Forward Radio podcasts

Dee Pregliasco, former President of the Louisville League of Women Voters, former District Court Judge, attorney retired from practice and currently Mediator, explores ramifications of a rush of voter suppression measures being introduced or having passed in Republican state legislatures, as well as the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility) which, as of this recording, has yet to be voted on in the U.S. Senate.

This is a talk given by Kyle Ellison on overcrowding in Kentucky's profit-driven county jail system and how county jails interface with ICE. Mr. Ellison is a retired parole officer, trainer for the prison/jail system in Kentucky and prison historian. He spoke at the St. James Episcopal Church in Oldham County on July 22, 2025.

Kyle-KY-jails-ICE 7-22-25~0 by Forward Radio

This week, your Sustainability Now! host, Justin Mog, sits down with Robert LeVertis Bell, a JCPS teacher who has recently announced his candidacy for the open Kentucky House District 43 race. Bell’s experience includes social justice activism, teaching in JCPS, and leadership in the Shelby Park Neighborhood Association and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). In late July, Robert LeVertis Bell, a community organizer and veteran of Louisville’s progressive movement, announced his campaign to represent Kentucky House District 43 in the 2026 Democratic primary. Bell, a 45-year-old West Louisville native, is a seventh grade English teacher. In 2022, Bell ran for the same seat and lost narrowly to incumbent Pam Stevenson, despite the death of his mother at the end of the campaign and the full weight of the Democratic establishment backing his opponent. This time, the seat is open, as Stevenson is vacating it to run for US Senate.

Bell is entering the race at a moment of rising momentum for democratic socialist candidates across the country. His campaign draws inspiration from New York Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani’s recent upset victory in the New York City mayoral primary, where Mamdani, backed by DSA and a coalition of labor and progressive organizations, defeated a prominent establishment figure on a platform of housing justice and public investment.

Bell’s political roots run deep—he is the grandson of Louisville civil rights legend Mattie Jones. He currently teaches English at Frederick Law Olmsted Academy North, an all-boys public school in South Louisville where Bell had also served as a JCTA union representative.

Bell’s platform centers around four key planks: strong schools, safe and affordable housing, and real political power for working people. His proposals include:

• Raising the minimum wage and cracking down on wage theft

• Funding high-paying jobs in public schools for professional educators to teach children with best practices rather than relying on screens and AI.

• Expanding union rights and collective bargaining across the public and private sectors

• Fully funding public schools and universal Pre-K

• Expanding renter protections, including local control over tenant laws and a pathway to rent control

• Repealing Kentucky’s anti-trans legislation (SB 150) and restoring abortion rights

• A Kentucky Green New Deal that resists data center pollution, reins in LG&E, and pushes for public ownership of utilities

• Securing local revenue authority for Louisville and reversing state interference

The primary election is coming up on May 19, 2026 and all 100 seats in the Kentucky House will be on the ballot next year.

More information on Bell and his platform can be found at https://www.bell4ky.com

Additional links:

Democratic Socialists of America: https://www.dsausa.org

Louisville DSA: https://www.dsalouisville.org


Forward Radio does not endorse any particular candidates or pieces of legislation, but we do endorse an informed electorate. We offer equal air time to all candidates for any given seat.

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

Hear more bizarre science stories for our 7th birthday celebration! An alien spaceship (looking like a comet) traveling towards our sun? Popping noises produced by plants, and the insects that can hear it? Macaques who like to watch the same kind of videos that humans do? Meteor showers, planets, and constellations in our night sky? A rock on the edge of our solar system that 'dances' with Neptune? Hear it all 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

Music ('Bienvenue au cirque' by Jean-Paul V) is a public-domain piece provided by pixabay.com.

On this week's program, we bring you a community conversation about the environmental impacts of Kentucky's aluminum industry brought to you by the Kentucky Chapter of the Sierra Club (https://sierraclub.org/kentucky). Because aluminum is lightweight, durable, and highly recyclable, it’s a key ingredient in solar panels and wind turbines, more efficient cars and planes, and construction and packaging materials. Demand for the metal is set to skyrocket, bolstering the hopes of companies and policymakers for a U.S. industrial turnaround. As aluminum gains the spotlight, the negative impacts of its production are also becoming more apparent.

Sierra Club Kentucky has been collaborating with the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), a national organization that ensures the enforcement of laws protecting clean air and water (https://www.environmentalintegrity.org). As the demand for aluminum grows — in particular for use in clean energy and transportation — EIP and other environmental groups are taking action so that aluminum producing companies will reduce the harm they cause to communities and the environment. Two of the seven U.S. aluminum smelters are in Kentucky: Century Sebree in Henderson County and Century Hawesville in Hancock County. Both facilities have violated air and water standards many times.

In 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that Sebree smelter was largely to blame for excessive levels of the area’s releases of sulfur dioxide, a very harmful pollutant. Unfortunately, the KY Department of Environmental Protection has missed a required deadline to submit a plan to solve this problem, and EPA has missed a deadline to address the state’s failure. EIP is interested in sharing information with Western Kentucky residents and learning about any concerns you may have with air and water quality in the area and the impacts of aluminum production. EIP and Sierra Club held this online information meeting on January 17, 2024 featuring speakers Nadia Steinzor and Sunny Lee of the Environmental Integrity Project.

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!

This week, your Sustainability Now! host, Justin Mog, puts on his overalls and gets in the fields with Stephen Bartlett, director of one of Forward Radio’s proud Community Partners, Sustainable Agriculture Louisville (SAL). Tune in for an update on SAL’s work cultivating community around Native American “Three-Sisters” plots of corn, squash, and beans. In addition to SAL’s annual plot out at Barr Farms in Breckinridge County, Stephen helped plant a full one-acre plot at the Common Earth Garden Incubator farm as a "Social Enterprise" and introduced a cohort of young agriculturalist aspirants with KSU to the fun of planting the field. CEG plans to use the crops to market them for some income to keep our programs going, despite being "DOGE'ed" and having significant funding discontinued and likely grants cancelled because of anti-DEI measures.

Fortunately SAL has funding to continue working to support urban and peri-urban farmers in expanding their production, and marketing of crops including very promising medicinal species favored by Asian and African growers. SAL is accompanying increased local production and dissemination of knowledge about medicinal and high nutrition plants. They are working to increase land access for subsistence food production and building community resilience through expanded localized agriculture with intercultural linguistic justice and trauma-informed organizing. Learn more and support the work at https://salouisville.org


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

Timothy Eugene Findley, Jr. is a visionary pastor, seasoned leader, and lifelong advocate for justice and community transformation. He serves as the Senior Pastor of Kingdom Fellowship Christian Life Center & Kingdom Fellowship South Central, and is also the CEO of ElderServe, the largest senior center dedicated solely to senior services in the state of Kentucky. In addition, he is the founder of Life Development Corporation, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting underserved communities through empowerment and innovation, and the co-owner of Precious Memories Funeral Home in Louisville, KY. He is the founder of the Justice and Freedom Coalition, through which he has organized and led dozens of non-violent protests, voter education drives, and demonstrations focused on equity and systemic change.

Pastor Findley was a 2022 candidate for Mayor of Louisville, running on a platform that sought to build a city where every person is seen, heard, respected, and valued—he has been honored as a West Louisville Connector, a 2025 Louisville Business First Health Care Hero, and the 2023 recipient of the Health Equity Impact Award at the CEOC Optimize Conference

On this week's show, we bring you an informed community conversation about brownfield contaminants at the site of Perry Elementary School in the West End (755 Dixie Hwy, at Broadway). This conversation with Audrey Ernstberger of the Kentucky Resources Council was hosted by the West Jefferson County Community Task Force on July 15, 2025.

Perry Elementary is located on property that was owned and operated by Phillip Morris USA, Inc., and was a tobacco stem processing plant. The manufacturing facility used many chemicals that are considered volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that remained in the soil when Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) acquired the property. There are concerns about VOCs still currently on the school grounds after construction. If you missed the July 15th meeting at which Audrey Ernstberger, a staff attorney with the Kentucky Resources Council, led the discussion about this concern, you need to listen to this. The recording of the entire meeting is available here at https://transcripts.gotomeeting.com/#/s/d4a36bf5fc8d28119fe8f1e8a59c014cb8cce3193b49420161814284805769a1

Audrey Ernstberger is a staff attorney with the Kentucky Resources Council (https://www.kyrc.org). She graduated from Centre College and earned her JD from UofL's Brandeis School of Law. During law school, her energy law class and experience as a Resilience Justice Fellow researching equitable environmental access for vulnerable communities inspired her to pursue a career in envi-ronmental law. Shortly after law school, she pursued a Master of Laws from George Washington University Law School, attending classes and working as a research assistant to identify legal obstacles to preplanning electric grid development after a natural disaster. Before working for KRC, she worked for the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission as a Legislative Analyst for the House and Senate Economic Development and Workforce Investment Committee. Her advocacy experience includes her time as a Student Attorney at the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, where she and her co-counsel won a government benefits case on appeal.

Do you need more information about environmental concerns and legislation? Please read the “Summer 2025 Work in Motion” by the Kentucky Resources Council (KRC) found at https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:a79b7ed1-5c54-4776-9cca-8cea310b1b19?fbclid=IwY2xjawL5F1tleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFMZDRlY2dvTjUwZEZCd2hlAR4xBilIpk_7ajQQdJqCR51YnouHzHV-_rMMocd5ogXm0mVhJ3XpjheUAlIeUg_aem_NREmXRfdsVVHrwdQrHUM1g&viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover

West Jefferson County Community Task Force Monthly Meetings are held on the third Tuesday of each month (except December) 5:30-7pm online. The Task Forcebrings concerns and important information to residents and businesses about environmental, health and wellness issues that impact our communities. Topics vary each month. Join the conversation. Let your voice be heard and get the answers you need. Monthly topics are posted at https://facebook.com/WJCCTF. For more info, call Arnita at 502-645-3588.

And we hope you can join us at the annual Environmental Justice Conference organized by WJCCTF, which will be held at the University of Louisville on Saturday, September 20th from 10am-2pm. Registration and more info will be available at https://louisville.edu/sustainability/events/2025-environmental-justice-conference

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://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 learn, reflect and engage with participants who attended the annual International Conference on Critical Thinking in July 2025.