A Public Affair

Listeners kept the phones ringing today during our open line show. Host Esty Dinur heard from callers concerned about vaccines and public health as well as the political health of the democratic party. 

In May, RFK told the CDC to stop recommending COVID vaccines for infants and pregnant women, despite the advice of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists who continue to recommend the vaccine since vaccine safety during pregnancy is well established. 

Esty also reflects on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, an event that she calls a harbinger of the willingness of the state to sacrifice the poor and people of color. Other topics of the day included the actions of Democratic governors and building infrastructure for community care. 

Featured image of a vintage telephone via Joe Haupt on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

The post Open Line with Esty Dinur appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, we hear from journalist Nyki Duda who draws a line from anti-immigrant movements of the 1920s to the present. Her recent articles include “My Family Was Almost ‘Repatriated’ to Mexico in the 1930s. I See It Happening Again” and an account of how Chicago fights for its sanctuary city status. 

Duda’s family migrated from Mexico to the Rust Belt where they found work in steel mills. She describes how they and other Mexican and Mexican Americans were targets of racism and xenophobia and were nearly deported after a 1919 steel strike. She tells host Allen Ruff that the phrase “repatriation movement” makes it seem like the relocation of immigrants was voluntary, when in fact it was and is not. Duda shares the parallels she sees between the “repatriation movement” and the present, including the option for “self-deportation” that is now a feature of the new CBPOne app. She calls this a symptom of the US’s plans to make its borders less permeable to the very migrant labor that the economy relies on.

Duda describes the church-based sanctuary movement of the 1980s that grew out of a tradition of liberation theology from Latin America. More recently sanctuary cities are being targeted by the Trump administration. When ICE showed up at Chicago schools, teachers started organizing to protect their students and to educate families about their rights. The Chicago Teachers’ Union has developed a bargaining for common good strategy that includes advocating for fair wages and for protecting their students against ICE. For Duda, this is just another example of how migrant communities and labor organizing are intrinsically connected. 

Nyki Duda is an editor at Al Jazeera digital and researcher at Lead Stories. As a freelance journalist, she covers migration, social movements and far-right politics. Her writing has appeared in Truthout, Jacobin, In These Times and more.

Featured image of strike leader addressing a crowd of steel workers in Gary, Indiana in 1919 via the Library of Congress.

The post Repatriation is Just Deportation Dressed Up appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Kate Duffy believes in the power of everyday voices and that the best political conversations often start around a kitchen table (or in the carpool line). If you’re a mom on social media, you might know Kate from her Instagram profile, @motherhoodforgood. She joins host Ali Muldrow today to talk about parenting and women in democratic politics, like Catelin Drey who just won her Senate race in Iowa Senate this week.

Duffy started her Instagram account when she saw an opportunity to encourage other millennial moms to be more active in politics. Moms would often tell her, “I don’t do politics.” But they just need someone to draw the line from policy to their kitchen tables and show them how important being active in local elections can be. Duffy says that local elections are the perfect place to make an impact because local issues are the ones that have the greatest effect on our personal lives.

She tells Muldrow about how she uses her role as a parent to find common ground, including with conservative moms. However, the Right has been mobilizing moms for a long time, from Phyllis Schlafly to Moms4Liberty. Conservatives want women to stay in their “proper” role in the home, but they also financial back groups of politically active women as long as they support their ideological ends. 

Duffy and Muldrow also discuss Taylor Swift, gun violence, the Wisconsin governor’s race, and more. 

Kate Duffy is a digital strategist, content creator, and mom who founded Motherhood for Good to help women and moms step into their power. Through storytelling, community-building, and advocacy, she creates spaces where complex policy issues feel personal and actionable. Drawing on her background in corporate marketing, she also helps candidates and organizations master storytelling and digital strategy in the modern media landscape. Born and raised in Wisconsin, she now lives just outside Milwaukee with her husband and two young kids.

The post Moms Are the OG Organizers appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

A Public Affair has been a steady voice in WORT’s talk programming for over 30 years. As the station celebrates its 50th year on the air, we wanted to remember some conversations our team has brought you. Today we’re rebroadcasting a show from December of 1998 in which host Dan Jaffee interviews Susan Nossal, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Wisconsin, and Nancy Cole of the Union of Concerned Scientists. 

They talk about the politics of climate change and the Kyoto Accords. Though their conversation is from nearly 30 years ago, it feels painfully familiar. Cole describes the US’s commitment to reducing emissions, and how Congress is hostile to making good on that commitment. Though countries like the US are major contributors of greenhouse gas pollution, Cole says that actions to reduce emissions from other parts of the world put the US to shame.

In 1998, the scientific community had already reached the consensus that climate change is real and human caused. Nossal references the 1990 and 1995 IPPC reports. She also describes how climate change is being studied at UW Madison through observation, measuring, and modeling of the atmosphere. 

Featured image of a sign from a Canadian protest in 2007, demanding compliance with the Kyoto Accords via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

The post From the Archive: The Politics of Climate Change in 1998 appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Today, Sara Gabler speaks with renowned theologian and social ethicist, Gary Dorrien, about his new memoir, Over from Union Road: My Christian-Left-Intellectual Life. From his roots in rural Michigan to elite halls of Harvard and Columbia, Dorrien approaches lofty ideas with curiosity and grounds his scholarship in social activism. His memoir is an intellectual history of contemporary left-theology as much as it is a recounting of his life. 

Dorrien describes the long tradition of liberal theology, a tradition from the nineteenth century that values intellectual freedom and forges a third way between dogmatic orthodoxy and secular denialism. As Dorrien elaborates, liberal theology embraces the historical critical method and allows science to explain the world. In the twentieth century US liberal theology merged with the social gospel, a movement of Protestant Christians who believed it was their duty to address social problems like poverty and inequality. It was through progressivism that Dorrien argues these two movements achieved a union. 

They also discuss the differences between conservative and progressive evangelicalism, Dorrien’s organizing work with the DSA, and his books on the Black social gospel. He lists the top three intellectual influences on his life as Martin Luther King, Jr., Walter Rauschenbush, and James Cone.

Gary Dorrien is a theologian, ethicist, professor, priest, and author of over two dozen books, several of which have won the Choice Award from the American Library Association. He is also an activist with decades of work in progressive and labor movements. Dorrien is ordained in the Episcopal Church, and is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Religion at Columbia University.

Featured image of the cover of Over from Union Road by Gary Dorrien.

The post The Intellectual Roots of Social Gospel Christians appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

There’s so much chaos in the news and in many communities across the country. To discuss this week’s headlines, Esty Dinur is joined by writer and political analyst, Mary Geddry. They discuss how Trump’s authoritarian chaos is only spreading and how the privatization of healthcare, infrastructure, and all the services that are essential to everyday life, is the antithesis of democracy.

Geddry calls Trump’s deployment of troops to DC as a test run for greater federal expansion in blue states, an expansion that she previews will result in the arrest of all kinds of dissidents. As detention centers are being built across the country and ICE is offering $50K signing bonuses to new recruits, Dinur compares the situation to the gulag system in the Soviet Union. Geddry points to the massive amounts of money that private prison companies are making off detention centers, like “Alligator Alcatraz,” though that location has been ordered to shut down.

Geddry says that America’s democracy isn’t broken; it’s working just as a two-party system is meant to. That is, by it’s very nature, the two-party system is polarizing. She blames both parties for how we got to this point and says we need to organize and imagine a better system, one that could include rank-choice voting. 

Mary Geddry is a writer and political commentator whose work focuses on authoritarianism, economic inequality, and social justice. She has founded four community radio stations in Oregon, reflecting her long-standing commitment to grassroots media and public access to information. Mary also co-founded a local nonprofit dedicated to advancing the rights of nature and sustainability, underscoring her dedication to environmental justice. Her commentary has been featured in independent outlets and on her Substack, where she publishes daily political analysis with an eye toward uncovering corruption and amplifying voices for accountability and justice.

Featured image of the exterior of a detention center via Flickr.

The post Privatization Poisons Democracy appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In July, American Muslims for Palestine released a report that surveys efforts to suppress Palestinian solidarity movements. On the show today, host Allen Ruff is joined by the author of the report, Halah Ahmad. She says that the repression of pro-Palestine student activists began before Trump took office but has only escalated since. The Trump administration is going after any immigrant students, regardless of their affiliation with these movements. The report shows that more than 1800 students across the country have had their visas or status revoked.

Attacks on immigrant students are followed up by attacks on institutions themselves. Ahmad describes how these cuts to research programs at colleges and universities are framed as fighting antisemitism. She says this framework has created a chilling effect on any critiques of the Israeli government. Ahmad  tracked how international students are now self-censoring and faculty are not putting on programs that they fear their universities would oppose. 

In addition to directly criminalizing student protest and undermining universities, Christian Zionist leaders in Trump’s circle are shepherding the country toward what they view as a holy war. This ideology was also at work during the Regan administration, but has found new purchase in US foreign policy following the US’s bombing of Iran earlier this summer.

Halah Ahmad is a Harvard and Cambridge trained independent researcher whose work spans domestic and international policy. She has conducted strategic policy research for government agencies and NGOs in Greece, Albania, Germany, Palestine, and the US. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Vox, The LA Times, The Hill, USA Today and other outlets.

Featured image of the Gaza solidarity encampment at UW-Madison in May 2024 (WORT).

The post Christian Right Leads Attacks on Student Activists appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Today host Ali Muldrow is joined by two guests with powerful voices in Madison: Myra McNair and Bianca Martin. In a world that wants women to be silent, or silent about certain topics, these three podcast hosts talk candidly about their careers, their triumphs, and how to make someone feel comfortable in a conversation. 

All describe being chastised for being “chatterboxes” in school, but they’ve turned that gift of gab into professional careers. And people tune into their shows because these hosts know how to draw out their guests with tenderness while also asking pointed questions. 

In their meta conversation about what makes a good interview, Muldrow, McNair, and Martin also shout out the teams that make their work possible, describe the curiosity and imagination they bring to their work, and discuss how they hold space for vulnerability. 

Myra McNair is the founder, owner, and visionary behind Anesis Therapy and host of the podcast Making Progress.

Bianca Martin is the host of the City Cast Madison podcast.

Featured image of Myra McNair, Ali Muldrow, and Bianca Martin courtesy of Myra McNair.

The post The Journey from Chatterbox to Podcast Host appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

A Public Affair has been a steady voice in WORT’s talk programming for over 30 years. As the station celebrates its 50th year on the air, we wanted to pause and harken back to some conversations our team has brought you. So on today’s show, we reflect on a past that may feel all too familiar, as host Margo Robb discusses the US’s bombing of Iraq in 1998 with Matt Rothschild and Erik Gustafson. 

Margo Robb is a former News Director at WORT, Erik Gustafson is a Gulf War veteran who works for the Enabling Peace in Iraq Center, and Matt Rothschild was an editor at the Progressive Magazine at the time. They discuss war propaganda, the University of Wisconsin’s investment in weapons manufacturers, and the harms that economic sanctions cause for Iraqi civilians. Gustafson calls for the delinking of economic sanctions from military intervention and the delinking of Sadam Hussein from the people of Iraq. Rothschild says “we need to get over the psyche of empire.” 

We want to give a big thanks to the WORT Archiving Team for digitizing this show.

Featured image: of a bomb damage assessment from December 21, 1998.

The post From the Archive: The US Bombs Iraq in 1998 appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Cruelty and selfishness feel endemic to US politics and mass media. But today’s guest, Nicole Karlis, offers a strong antidote to the cruelty and loneliness of modern life by championing acts of altruism. Her new book, Your Brain on Altruism, tells compelling stories and synthesis scientific research about the power–and health benefits–of helping others.

Karlis wants readers to know that self-care is more than fitness and individual consumption. Self-care can be serving others around us, and the scientific research backs up the idea that service to our communities decreases stress and improves our sense of belonging and purpose. In researching for her book, Karlis spoke with disaster recovery workers who say we’re stuck in “recovery mode.” That’s because in a capitalist society profit comes first and people get trapped in scarcity mindsets. In this context, we have to push for systemic change so that people can find relief and thrive together. 

Karlis’s book combines the importance of individual and societal transformation and inso doing avoids the pitfalls of the wellness industry and its message that individual consumption will heal you. Karlis says that altruism can serve as a catalyst for deeper connection and builds resilience. She tells host Douglas Haynes that we need to support caregivers so they avoid burnout and that day-to-day acts of kindness can reduce stress and loneliness.

Nicole Karlis is a health and science journalist. Her work has been published in Salon, The New York Times, Marie Claire, and The Bold Italic.

Featured image of the cover of Your Brain on Altruism from the University of California Press.

The post Altruism, the Antidote to Loneliness appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.