Forward Radio podcasts

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, sits down with UofL alum Monica E. Unseld, Ph.D, MPH, founder and director of Until Justice Data Partners (https://www.ujdp.org/). Until Justice believes that data can be a powerful advocacy tool. Their mission is to support organizations in finding reputable data sources and providing suggestions for messaging around the data. Until Justice Data Partners also seeks to encourage more community-based research and community-based research partnerships, creating a community of justice researchers.

UJDP has several focus areas, including: Beauty Justice; FencelineData.org; Science Communication; Research United Data Core; and Data Consulting. And you can find helpful resources available on their website about: Safer Cosmetics; and Chemical Disaster Resources for Communities.

Monica recommends checking out https://louisvillecharter.org.

Stay connected with Monica's work by following UJDP on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/until_justice_data_partners/.

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

Sarah Stalker, a Democrat, is a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, representing District 34. She assumed office on January 1, 2023. Her current term ends on January 1, 2027.

Stalker (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the Kentucky House of Representatives to represent District 34. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026. Sarah Stalker's career experience includes working as a consultant with On Purpose Consulting, LLC, the director of community engagement and membership of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence, and a radio co-host with Crescent Hill Radio. Stalker has served as a foster parent mentor with the University of Kentucky, the advisory board of Aetna SKY Governance, and an education committee member of the Coalition Supporting Youth Advocates

A talk with economist Dr. Phillip O'Hara with the Global Political Economy Research Unit (GPERU) in Perth, Australia on one of his latest books, Long Waves of Growth, Hegemonic Power, and Climate Change in the World Economy. We also discuss various global economic issues such as current US economic problems regarding tariffs and slow economic growth as well as the rise of China as a global power. He also gives some insights into the current state of affairs in Australia. Please listen to this fascinating discussion.

This week on Truth To Power, we're listening back to a community conversation about the Urban Heat Island effect here in Louisville and the role trees can play in keeping our urban core cool. Back on June 10, 2026, UofL's Envirome Institute organized this event at Spalding University to welcome back to town Georgia Tech’s Dr. Brian Stone who has been studying the Urban Heat Island effect in Louisville and other U.S. cities for over a decade. Today you'll get caught up on the latest data about Louisville’s urban heat risk and the use of trees as urban infrastructure.

A full recording of the presentation is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toEh4kQ-f1c

As part of the Greenprint initiative, the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute invited Dr. Brian Stone of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Urban Climate Lab to Louisville to present the results of a new Jefferson County urban heat and tree canopy study to Mayor Craig Greenberg, Envirome Institute researchers, and more than 75 community leaders at Spalding University’s Egan Leadership Center.

The study builds on Louisville’s groundbreaking 2016 heat risk assessment—the first of its kind for a major U.S. city. In addition, Louisville is the first city to have commissioned a follow-up study. The findings showed that afternoon temperatures increased in nearly two-thirds of Louisville neighborhoods between 2016 and 2024, with some areas warming by more than 10°F and experiencing temperatures up to 20°F hotter than neighborhoods with greater tree canopy.

Researchers also found that planting trees in just 50% of the available planting spaces could lower average afternoon temperatures by 1.8°F, with some neighborhoods cooling by as much as 7°F. These findings will help guide Greenprint and other urban forestry efforts to reduce extreme heat, improve public health, and better manage stormwater while strengthening Louisville’s climate resilience.

A new StoryMap from our Urban Design Studio team provides an overview of the new heat risk and mitigation data and highlights some of the insights that can be derived from it. Please contact Sean Willis (cc’d here) if you’d like access to the data.

To learn more about the Greenprint initiative, visit: https://udstudio.org/greenprint

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 7pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://www.forwardradio.org

K.A. Owens interviews actor, writer activist Michael T.

Topic: Upcoming event Saturday Augusts 29, 2026- BLACK AUGUST.

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, gets mushy with a long-time friend, collaborator, and former Forward Radio programmer and leader, Robin Frederick! Robin is now the Owner & Director of the Kentucky Mushroom Festival coming up on September 18-20, 2026 out at Rockcastle Riverside, 4211 Lower River Rd, Livingston, KY. Robin was last on the program for a Live Pledge Drive broadcast way back in October 2018, but this week we are catching up on the Kentucky Mushroom Festival (https://www.kentuckymushroomfest.com/) and Robin’s personal journey in the festival world, since she’s also an organizer for the Kentucky Yoga Festival May 14-16, 2027 (https://www.kyyogafest.com/) and PlayThink Festival June 17-20, 2027 at Barren River Magic (https://www.playthinkfestival.com/).

But before talking festivals, Justin and Robin caught up with her sustainability journey! Listen into find out how Robin first got involved in sustainability and then she tells us about the Sustainability 101 class she now teaches at UofL, her PhD program, and her dissertation work on Digital Infrastructure and Uneven Development: A Comparative Study of AI-Intensive Data Center Infrastructure Siting, Governance, and Public Participation in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee.

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

In the leadup to the November 2026 General Election, attorney, community organizer and author Gary Lucks discusses "We Are the Power to Win the Future," his recently published practical guidebook and clarion call to all Americans appalled at the rapid dismantling of our democracy, to participate in getting out the vote and coming together to rebuild our crumbling democratic institutions.

Today we look at how the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants has affected overall employment patterns in the US. Two groups of economists have studied the issue and both report that ICE activity is hurting overall employment, even of US-born workers. Dr. Charles Hatten (Bellarmine University) describes their results, and comments on other ways that administration policies are affecting the economy. These two reports are available at: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/ice-enforcement-employment-effects-us-cities/ and https://www.nber.org/papers/w35129. You might need to register with NBER to get access to their full study.

‘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 .

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a community conversation organized by the West Jefferson County Community Task Force (WJCCTF) around the Green Heart Louisville Project and efforts to resist the development of hyperscale data centers. This community meeting was held online on Tuesday, August 18, 2026 at 5:30pm. The featured speakers were:

Ted Smith, PhD, Professor of Environmental Medicine at the University of Louisville, who lead the conversation on the Green Heart Project, a clinical trial by the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, to learn how trees can reduce air pollution and lower specific health risks.

Ashley Wilmes, Executive Director at the Kentucky Resource Council, who lead the conversation on Data Centers.

At the end, we hear about the upcoming 10th Annual Environmental Justice Conference organized by WJCCTF for Saturday, September 12th 9:30am-2pm at Simmons College of Kentucky (1000 S 4th St) or you can join virtually. The conference will be free this year and it includes breakfast and lunch. Learn more and register at https://2026ejconf.eventbrite.com

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 7pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://www.forwardradio.org

Patty and Brian discuss questioning strategies associated with critical thinking practice.