Forward Radio podcasts

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you an important conversation about how our city can best respond locally to the global crisis of climate chaos. Forward Radio was the only media outlet to cover the 2023 Louisville Sustainability Summit - Livable Louisville: Addressing local climate risks through planning and design, that was held on Tuesday, Oct 17th, from 12:30 - 5:00pm at Louisville Visual Art, 1538 Lytle St. On today’s program, we listen back to a fantastic Panel entitled “Global Crisis, Local Response.”

As the number of dangerous heat days, periods of drought, risk of flooding, and wildfires increase throughout the state, city leaders grapple with how to improve community resilience and quality of life. Our moderator and panelists identify Louisville-specific climate risks and key strategies for addressing these issues and to improve the livability of Louisville. Speakers include:

- Moderator, Allison Smith is a Project Manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. She holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Louisville where she studied aquatic ecology. Her dissertation investigated climate change effects on freshwater foodwebs including zooplankton and freshwater jellyfish in lakes and the Ohio River. After graduating, she took a post-doctoral research position at the Center for Environmental Policy and Management and worked on brownfields remediation, environmental justice, and housing policy. In October 2015, she joined Louisville Metro Government as the Brownfields Program Manager. In 2020, she became the Assistant Director of the Office of Advanced Planning and Sustainability where she oversaw all climate change and sustainability initiatives for the city. In 2022, she joined the National Renewable Energy Laboratory as a Project Manager where she provides technical assistance on energy transitions to states, local governments, and Tribes in the Accelerated Deployment and Decision Support Center.

- Sumedha Rao is the Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. She is committed to catalyzing robust, inclusive, and collaborative solutions for a greener Louisville! Sumedha has a background in urban sustainability, environmental policy, and green building in the United States and India. In 2022, Sumedha was named a Future Leader by the Aspen Institute, among 100 climate leaders in North America under the age of 30. Sumedha holds a master’s degree in Sustainability Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

- Brooke Pardue is the President & CEO of the Parks Alliance of Louisville, a nonprofit supporting more than 100 of our public parks and recreation centers, two-thirds of which are located in underserved neighborhoods. She believes public parks are powerful green infrastructure that strengthen communities, improve health and the environment, and spur economic revitalization.

- Patrick Piuma is the Director of the Urban Design Studio at the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute. For more than 15 years he has been driven to improve the quality of place through the development of programs and projects that activate and pre-vitalize underutilized spaces. He has a particular focus on exploring ways to integrate nature into cities, understanding how the design and function of cities impacts health, and engaging the community with the goal to rebuilding the fragmented urban fabric of cities. Over the past seven years, Patrick has also worked as an urban designer for Hyphae Design Lab out of Oakland, California, YARD & Company out of Cincinnati, and the Louisville Downtown Partnership.

Learn more at http://louisvillesustainabilitycouncil.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

Amber Duke is a mother and trusted civil rights leader. Inspired by true American hero John Lewis at a young age, Amber has spent her entire professional career finding ways to get into “good trouble,” by shining a light on systemic inequalities that disproportionality impact Black and other marginalized people.

Amber has been with the ACLU of Kentucky for nearly 10 years serving as a key leader in the organization’s growth and visibility. During her tenure, she has worked as the organization’s first Communications Director, first Deputy Director, and is the first Black woman to lead the ACLU of Kentucky in its 67-year history in her current role as Executive Director. In each of these positions, she has worked to bring ACLU values to life through clear communication, transparent decision-making, and partnership with community stakeholders.

Amber is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions for her work including inclusion in the inaugural class of the Kentucky Gazette’s Notable Women in Kentucky Politics in 2019. She serves on the board of directors for the Louisville Story Program and is a founding member of Impact 100 Southern Indiana.

This award-winning documentary on the American Gun Divide has been re-broadcast here by permission of Trey Kay of West Virginia Public Broadcasting. It first aired in May of 2022 on the show series titled "Us and Them." You can find more podcasts of Us and Them by going to wvpublic.org.

Our guest this week, Ritu Mukerji, is a busy, full-time physician and a mother of 3, but she managed to find time to write her first novel, a recently published historical fiction mystery titled Murder by Degrees about a female physician in late 19th century Philadelphia. She was inspired by her love of the mystery genre as well as her experience living in Philadelphia while getting her medical degree where she would often visit places where female doctors had paved the way for other women to follow.

We chat with Ritu about why physicians can make good detectives, and she shares some of her favorite mystery series and the recipe for her favorite Thanksgiving side dish that’s been prepared in her family for over 30 years.

You can find Ritu on socials at @ritumukerji and at her website: www.ritumukerji.com

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.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

1- Murder by Degrees by Ritu Mukerji

2- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

3- Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle

4- Maisie Dobbs series by Jaqueline Winspear

5- Inspector Rutledge series by Charles Todd

6- Books by PD James, Ruth Rendell, and Barbara Vine

7- Kurt Wallander series by Henning Mankell

8- Truman by David McCullough

9- Grant by Ron Chernow

10- Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

11- The Dry by Jane Harper

12- Mother of Strangers by Suad Amiry

13- The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

14- The Mistress of Bhatia House by Sujata Massey

15- George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes

16- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

5 Star Read Recpmmended by Fellow Book Lover Amy @readthisandsteep - Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

Ritu Mukerji's family recipe

Cranberry Salsa

Cranberry Salsa

(adapted from Oakland Tribune, Nov 1990)

-2 cups cranberries

-4 tsp grated orange peel

-2 large oranges, peeled to remove white membrane, then coarsely chopped

-1/4 cup minced onion

-1/4 cup olive oil

-1 tbsp minced cilantro

-1 tbsp minced ginger

-1 small hot green chile (jalapeno or serrano)--stemmed, seeded and minced

-salt to taste

Whirl cranberries in a blender until chopped, then empty in a bowl. Add orange peel, chopped orange (drained), onion, oil, cilantro, ginger and chile. Mix well and blend sauce; add salt to taste. Serve, or cover and chill, as long as overnight.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODE PINK. She is also co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange, and the Peace in Ukraine Coalition. Medea is the author of 6 books including Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control and Ukraine: Making Sense out of a Senseless War. In 2010 she received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Prize from the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the 2012 Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial. She is a former economist and nutritionist with the United Nations and World Health Organization.

On this week’s Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, invites Pat Smith to the Thanksgiving table for a conversation about Community Engagement at the University of Louisville. Pat is UofL's Assistant Director for Community Engagement and, on today’s program, we discuss the ways in which universities can serve the city and live up to the motto “let knowledge serve the city.” We’ll give you a window into the somewhat daunting world of a large, public, urban research university and the many ways people at UofL work every day to make the world a better place.

You’ll learn how UofL is not a monolith and how its 30,000 different people are doing so much with and for communities locally, in the West End of Louisville, throughout Kentucky and our rural counties, and even internationally. Join us for this discussion of how UofL is striving to make the most of our mission as an Anchor Institution to serve everyone in our community and to spur economic and job growth.

Learn more at https://louisville.edu/communityengagement

For more on Davarian Baldwin's book ""In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities are Plundering Our Cities"" (Bold Type Books, 2021), go to https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/davarian-l-baldwin/in-the-shadow-of-the-ivory-tower/9781568588919/

And listen to Davarian's conversation on Sustainability Now! from October 2021: https://soundcloud.com/wfmp-forward-radio/sustainability-now-davarian-baldwin-in-the-shadow-of-the-ivory-tower-oct-4-2021?in=wfmp-forward-radio/sets/sustainability-now"

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

A conversation with Jason Bailey, Executive Director of the Ky Center for Economic Policy, on Kentucky school funding and how it has not kept up with the intent of the Kentucky Educational Reform Act passed in 1990.

Can we fight illegal Mexican Cartels? Dave Robinson describes some new research. Then, Mary Williams discusses the scientific accomplishments of Hedy Lamarr, one of the most famous actresses of the 20th century. Finally, Rob Weber interviews Hanah Carter (aka Maria Tori) of Bellarmine University in Louisville about her research on "The Relationship Between Habitat Quality And Biodiversity In An Urban Floodplain."

‘Bench Talk: The Week in Science’ is a weekly radio 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/pg/BenchTalkRadio/posts/?ref=page_internal

On this week's Truth to Power, we bring you a vital conversation on reporting and uncovering the facts about environmental justice concerns throughout the state and nation. In July 2023, as part of their annual Kentucky Environmental Leadership Institute, the Kentucky Resources Council (https://www.kyrc.org/) produced this conversation with environmental journalist, Jim Bruggers.

Inside Climate News Reporter Jim Bruggers discusses how he writes for impact and develops groundbreaking environmental justice news reporting using EPA tools like the Toxic Release Inventory, EPA FLIGHT database, ECHO database, and EJ Screen.

James Bruggers covers the U.S. Southeast, coal and plastics for the national nonprofit newsroom Inside Climate News. He previously reported on energy and the environment for The (Louisville) Courier Journal. Before moving to Kentucky in 1999, Bruggers worked as a journalist in Montana, Alaska, Washington and California. His work has won numerous recognitions, including best beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the National Press Foundation’s Thomas Stokes Award for energy reporting. He served on the board of directors of the SEJ for 13 years, including two years as president. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Christine Bruggers, and wonderful cat, Moo.

TRI Explorer https://enviro.epa.gov/triexplorer/tr...

Envirofacts https://enviro.epa.gov/

ECHO Database https://echo.epa.gov/

EJ Screen https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen

You can see the visuals referred to in this presentation on the video recording at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7x82rSQoCY

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 http://forwardradio.org

K.A. Owens interviews Colmon Elridge-Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Chair Eldridge reviews KY Governor Beshear's re-election victory in the Tuesday November 7, 2023 election.

Recorded Friday November 17, 2023, 3PM