The teacher who lost her job after Derrick Van Orden attacked her right to free speech joins us. Krista Lesiecki talks about her experience and wants to defend her civil rights. Author Laura Bird comes on with reading recommendations. Bird recommends books with ties to this week’s annual day of reconciliation and remembrance of the harm done to Native American children forced into abusive boarding schools. She points to: “House Made of Dawn” by N. Scott Momaday, “My Heart Fills With Happiness” by Monique Grey Smith, “For a Girl Becoming” by Joy Harjo, “The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls” by James Bird, “Warrior Girl Unearthed” by Angeline Boulley, “Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology” edited by Shane Hawn and Theodore Van Alst, “Fire Exit” by Morgan Talty, “To the Moon and Back” by Eliana Ramage, “Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools” by Mary Annette Pember, and “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants” by Robin Wall Kimmerer. And we’ll visit with Civic Media friend Jane Matenaer in Milwaukee.

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