstedt Visiting Research Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Featured image: Portrait of Jimmy Carter by Ansel Adams (1979) via Wikimedia Commons.

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On today’s show, we pay tribute to and appreciate a few Madisonians who passed away last year. Each one contributed to our community and lifted us all up. Over the hour, meet various people and WORT volunteers who we lost in 2024. 

Dr. Gloria Sarto was the char of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin and the first female President of the American Gynecological and Obstetrics Academy. 

Frank Emspack was an organizer, teacher, and advocate for the working class. WORT listeners may know Emspak from his 25-year run as a producer and writer for Labor Radio, part of his larger effort to establish a national worker independent news network. 

Lauri Lee was the President of the Northside Planning Council, an organization that was instrumental in building and sustaining neighborhood business and operates the FEED kitchens. 

Roderick Cook was a volunteer and supporter of WORT. He loved local music and art and was a regular at live music shows. 

Mark Biel was a longtime WORT volunteer who worked in the music department for over thirty years. For decades he helped manage the vast music library at the station. 

Dean Schroeder was a longtime friend of the station. He co-founded the annual Handel Aria Competition. 

Jeremy Lansman was a pioneer of community radio who organized stations from Gilroy, California to Seattle and St. Louis. 

Featured image from thierry llansades via Flickr.

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On today’s show, guest host Bert Zipperer speaks with Ciara Torres-Spelliscy about her new book, Corporatocracy: How to Protect Democracy from Dark Money and Corrupt Politicians, out now from NYU Press. Professor Torres-Spelliscy says that “corporations have existed far longer than democracies” and that more people should be concerned about the US’s privately funded campaign finance system. 

She says “dark money” means money that is spent in American elections that the public can’t tell the source of. Money becomes dark money when corporations (or billionaires) legally launder money through opaque non-profits (typically 501(c)(4)s or  501(c)(6)s, like the US Chamber of Commerce) and then spend that money in our political system. Because the public can’t see the true source of the money, this practice becomes a recipe for a lack of accountability. 

Zipperer and Torres-Spelliscy talk about how corruption isn’t a partisan problem, the SpeechNow case that created super pacs, how Jho Low got a photo with President Barack Obama in 2012, the role of the Rule of Law Defense Fund in the January 6 insurrection, ghost candidates in Florida, the Uline corporation in Wisconsin, and the reforms that could be put in place through corporate law (like the UK Companies Act) or election law.

Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is Professor of Law at Stetson University and a Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. She is the author of Corporate Citizen?: An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State and Political Brands. Torres-Spelliscy also serves on the board of directors of the Mertz Gilmore Foundation and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

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In 2024 host Douglas Haynes tackled issues of wetlands, school lunches, sandhill cranes, and more. On today’s show, he brings his focus on local food ways and the environment into the New Year. Haynes is joined by two journalists from the non-profit digital news site, Civil Eats, to talk about the best of their reporting on food systems and agriculture from last year. “Food touches every aspect of our lives,” says editorial director Margo True. And Civil Eats strives to bring local perspectives and experiences of food policy, farming, health, and climate to the national conversation. 

True and senior staff reporter Lisa Held highlight community food solutions stories, including the farm tool cooperatives springing up all over the country and how North Carolina farmers pivoted to disaster relief after Hurricane Helen. It’s impossible to talk about food ways and not talk about climate change, and Civil Eats has made climate reporting a pillar of their work, including reporting on farmers who are using fungi to capture carbon in the soil and covering the changes to the US plant hardiness maps. They wrap up by talking about potential policy changes coming with the 2025 Farm Bill, including changes to SNAP benefits.

Margo True is the editorial director of Civil Eats. She’s been fascinated by food, and the way food connects to and reverberates through all aspects of life, for more than 30 years. A longtime magazine journalist, she’s worked for Gourmet, Saveur, and Sunset, and has won four James Beard journalism awards. Most recently, True was the lead writer and editor for Patagonia Provisions, the food division of Patagonia, focusing on food’s role in restoring ecosystems. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, loves to cook, and enjoys learning to surf, hunt wild foods and bike the trails of Mount Tamalpais.

Lisa Held is Civil Eats’ senior staff reporter and a contributing editor. Since 2015, she has reported on agriculture and the food system with an eye toward sustainability, equality, and health, and her stories have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Mother Jones. In the past, she covered health and wellness and was an editor at Well+Good. She is based in Baltimore and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s School of Journalism.

Featured image via Flickr.

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On today’s two part show, host Esty Dinur kicks off the hour with journalist Maureen Tkacik, Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and the Investigations Editor at The American Prospect. They discuss Tkacik’s recent piece for the Prospect, the assassination of CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson, and the billionaire impact on the the 2024 election. 

Then Esty speaks with Cherokee chef Nico Albert Williams about indigenous cuisines ahead of Williams’s four dinner residency at Seven Acre Dairy Co. in Paoli next week. Tickets for the dinner series can be found here.

More on our guests:

Maureen “Moe” Tkacik is a Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and the Investigations Editor at The American Prospect. She has a background in journalism, having worked for publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Time, and Gawker. Tkacik is also known for co-founding the website Jezebel in 2007. She writes about business, economics, and healthcare, contributing to various publications including Jacobin and Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Nico Albert Williams, of the Cherokee nation, is a self-taught chef, caterer and student of traditional indigenous cuisines based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her journey to learn traditional Cherokee ways, dishes and the wild and cultivated ingredients involved in their preparation grew to encompass the Indigenous cuisines of tribes from all parts of North America, and led to her involvement in Indigenous food revitalization and food sovereignty.

She is the founding Executive Chef of Duet Restaurant + Jazz, a modern American eatery and jazz club in the heart of the Tulsa Arts District and the Owner and the Executive Chef of Burning Cedar Indigenous Wellness. Her work has been featured regionally and nationally by Food Network Magazine, Hulu, BBC, Cherokee Nation’s OsiyoTV, Smithsonian National Museum of American History, King Arthur Baking Co, Atlas Obscura, PBS, Gilcrease Museum, and Philbrook Museum among others.

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On his first show of the year, host Allen Ruff speaks with The Progressive publisher Norman Stockwell about the year in review and what’s to come in the 2025.

They highlight the 2024 political landscape, including Joe Biden’s decision not to run for re-election, Donald Trump’s assassination attempts and Trump’s re-election. Stockwell emphasizes ongoing crises such as race, union decline, and economic inequality. They also reflect on Jimmy Carter’s legacy, including his human rights agenda and the Carter Center’s impact. The conversation concludes with hopes for progressive initiatives and concerns about future censorship and repression.

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On this special New Year’s Day edition of A Public Affair, host Sara Gabler speaks with three radio professionals about the vital role that local radio plays in our democracy from Chicago to Viroqua and with Madison and Monona in between.

Lumpen Radio Director and Executive Producer Stephanie Manriques joins us from the Bridgeport neighborhood in Chicago. Lumpen, WLPN-LP 105.5FM, is a nonprofit community radio station operated as part of the Public Media Institute. You can listen to Lumpen in Chicago or anywhere from their website, lumpenradio.com. 

Programming & Operations Coordinator Terry O’Connor from 91.9 WDRT Viroqua also joins the program. WDRT is a rural volunteer powered station in the Driftless region of Wisconsin that can be heard on the radio dial near Viroqua or online on their website, wdrt.org.

Lastly, Volunteer Coordinator Joe Martin of 98.7 WVMO Monona, joins Sara in the studio. WVMO a municipality-run station broadcasting out of Monona City Hall. It broadcasts in Monona and East Madison and can heard live on wvmo.fm 

Stephanie, Terry, and Joe each offer insight on the power of community radio heading into 2025. They discuss their programming, funding, and unique ability of their stations to bring local stories to the airways.

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on Unsplash

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