A Public Affair

On today’s show, journalist and author Rami Khouri joins host Christa Bruhn to reflect on the impact of President Trump’s significant victory in the US presidential elections on American foreign policy and unfolding events in the Middle East. They discuss the current moment in the context of Rami’s extensive experience covering the region and how the situation on the ground could unfold under a Trump presidency.

Rami Khouri is a Distinguished Public Policy Fellow at the American University of Beirut, a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Arab Center in Washington, DC, and a regular columnist for Al Jazeera Online. Rami has reported and published on the Arab region and its global relations for more than five decades. His most recent book co-authored with Helena Cobban is Understanding Hamas: And Why That Matters (2024).

By World Economic Forum – https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/3545794430, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

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On today’s program, Allen Ruff is joined by Palestinian Osama Iliwat and Israeli Rotem Levin, who are peace activists currently on a speaking tour. The pair have spoken at a number of conferences in Germany, Israel, the West Bank, Mexico and are now on a US tour. They join Ruff to discuss their experiences growing up in very violent and militarized worlds and their eventual paths to peace work.

This program comes just before Iliwat and Levin’s Madison speaking dates. They will speaking on November 19th at Christ Presbyterian Church (944 E Gorham St). Registration is requested. 

More on our guests:

Osama lliwat was born in Jerusalem where is family is originally from and was displaced like so many Palestinians. He grew up in Jericho during the first Intifada. He has been in the peace world for more than 15 years and co-founder of Visit Palestine. He has dedicated his life to nonviolent resistance working with different organizations such as: Sulha Peace Project, Interfaith Encounter Association and IPCRI appearing in several documentaries including Objector and The Other and regularly speaking on peacebuilding at organizations and universities around the world. Osama has made a name for himself in the Peace world with his collective liberation perspective and opting for peaceful resistance. When Osama is not working for peace internationally, he helps his community of Jericho and other communities in the west bank, supporting them to stay on their land and rebuilding homes, parks and educating. He also offers political educational tours in the West Bank and goes to schools to talk with Palestinians and Israelis about, amongst other things, non-violent resistance and communication. Osama taught himself Hebrew in order to connect on the land. He also participated in trauma and healing work to support people on the land. Osama was a speaker for TEDx Jaffa at the beginning of his peace journey and featured in many television interviews

Rotem Levin was born and raised in Ein Vered. After his military service he participated in a transformational intensive dialogue program in Germany where he got to know Palestinians on a personal and intimate level. This instigated a change in perspective on the story he was born and raised with. After this experience he started organizing similar programs in Aqaba, Jordan where he offered the experience to other post-military Israelis and for Palestinians and Israelis medical workers. He is a committed activist and doctor by profession. While studying medicine at Ben-Gurion University, he dedicated himself to learning Arabic and building solidarity relationships with Palestinians. He also worked with different peace organizations. Rotem moved to Beit Jala, a Palestinian village in the West Bank in 2020 in order to get to know his neighbours’ reality of living under military occupation, understand their culture and improve his Arabic. When Rotem is not giving conferences for Peace internationally he invests most of his time creating healing spaces for Israelis and Palestinians on the land.

Image of dove by Kenky from Pixabay

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Last week, seven states expanded their access to abortion care via ballot measures. This comes more than two years after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion care with the decision in  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. That ruling in June 2022, sent nearly half of the states into chaos with abortion providers and their patients facing sudden closures, new restrictions, and rapidly changing rules. States with abortion rights protect by state law saw patients cross their borders to receive care.

In her new book You Must Stand Up: The Fight for Abortion Rights in Post-Dobbs America, Amanda Becker tells the story of health care providers, lawyers, activists, and everyday people who mobilized to protect legal abortion in the year following the 2022 decision. Becker joins host Ali Muldrow to discuss the book and the state of abortion access in the US. 

Amanda Becker is a 2023 Nieman Fellow and Washington correspondent for The 19th. She has covered the U.S. Congress, the White House, and elections for more than a decade. Becker previously worked at Reuters and CQ Roll Call. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and Glamour magazine. Her political coverage has also been broadcast on National Public Radio. 

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On today’s show, host Sara Gabler speaks with Professor Hahire Han about her new book Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church. The book, published by Knopf, profiles the Crossroads church in Cincinnati, Ohio, which launched a program in 2016 to foster cross-racial relationships and build racial justice organizing in their community. The program, Undivided, pushes church members to strive for racial solidarity in a moment of deep divisiveness in America. Han’s book offers a snapshot of the program through the lenses of four participants. 

Hahrie Han is a professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University as well as the inaugural director of SNF Agora, an institute dedicated to strengthening global democracy. She has written for outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. Her scholarly work has been published in outlets including American Political Science Review, the American Sociological Review, Nature Human Behavior, PNAS, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and elsewhere. Han’s previous books include Prisms of the People: Power and Organizing in 21st Century America, How Organizations Develop Activists: Civic Associations and Leadership in the 21st Century, Groundbreakers: How Obama’s 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America , and Moved to Action: Motivation, Participation, and Inequality in American Politics

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On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes welcome back ProPublica journalist Melissa Sanchez to discuss her recent piece “What Happened in Whitewater.” The piece, which Sanchez wrote with Maryam Jameel, dives into the stories of some of the hundreds of people seeking asylum in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Sanchez and Jameel highlight the influx of immigrants, driven by political instability and economic hardship in Nicaragua, and their transition from rural farm work to urban factory jobs. Sanchez tells A Public Affair about the detailed the challenges faced by immigrants and the strain on local government. In light of the recent presidential election, Sanchez also discusses the looming threat of deportation and the fear and uncertainty many are facing.

Image: Whitewater Wisconsin Downtown Looking East, used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

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In August 1999, lifelong socialist, union supporter, and activist for peace and social justice, Clarence Kailin joined Esty Dinur in the studio to talk about his effort to erect a monument to the 45,000 International Volunteers who fought for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, including the 2800 Americans who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Kailin himself was a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He speaks to Esty and a number of callers about his experience fighting against fascism. The monument Kailin was working on now stands to the right of the Gates of Heaven synagogue in James Madison park.

For more, Dinur wrote a cover story on Kailin for the January 2001 Isthmus. Following his death in 2009 The CapTimes published this piece about Kailin’s antifascism.

Image: Wisconsin volunteers (standing) Fred Palmer, Harry Lichter, Ray Disch; (seated) John Cookson, Clarence Kailin. Photograph provided to The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive by Clarence Kailin. Used under fair use copyright, accessed via alba-valb.org

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In his most recent piece, “Harris lost because of Gas, Groceries, and Gaza. But the underlying reason was Ukraine,” today’s guest Arun Gupta says the economy was the biggest reason a majority voted for Trump. He goes on to argue that American’s a feeling finically squeezed while they see vast sums of money going to support Israel. “The wars and overseas aid hurt Harris in many different ways, and she avoided them because she is the candidate of war and Wall Street,” he writes. But the real economic hardship Gupta argues can be traced back to the sanctions the US imposed on Russia after the invasion into Ukraine.

On today’s show, Gupta and host Allen Ruff get into the economy, voter motives, and what Gupta calls the “utterly predictable” Trump win.

Arun Gupta is a journalist who has written for Intercept, the Washington Post, The Progressive, YES Magazine, The Nation, Raw Story, The Guardian, and Jacobin. His Substack can be found at arunnews.substack.com.

Image by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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The Associate Press has called the 2024 Presidential election for Donald Trump at 5:34 a.m. EST on November 6th, 2024. At the time of this broadcast the unofficial results stand at 49.7% for Trump and 48.9% for Harris. If the margin holds, the results would be the fifth time in seven presidential elections that the state has been decided by less than a point.

April Kigeya, the 2nd Vice Chair of the Dane County Board and Sabrina Madison, Alder for District 17 on Madison’s Common Council, join host Ali Muldrow to grapple with a Trump victory. As three Black women in elected office, they unpack the moment and field calls from several impassioned listeners.   

About our guests:

April Kigeya is the 2nd Vice Chair of the Dane County Board and has a passion for working with children, families, underrepresented communities and others who can’t advocate for themselves. Additionally, she sits on the Board of Directors for Dane Dances, is Chair of the Overture Center’s Community Advisory Board, and is a member of the Executive Committee for the Democratic Party of Dane County. She is also a member of the African American Opioid Coalition and the UW-Madison Black Cultural Center Advisory Board. April was also the first person of color to serve on the Middleton Police Commission and served as the Co-Chair from 2021-2022 and was named one of Wisconsin’s most influential Black Leaders in 2020.

Sabrina Madison is Alder for District 17 on Madison’s Common Council. She is committed to addressing systemic issues and advocating for equitable policies. Sabrina is also the founder and CEO of The Progress Center for Black Women. There Sabrina is dedicated to fostering a community where Black women can excel as influential CEOs, business owners, and community leaders. Sabrina is also a community organizer, poet, master collaborator, and mother. Sabrina has spearheaded transformative events like the Black Women’s Leadership Conference, the Conversation Mixtape, the Black Business Expo, and the Black Excellence Youth Conference. She has been recognized by Essence as one of 100 Woke Black Women, the Best of Madison Business | Brian Howell Excellence in Innovation Award, and acknowledgment as one of Greater Madison’s most influential figures by In Business Magazine.

Photo by Daniel Foster on Unsplash

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It’s election day! As people line up at their polling locations, plan their watch parties, and prepare for a long wait for presidential election results, host Bert Zipperer speaks with Political Analyst Anthony Chergosky. Chergosky joins the show show from UW-La Crosse where he is an associate professor of political science. He offers insights on trends of presidential campaigns, the poplar vote vs the electoral college, the perception from the global community, and more.

Polls are open until 8pm on Tuesday, November 5th. To find you polling place and see what is on your ballot, visit myvote.wi.gov. Same-day registration is available at all polling places.

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Wisconsin school districts are spending $3,200 less per student per year, adjusted for inflation, than in 2010 due to outdated funding systems and legislative failures.  Because of this, voters in 122 districts across Wisconsin are facing ballot questions asking to raise property taxes. On today’s show, Dr. Julie Underwood and Dr. Christopher Saldana join host Douglas Haynes to discuss the financial struggles of Wisconsin school districts. They discuss the impact of revenue limits, declining enrollments, and the shift of funding to private schools. The conversation highlights the dilemma for taxpayers who support public schools but struggle with rising property taxes.

Images from AzamKamolov from Pixabay, and Kenny Eliason on Unsplash.

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