Forward Radio podcasts

Have you seen the 1999 movie 'The Matrix'? Is it possible that humanity could actually be trapped in a simulated universe created by intelligent machines? Physicists recently weighed in on this question. And do you know about the phenomenon called 'earth wind' that blows charged ions from our atmosphere to the moon? We also discuss new research on how fast dinosaurs actually walked, and about killer whales (Orcas) in the wild who offer gifts to humans. This week's show features the fun, toe-tapping music of Tom Lehrer, renown mathematician/musician/comedian who delighted audiences worldwide with his rendition of 'The Elements'. Tom passed away in July at the age of 97, but leaves behind an exuberant songbook for us to enjoy. We play three of his songs on this episode!

‘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/BenchTalkRadio

All music on this episode is written and performed by Tom Lehrer who placed it into the public domain in 2022: https://tomlehrersongs.com/

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, rips out his lawn for an exciting conversation with Becca Trueman, a local advocate for native plants who is engaged with Kentucky Watershed Watch and Wild Ones Louisville. She serves on the board of the Kentucky Conservation Committee and is a former supervisor for the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District. She was a presenter at the October 17, 2025 Ohio River Confluence on the topic of “Planting for Change: Native Plants as a Catalyst for Restoration, Community, and Advocacy” (you can see her slides at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1reRX3EWIgie2k0AXBueCj3JbhUEQSRoJ/view?usp=sharing).

Listen in as we discuss how native plants help connect people, nature, and community. Cultivating native plants is an easy way to make a difference at home and small gardens and local efforts inspire learning and connection. We dive into the role that programs and partnerships play in making it easier for people to get involved; how community, education, policy, and business all work together; and why supportive city and county rules matter for native landscapes. But we also dive into larger scale change such as how restoration and native plants can grow local economies; how small efforts add up to massive collective impact; and how the same ideas that guide big restoration projects also work in our own backyards.

Becca shares these resources:

Kentucky Conservation Committee: https://kyconservation.org/

Kentucky Native Plant Society: https://www.knps.org/

Kentucky Invasive Plant Council: https://www.se-eppc.org/ky/

Kentucky Watershed Watch: https://www.kywater.org/

Kentucky Master Naturalist Volunteer Program: https://naturalist.mgcafe.uky.edu/

Wild Ones Louisville: https://louisville.wildones.org/

Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District: https://www.jeffcd.org/

Growing Natives KY-IN Swap Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingnatives

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 https://forwardradio.org

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

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a community conversation about “Generational Shift: An Assessment of Evolving Student Attitudes on College Campuses Towards Israel” that was recorded October 22, 2025 as a virtual event organized by the Oberlin Club of Washington, D.C. Tune in for this conversation with Stephen Zunes (Oberlin College ’79), Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco. Dr. Zunes is in conversation with his former classmate, Clyde Owan (Oberlin College ’79) from the Oberlin Club of DC who facilitates the conversation.

Few issues have seen such a generational divide in terms of public opinion than Israel/Palestine. Professor Stephen Zunes '79 will assess political changes in the United States and the region, review polling data, and share anecdotes from his experiences at various campuses to explain how student attitudes appear to be evolving on this important and controversial topic, why the issue has been so polarizing, and how the impact has challenged institutions and relations between students. Join us for an informative conversation.

Stephen Zunes has been at the University of San Francisco since 1995, teaching courses on the politics of the Middle East and other regions, nonviolence, conflict resolution, U.S. foreign policy, globalization, and the politics of war and peace. A prominent specialist on U.S. Middle East policy, Professor Zunes has presented hundreds of public lectures and conference papers in both the United States and over a dozen foreign countries and has traveled frequently to the Middle East and other conflict regions. He has served as a political analyst for local, national, and international radio and television and as a columnist for several print and online publications, has published hundreds of articles in academic journals, anthologies, and magazines, and has served as a writer and senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, an associate editor for Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun. At Oberlin, Stephen earned a degree in Government and earned his PhD in Government from Cornell University. Watch a full recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xeaGhzwYM4

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

A conversation with Marxian/socialist economist Michael Roberts on the current state of the global economy and where things may be headed. Are we in a period of secular stagnation or the "winter" of a long wave economic cycle. Is "time running out" on the capitalist economic system, and if so, what can be done?

Democratic Socialist Robert LeVertis Bell is Democratic candidate in the 2026 election for Kentucky's 43rd District. In this interview, he presents his ideas on how to improve life for Kentucky's working class and others struggling to make ends meet. Included in the conversation are his views on affordable housing, Kentucky schools (he teaches in the public school system), healthcare, his alignment with Democratic Socialism and other issues that he would support if elected to the Kentucky House.

A discussion of the book Decolonizing Economics by Devika Dutt, Carolina Alves, Surbhi Kesar, and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven with two of the authors, Dr. Dutt and Dr. Kesar. Their book outlines the biases within the field of economics regarding theory as well as the bias of economists in general. Too much of the economics discipline is filled with "eurocentrism."

Annelle Sheline is a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. She previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs (DRL/NEA), before resigning in March 2024 to protest the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israeli military operations in Gaza. She is a senior non-resident fellow at the Arab Center of Washington DC and a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. She holds a PhD in political science from George Washington University. She has written for Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and The New Republic, and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, CBS, and Al Jazeera

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, catches up with a local journalism legend, Marcus Green, former reporter at WDRB and the Courier-Journal, now striking out as an independent consultant as Principal at Greenlight Projects LLC. Marcus Green is an Emmy-award winning former journalist who spent more than 25 years reporting on Louisville, southern Indiana and Kentucky. In 12 years writing on the newspaper's business and city desks, he covered small business, agriculture, the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industries, the Ohio River Bridges Project, the KFC Yum! Center, and local housing and demographics. He moved to WDRB News in 2013 to become a digital journalist and investigative reporter. He left WDRB last month to launch Greenlight Projects LLC, a startup consulting firm.

Listen in as we discuss the state of local journalism and how it's changed, as well as some of the issues Marcus covered that dealt with sustainability -- like the Ohio River Bridges Project, the Bernheim pipeline/bypass, Urban Government Center, and others. Marcus and Justin reconnected in October at the Ohio River Confluence summit. They discuss this inspiring moment for the future of the Ohio River Basin, last week’s UPS flight disaster at the Louisville airport, and the upcoming I-65 closure.

Connect with Marcus at https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-green-0208a8374/

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 https://forwardradio.org

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

This is a look back at the history of segregated hospitals and health care in the United States.

James D'Angelo, founder of the D.C.-based think tank, Congressional Research Institute, explains the reasoning behind his (and his think tank's) push for more secrecy and less transparency in Congressional Committee meetings in order to, as his Institute's website states, "improve democratic outcomes with respect to race, justice, income and wealth."