Hejira world music host Jeff Spitzer-Resnick interview of Beth Silver

Last week, President Donald Trump signed a bill to cut federal funding to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB) over $1.1 billion dollars. Community radio managers across the state and beyond discuss how their local communities will be affected.

Image courtesy of Indra Projects

Just because it’s a fantasy landscape doesn’t mean it can’t be mapped. Geographer Mark Fonstad joins us to talk about his mother’s work to map J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth and the new exhibit of fantasy maps.

We think of plants as slow-growing, passive entities. But new research shows they have a very rich inner life. Botany professor Simon Gilroy talks about his latest findings.

The Wisconsin Election Commission has harsh words for former Madison City Clerk Maribeth Wetzel-Behl’s handling of missing ballots in the 2024 election. Votebeat Wisconsin’s Alexander Shur reports.

Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a general, trauma and critical care surgeon who practices in California, spoke multiple times in Madison about his experience treating patients in hospitals in Gaza.

Dr. Sidhwa volunteered at the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, from March 25-April 8, 2024. He returned to serve in Nasser Hospital from March 3-April 1, 2025. He’s also worked in Ukraine, Haiti, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso.

Earlier this year Dr. Sidhwa testified at the UN about his time in Gaza, giving a firsthand account of what he saw and experienced working in that war zone.

"I am not here as a policymaker, but as a physician bearing witness to the deliberate destruction of healthcare, the targeting of my colleagues and the erasure of a people," he said, describing surgeries performed on filthy floors without anesthesia and children dying from preventable causes due to Israel's blockade of medical supplies.

"Let's not forget, this is a man-made catastrophe. It is entirely preventable," he told the assembled diplomats.

Dr. Sidhwa talked to Gil Halsted on WORT’s World View on July 27th about his experiences in Gaza, political disingenuity, how he came to volunteer his services in dangerous places and his choice of profession and practice.

If you missed him in a live venue or you want to hear from him again, here’s a chance to hear about his time in Gaza and how he feels about it.

On July 18, Esty Dinur interviewed Dr. Sidhwa on WORT’s A Public Affair program

http://www.wortfm.org/every-day-is-the-worst-day-in-the-gaza-strip/

This Wednesday July 30th is the anniversary of the start of the Real del Monte Miners Strike in 1766 in Mexico. The silver mines there were the site of the first strike in North America.  The workers won the strike, despite attacks from Recogedores gangs paid by mine owners and the arrest of strike leaders. 

Image: Monumento al Minero, Real de Monte, Hgo. Image source: Shared under creative commons on Wikipedia by Richardth

August 1 is the deadline for nations to accept Trump’s proposed tariffs or be subjected to exponential increases to the tariffs on imports from many nations across the globe. Since 2019, the US has been a net importer of food with Brazil, Mexico, and Canada being the major suppliers. Bert and Pete discuss what could happen if these nations retaliate with tariffs in kind and how that will affect the costs of consumers’ food supply.

This Week on Mel & Floyd: Luther [Luthor?] is back again as is Saga; A book about missing Madison gargoyles; About that South Park episode...; Gender scandal in France?; We’re the “Rats control everybody” people; A gargoyle tour AND a cheese tour; And other random topics; Notice something missing? For the complete Mel and Floyd Experience, buy the CD “The Very Best of James Brown” and play it on your Hi-Fi while listening to this podcast! Or listen live at 89.9 FM or wortfm.org/listen-live/ every Friday from 1 to 2 PM Central Time.

Photo courtesy Nadir sYzYgY on Unsplash

Esta semana en nuestro programa, investigamos las inundaciones mortales que azotaron el centro de Texas: qué las causó, a quiénes afectaron y por qué se perdieron tantas vidas. Desde la tragedia en Camp Mystic hasta el contexto climático más amplio, acompáñanos en este análisis especial.