A Public Affair

In January, Dane County middle and high schoolers started studying Black History in the pursuit of winning the African American History Academic Challenge–though many started preparing well before then. One of today’s guests says that learning this history, “builds that sense of confidence empowerment: I matter. I’m heard. I’m acknowledged. I’m seen.” That is Korbey White, Verona School board member and 100 Black Men of Madison board member and chair of the health and wellness committee.

Korbey and Dr. Floyd Rose, president of 100 Black Men of Madison, join host Jade Iseri-Ramos to talk about the African American History Academic Challenge (AAHAC) which kicked off on Friday in Sun Prairie.  AAHAC is national competition created by 100 Black Men with the aim to enhance the study of African American history and offer academic scholarships. 

Madison Metro School District middle schools and high schools are competing on Tuesday, March 12th at the Doyle Auditorium. (High school is at 3pm and middle school is at 5:30pm). Verona schools will face off on Wednesday, March 13th. The regional competition will be held at Verona on Friday, March 15th and those winners will go on to the national convention in June in Atlanta, Georgia.

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

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Tim Portlock is a contemporary landscape artist currently with the UW-Madison Nelson Institute and the School of Education’s Art Department. His current work uses 3D animation and drone footage to create somewhat eerie images of buildings in varying states of being. Uniting all of his work is a deep concern for the relationship between place, culture and identity, especially in America’s deindustrializing cities. He joins host Douglas Haynes in the studio to talk about his new role, engaging students, and his art making process.

Tim Portlock will be giving a talk this Wednesday, March 13th at 12pm.

Tim Portlock is a Chicago-born artist and professor of Environmental Studies and Art at UW-Madison. He’s also a prolific artist who has exhibited his work around the world to much critical acclaim.

Image used with permission from Portlock: “just steps away”, archival pigment print, 43.25 x 58, 2020

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Haiti is currently under a state of emergency. While de facto Prime Minister Ariel Henry traveled outside the country, armed gangs stormed the country’s largest prison and sieged the airport. They freed about 3,700 inmates and at least 12 people have been killed. It is unclear if Henry will be able to be able to return. 

Today’s guest Jake Johnston says that the current state in Haiti is related to the US’s role in hollowing out the Haiti government and the steadfast backing of Ariel Henry for the last 30 months.  Jake joins host Esty Dinur once again to talk about the inevitably of the armed uprising and how we got here.

Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC. Jake Johnston has a B.A. in Economics from Boston University and an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. At CEPR his research has focused predominantly on economic policy in Latin America, the International Monetary Fund and US foreign policy. He is the lead author for CEPR’s Haiti: Relief and Reconstruction Watch blog and his articles and op-eds have been published in outlets such as The New York Times, The Nation, The Intercept, Le Monde Diplomatique, Boston Review, and Al Jazeera. His book, Aid State: Elite Panic, Disaster Capitalism, and the Battle to Control Haiti, is now available from St. Martin’s Press

Photo by Patrice S Dorsainville on Unsplash

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“The US is making possible, quite literally, the slaughter, the mass murder going on in Gaza. And if you look at the proportions of the killing–every killing was wrong–if you look at the proportions of the slaughter, 30,000 people killed in Gaza that we know of thousands more under the rubble. There’s something extremely disproportionate about the quantity of coverage, and also the tenor and tone and emotion that exists or doesn’t exist, in the overall media coverage of those two sets of atrocities.”

That is journalist, author and peace activist Norman Solomon talking with A Public Affair host Allen Ruff about the powerful military-industrial-media complex in the US. and it’s involvement in the war in Gaza. They discuss a bevy of topics including the Orwellian nature of national “defense,” the global reach of the “national security state,” and Biden’s bid for a second term.

Bert Zipperer is also in the studio with Allen to ask you to give to WORT during the fall pledge drive. Donate here.

Norman Solomon is an American journalist, media critic, author and activist. His latest book is “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine (The New Press, 2023). In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called the book “a powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy.”

Solomon is the founder of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a consortium of policy researchers and analysts. He is IPA’s executive director and the coordinator of its ExposeFacts program. He is co-founder and national director of the online organization RootsAction.org, which now has upwards of 1.3 million online supporters.

Photo by Dave Sherrill on Unsplash

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Cap Times Food editor and arts reporter Lindsay Christians, says that Wisconsin cuisine is definitely cheese curds, beer, frozen custard, and cranberries, but there’s more to it.  “It also has these incredible indigenous roots. And it has these global influences. To reduce it to like a variation on hot dish or something is really reductive,” she explains. “There’s so much more nuance and more variety and diversity in the cuisine here.”

Lindsay is a day-one fan of Top Chef and had the privilege of being on set for several days of filming. She signed an NDA, but what she will say is that season 21 highlights the state’s vibrant culinary landscape.

As we anxiously away the season premiere, Carousel Baryd hosts a Top Chef roundup. For the first half of the show, we hear from Top Chef producer Diana Schmedeman about the decision to film in the state and the why the show is special to so many people. Then we turn our attention to Lindsay Christians and Travel Wisconsin Communications Director Craig Trost to talk about Wisconsin’s food scene, the so-called “Top Chef effect,” and work behind the scenes to bring the iconic show to our favorite restaurants.

Check out the trailer here.

We are the midst of our winter pledge drive, so we also have Jessa Nicholson Goetz in studio to chime in with her Top Chef thoughts and ask you to donate to the show!

If you want to hear more about Top Chef from Lindsay Christians, she is reviving the podcast The Corner Table to talk about Top Chef episodes as they are released.

Photo by Lidye on Unsplash

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Bernardo Caamal Itzá, also known as “Arux” in Yucatán, is a social communicator, radio producer, and a promoter of the culture and rights of the Mayas. His first well known show in Mayan language, “Arux K’at,” was broadcasted on Mayan radio stations in the Yucatán Peninsula in 1997 and is currently re-transmitted on various radio stations. His recent book Tsíkbalo’ob yaan ichil u sáastun Arux (Stories in the sáastun of Arux, 2023) co-authored with his daughter Victoria Caamal Sabido, is a bilingual (Spanish/Mayan) history of the Yucatec Mayan Community.

Bernardo joins host Diego Alegría on this special edition of A Public Affair to talk about his 37 years on the airways, the problem of censorship, and the documentary Maya Land: Listening to the Bees.

The documentary was directed by Kata Beilin, with Avi Weinstein as co-director. Bernardo narrates the Spanish version. Kata Beilin, Professor of Spanish and Environmental Studies at UW-Madison, joined Diego and Bernardo in the studio and translated for our English-listening audience.

There will be a special showing of Maya Land: Listening to the Bees this Thursday, March 7th at 6pm at UW Vilas Hall (Room 4070), located at 821 University Ave, Madison. Kata and Bernardo will both participate in a panel during the showing.

Bernardo Caamal Itzá, también conocido como “Arux” en Yucatán, es comunicador social, productor radial y promotor de la cultura y los derechos de los Mayas. Su primer programa famoso en lengua maya, “Arux K’at”, fue transmitido por estaciones de radio mayas en la Península de Yucatán en 1997 y está actualmente siendo reproducido en varias estaciones radiales. Su libro más reciente Tsíkbalo’ob yaan ichil u sáastun Arux (Relatos de Arux, 2023), con coautoría de su hija Victoria Caamal Sabido, es una historia en español y en maya sobre la comunidad maya yucateca.

Bernardo acompaña al anfitrión Diego Alegría en esta edición especial de A Public Affair para hablar sobre sus 37 años en la radio, el problema de la censura y el documental La tierra maya: meliponas, milpas y la defensa de la vida.

El documental fue dirigido por Kata Beilin, con Avi Weinstein como co-director. Bernardo narra la versión en español. Kata Beilin, Profesora de Español y Estudios Ambientales en UW-Madison, acompañó a Diego y Bernardo en el estudio y tradujo para la audiencia de habla inglesa.

Habrá una presentación especial de La tierra maya: meliponas, milpas y la defensa de la vida este jueves 07 de marzo a las 6 p.m. en UW Vilas Hall (Sala 4070), ubicado en 821 University Ave, Madison. Kata y Bernardo participarán en un panel durante la muestra.

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Period Garden is a small park at the corner of Gorham and Pinckney Streets. It was once the front lawn of the Elisha W. Keyes House which was built in 1853-1854. By 1972, the lawn had been replaced by a parking lot, and the owner proposed building an apartment building on the land. A group of private citizens came together to purchase the land with the intent to create a park that was reminiscent of a garden the Keyes family might have kept. The land was acquired by the city in 1975 and was formally dedicated in 1977. The park is now a city-owned and volunteer-run oasis on the otherwise bustling Gorham St. 

Historic Preservation Consultant Gary Tipler and Period Garden Park volunteer Taylor Blair join host Jade Iseri-Ramos to discuss the creation of the park, the volunteers who have kept it up over the years, and the future of the park.

Photos provided by Taylor Blair and Chali Pittman

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On today’s special pledge drive show, we start the show with a conversation with UW-Madison student Shafiq from the group Students for Justice in Palestine. He joins us to talk about a viral video from a February 18th lecture given by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) special unit commander Oz Bin-Nun. The event was hosted at the Rohr Chabad House by UW Chabad, an independent organization from UW-Madison.

Then, we turn our attention to two doctors who provided care in Gaza at the beginning of the year. Dr. John Kahler and Dr. Thaer Ahmad join us to explain the persistent illnesses and injuries, the lack of resources, and the issues they saw first hand in hospitals and on the ground.

Photo courtesy Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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As the death toll in Gaza reaches 30 thousand, host Allen Ruff talks with activist Jennifer Loewenstein about the continued destruction in Palestine.

“When you deliberately deny people humanitarian aid, as well as water, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies, you have engineered a slow motion genocide,” says Loewenstein.

Loewenstein and Ruff also discuss the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Rafah, the role of the U.S. in fueling Israel’s attacks on Gaza, and how charges of anti-Semitism are leveled at Jewish anti-war activists.

We also have friend of the show Matt Rothchild on air to help with fundraising efforts.

Jennifer Loewenstein is an American activist, journalist, and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as The Journal of Palestine Studies, and she is a regular contributor to the CounterPunch magazine.

Photo by Ömer Yıldız on Unsplash.

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On Saturday, Morris Ramen, the beloved restaurant on King St, served it’s last bowl of ramen. Co-owners Francesca Hong and Matt Morris announced the closure on Instagram saying, “This has been the most difficult decision we’ve ever had to make and one we do not take lightly.” Host Carousel Bayrd waited in line on the 24th to get a table on their last day of service–it was so busy, that she didn’t get a seat. Instead, she talked to Francesca Hong on today’s show about the 7 years Morris Ramen fed Madison.

Then, we talk about a restaurant that is just starting up and making a big splash on N. Sherman Ave.  Matt Gerding, co-owner of Lola’s Hi/Lo Lounge joins us in studio. He tells us the story behind the name, explains the challenges with being Madison’s “shiny new toy,” and talks up Madison’s North Side. Special guest Melissa Agard is with us for the full hour as we fundraise for YOUR favorite community radio station.

Photo by Jakub Dziubak on Unsplash

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