On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes takes a field trip to speak with Alex Booker at Badger Rock Urban Farm. Booker is the Madison Public Library’s naturalist in residence. The theme of his residency, Find Your Way Back to Nature, focuses on ways to reconnect with the ecosystems that surround us. Naturalist programming includes nature walks, tea blending, flower arranging, sound baths, and more. 

Booker walks Haynes through the farm, from the food forest to the chicken coup. They chat about using all your senses when you garden, how to make pesto with weeds, books like Working the Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing, and how gardening can lead to liberation. 

Alex Booker is a Madison native whose passion for nature began at a young age. Over the past four years, Booker has focused on food insecurity and urban agriculture. He has worked as the Manager of the Badger Rock Neighborhood Center, where he started out as an Assistant Farm Education Manager growing his skills as a program facilitator for all ages. 

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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This week anti-immigrant rhetoric and online misinformation spurred riots in Great Britain following the fatal stabbing of three girls. The rioters attacked Muslim and migrant communities and immigration centers across the UK. Before that, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump supporters waved posters and changed “mass deportations now.”

In addition to these very visible scenes, profit-seeking corporations and individuals are quietly targeting vulnerable people escaping violence, poverty, and climate change. To discuss this, Esty Dinur speaks with lawyer and anthropologist Petra Molnar. Her new book, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, exposes the inhumane use of experimental surveillance technology on migrants around the world. 

Molnar discusses the incursion of surveillance technologies into everyday life, the use of AI lie detectors used in courts, the normalization of Face ID and face scans during travel, the violence of the surveillance dragnet that pushes the border into dangerous areas of the Sonoran Desert, and the brave work of humanitarian activists like the group Battalion Search and Rescue.

Image courtesy of The New Press.

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Ismail Haniyeh, a top political leader of Hamas, was assassinated in Teheran, presumably by Israel, on Wednesday, July 31. The day prior, an Israeli air strike in Beirut killed Fuad Shukr, said to have been Hezbollah’s top military commander. Then, last Thursday, the day after Haniyeh’s death, the Israeli army confirmed that it had killed the commander of Hamas’ military wing Mohammed Deif in an attack in Gaza on July 13.

Coming amidst the ongoing Israeli onslaught and deteriorating conditions for the Palestinians of Gaza, these recent developments can only serve to further inflame the region’s conflict.

Returning to A Public Affair to share his perspectives and provide some context for these latest events and where things might be headed is the Palestinian commentator and Middle East observer, Mouin Rabbani.

Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and commentator specializing in Palestinian affairs, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He is the Co-Editor of Jadaliyya.

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Project 2025 is the Republican plan to rapidly remake the US government if Donald Trump is reelected. It’s over 900 pages long and was created by the Heritage Foundation, an ultra conservative think tank. Project 2025 promises to abolish the US Department of Education and criminalize abortion pills, among other things. Though Donald Trump has claimed he doesn’t know anything about it, its authors include many people close to the former president.

Now democrats are trying to raise awareness of this document, and everyone from Joe Biden to Taraji P. Henson is talking about it. To break down what Project 2025 is and what it would do, host Ali Muldrow is joined by journalist Lisa Graves.

Graves says Project 2025 is an elite document written by Trump’s insider advisors who are trying to use the executive branch to impose unpopular policies.

Lisa Graves is the executive director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group. She is also the board president of the Center for Media and Democracy. Follow Lisa’s work on Project 2025 at project2025admin.com. 

Image from Flickr.

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Assembly District 47 covers Fitchburg and parts of Southeastern Dane County, from Stoughton, McFarland, the towns of Rutland, Dunn, Dunkirk, Albion, and Pleasant Springs. It’s both urban and rural, with sprawling suburban subdivisions and dense apartment complexes.

Joe Maldonado is a candidate running to represent this area in the Wisconsin legislature. On today’s show, he speaks with host Carousel Bayrd about his priorities for the district. Maldonado currently serves on the Fitchburg City Council and has a background in youth development. He says he wants to be a voice for historically underrepresented and working class voters. And he believes that “youth have the ideas, and youth have the solutions.”

As Dane County grows, Maldonado says it’s important for municipalities to control their own transit systems and to find ways to use the 3 billion dollar state surplus toward youth programming, like the new teen center in Fitchburg. He wants to keep legislators from drawing gerrymandered districts again. Joe says that voters he talks to care about reproductive rights, legalizing cannabis, expanding healthcare, and supporting teachers and students. 

Joe Maldonado was born in Milwaukee to a working class family. He participated in precollege programming through the YMCA in Milwaukee before becoming involved in youth programming himself. He has worked for the United Way of Dane County and now serves as the bilingual community youth development program manager for the University of Wisconsin-Extension. 

Note: Candidate Randy Udell declined to be interviewed about the race.

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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“I want destination Madison to also be destination MMSD,” says new Superintendent Joe Gothard. He joins host Douglas Haynes today to talk about his vision for Madison Metropolitan School District, Wisconsin’s second largest school district which serves over 26,000 students. 

Gothard returned to Madison last spring to take on this new role as Superintendent. The role comes with its challenges including a decline in student enrollment, a budget shortfall, and achievement gaps. 

Their conversation touched on MMSD’s 10 community schools, the role of public schools in supporting youth mental health, school safety, and the two referenda on the November 5 ballot. If approved, these referenda would increase MMSD’s budget and enable the district to replace or renovate 10 campuses. One of the items comes with a steep price for Madison homeowners, but Superintendent Gothard says that increasing the district’s operating budget would make it possible to really invest in students’ futures. 

Dr. Joe Gothard grew up on Madison’s east side and attended Elvehjem Elementary School, Sennett Middle School and La Follette High School. He launched his teaching career as a high school biology teacher at La Follette. Since then he has served as an educational assistant, a football coach, a principal, dean of students and as assistant superintendent for secondary schools in MMSD. Most recently, Dr. Gothard served as superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS), a position he held for seven years before returning to Madison as MMSD’s new superintendent.

Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.

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On today’s show, host Esty Dinur opens up the phone lines to hear from listeners. Callers weighed in on COVID, the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and the war in Gaza.

Have ideas for a future Friday edition of A Public Affair? Email [email protected].

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Allen Ruff discusses Israel’s military complex with author and political activist, Jeff Halper. They cover Israeli armaments, including F35s and training programs in the US, like the one at Georgia State University. Halper has written about instruments of population control and the use of Gaza as a “laboratory” to create “permanent pacification.”

Halper argues that you have to understand settler colonialism to understand what’s happening in Gaza right now. He defines settler colonialism as what happens when one population arrives in a place with the intent to take over. The occupying group then invents a narrative about why they’re entitled to the land rather than the indigenous population. In combination with ethno-nationalism, narratives of entitlement form the basis for Zionism.

Settler colonialism is a “unilateral” project, says Halper, who adds that we have to adopt an anti-colonial language. That means getting rid of the idea that there are “two sides.”

Jeff Halper is an anthropologist, Israeli anti-occupation activist, and founder and director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is also the author of multiple books including, War Against the People: Israel, the Palestinians and Global Pacification (2015).

Photo courtesy of Pluto Press.

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On today’s show, guest host Christina Lieffring speaks with Kavin Senapathy. In their new book, The Progressive Parent, Senapathy writes about how the “In This House We Believe” yard signs originated in Madison following the 2016 presidential election. Senapathy says that “whether or not someone chooses to display it around their dwelling, there’s power in its message for parents if we also act intentionally on these shared core values: science, truth, equity, and justice.” Their book is an exploration of what it means to live those values and raise children according to those values. 

In their conversation, Lieffring and Senapathy cover topics like breastfeeding, the “breast is best” slogan, and the formula industry. They delve into the ideology of biological essentialism and how this impacts trans rights, abortion rights, and racism. And they cover how the idea of biological essentialism appears at the Olympics. Overall, Senapathy’s book re-educates readers about the science of gender and sex, and it  argues for antiracist parenting rather than colorblind parenting.

Kavin Senapathy is an award-winning science journalist whose writing appears in SciShow, Slate, Scientific American, SELF, The Daily Beast, Salon, Forbes, and more. Their book, The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids, comes out August 6th.

Featured image courtesy of Harper Collins.

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On today’s show, longtime host Carousel Bayrd comes out of retirement to interview the three candidates for Wisconsin Senate District 16. The seat is currently held by Melissa Agard who is running for Dane County Executive. 

Because of Wisconsin’s new legislative maps, District 16 now looks a little different and represents a diverse group of rural and urban communities. It includes Sun Prairie, Cottage Grove, parts of North Madison, Fitchburg, Cambridge, Fort Atkinson, Stoughton, and even parts of Dodge and Jefferson Counties. 

Representative Melissa Ratcliff says that protecting abortion access is her top priority. As a candidate she also promises to support education, take care of teachers, fight for the environment and prevent gun violence. Rep. Ratcliff is currently serving in the Wisconsin State Assembly. 

Representative Samba Baldeh also serves on the Wisconsin State Assembly and before that served for six years on the Madison Common Council. He says that supporting immigrants, creating quality child care programs, and taking care of students and the elderly are top priorities. For Baldeh, access to broadband and clean water are issues that unite cities and rural communities. 

Representative Jimmy Anderson is a longtime advocate for disabled folks in Wisconsin. He also advocates for healthcare, environmental causes (from PFAS to flooding), and education. Anderson has served in the Wisconsin State Assembly for eight years. 

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