A Public Affair

On today’s show host Ali Muldrow is joined by Black, queer writer and performer, Danez Smith. Their new collection, Bluff, was released in August, and it imagines life in a dissolving world. Danez wrote this collection after two years of artistic silence, during which the world came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Minneapolis became the epicenter of protest following the murder of George Floyd. The collection reckons with these events and the poet’s role in them. 

In a raw, honest, and wide-raging conversation, Smith speaks to liberation from a Black, queer perspective that includes solidarity with Palestinian liberation. From the cost of taking a stand to the relationship between land and language, Smith uses poetry as fuel for inspiration and solidarity. Listen to Smith read from two poems: “anti poetica” and “The Slap.”

Smith will be giving a reading of Bluff as part of the Wisconsin Book Festival on Friday, October 18 at 9pm at the Madison Central Library.

Danez Smith is the author of three collections including Bluff, Homie, and Don’t Call Us Dead. They are the winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry among several other honors. Danez’s poetry and prose has been featured in Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, GQ, Best American Poetry and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They live in Minneapolis near their people.

Feature image via Graywolf Press.

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Whether we like it or not, the internet has remade modern life. And we have to talk about how abuses of power and lack of accountability proliferate across the social media, technology, and entertainment landscapes.

On today’s show, host Sara Gabler is in conversation with journalist David Wolinsky about video games, misogyny, and his new book The Hivemind Swarmed:Conversations on Gamergate, the Aftermath, and the Quest for a Safer Internet. The book looks at a specific online harassment campaign called Gamergate that started in 2014 and has shaped how people behave online and in real life since. 

David Wolinsky is an independent oral historian, a documentary researcher, and an author based in Chicago. Previously, he served as an editor at The Onion and NBC. Since 2014, he has conducted more than 600 interviews on the social impact of the Internet for his interview series Don’t Die, which is preserved by Stanford University. He is a recipient of the New York Videogame Critics Circle’s Journalism Award and the MIT Open Documentary Lab’s mentorship.

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It’s National Farm to School Month and National School Lunch Month. In Wisconsin that means that some students are participating in the Great Apple Crunch and folks are advocating for healthy school meals. Here in Madison, a local campaign is trying to get free school meals for all MMSD students.

To talk about the ways that educational and agricultural programs meet, host Douglas Haynes speaks with Dr. Jennifer Gaddis and Dr. Sarah A. Robert. Their edited volume, Transforming School Food Politics around the World, is available for open access from MIT Press. They want to reframe school lunches as learning experiences and challenge the fundamental assumptions people in the US make about school food programs.

Their research shows that in many places around the world school lunches are learning experiences. In countries like Brazil and Finland folks are using school food programs to transform food systems. And in Japan, students learn about the labor that goes into their school meals by serving each other their school lunches. From examples like this, Gaddis and Robert find hope that schools can teach skills and values through their lunch programs. 

They talk about the collective work of changing public policy on food systems, research on the school food workforce, and Tim Walz’s track record on free school meals.

Jennifer E. Gaddis is Associate Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of The Labor of Lunch. She is an advisory board member of the National Farm to School Network.

Sarah A. Robert is Associate Professor at the University at Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education. She is the author of Neoliberal Education Reform; Neoliberalism, Gender, and Education Work; and School Food Politics. She is an Associate Editor for Gender, Work, and Organizations.

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT News.

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The topic today: disasters.

First, Esty talks with Journalist Hanady Salman who joins us from Beirut where at least 22 people were killed in the latest strike. Salman explains that air raids have become a daily occurrence in Lebanon and that they are bracing for an invasion by the Israeli army.

Then, Esty pivots to hurricanes. This conversation comes just days after Hurricane Milton hit Florida’s Gulf Coast. Milton, which at one point reached a level five tropical storm, came just weeks after Hurricane Helene which claimed hundreds of lives in the Southeastern United States.

Esty talks with reporter Jonah Chester who covers flooding, sea level rise, and climate change in Charleston, South Carolina. He’s spent the last couple of weeks writing on the toll of Hurricane Helene, comparisons to past tropical storms, and spotting disaster misinformation online.

Finally, Esty speaks with environmental scientists Dr. Michael Mann about the reality of worsen storms, the need for leaders to address climate change, and the decades long impact of storms such of as Helene and Milton.

About our guests:

Hanady Salman is a senior editor at As-Safir Newspaper in Beirut, Lebanon. She contributed to the book Inside Lebanon with Noam Chomsky and others, based on Chomsky’s visit to Lebanon just before the 2006 invasion by Israel. The film “Letters from Beirut: the War of 33” is based on her writings. More of her work can be found in Jadaliyya.

Jonah Chester is based in Charleston, South Carolina, where he covers flooding, sea level rise and climate change for the Rising Waters Lab at the Post and Courier. He previously worked as a reporter at Wisconsin Watch and as the Assistant News Director at WORT. 

Dr. Michael E. Mann is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He is also director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media. Mann is the author of several books including his most recent work, Our Fragile Moment which will be out in paperwork on October, 15th.

ABI imagery of Hurricane Helene from NOAA’S GOES-16 Satellite, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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On today’s show, host Rebecca Kemble speaks about the Independent Police Monitor and the Police Civilian Oversight Board with Shadayra Kilfoy-Flores and Amelia Royko Maurer. Kilfoy-Flores is the current chair of the oversight board and the co founder of Moms on a Mission Madison. Royko Maurer is a founding member of Community Response Team and a public safety advocate. They discuss the landscape during which the program was created, the importance of community safety, and some of the hurdles the board and monitor have faced.

The conversation comes at the heels of the just released proposed City of Madison 2025 Operating Budget. The proposed budget slashes funding to the program being discussed. In the case that referendum to exceed the state property tax levy limit is approved by votes in November, the budget for the Office of the Independent Monitor will be reduced by $195,000. That money would be reallocated to the library system. In the case the referendum does not pass, the all funding for the Independent Police Monitor and the Police Civilian Oversight Board will be cut.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

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On today’s show, host Ali Muldrow speaks with long-time radio personality John Sylvester. Most listener will know the guest as simply as Sly. He was a rock jock on WMAD and WIBA. There he hosted Sly’s Social Dilemma among other shows. Starting in the late 90s, Sly switched to talk radio on WTDY and WBGR. He was an instrumental voice during the Walker administration, giving blow-by-blow updates during the height of Act 10. He’s also the host of the podcast Sly’s Office.

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Madison voters will encounter two referendum questions, one for facilities and one for operations, on the November 5th ballot. If passed, they would incrementally increase property tax over the next 4 years. By 2028, the average Madison property tax will be raised by more than $1,300. (That’s based on the average Madison home valued at $457,300.) The operations increase will be used in part to recruit and retain educators, invest in 4k programs, and support multilingual education. The increase for facilities will address the repair and remodel needs for aging school buildings and update technology in elementary and middle schools.

On today’s show, host Carousel Bayrd is joined by Bob Solder, assistant superintendent of financial services, and Cindy Green, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning to discuss why the school district is asking for the levy and bond.

Find what is on your ballot at myvote.wi.gov

Image by WORT News Director Chali Pittman

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Last spring, protests sprung up at universities across the county. Pro-Palestinian protestors pushed their institutions to divest from arms manufactures and better support Palestinian students.. Several UW schools joined this movement, including UW-Madison, Milwaukee, and Oshkosh. At the flagship university, protestors set up tents on Library Mall, which were quickly called “unlawful” and forcibly removed. The police arrested dozens, including students, faculty, staff and people unaffiliated with the university. Four were later charged with felonies, while other students are still facing disciplinary action.

Just before the this fall semester began, the UW administration released new policies on free speech and protest, which they call expressive activity guidelines. To help us understand the guidelines and the backdrop under which they were written, host Sara Gabler speaks with first amendment expert Howard Schweber and student journalists Noe Goldhaber and Annika Bereny.  They delve into the implications of these policies and potential chilling effect on free speech. 

For more background, listen or read Sara Gabler’s recently published piece “UW anti-camping rule rarely used before police raid.”

Noe Goldhaber is the college news editor and former copy chief for The Daily Cardinal at UW-Madison. She is a Statistics and Journalism major and has specialized on a wide range of campus topics including protests, campus labor, student housing, free speech and campus administration. 

Annika Bereny is Senior Staff Writer and the former Special Pages Editor for The Daily Cardinal. She has written in-depth for state and campus news.

Howard Schweber is a Professor of American Politics and Political Theory. He teaches courses focusing on constitutional law and legal and political theory. Schweber is the author of numerous books and articles and a frequent guest on Wisconsin television and radio programs, including WORT.

Image Gaza Encampment @ Library Mall via WORT News

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On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with three authors who are coming to Madison during the Wisconsin Book Festival’s 23rd Fall Celebration on October 17th through 2oth.

First, she speaks with by Bill Adair about his forthcoming book Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.

Bill Adair is an award-winning journalist and educator. He is the creator of PolitiFact and cofounder of the International Fact-Checking Network. In 2013, he became the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University. His awards include the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting (with the PolitiFact staff), the Manship Prize for New Media in Democratic Discourse, and the Everett Dirksen Award for Distinguished Coverage of Congress.

Adair will be speaking with Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Editor Greg Borowski on Saturday, October 19th at 4:30 p.m at the Central Library, Community Room 302.

Esty’s second guest is Barbara Mcquade, author of Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America.

Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a co-host of the podcast #SistersInLaw. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as U.S Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Ms. McQuade was appointed by President Barack Obama, and was the first woman to serve in her position. 

Barbara will be speaking with award-winning journalist and author David Maraniss on Saturday, October 19th at 3p.m at the Central Library, Community Room 302. Copies of Attack From Within will be distributed for free to all attendees courtesy of the Wisconsin Book Festival. 

Last Esty speaks with Barrett Klein, author of The Insect Epiphany: How Our Six-Legged Allies Shape Human Culture which is out on October 15th.

Barrett Klein is a professor of biology at University of Wisconsin – La Crosse where he spearheads Pupating Lab. He investigates mysteries of sleep in societies of insects, creates entomo-art, and is ever on the search for curious connections that bind our lives with our six-legged allies. Previously Barrett studied entomology at Cornell University and the University of Arizona, fabricated natural history exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History, and worked with honey bees for his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin.

Barrett will be speaking with poet and author Heather Swan on Saturday, October 19th, at 1:30p.m. at the Wisconsin Historical Society Auditorium.

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