A Public Affair

On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by friend of the program, Norman Solomon, to discuss the status of the Democratic Party. His new book is The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy and it is available for free online. Solomon says we need a stronger Democratic Party–a progressive Democratic Party–to stop fascism and prevent a Vance presidency. It’s not feasible to stop xenophobia and misogyny with neoliberal centrism, as with Biden and Harris’s campaigns, says Solomon. At the top, the Democratic Party is pro-military, pro-corporations. Too often, centrist Democrats work against progressives, as with NAFTA and the Crime Bill that  accelerated mass incarceration. Though Biden did some good work while in office, he ultimately folded when it came to the Build Back Better Act. Instead, we need strong Democratic leadership “that fights like hell for working people, children, the elderly, and the infirm.” They also discuss how corporate paywalls keep information inaccessible to regular people, how RFK is “viciously anti-Palestinian” and anti-democratic, Bernie Sander’s success in calling out plutocracy and corporate greed, Mamdani’s success in New York City, and the status of the DHS budget. Norman Solomon is a journalist, media critic, author and activist. He’s the National Director of RootsAction and the Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.  His book War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine was published in 2023. In a starred review, Kirkus Reviews called the book “a powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy.” Norman’s dozen other books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Featured image of the cover of Norman Solomon’s most recent book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Why We Need to Complain About Democrats appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, host Allen Ruff is joined by friend of the program, John Nichols, who is on the ground reporting from Minneapolis. He says that ICE is sowing a great deal of chaos; restaurants are empty and the atmosphere is tense. However, thousands are showing up to daily demonstrations creating a remarkable moment of dissent.  They discuss Nichol’s latest article, co-written with Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, “The ‘Donroe’ Doctrine: Trump Unleashes the Dogs of War.” Nichols says that our contemporary struggles have deep roots in earlier moments of US imperialism. He calls the US’s aggression in Venezuela an act of war, not simply a police action as it has been described. The fact that Congress has not been given a say in these actions, effectively makes Trump a king. Unlike Trump’s first term in office, this time around he’s very focused on international affairs, from kidnapping foreign leaders to threatening to bomb nations and more, says Nichols.  From Venezuela to Minneapolis, we’re seeing invasion abroad and at home, says Nichols. He sees hope in the number of folks, especially young people, who are talking about and engaging in general strikes. More and more people are dissatisfied with the Democratic Party and are looking for ways to counter a political system that is infused with money. They also discuss war tax resistance, mutual aid groups, and the role of religious leaders in political movements. John Nichols is the executive editor of The Nation, and previously the magazine’s long-time national affairs correspondent. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of more than a dozen books on media, democracy, and American political history. His latest, cowritten with Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. Featured image of an anti-ICE protest sign from a January 2026 protest in Minneapolis via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post On the Ground in Minneapolis with John Nichols appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean to find an Edenic scene that has since been mythologized. Today on A Public Affair, host Ali Muldrow is in conversation with Tao Leigh Goffe who charts this mythology in her new book, Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis. She writes about the legacy of slavery, indentured labor, and the forced toil of Chinese and enslaved Black people who mined the Caribbean islands for the benefit of European powers at the expense of the islands’ sacred ecologies.  Goffe bridges climate justice and racial justice in order to meet the demands of the present, from the pandemic and the Global Black Lives Matter movement to celebrity environmentalists buying private islands and the everyday complicity of owning an iPhone. She interrogates the colonial imagination that leads people to fantasize about island spaces as secretive, private, or grounds for experimentation. And she wants to turn away from notions of property and ownership, making the main characters in her book the Caribbean islands themselves, marijuana buds, mongooses, rocks, and more.  They also talk about who experiences the burden of climate change versus who is presented as environmental saviors, having reverence for land, plants, and animals, and the legacy of Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark. Goffe’s next project picks up with the theme of maternity and breastfeeding in the context of resource extraction and racialization.  Tao Leigh Goffe is a London-born, Black British award-winning writer, theorist, and interdisciplinary artist who grew up between the UK and New York. Her research explores Black diasporic intellectual histories, political, and ecological life. She studied English literature at Princeton University before pursuing a PhD at Yale University. She lives and works in Manhattan where she is currently an Associate Professor at Hunter College, CUNY. Dr. Goffe has held academic positions and fellowships at Leiden University in the Netherlands and Princeton University in New Jersey. She is the author of Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis. Featured image of the cover of Dark Laboratory, available from Vintage. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The Music of Caribbean Witness appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon is in conversation with SkyeGia Garcia and DaMontae January who work for OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center. They discuss their work and the larger issue of housing in Dane County, especially for disenfranchised youth.  OutReach works for the equity and quality of life for all LGBTQ+ people through community building, health and human services, and economic, social, and racial justice advocacy. Garcia and January work for the program, Everstrong, that provides resources for 17-24 year olds who are at risk of experiencing homelessness. January says that the program empowers young folks to find stable housing and jobs, sign up for insurance, and take on other adult responsibilities with confidence. Young people in the program should be given a second chance and they just want to be heard, says January. In addition to the Everstrong program, they talk about OutReach’s food pantry, meditation sessions, and anti-colonial yoga classes where folks can “get back in touch with their sovereignty and autonomy,” says Garcia. She says that the LGBTQ+ community has a strong culture of taking care of people and has consistently led with compassion, empathy, and support.  SkyeGia Garcia has been a community organizer since 2016. Her work has focused on anti-colonial awareness that connects to Indigenous struggles and liberation. SkyeGia currently works at OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center for a project that focuses on youth empowerment and housing justice. DaMontae January comes from a background of social work and counseling and has been working for housing justice since 2020. Currently January works as Program Director for EverStrong at OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center and has been there since 2023. Featured image: of DaMonte January, Dana Pellebon, and SkyeGia Garcia. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Everstrong Housing Program Sets Up Youth for Success appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes is in conversation with Jacob Hundt of Thoreau College in Viroqua and Grace Greenwald of the Springboard Foundation. They explore how the growing microcollege movement is becoming the antidote to the crisis in higher education. Contrary to the transactional, consumer-oriented nature of traditional education, microcolleges are place-based with small student bodies where students’ education includes manual labor and community building.  Founded in 2015, Thoreau College offers immersive gap year programs, internships, and short courses for young adults that integrate academic studies, hands-on manual work, wilderness expeditions, arts and crafts, and engaged community life. Thoreau College is Wisconsin’s only microcollege, but there is a growing interest in this phenomena in the state. The school offers semester-length programs and admits around 8-15 students with several interns learning about teaching. It’s broad, holistic, and immersive, says Hundt. Microcolleges offer accessible entry into higher education for students, says Greenwald. She’s seen the movement growing in two ways: there’s a growing interest in founding microcolleges around the country, particularly in rural areas and existing colleges are increasingly connecting with each other on issues like decision making.  More and more, students are choosing not to go to college because they don’t see college as offering a path to a purposeful life. Greenwald says that microcolleges are great at engaging students in resilient relationships and offering them real opportunities to be responsible to each other and their communities. Students work on self-governance and communal living and conflict is a feature, not a bug, says Hundt. Grace Greenwald is the Director of Research for the Springboard Foundation, which helps support the movement of microcolleges. She served on the early team building Outer Coast, a microcollege in the rural island community of Sitka, Alaska.  Jacob Hundt is Executive Director of Thoreau College, a microcollege located in Viroqua, Wisconsin. In addition to his teaching and leadership roles, he is the host of the Microcollege Podcast, a key platform for documenting this growing movement. He lives on a 10 acre farm with his wife and 4 children. Featured image of farmland in the Driftless region of Wisconsin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Microcolleges Build Resilient and Responsible Students appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On the day of a national anti-ICE general strike, host Esty Dinur is in conversation with writer Sophie Lewis about her book, Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation.  Lewis reckons with the white supremacy of bourgeois feminism but refuses to “be evicted from the house of feminism” because she doesn’t want to cede ground to TERFS, femonationalists, and other enemy feminisms. Meanwhile, Lewis wants to recover histories of anti-fascist, anti-colonial, insurgent, and undercommons feminism. Dinur points to women like Kristi Noem, Pam Bondi, Caroline Levitt, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, and even Kamala Harris who have supported wars all over the world, and wonders, “are these the women I’ve fought for?” Lewis also discusses the right to pleasure within the gender liberation struggle, the mythology of feminist figures like Mary Wollstonecraft and May French Sheldon, “feminist misogyny,” and family liberation. Sophie Lewis is a self described ex-academic, writer, left activist and adoptive Philadelphian (transplanted from Europe). She is the author of several books, including Full Surrogacy Now, Abolish the Family, Enemy Feminisms, and the forthcoming essay collection FEMMEPHILIA. Sophie’s essays also appear everywhere from the New York Times to n+1 and the London Review of Books. She teaches short courses on social philosophy and theory online at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, and you can find her newsletter at patreon.com/reproutopia or browse her archive at lasophielle.org/. Sophie is currently working on a book for Penguin, The Liberation of Children (2027). Featured image of the cover of Enemy Feminisms, available from Haymarket Books.  Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Refusing Eviction from the House of Feminism appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Marking the first anniversary of Trump’s presidency, the White House released a statement, “365 Wins in 365 Days,” celebrating the success and prosperity that Donald Trump has brought to the nation. To reflect on Trump’s first year back in the White House, host Allen Ruff is joined by journalist Chris Walker, who says that the President has certainly transformed things but for the worse. Walker says that he’s most concerned about the rising authoritarianism of the administration and how Republicans in Congress seem to be OK with this. We have limited checks in terms of the judiciary, and no checks in the legislature, says Walker. Additionally, Trump is increasingly transparent about his intentions of being a dictator and desire to cancel the midterm elections. They also talk about the terror that ICE is bringing to Minneapolis, the general strike called by Rep. Jaime Raskin of Maryland, the resurgence of measles outbreaks under RFK, and Trump’s use of the term “environmental insurrectionists.” While it has been common in the past for elected officials to defend law enforcement, Walker notes that now ICE’s victims are being cast as “domestic terrorists” and described as “readying for a massacre” against DHS without any proof. Chris Walker is a news writer at Truthout, based in Madison, Wisconsin. Focusing on both national and local topics since the early 2000s, he has produced thousands of articles analyzing the issues of the day and their impact on people. He can be found on most social media platforms under the handle @thatchriswalker. Featured image of Donald Trump via Picryl. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The General Rubric of Idiocy appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

 On this show, we’ve been reflecting on the last year of the Trump regime’s attacks on immigrants. Today, we’re focusing on how activists are protecting their communities and taking care of themselves. Host Ali Muldrow is joined by two disability activists, Dr. Sami Schalk and Martha Siravo, who discuss how they balance art with activism and how they maintain joy as we’re bombarded with tremendous tragedy around the country. Siravo talks about her experiences in the adaptive arts space where she uses her wheelchair for adaptive ballet. Last fall, her aerial dance performance of “Defying Gravity” went viral on Tik Tok.  Dr. Schalk says that she’s approaching activism differently since the police violently assaulted her while she was supporting UW Madison students protesting the genocide in Gaza. She says there are many ways she can use her resources and visibility without putting her body on the line. Right now is the time to prepare and care and bedazzle gifts for friends, she says. They also talk about how to challenge assumptions about disabled peoples’ sexuality, how to create accessible spaces, and how they negotiate wanting to be joyous and find pleasure while also feeling overwhelmed by the injustice in the world. Dr. Schalk says that pleasure is a daily practice that happens alongside resistance and activism. Dr. Sami Schalk is a full professor in the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies at UW-Madison. She is the author of many books, and her research focuses on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She is also a working artist and has had her art displayed at the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York City and at Art + Literature Laboratory in Madison.  Martha Siravo is a disability rights advocate and founder of Madtown Mamas and Disability Advocates. She’s a single mother, whose daughter is in the sixth grade. Featured image of a bedazzled rose via Rawpixel. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Finding Joy Even When the World Demands Outrage appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon is joined by Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, author of the new book, How I Know White People are Crazy and Other Stories: Notes from a Frustrated Black Psychologist. Dr. Lassiter works in private psychotherapy practice and provides culturally relevant care for marginalized professionals. He is part of the mere 1% of Black male psychologists in the country. His memoir makes the case for better cultural representation in the therapy field and defines the theory of the “whiteness mindset.”  Dr. Lassiter says that he’s always been curious about why people do the things they do, and this led him to pursue a career in education followed by a psychotherapy practice. He describes his upbringing and the isolation and microaggressions he experienced in his graduate studies and clinical settings. He noticed that though the clinics he worked in were serving Black and Latinx clients, the vast majority of the therapists were white. And while working in the VA hospital in Indianapolis, he was the only Black male therapist. At that time, he read Toni Morrison’s Playing in the Dark: Whiteness in the Literary Imagination and went on to write a corollary essay, “Whiteness in the Psychological Imagination,” that became the seed of his current book.  In How I Know White People are Crazy and Other Stories, Dr. Lassiter uses diagnostic criteria to define “the whiteness mindset” as a way of thinking and being that values materialism, competition, and individualism, which all promote oppression. It’s a “distress producing phenomena” that hurts everyone and is making white people sick, he says. They also discuss other concepts in psychology, like “post traumatic slave syndrome” and “black fatigue,” and how Christianity becomes a weapon, especially when it comes to sexuality. Dr. Lassiter says he wants marginalized people, the global majority, to understand that they’re not the problem. His future work will focus on the Afro-centric and Indigenous psychologies as pathways to better, more healthy futures. Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York City specializing in culturally informed mental health care for Black, POC, and LGBTQ+ individuals and couples. With a passion to use his Ph.D.for the culture, he serves as a therapist, scientist, educator, author, mental health columnist, on-air mental health expert, and international public speaker. Dr. Lassiter has appeared in such outlets as NBC, PBS, Forbes, Huff Post, Radio NewZealand, SiriusXM, iHeart Radio, and more. Follow Dr. Lassiter on all social media platforms at @lassiterhealth. Featured image of the cover of How I Know White People are Crazy and Other Stories: Notes from a Frustrated Black Psychologist.  Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Dr. Jonathan Lassiter Defines the Whiteness Mindset appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes is joined in the studio by three representatives of Isthmus –Judith Davidoff, Linda Falkenstein, and Dean Robbins–who share their stories about Isthmus’s history and its arts and news coverage as the newspaper celebrates 50 years in the community. Davidoff describes how Isthmus was founded back in 1976 covering the local arts scene before it expanded to become a local news outlet. Robbins says that the newspaper became a home for alternative voices, the quirky, the artsy, and the hard news that didn’t find a home elsewhere in Madison. In those years, Isthmus was the only outlet working consistently with freelance writers, and it quickly became known for its award-winning arts writing, says Davidoff. Over the years, Davidoff says they’ve maintained their commitment to highlighting local voices, local events and news, and high-quality writing and editing. Their coverage of the Act 10 protests was a highlight of Robbins’ time at the magazine. Falkenstein says that when the magazine was located at 101 King St., the office had a “vitality” and energy that can’t be matched.  They also discuss the current journalism landscape and how they choose to cover protests and breaking news with a limited staff. We also hear from callers who share their memories of reading Isthmus over the years. Judith Davidoff is the editor and president of Isthmus Community Media. She led the transition of the paper to a nonprofit in 2021 and its relaunch as a print monthly.  Linda Falkenstein is the associate editor at Isthmus. She started at Isthmus in 1999 as special sections editor. Dean Robbins is a children’s book author and journalist who started as a freelance writer at Isthmus in 1983 and worked as the editor from 2009-2014.  Featured image of Dean Robbins, Linda Falkenstein, Judith Davidoff, and Douglas Haynes courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.  Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Reflecting on 50 Years of Publishing Isthmus Newspaper appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Today, host Esty Dinur is joined by Jennifer Loewenstein to debrief about the ongoing Israeli attacks on Palestine. They discuss what’s happening in Gaza and the status of the ceasefire and Gaza “Board of Peace.” Loewenstein says that nothing has changed in Gaza since the ceasefire except the intensity of bombing, which has decreased, but not ceased. She describes the partitioning of Gaza into green and red “zones” and the “yellow line” that marks the line of Israeli occupation. Over two million Palestinians have been pushed into the “red zone” along the coast where they are living in non-winterized tents in conditions that Loewenstein calls “abject misery.” Meanwhile the Rafa crossing remains closed and Israel is planning concentration camps for Palestinians. Loewenstein says that the ceasefire and the creation of the “Board of Peace” have been successful in keeping what’s happening in Gaza out of the news. She says that “it’s scandalous that no Palestinians are on the Board and after two years of genocide that what’s happening is a deeper entrenchment of the occupation.” They also discuss the role of gangs in the “red zone,” the deliberate targeting of journalists, and the wiping out UNRWA. Loewenstein says that what’s happening in Gaza is an expression of Western imperialism and the expansion of Israeli hegemony around the Middle East. Jennifer Loewenstein is an American activist, journalist, and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as The Journal of Palestine Studies, and she is a regular contributor to the CounterPunch magazine. Featured image of an aerial view of Israel’s destruction of Rafa via UNRWA on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post It’s Still A Nightmare In Gaza appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Though Wisconsin hasn’t been faced with the major ICE raids as we’ve seen in LA, Chicago, and Minneapolis, there is growing concern that ICE will arrive in Wisconsin. Governor Evers said this week that the state is preparing for this inevitability. To talk about ICE raids and the larger context of anti-immigrant sentiment in the US, host Allen Ruff is joined by Armando Ibarra.  Ibarra works with Voces de la Frontera, an organization with deep roots in Wisconsin. Founded in 1994, the organization responded to the displacement of people from NAFTA. Over the years Voces has helped more than 16,500 families create “family disruption plans” and has held “know your rights” sessions for more than 30,000 people across Wisconsin. Voces de la Frontera will be holding its annual assembly this weekend. Ibarra also discusses the US as a land of immigrants in a land of anti-immigrants, from colonization,  Westward expansion, and the Chinese Exclusion Act, to the present. Ibarra says that the US is no longer pretending not to be an empire, as we’ve seen with the Trump  administration’s aggression in Latin America.  They also discuss the Supreme Court ruling that legitimizes racial profiling, the reframing of protest as “domestic terrorism,” the rise of state-sanctioned violence against immigrants, and the 287(g) programs that deputize local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. Voces organizes a 24-7 emergency ICE hotline at 1-800-427-0213. Armando Ibarra is a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the School for Workers. He’s the co-author of the award winning book, The Latino Question: Politics, Labouring Classes and the Next Left. Featured image of the mural “Labor Solidarity has no Borders” (1992) by Mike Alewitz via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post A Land of Immigrants or a Land of Anti-Immigrants? appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States. In the past year, we’ve watched as Trump delivered on his campaign promises of “mass deportation now” with violent assaults on immigrant communities, most recently in our neighboring state of Minnesota. On today’s show, host Ali Muldrow is joined by scholar Sara McKinnon to talk about what has been predictable and surprising about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.  McKinnon says that the scale and speed of what has been put in place is unprecedented, from deportation flights, detention, to ICE raids. We’ve seen that ICE activity in city centers has become more visible, public, and long lasting, with sometimes months-long occupations and tactics that challenge what is lawful. The rhetoric that justifies mass deportation relies on a message of crime and criminality that has been popular with Christian nationalists. On Trump’s first day in office, he limited the Refugee Resettlement Program from 125,000 recipients to 7,500, which will be available to white South Africans. They also discuss the power and authority of ICE to kill at will, as with the killing of Renee Good earlier this month, the exponential growth of ICE forces and detention centers, and the racially motivated fear of immigrants that the Right cultivates. Sara McKinnon is Professor of Rhetoric, Politics & Culture in the Department of Communication Arts, and Faculty Director of Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. McKinnon has published three books, including Gendered Asylum: Race and Violence in U.S. Law and Politics (University of Illinois Press, 2016), which examines the gender discourse that emerged in U.S. immigration and refugee law between the 1980 Refugee Act and 2014. Her current research explores the dynamics of human migration in Latin America and analyzes foreign policy relations and rhetoric in a transnational context. Additionally, she leads a collaborative project aimed at expanding legal information about US immigration and refugee programs, as well as legal counsel available to migrants across the Americas, helping them to explore options for safe migration and residence. Featured image via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post One Year of Immigration Enforcement on Steroids appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

This Thursday, January 22, is the 53rd anniversary of the passing of Roe v. Wade, which was overturned by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022. On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon discusses abortion rights with two representatives from Free & Just, Veronica Ingham and Laurel Marcinkus. Free & Just is an organization working nationally to amplify the stories of everyday people and demonstrate the devastating consequences of abortion bans across the country. Free & Just was founded after the Dobbs decision as more and more people across the country started telling their abortion stories. Ingham says that storytelling is the most effective way to build support for reproductive rights, as she saw in her work in Ohio where the majority of people voted to protect reproductive rights. Now, there are over 300 abortion storytellers across 49 states, including 30 in Wisconsin. Marcinkus is one of those Wisconsin abortion storytellers. She shares her story of needing emergency medical care when she was pregnant with her daughter. Though her doctors recommended life-saving care, she had to wait hours before she could be induced. She lost her daughter and the situation further endangered her health.  Marcinkus’s story is representative of what happens to pregnant people in the absence of Roe v. Wade. And there are more and more pregnant people dying who can’t get the care they need, as a recent ProPublica article exposes. In Wisconsin, there are two “medical waste” bills moving through the legislature that would criminalize people who miscarry and do not “catch” their miscarriage and return it to a physician. Nationally, there are similar bills being proposed. They also discuss how the anti-abortion movement arose in response to the Civil Rights movement, how the Trump administration has effectively defunded Planned Parenthood through Medicaid cuts, and the misinformation about medical induced abortion. Even though there may be barriers to sharing abortion stories publicly, people can still find community by bravely sharing their experiences.  Veronica Ingham is the Managing Director for Free & Just, overseeing the team focused on protecting and expanding reproductive freedom and rights nationwide. Before joining Free & Just, Veronica most recently led the historic abortion referendum in Ohio as campaign manager, where Ohioans voted overwhelmingly to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution. Laurel Marcinkus is a Free & Just storyteller and advocate for reproductive freedom from Kenosha, WI. She’s a mom who was forced to wait hours for lifesaving medical care here in Wisconsin and now tells her story to spotlight the dangers of anti-abortion laws. Featured image of stencil reading “Defend Roe v. Wade” via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The Abortion Stories Behind Every Anti-Abortion Law appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by Alfred W. McCoy to talk about his latest book, Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage, available from Haymarket Books. His book offers an intimate portrait of both covert operatives and antiwar activists, thus humanizing a history often told in impersonal terms of nuclear arsenals or diplomatic ententes. Turning away from the usual focus of the Moscow-Washington stalemate, McCoy looks at the regions of the world where the Cold War was actually fought, arguing that Southeast Asia experienced the worst of Cold War violence. From South Vietnam to the Middle East, to Africa and Latin America the major world powers fought surrogate wars amounting to 20 million deaths.  McCoy describes how the US spread its military around the world and operated covertly in Afghanistan, Angola, and elsewhere. He says that the first success of “the man on the spot,” Kermit Roosevelt Jr., was in Iran where he helped to install the Shah in “a spectacularly successful exhibit of regime change.” McCoy says that we’re currently seeing a “radical shift in US geopolitical posture” moving away from “an international system of law and commerce to becoming a regional hegemony” as seen in what McCoy calls Trump’s “tri-continental strategy.” Trump has decided to concentrate US power in the Americas, from Canada to Greenland and Venezuela. He says that Trump views oil and power as synonymous, but this is a miscalculation on Trump’s part. McCoy sees the era of oil as over and the next horizon is in renewables and will be dominated by China.  Alfred W. McCoy holds the Harrington chair in history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since earning a history doctorate in 1977, his teaching and writing have focused on Southeast Asian history, modern empires, and the covert netherworld of syndicate crime and state security. Featured image of the cover of Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage, available from Haymarket Books. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post From the Cold War to the Trump Regime’s Geopolitics with Alfred McCo... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On December 14, hard-right candidate José Antonio Kast was elected as Chile’s president with over 58% of the vote. Kast built his campaign around the promise of expelling undocumented migrants and has been called the “Trump of Chile.” On today’s show, host Allen Ruff is joined by journalist Nyki Duda to talk about the political history of Chile and what led to the election of Kast. Duda says that what makes Kast different from other far-right leaders like Trump or Bolsonaro, is that he developed his career within the institutional Right in Chile. His father was a member of the German Nazi Party who fled Europe to avoid accountability for his crimes. Kast’s father established himself within the landed gentry outside of Santiago and, with Kast’s brother, was involved in a series of murders around the 1973 coup. Kast’s other brother was one of the “Chicago boys” who implemented neoliberalism in Chile. Kast has never renounced his family’s crimes and is poised to be the most right-wing leader Chile has seen since the Pinochet dictatorship, says Duda. There was a time in the 90s when Chile was seen as a model of democracy and economic growth in Latin America coming off the repressive regimes of the 60s, 70s, and 80s. But that dream has not come to pass. Duda describes the legacy of Pinochet-era “anti-terror” laws and attempts to rewrite the dictatorship-era constitution and the media misinformation campaign against the draft of a new constitution that would have created plurinational status for Indigenous tribes and introduced rights of the environment.  Duda also discusses the 2019 student protests and the violent government backlash, including the case of Nicolás Piña.  Nyki Duda is an editor at Al Jazeera digital and researcher at Lead Stories. As a freelance journalist, she covers migration, social movements and far-right politics. Her writing has appeared in Truthout, Jacobin, In These Times and more. Featured image of José Antonio Kast from 2009 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0 CL). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The Run-up to the “Trump of Chile,” José Antonio Kast appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

At a time when it feels like our social fabric is being torn apart, today’s show is about the power of art to pull people back together. Host Ali Muldrow is in conversation with Issis Macias, Lesley Numbers, and Emily Popp about the current exhibit at Art + Literature Laboratory, Pulling Together: Work from Madison’s Roundhouse Studios. Roundhouse Studio houses 47 artists, and each of their studios is like a little train car, “chugging down the track” to affordable and sustainable art careers, says Popp. Roundhouse Studios opened in January 2025 as a collaborative project between Arts + Literature Laboratory and Apex Property Management to address Madison’s critical shortage of affordable artist workspace. Popp says that the exhibit is a good display of the talent at Roundhouse, representing all different kinds of mediums. Even though everyone has the capacity to be creative, there are financial barriers to being an artist and our economy and culture make it hard for everyone to pursue the arts. Our guests debunk the myths about art being a solo, frivolous activity, and praise the ways that their colleagues at Roundhouse root for each other. They also talk about how motherhood is the inspiration for their artistic practices and why it’s so important to have studio space for their work. Numbers says that she first knew she was an artist when she was giving birth to her child. Macias says she turns to art for healing, and she embraces art as a refuge. She translates all kinds of emotions through vibrant colors and textures. They wind down the conversation by discussing the ways that their current political moment, including the killing of Renee Good last week by ICE, will impact their art.  Issis Macias is a self-taught artist and daughter of Mexican immigrants whose work explores the emotional spectrum of human experience through vibrant, intuitive abstraction. Born in Los Angeles and now based in Madison, Wisconsin, she began painting during a transformative period of motherhood and career transition amid the pandemic. Working with acrylic and oil pastels, Macias draws upon memory, intuition, and shared emotion to create her dynamic, layered compositions. She was named the 2025 Latina Artist of the Year and received the 2024 Micaela Salinas Artist Fellowship, sponsored by Latinos Organizing for Understanding and Development. Macias was also a 2023–2025 Bridge Work artist at Arts + Literature Laboratory, a 2023 Forward Art Prize finalist through the Women Artists Forward Fund, and is an active member of the Madison Art Guild. Her work is held in private collections across the United States, Mexico, and Europe. Lesley Anne Numbers is an artist, educator, mother and earth-tender, born and raised in Madison. She earned a B.S. in Art Education and an MFA in Printmaking, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her art practice is rooted in a sense of spirit, curiosity and love and her imagery is inspired by daily walks with her dogs, the living world, music, poetry and dreams. Currently, Lesley serves as Director of Youth Education at Arts + Literature Laboratory, creates art at Roundhouse Studio and helps run Polka! Press, a printmaking cooperative. Emily Popp is a fashion and costume designer, teaching artist, performer, and creator of the small handmade fashion brand The Popp Town Mall. Her artistic practice centers on the repurposing and transformation of found and secondhand materials. Emily’s definition of fashion includes anything worn on the body. She considers fashion to be one of the most accessible art forms, a means of individual artistic and intimate expression shared daily.  Emily currently works as a costume designer for the University of Wisconsin Opera and as Director of Adult Education at Arts + Literature Laboratory. Emily holds a Master’s degree in Fashion and Textiles from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Post-Baccalaureate in Fashion from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Featured image from the Pulling Together exhibit, courtesy of Art + Literature Laboratory. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Mother Artists Unite! appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On today’s show host, Dana Pellebon is joined in the studio with long-time Madison leader, Anthony Cooper Sr. the CEO and Founder of Focused Interruption which provides community violence intervention and prevention in Dane County. Their work includes mentorship, trauma-informed care, and direct support to survivors of violence and individuals seeking a fresh start.  Cooper discusses how his experience of incarceration paved the way for the work that he’s doing now with Focused Interruption and how he draws on his prior experience working for Nehemiah. He says that crisis intervention is important for everyone in the community, in addition to the victim and the perpetrator.  With Focused Interruption, Cooper works to address gun violence in a preventative way, though much of their work includes working with perpetrators of violence, navigating law enforcement and investigations, and community needs. This means pointing out challenges and moving toward repair in situations where “trauma is stacked on top of violence,” says Cooper. Community members are partners in this work, in helping the folks at Focused Interruption identify situations before they escalate.  They also discuss how important it is to show up in your community spaces in order to make a positive impact, what it would look like to have community rather than community policing, and how Focused Interruption takes care of its workers. Anthony Cooper Sr. is a dedicated and visionary leader, serving as the CEO and Founder of Focused Interruption, a pioneering organization specializing in community violence intervention and prevention in Dane County. His leadership is defined by a deep commitment to creating safer, more inclusive communities through innovative and compassionate approaches. Featured image of Anthony Cooper Sr. and Dana Pellebon in the WORT studio. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Anthony Cooper Sr. Paves the Way for Local Violence Intervention appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

Last week the federal government reduced the number of vaccines it recommends for children in the US from 17 to 11. The CDC made these changes without the approval from a federal panel. On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes takes a look at these changes and their implications for public health with two experts, Mary Hayney of the UW School of Pharmacy and Kia Kjensrud of Immunize Wisconsin.  They break down the latest 6 changes to recommendations for the HPV, Hepatitis A, Rotavirus, RSV, flu and covid, and Meningococcal vaccines. The difference is that now the CDC doesn’t recommend these vaccines, they say “talk to your doctor about them” through a process known as “shared clinical decision-making.” From the point of a published vaccine schedule, the CDC’s new recommendations make it appear as if these vaccines are optional, says Hayney. And the changes imply that there hasn’t been shared clinical decision-making, though it is common practice already, says Kjenstrud. At the end of the day, there is no scientific basis for these changes and the majority of parents still want their children to be vaccinated, says Hayney. For those who are skeptical about vaccines, Kjensrud says that vaccines are under strict scrutiny. More than 200 groups have joined the American Association of Pediatrics in calling for oversight for these changes. The rationale from the Trump administration is that these changes are in line with other countries like Denmark that recommend fewer childhood vaccines. Hayney says that there are significant demographic differences–in terms of size and diversity– between these countries to make it hard to compare. In addition, universal healthcare covers all citizens in Denmark. They also discuss the trust that pediatricians build with the families they care for, how measles and the flu are deadly and preventable diseases, school attendance policies, the misconception that physicians are making money from these childhood vaccines, and how insurance policies will be affected by these new guidelines.  Mary S. Hayney is a Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy and a Master of Public Health Program Faculty Member at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health/ Her research lab studies vaccine responses in immunocompromised individuals. She teaches immunology topics at the School of Pharmacy, including the immunization course for pharmacy students. Kia Kjensrud has served as the executive director of the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 2007. She is the interim director of Immunize Wisconsin, a statewide coalition supporting efforts around strengthening vaccination ecosystems at the local, regional, and statewide level. Featured image of a child receiving a vaccine. Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The CDC Endangers Public Health and Abandons Science appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

On Wednesday, ICE agents in Minneapolis shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. Hours later, immigration officials raided a high school in the same city; and in Portland, ICE shot two additional civilians. In response, the Trump administration has been blaming the victims and promoting new expansive definitions of “terrorism” to silence dissent. To talk about this, host Esty Dinur is joined by independent journalist, Ken Klippenstein. They unpack Trump’s recent national security directive which lists new identifiers of “terrorism” including expressing feelings that are anti-Christian, anti-capitalist, or anti-traditional family values (similar to this bill in Wisconsin). Klippenstein says that if you look at polling, these feelings are expressed by millions of voters. The effect of this directive is “bringing what was the global war on terror home,” by making enemies of American people. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s expanded these qualities of “terrorism” to include anti-Ice sentiment.  Klippenstein says we have to understand that federal law enforcement has been instructed to view impeding ICE actions as terrorism, and there’s no precedent in the US for this. Trump and Bondi’s directives create a psychological environment in which ICE agents can view their fellow citizens as combatants. It’s a world based in fear, one that MAGA supporters have been primed to accept as the dominant narrative by the media.  They also discuss the unpopularity of the Democratic Party and how top Democrats in Washington aren’t in touch with rank and file voters. Klippenstein says we should be skeptical of calls for impeachment of Kristi Noem and alarmed by Bondi’s directive to the FBI to offer cash bounties for “radicals.” Ken Klippenstein is an American journalist who previously worked at The Intercept before announcing his decision to go independent, believing the move necessary in order to report critically on national security. Soon after going independent, Klippenstein published the JD Vance Dossier, a hacked document numerous major media organizations — the very ecosystem he just left — refused to publish. Before The Intercept, Klippenstein was The Nation magazine’s DC correspondent. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Featured image of a group in Minnesota protesting ICE in 2018 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post The Global War on Terror Comes Home appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.