A Public Affair

Next Wednesday, the Madison YWCA is hosting their annual Racial Justice Summit. This year, the 2024 Racial Justice Summit will occur virtually on September 25th and 26th and in-person at Monona Terrace on September 27th. The theme for the summit is Reflect, Connect, and Create New Worlds.

Ahead of the event, A Public Affair host Ali Muldrow is joined today by YWCA’s Race & Gender Equity team Libby Tucci, Myxee Thao, and Semaj Sconiers. They discuss what can be expected next week, the complexities of their work, and the ongoing pursuit of racial justice.

Registration for the in person events and workshops is closed, but tickets for the virtual keynotes can be purchased here.

Libby Tucci is the Interim Director of the Race & Gender Equity Team at YWCA Madison, and has been with the YWCA for almost 14 years. Libby’s work in the field of supporting survivors of domestic violence led her to become further connected and committed to the exploration of healing from the violence of white supremacy and patriarchy. She is passionate about working to dismantle white supremacy in all of its manifestations—inside of her, in the ways that she shows up in the world, and in our collective culture and structures. She believes that, not only can we all heal from the violence of white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism, but we can also nurture more liberated, interconnected, and compassionate ways of existing together.

Semaj Sconiers is a Race and Gender Equity Practitioners at YWCA Madison. In that role, she is an educator, wellness practitioner, and rest enthusiast She is also a mother, daughter, granddaughter, sister, friend, and phenomenal black woman thriving and surviving all at once.

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What are climate havens? They are seen as places with an abundance of freshwater that are cooler on average, and would benefit from milder winters. Wisconsin, and Madison in particular seem to fit that bill. In fact, this CBS News piece, holds Madison is stark contrast to Paradise, California which burned to the ground in 2018.  Madison is toted as a place safe from–or even benefiting from–climate change. In her recent piece There will be no “climate haven”, Tone Madison News and Politics Editor Christina Lieffring writes that these narratives create “a false sense of security” and offers “potential easy answer to this crisis.”

Lieffring hosts today’s A Public Affair and goes more in depth with Professors Sumudu Atapattu and Richard Keller about the complex issue of climate-based displacement. Keller is the author Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003, and he argues that heat, even in cooler climates, can have drastic and deadly consequences when the infrastructure is not ready.

Atapattu, author of UN Human Rights Institutions and the Environment, offers that developing nations are disproportionately impacted by the rise in temperature, sea level, and natural disasters. She press that globally we must be prepared to relocate populations whose homes will become inhabitable.

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The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources calls the Waubesa Wetlands “one of the highest quality and most diverse wetlands remaining in southern Wisconsin.” This nature preserve, just south of Madison, is the location and subject of the new documentary film An Invitation to Wonder: Waubesa Wetlands.

Wetland scientist and UW-Madison Professor emeritus Calvin “Cal” DeWitt has lived on the edge for the marsh for more than 50 years. In An Invitation to Wonder, filmmaker and DeWitt’s grandson Ben Albert brings rich images and striking sounds scapes together with a story of intergenerational discovery. On today’s edition of A Public Affair, host Douglas Haynes is joined with DeWitt and Albert in the studio. They discuss the wetlands, the wildlife that lives there, and the making of the film.

More information about film screenings through the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies can be found here.

Image from Invitation to Wonder, used with permission

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On today’s two part show, host Esty Dinur talks about fighting for voting rights. First, we talk with author and journalist Greg Palast about his new documentary Vigilante Inc: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen. The film centers on self-appointed vote-fraud hunters or “vigilantes” who are challenging voter registration and blocking ballots from being counted. Vigilante Inc is now streaming here.

Then, we continue the show by recognizing the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Crime Bill. The extensive federal crime legislation authorized tougher convictions and granted money to states to expand correctional facilities, thus significantly contributing to mass incarceration and mass supervision across the United States. 

People who are incarcerated or under supervision are unable to vote in Wisconsin. Dinur continues the theme of voting rights by talking to Jerome Dillard, Executive Director and one of the Founders of EXPO, Ex-incarcerated People Organizing. EXPO is leading the Unlock The Vote campaign by petitioning for change, educating around the issue, and helping to register people to vote following the completion of their sentence.

Photo Marchers with signs at the March on Washington, 1963 by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

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On today’s show, host Allen Ruff is joined by National Affairs correspondent John Nichols to break down the September 17th presidential debate and discuss the respective campaigns at length. Nichols writes for The Nation that Harris won the debate, and he explains why on the program

We then hear from callers who are grappling with the election in light of the on going Israel-Hamas war. Also joining Ruff and Nichols in the studio is Bert Zipperer to ask for listener donations. The WORT Fall Pledge Drive continues through Sunday, September 15th and donations to this program can be made at wortfm.org/donate.

John Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Cap Times. He has written, cowritten, or edited over a dozen books including the New York Times bestseller It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism cowritten with Senator Bernie Sanders. He is a contributing writer for The Progressive and his writing has been featured in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, among others.

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With the advent of  dating apps and the gamification of dating, many of us are exhausted by the hunt for love. In fact, a 2020 Pew Research Center report found that nearly half of U.S. adults thought dating has gotten harder in recent years. Gone, it seems, are the days of relationships, and in their place are “situationships.”  Today’s guest, Dr. Sabrina Strings, argues that the institution of “love” is even more precarious for Black women and other women of color.

Strings joins host Ali Muldrow to discuss her latest book, The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance (Beacon Press, 2024). The book blends historical research, personal stories, and critical analysis of popular culture to trace the path that Strings believes has led to the demise of romantic partnerships, with an emphasis on how racism and anti-feminist ideology have been the driving force behind it.

Dr. Sabrina Strings is professor and North Hall Chair of Black Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Her first book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, won the 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award by the American Sociological Association.

Photo by Shaira Dela Peña on Unsplash

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Weed is still illegal in Wisconsin; however, over the last six years, an explosion of CBD and hemp-derived THC products have entered the market. That comes after the federal 2018 Farm Bill allowed farmers to grow hemp which is the cannabis plant. As State Senator Melissa Agard has coined it, Wisconsin has become an “island of prohibition.” According to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, nearly half of Wisconsinites over the age of 21 live within a 75-minute drive to a legal dispensary in another state. 

Meanwhile, at the state level, lawmakers have continually introduced bills in the statehouse that would loosen marijuana regulations. Proposals from Democrats have been comprehensive, with far reaching impacts, including in the criminal legal system — removing it as a crime and expunging criminal records. Even some Republicans have introduced bills. At the start of the year, Republican lawmakers introduced a plan for dispensing medical marijuana at five locations across Wisconsin. Previous Republican plans have called for medical marijuana in pill form. 

Cannabis legalization continues to grow as a popular reform, with support from both Democrats and Republicans. The Marquette Law School poll started polling over support for legalization more than a decade ago. That polls shown that support for legalization of marijuana has grown for both Republicans and Democrats since 2013, with a slim majority of Republicans supporting legalization as of the latest poll in 2022. 

Now, tribal members are leading a new push to legalize medical marijuana. The “Wisconsin Wellness” campaign, aims to educate on the potential uses of cannabis to treat PTSD and chronic pain, and to ultimately legalize medical cannabis. It is a partnership of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association (ICIA) and the Wisconsin Tribal Task Force on Cannabis. On today’s show host Chali Pittman, talks with ICIA founder Rob Pero about the campaign and the future of the cannabis industry in Wisconsin.

Rob Pero is the founder of the Indigenous Cannabis Industry Association, a national cannabis advocacy organization. He is also the founder and owner of  Cannidigenous ,the first independent Indigenous-owned hemp company in Wisconsin. He’s also an award-winning film producer, and enrolled member of the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Chippewa.

Photo by Esteban López on Unsplash

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Venceremos is a group of workers who are using theater and art to educate Tyson Foods workers about their rights. On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes speaks with journalist Alice Driver about these workers and their struggle for better safety conditions in Tyson meat packing plants in Arkansas.

Driver started her reporting on Tyson workers during the pandemic. At that time she noticed that workers who had lung injuries from chemical accidents were more vulnerable to COVID infection and death. Driver learned that workers in these plants face other health and safety threats that come from slippery surfaces and using large machinery and knives. On-site medical care workers are pressured to minimize or not report workers’ injuries, and Tyson shields themselves from complaints by using third-party contractors for on-site medical services.

But Driver was blocked from entering meat packing plants to document these issues by ag-gag laws. And workers sign agreements not to speak to journalists and keep all issues internal to Tyson. Workers don’t speak out for fear of losing their jobs or fear of being blacklisted for other jobs. The majority of meat packing workers are from Mexico and Central America. Sometimes these workers only speak their native language or are undocumented, making them more vulnerable to exploitation by their employer. 

Tyson Foods is the second largest meat packing company in the world. This is a consolidated industry that coordinates price fixing, keeps wages down, and lobbies for less oversight. The influence of this industry is closely tied to the political life of Bill Clinton, a family friend of the Tyson family, a family that also supported George Bush and met with Donald Trump.

Alice Driver is a writer from the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas and the author of Life and Death of the American Worker: The Immigrants Taking on America’s Largest Meatpacking Company.

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Last September, A Public Affair Esty Dinur spoke with organizers behind the ProtectThePorkies campaign. The show on WORT was the first media interview the campaign had. One year later, the group has announced the Gichigaming Water Walk on September 14th. It is a collaboration with area Tribal Nations, and is being held in response to proposals for new metallic sulfide mines within the Lake Superior watershed; specifically the Copperwood Mine, the closest metallic sulfide mine to Lake Superior in history. 

On today’s pledge drive special, Dinur speaks with three organizers behind the event: Bad River Tribal member and former Tribal Historic Preservation Officer Edith Leoso, Director of Menikahnaehkem (a Menominee Indian community organization) Anahkwet (Guy Reiter), and founder of Protect The Porkies Tom Grotewohl. They explain the impact of the mining and the risk of contamination should Copperwood open the metallic sulfide mine

The Gichigaming Water Walk will begin at 8am on Saturday, September 14th from 414 Silver Street, Ironwood, MI, 49938 and continue for 31 miles. More information can be found here.

Design by Sarah Smith.

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Early this week, the High Road Strategy Center released the State of Working Wisconsin 2024 report. The annual report offers the latest data on jobs, wages, and unions, with a special focus on women workers in the country. The numbers show that unemployment is at near record lows and lower-income earners are experiencing the strongest wage-increases. Both of these are markers of increased equality.

On today’s show, host Allen Ruff speaks with UW-Madison labor economist and High Road Strategy Center associate director Laura Dresser. Dresser speaks with Ruff about geographic disparities, union impacts, and gender disparities.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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