Cary Segall, "A Walk In The Woods: Voices From the Appalachian Trail" by WORT 89.9FM Madison

The city of Madison’s Office of the Independent Monitor will continue its role in police oversight, despite an attempt last week to defund the office completely.

But the OIM remains without leadership, after former Independent Monitor Robin Copley resigned in early October.

The Police Civilian Oversight Board, which oversees the office of the independent monitor, has narrowed their search for an interim replacement down to three finalists.

Image courtesy: Brian Standing / WORT News.

Wisconsin’s public universities benefit from an increase in next year’s state budget, but those added funds come with a catch; UW educators are intimidated over a proposal by state legislators that could enforce new workload requirements for teachers.

A mandatory 12 credit hours of instruction per semester could mean a heavier burden for educators, as well as more time spent away from research and student advising. The plan is also raising concerns over just how much power the state legislature exercises over the UW Board of Regents.

WORT reporter Gabriel Gibbons spoke with Becky Jacobs, the higher education reporter for the Cap Times, about her recent article shedding light on the implications for the UW system.

Image courtesy: Vitaly Gariev / UNSPLASH

Professor Anatoly Detwyler, an assistant professor of modern Chinese Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, came into the WORT studio to talk to us about recent China-U.S. exchanges in what appears to be an adversarial relationship. Perhaps a “trade war” or the end of one.

Amitabh Pal and Gil Halsted peppered Detwyler with questions and he answered, giving us a clearer idea of what might be happening and what we might expect to see in the relationship between the two big economies of the modern world.

China is an enormous country with a huge population (1.4 billion vs. the U.S. 347 million), so the conversation was fairly general but Professor Detwyler urged us to try to look at things from a Chinese perspective: China’s government wants access to the U.S. market and also wants to maintain popularity at home. It doesn’t want competition just for competition.

They also talked about the leadership styles of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, Taiwan in the future, Hong Kong, potential military clashes, Chinese students in the U.S. and bilateral cooperation. Professor Detwyler can pack a lot into a short time!

Anatoly Detwyler at the UW-Madison http://alc.wisc.edu/staff/anatoly-detwyler/

Last time he was at WORT: http://www.wortfm.org/civilizations-dont-clash-empires-do/

Anatoly Detwyler’s book recommendation: Breakneck: China's quest to engineer the future by Dan Wang http://wwnorton.com/books/9781324106036

Transgender Day of Remembrance, November 20th, has been observed since 1999 to commemorate transgender people who have been murdered because of their gender identities or expression. The day was initiated by friends of a murdered transgender African American, Rita Hester In the Boston area. The Past Isn’t Past’s Harry Richardson has the story.

Image shows Trans rights activist Sunshine Rainbow delivers a speech on the Capitol steps.

Image Courtesy: WORT Photo Archive

The Madison Public Library is three times as old as WORT, and it’s celebrating its 150th anniversary with the art exhibit to end all art exhibits, featuring 150 artists. We’ll talk with Bubbler maestros Trent Miller and Carlee Latimer.

Iguanas on a Mexican island get a reprieve from extermination. Turns out they’re not invasive after all. Organismal biologist Daniel Mulcahy tells us how he saved the day.

Wisconsin voters will elect a new governor in 2026, and the race is already on. The Monday Buzz kicks off WORT’s election coverage with an interview of Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez.

This week in local government, the county takes up data centers and heritage preservation, while the city considers some interesting changes to transportation and housing policy.

Brenda Konkel and Rebecca Kemble have the rundown, in this edition of “Forward Lookout.”

Hejira world music radio show host interview of Mehrnam Rastegari