we discuss ConocoPhillips’ massive oil and gas Willow Project in Alaska's fragile western Arctic region

We discuss nuclear power in California, and the federal government's decision to approve conditional funding to prevent the closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the central coast

On this edition of Your Call, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Corey Johnson discusses Poisoned, a Tampa Bay Times’ series that exposed how Gopher Resource, Florida’s only lead smelter, endangered hundreds of workers and polluted the surrounding low-income community.

The company extracted lead from used car batteries, melted it down and turned it into blocks of metal to resell. The 18-month investigation found that between 2014 and 2018, eight out of 10 workers had enough lead in their blood to put them at risk of increased blood pressure, kidney dysfunction or cardiovascular disease. How have politicians and government regulators responded to this investigation?

Darius Coombs, a Mashpee Wampanoag, joins us to discuss the history of his people and the first English settlers who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620.

Indigenous chefs use traditional foods to heal people and resist colonization. We'll find out more about the significance of indigenous food and where new Native-owned restaurants are opening up.

On this edition of Your Call, we’ll discuss the horrific shooting in Colorado Springs that left 5 dead and 25 injured at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub. The shooter was previously arrested in 2021 after making a bomb threat that led to a standoff with law enforcement. Could this have been prevented if police had acted sooner?

According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the United States so far this year.

We'll also discuss anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and legislation that Republicans have been pushing forward for years, which has furthered hostility towards the community. Throughout the midterm elections, many Republicans characterized queer and transgender people as “groomers,” and according to the Human Rights Campaign, there have been more than 145 anti-trans bills introduced across 34 states in just this year alone.

After ongoing pressure, wealthy countries agreed to create a fund to address the loss and damage caused by global warming in poor countries at the COP27 climate conference, but there will be no commitment to phase out fossil fuels.

On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we're discuss a new report by the Transnational Institute about how military spending accelerates climate breakdown. Seven of the top 10 emitters, including China and the US, are also among the top 10 global military spenders.

According to the Climate Collateral study, the richest countries are spending 30 times as much on their armed forces as they spend on providing climate finance for the world’s most vulnerable countries, which they are legally bound to do. Between 2013 and 2021, the richest countries spent $9.45 trillion on the military, compared to an estimated $243 billion on additional climate finance. Military spending has increased by 21 percent since 2013.

Guests:

Nick Buxton, researcher at Transnational Institute, co-author of the report, Climate Collateral: How military spending accelerates climate breakdown, and co-editor of The Secure and the Dispossessed - How the military and corporations are seeking to shape a climate-changed world

On this edition of Your Call's Media Roundtable, we're discussing the academic workers strike across the 10-campus University of California system. This week, 48,000 workers went on strike to demand better wages, housing support, childcare, and transit benefits. This is the biggest academic strike in United States history.

Workers say, "UC’s failure to support a diverse workforce undermines the quality of research and education. Compensation that doesn’t match the cost of living and inequitable working conditions are pushing scholars out of academia. We do the majority of teaching and research at UC, yet UC is refusing to offer us a fair share of the record-setting grant and state funding that our labor brings in."

Guest:

Iris Kwok, climate and transportation reporter for Berkeleyside

Ally Markovich, education reporter for Berkeleyside

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we're discussing Pelosi’s Power, a PBS Frontline documentary that explores Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s life and legacy, how she gained and wielded power across three decades, and how she faced grave challenges to her leadership and American democracy from Donald Trump and his allies.

On Thursday, she said she will not seek another leadership role in Congress to make space for a younger generation of Democrats, but she will remain in the House as the Representative of San Francisco.

Her announcement comes after Republicans took back the House with a slim majority. Their first order of business was to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

Guests:

Michael Kirk, award winning documentary filmmaker and director of Pelosi’s Power

Arthur Delaney, reporter for HuffPost covering politics and the economy