Forward Radio podcasts

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, balances his checkbook with Tom Lambert, an applied economist at the University of Louisville’s College of Business, and the host of Economic Impact here on Forward Radio (https://www.forwardradio.org/economicimpact). In 2022, after years of robust modeling and analysis, a multi-institutional team led by researchers from Resources for the Future (RFF) and UC Berkeley released an updated social cost of carbon estimate that reflects new methodologies and key scientific advancements. The study, published in the journal Nature, finds that each additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere costs society $185 per ton—3.6 times the current US federal estimate of $51 per ton. Learn more at https://www.rff.org/news/press-releases/social-cost-of-carbon-more-than-triple-the-current-federal-estimate-new-study-finds/

In his research, Tom uses a tool called IMPLAN, which now helps us calculate damages from greenhouse gases. In preparation for this week’s conversation, Tom used IMPLAN to produce a breakdown for different industries in the Louisville MSA (Jefferson County and surrounding counties). As new climate disclosure mandates roll out across the U.S. and internationally, IMPLAN now equips businesses and institutions with the tools to meet them head-on. Their newest feature brings greenhouse gas emissions data to the IMPLAN experience, capturing carbon outputs by industry and region, and mapping them directly to your economic impact results. Whether you're supporting Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) disclosures, informing climate strategy, or benchmarking emissions in your region, IMPLAN helps you do it with confidence. Learn more about environmental impact reporting, on IMPLAN's blog at https://blog.implan.com/emissions.

In IMPLAN, GWP20 and GWP100 refer to the Global Warming Potential of greenhouse gases over specific timeframes. See https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials. GWP measures how much a particular greenhouse gas contributes to global warming, compared to carbon dioxide (CO2), which has a GWP of 1. IMPLAN utilizes greenhouse gas data, including GWP values, to analyze the environmental impacts associated with economic activities. GWP20 indicates the global warming potential over a 20-year timeframe. This timeframe prioritizes gases with shorter atmospheric lifetimes, like methane (CH4). GWP20 highlights the near-term warming effects of these gases. For example, methane has a much higher GWP20 (84-87) than its GWP100 (27-30) because of its shorter lifetime. GWP100 indicates the global warming potential over a 100-year timeframe. This timeframe is commonly used for benchmarking and comparing the environmental impact of various greenhouse gases. It offers a more balanced perspective of both short-lived and long-lived greenhouse gases.

In essence, GWP20 and GWP100 in IMPLAN are important metrics for evaluating the environmental impacts of economic activity by providing insight into the global warming potential of greenhouse gas emissions over different timeframes.

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

K.A. Owens interviews Robbey Taylor of Black Lives Matter and 50501. Topic: The State of Organizing in America. Recorded Saturday August 23, 2025, 1PM.

This week we bring you a vital community conversation about the impacts of Data Centers and LG&E/KU's plans to power them on our utility bills, our climate, and our environment. On the evening of August 19, 2025, Forward Radio’s proud Community Partner, the Greater Louisville Sierra Club hosted this conversation at United Crescent Hill Ministries with Elisa Owen, Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer in Kentucky.

Corporate energy giant PPL Corporation — parent company of Louisville Gas & Electric (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities (KU) —is pushing a $3.7 billion fossil-fueled expansion and justifying this as needed to meet surging electricity demand from data centers and industrial projects. Instead of making big corporations pay their fair share, PPL wants Kentucky families to foot the bill through higher rates.

Elisa helps us understand Kentucky’s Public Service Commission and the process of granting a CPCN (Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity), the issues around emerging data centers, and what we can do as citizen activists to help insure a clean and reliable electric grid that benefits everyone and can power our country into the future while reducing coal and gas emissions, improving public health, and mitigating the impacts of our changing climate. Learn more at https://sierraclub.org/kentucky

See also the July 30, 2025 Courier-Journal article, 'Who will bear the cost?': Utility rates could rise as Kentucky attracts data centers" https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2025/07/30/data-center-development-could-cause-utility-bills-to-rise-in-kentucky/85273453007

...and the August 8, 2025 article in the Kentucky Lantern, "Kentuckians tell state utility regulator to oppose new gas-fired power for prospective data centers" https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/08/05/kentuckians-tell-state-utility-regulator-to-oppose-new-gas-fired-power-for-prospective-data-centers

Another great resource is the Louisville Climate Action Network: https://www.louisvillecan.org/action/datacenters

Video recording of this event is available at https://www.sierraclub.org/kentucky/greater-louisville-group

On Truth to Power each week, we bring you community conversations 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://www.forwardradio.org. If you like what you hear, share it with someone, donate to keep us on-air, and get involved as a volunteer!

#244 Critical Thinking for Everyone! | Critical Thinking Coaching | August 21, 2025 by Forward Radio

Big crowds turned up at two public meetings to express their ideas, make comments and ask questions regarding what they would like to see happen at these flood-prone parks and other public areas along River Rd between the Big Four Bridge and Indian Hills. These meetings took place August 11 and 13, 2025 and were put on by the Louisville Office of Metro Planning, Metro Parks and the Department of Transportation. Everyone was encouraged to fill out an online survey by Googling River Road Land Use Vision Plan and clicking on the "We Want to Hear from You!" icon.

Dr Pat Murphy on his holistic approach to addiction treatment. James P. Murphy, MD, DFASAM is founder and CEO of Murphy Pain Center. He serves gratis as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He has earned a Master of Medical Management from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. He has board certifications in Pain Medicine, Addiction Medicine, and Anesthesiology. His Pain Management fellowship was at Rochester, Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic, where he also served on the faculty of the Mayo Medical School.

It’s a special live music edition this week, as your Sustainability Now! host, Justin Mog, is joined in studio by three local musicians who make up The Cottonwood Buds (https://www.instagram.com/thecottonwoodbuds). Rina Perlin is a lifelong singer and, for the past several years, also a practicing psychiatrist in Louisville. Jon Riesser enjoys all sorts of guitar, but especially likes flatpicking and accompanying folks in bluegrass and old time music - he plays guitar, banjo, a little harmonica, and sings in The Cottonwood Buds! He also does law professionally. Carolyn Waters is a vocalist and guitarist by night and a consultant for parks, outdoor programs, and ecology projects by day. The band is self-described as three buds playing folk-adjacent tunes in Louisville, KY. Three-part vocal harmonies with acoustic guitar and a few other novel instruments. Learn more about them at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561925151416

Tune in to hear The Cottonwood Buds perform a collection of three absurd climate change songs live in the Forward Radio studio! The set list includes covers of:

- “Vampire” by Neil Young

- “Waiting for Superman” by the Flaming Lips

- “Tables and Chairs” by Andrew Bird

After each song, we discuss the inspiration and the broader social issues these songs address.

Don’t miss your chance to see The Cottonwood Buds perform a full set of music out in the community at Deer Park Porchfest on Sunday, September 28th, from 2-6pm (https://www.deerparklouisville.com/porchfest)

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

Solutions to Violence features James Orlick. James Orlick is a higher education leader with more than 18 years' experience advancing inclusive excellence, social justice, and institutional change. He currently serves as Director of Grant Writing & Innovation for Inclusive Excellence at the University of Louisville, where he has helped secure millions in external funding to expand college and career pathways for historically underserved students.

A first-generation college graduate from McDowell County, West Virginia, James is a Pell Grant recipient and a proud member of the LGBTQ community. His lived experience fuels his lifelong commitment to educational equity, social mobility, and systemic change.

James has been a visible voice in Kentucky’s higher education policy debates, with his public advocacy against anti-DEI legislation featured in major news outlets. He successfully challenged the Kentucky Legislature’s violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act, resulting in a formal opinion from the Attorney General confirming the law had been broken.

His leadership spans cross-sector initiatives in diversity, equity, inclusion, workforce development, and place-based education. He has built partnerships with national legal, policy, education, and social justice organizations and helped organize a statewide higher education union uniting faculty, staff, and students.

James is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development at the University of Louisville

On this week's program, we bring you a vital community conversation about "War and Climate Change" hosted by Covering Climate Now on May 29th, 2024. In this conversation, we explore how conflict, war, and climate change are connected. Violent conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere are not only causing terrible human suffering, they are fueling the climate crisis. This press briefing laid out the connections between war, conflict, and climate change. War — and military operations in general — have a massive carbon footprint that is often overlooked. Meanwhile, the immense emissions of the world’s militaries are excluded from limits imposed under UN climate agreements. At the same time, extreme weather and other climate impacts can kindle armed conflict — both within nations as people from drought-stricken rural communities migrate to cities and between nations. Our panel will explore all this and more. The panel included:

Neta C. Crawford, Montague Burton Professor, University of Oxford and Co-Director, Costs of War

Rawan Damen, Director General, Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism

Ellie Kinney, Campaigner Coordinator, Conflict and Environment Observatory

Moderator: Giles Trendle, co-chair of CCNow’s steering committee and the former managing director of Al Jazeera English.

Perhaps most challenging for journalists is that war makes it hard to talk about the climate crisis in the first place. When guns and bombs are killing people, “the tyranny of the immediate” pushes war to the top of the news agenda.

Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration, co-founded by Columbia Journalism Review and The Nation magazine, encouraging more and better climate coverage. Learn more: https://coveringclimatenow.org

Get Covering Climate Now’s weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox. Subscribe at: https://bit.ly/39viEZd.

Watch a full replay at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XesH3Vyft9Q

On Truth to Power each week, we bring you community conversations 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://www.forwardradio.org. If you like what you hear, share it with someone, donate to keep us on-air, and get involved as a volunteer!

Patty and Brian discuss some benefits and pitfalls of generative AI for critical thinking skills.