Forward Radio podcasts

Our guest today is the playwright and author Don Smith. Don Ray Smith is a Published humorist, writer and storyteller. Don Ray Smith is the author of the theatrical production Growing Up White on Wilson Ave. He Has converted some of his best short-humor pieces to 5-15-minute performance pieces. Some accompanied by bongos. Don Ray smith has composed humor, features and profiles for many regional publications, including the Louisville Courier-Journal, Louisville Magazine, Kentucky Living Magazine, African American Journal, The Lane Report, LEO, The Cincinnati Enquirer and Louisville Business First newspaper.

Don Ray is a member of the Kentucky Storytelling Association and composer of the novel Racebook, or How He Found His Nubian Princess.

On this week’s program, your host, Justin Mog, digs in the dirt with Nico Phillips, an organizer with the Shelby Park Community Garden since 2019, a UofL Masters of Urban Planning student, and now, as of July 1st, the new Urban Agriculture Program Coordinator for Louisville Metro Parks! Tune in to learn more about Nico, what drove her interests in urban agriculture and sustainability, and find out how she got involved in the Shelby Park Community Garden, the Charles Booker Campaign, and eventually working for Louisville Metro Government.

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

Mylantha Williams and Angela Tamura who are the co-founders of Jacob’s Ladder, and Meg Stone who is Board President for Eden Village met me in the studio to talk about a project they have been working diligently on to build housing for people who are chronically homeless and want to change that. This show is in the public domain. It airs 3 times weekly: Sundays at 11am, Mondays at 8am, and Tuesdays at 2pm.

A look at Harris and Trump proposals and plans for the US economy.

Patty and Brian discuss strategies for helping address election anxiety for the upcoming US Presidential election.

In the few days left before the 2024 election, Election Connection host Ruth Newman invited Dee Pregliasco, former President of the Louisville League of Women Voters and retired attorney and judge, to discuss various election-related items. Included were voting information resources; where to find reputable and non-partisan information sources on candidates and issues; the two amendments on the KY 2024 ballot; a discussion of the rise in Authoritarianism and more. Ruth ended by presenting what she was able to glean from the Internet on candidates for Circuit Judge, 30th Judicial District, 9th Division.

Our website - www.perksofbeingabooklover.com.

Instagram - @perksofbeingabookloverpod

Facebook - Perks of Being a Book Lover.

To send us a message go to our website and click the Contact button.

You can find Alisa Alering at www.alering.com or on Insta @alisa.alering.

This week we wrap up what has been a month of seasonally spooky books with guest Alisa Alering, the author of Smothermoss, a book that is set in 1980s Pennsylvania Appalachia. It is the story of two sisters who witness a murder on the Appalachian Trail. It is a book that Amy discovered while attending the Columbus Book Festival this past summer. If you like magical realism or gothic fiction, you will definitely want to check this novel out since there is a sentient mountain. Nature truly is a character in the story.

Books Mentioned In This Episode:

1- Smothermoss by Alisa Alering

2- Ritual by David Pinner

3- Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham

4- Watership Down by Richard Adams

5- Every Bone a Prayer by Ashley Blooms

6- Where I Can't Follow by Ashley Blooms

7- A Five Star Read Recommended by Fellow Book Lover Dina @ddemaiosmith - Starling House by Alix E. Harrow

8- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow

9- Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

10- Assembly by Natasha Brown

11- White Teeth by Zadie Smith

12- The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister

13- My Dear Henry: A Jekyll and Hyde Remix (Remixed Classics) by Kalynn Bayron

Media mentioned—

1- What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu 2019)

2- What We Do in the Shadows movie (2014)

3- Wellington Paranormal (Max 2018)

4- Psycho (Netflix 1960)

5- The Wicker Man (Tubi 1973)

On this week’s program, your host, Justin Mog, takes a stroll through Louisville’s historic downtown neighborhoods with Steve Wiser of the Louisville Historical League (https://louisvillehistoricalleague.org) & Martina Kunnecke from Neighborhood Planning & Preservation. We discuss the important role of historic preservation and neighborhood planning in shaping a more sustainable future for our city and we take a deep dive into the future of the Urban Government Center in Paristown Pointe between Barret and Vine Streets, north of Breckinridge.

Steve Wiser published and excellent Op-Ed in the Courier-Journal on August 7th, 2024, entitled: "The Urban Government Center project was supposed to be a community asset. What happened? The city is permitting this developer to use taxpayer funds to eliminate blight that the city itself created."

Vacant since 2016, there have been three redevelopment proposals for the Urban Government Center (also known as the old Baptist Hospital site). The first ended in 2019, the second at the end of 2020, and now the third (with Upper Paristown Pointe Trust) has been dragging out for the past two and a half years.

Resident input, which was part of the community review process as required by the Request For Proposals (RFP), has been significantly reduced when many residents did not agree with UPPT’s major changes. Thus, most of the surrounding neighborhood residents are not happy campers. Instead of UPPT starting construction on its 2020 RFP proposal in 2022, the city has allowed UPPT to continue to revise its proposal to where it no longer meets most of the minimum required guidelines of the RFP.

Thus, far, the city refuses to 'listen' to the residents and implement what the residents want. An overwhelming majority of the residents want to save the open green space, part of the original hospital, a library, grocery, play area, etc.

Video of this conversation is available at https://youtu.be/lqh2b0fkABI

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

Cara Fitzpatrick, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who wrote for the Tampa Bay Times and is author of the book "The Death of Public School - How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America," spoke at the Louisville KY Main Library downtown on October 15, 2024. She presented the Pro's and Con's of using taxpayer money to fund private, often religious, schools (including home schooling) which is on the 2024 Kentucky ballot as Amendment 2.

K.A. Owens interviews Writer, Actor, Activist Michael T. Topic: 2024 Presidential election and who should or should not be be a male role model and why.

Recorded Saturday October 26, 2024, 5PM.