Forward Radio podcasts

Dr. Caroline Driscoll-Braden (University of Louisville) discusses the evolution of empathy in animals. Do rats of one strain care about rats of a different strain? Then, Dr. Dave Robinson (Bellarmine University) provides an update on Mpox (formerly known as Monkeypox). Is Mpox resurging in Chicago? And Professor Scott Miller tells us about the planets, stars, meteor showers, and constellations we can see in the night sky during the month of July. In what part of the sky is our galaxy's black hole?

‘Bench Talk: The Week in Science’ is a weekly program that airs on WFMP Louisville FORward Radio 106.5 FM (forwardradio.org) every Monday at 7:30 pm, Tuesday at 11:30 am, and Wednesday at 7:30 am.

Visit our Facebook page for links to the articles discussed in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/pg/BenchTalkRadio/posts/?ref=page_internal

Patty and Brian discuss A.I! Again!

On this week’s Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, continues an exciting summer series of interviews with local women/fem artists who are all engaged in some form of struggle for social justice and are all featured in an engaging temporary exhibit called “We Don’t Wither,” on display at the Muhammad Ali Center April 1 - December 18, 2023. We Don’t Wither examines the intersection of art and activism.

The artists featured in this exhibit have created art that responds to current socio-cultural and socio-political situations, lived experiences, and related current events — to see our world and our community through their unique perspectives. The intention is to celebrate the often unheard experiences, opinions, feelings, and perspectives from those who work, create, and fight in our city; to share their artwork and views with visitors; and to provide a space for conversation and reflection. This exhibit is included in the regular price of admission, but you can see the exhibit for free and meet the artists themselves during any of the upcoming ARTIST SHOWCASES:

Shauntrice Martin July 29

LaNia Roberts August 12

Joanne Weis August 26

Morgan McGill September 30

Nikki Douglas October 28

Learn more at: https://alicenter.org/muhammad-ali-center-announces-new-temporary-exhibit-featuring-louisville-area-artists/

This week, we sit down with Joanne Weis, a textile artist in Louisville whose work can be found in numerous private collections internationally. After retiring from a full career as a social worker, she graduated with a Masters Degree from the University of Louisville Fine Arts program. In addition to creating fiber art, she juries and curates shows, teaches and promotes appreciation of fiber and textile art within the community. Her stitched hemp fabric & kozo paper pieces in the We Don’t Wither exhibit explore four concerns that are important to her: racism, addiction, literacy, and environmental justice. Learn more about Joanne at https://joanneweis.com/

As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW!

Sustainability Now! is hosted by Dr. Justin Mog and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at http://forwardradio.org

The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at http://appalatin.com

This is the time of year when lots and lots of people travel so it makes sense to have a travel memoirist on our show. Kate Wickers is a British writer who has spent 25 years or so writing about her extensive travel experiences and publishing in magazines and newspapers all over the world. When COVID hit, she decided to turn her many travels with her husband and three sons into a collection of essays about what travel has meant to their family and the lessons they’ve learned from the experiences travel has given them.

Her memoir, "Shape of a Boy", offers a collection of really great stories that will make any parent who has traveled with children go down their own memory lane to remember both the highs and lows of travel when kids are involved. And we’re not the only ones who think her memoir is pretty awesome. National Geographic Traveller listed it as one of the “9 Best Travel Books for 2022.”

You can find Kate Wickers on Instagram at @wickers.kate and at her website katewickers.com

Follow us on Facebook at The Perks of Being a Book Lover

Instagram - @perksofbeingabookoverpod

For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Shape of a Boy by Kate Wickers

2- The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb

3- Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'Neal

4- The Marmalade Diaries: The True Story of an Odd Couple by Ben Aitken

5- The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders by Ben Aitken

6- Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

7- Da Vinci's Cat by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Dr. Miriam Pemberton is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies of Brown University. She formally directed its Peace Economy Transitions Project, focusing on helping to build the foundations of a postwar economy at the federal, state and local levels. She has studied the U.S. military economy and the means of shrinking it down to size for decades, first as Director of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament and then as a Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and as an Associate Fellow, she has published Six Stops on the National Security Tour: Rethinking Warfare Economies (Routledge, 2022). With Lawrence Korb, she headed the annual Task Force on “A Unified Security Budget for the United States,” which examined the balance of spending on military and non-military security tools and argued for a rebalanced security budget. She also headed a team that produced three “Military vs. Climate Security” reports comparing federal spending on the two security domains and arguing for a shift of security resources toward mitigating climate change.

On this week's program, we discuss the economic impacts of professional and college sports on Louisville with Dr. Michael Bewley, a lecturer at Purdue University on Economic Analysis, Biometrics, and Supply Chains. Dr. Bewley has a PhD in Economics from the University of Kentucky. He also serves as President and CEO of the Louisville-based Enalysis company, providing survey research and economic analysis for many types of clients.

Economic Impact is a weekly discussion and review of economic issues and topics at the national, state and local levels. There is a particular emphasis on items affecting the Louisville metro area and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The perspectives offered will be those from "heterodox economics." Heterodox economics, as opposed to orthodox or mainstream economics or "neoclassical" economics, is more eclectic in its approach to economics and allows pluralism of views and concepts. It also harkens back to when economics and political science were pretty much joined together in one discipline called political economy. Today's economists do not like the term "political economy", but Tom thinks they miss a lot by assuming that markets exist in a vacuum and that all consumers/people are either nearly perfectly rational or completely rational.

Professor Lambert is in the Economics department at UofL and has recently been assigned to their equine industry programs as an applied economist. Prior to UofL, he taught full time for Northern Kentucky University in their Master of Public Administration program for several years. Before that he was with the economics department at IU Southeast for many years. Professor Lambert has a MS in economics from UK and a PhD in Urban and Public Affairs from UofL with a concentration in urban economics and economic development.

Economic Impact airs on Forward Radio WFMP Louisville 106.5fm and forwardradio.org on Mondays at 6am, and Tuesdays at 11am and 7:30pm.

Dr. Judy Albert is a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist. Dr. Albert discusses women's healthcare issues with doctors Mike Flynn and Gene Shively.

K.A. Owens interviews retired educator and historian Jim Johnson and former military officer and educator David Campbell. Topics: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner Group, Russia and Ukraine.

Recorded Thursday June 29, 2023, 1PM.

We have a REPLAY episode for you this week.

Novelist Namrata Patel was on the show last June when her debut novel The Candid Life of Meena Dave came out. Just last week she had a new novel The Scent of A Garden hit bookstores. Both books feature complex multi-generational Indian-American families.

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Namrata Patel has been writing for 20 years, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that she had more time to work on it. She had always been interested in dual culture and challenges of the diaspora, specifically Indians who had moved to the United States. The isolation of COVID really brought home how lonely life can be if you don’t feel like you fit anywhere. Her debut novel The Candid Life of Meena Dave follows a photojournalist who inherits an apartment from a stranger. The apartment in Back Bay Boston surrounds her with a close-knit network of other Indian-Americans. Meena comes to learn more about herself and her culture, as well as understands the gift of found family and friendship through this experience.

You can find Namrata Patel on instagram at @namratapatelauthor, on Twitter at Nampatel or on her author website, nampatel.com.

Follow us on Facebook at The Perks of Being a Book Lover

Instagram at @perksofbeingabookoverpod

For show notes for any episode, go to our website at www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- A Room With a View by E. M. Forster

2- Six Days in Rome by Franscesca Giacco

3- My Italian Bulldozer by Alexander McCall Smith

4- The Candid Life of Meena Dave by Namrata Patel

5- Books by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

6- Leonard: My Life as a Cat by Carly Sarosiak

7- The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman

8- The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl

9- Word by Word by Kory Stamper

10- Tidepool by Nicole Willson

11- A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

12- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

13- Persuasion by Jane Austen

14- FBI/US Attorneys series by Julie James

15- Into Thin Air by John Krakauer

Movies mentioned--

ET: The ExtraTerrestrial (1982)

Shows mentioned--

Lovecraft Country (HBO)

THE SERVICES PLANTS PROVIDE

EPISODE #379 OF THE CLIMATE REPORT

We have a livable planet because we have a living planet.

If we want to continue to have a livable planet, we need to nurture the plant matter. We humans have eliminated about half the plant matter that previously existed on the planet. The key to restoring a functioning climate is to restore the plant matter. The plants will do most of the work, but we have to set the stage for them to survive and thrive.

In this episode we look at 15 of the services that plants provide, including the following:

- Plants make rain and nurture our water cycles.

- Plants help streams flow more steadily, thus benefiting all the ecosystems that depend on the stream.

- Plants cast shade, cooling their surroundings. This is true of smaller plants, not just trees.

- Plants enrich the soil, creating the conditions whereby plants, animals and fungi can get the nutrition they need and be resilient in the face of drought.

- Plants perform photosynthesis, thus converting the sun’s energy into calories for animals, and also providing oxygen for us to breathe.

- Plants transpire water. Humans perspire. Plants transpire. They thus make their surroundings cool and moist, so life can prosper and the rain can fall.

- Plants gather nutrients and turn them into biological form. This benefits the plant, and also helps the myriad other beings that feed upon plant matter.

- Plants provide food for caterpillars and birds.

- Plants provide food for pollinators.

- Plants regulate the climate, thus preventing excessive warming, flooding and drought.

Plants will do all these things for us. Our job is to act intelligently and set the stage for plants to thrive and prosper so that all living things, including humans, might also thrive and prosper. We can do this in our forests, our farms and our landscapes. The opportunities surround us.