Forward Radio podcasts

Steve Bartlett and our topic is Venezuela. Bio: Stephen is a student of languages, people and natural ecosystems. Son of a civil rights and peace making activist and an ornithologist, Stephen’s greatest adventures in life have involved smuggled rice seed, internationalist organizing and popular education. From New York to Dakar, from North Carolina to the Peoples’ Republic to Kenya, from Guatemala to Haiti, to Louisville to his farm in the Dominican Republic, Stephen has cultivated friendships on numerous continents.

Have you seen the 1999 movie 'The Matrix'? Is it possible that humanity could actually be trapped in a simulated universe created by intelligent machines? Physicists recently weighed in on this question. And do you know about the phenomenon called 'earth wind' that blows charged ions from our atmosphere to the moon? We also discuss new research on how fast dinosaurs actually walked, and about killer whales (Orcas) in the wild who offer gifts to humans. This week's show features the fun, toe-tapping music of Tom Lehrer, renown mathematician/musician/comedian who delighted audiences worldwide with his rendition of 'The Elements'. Tom passed away in July at the age of 97, but leaves behind an exuberant songbook for us to enjoy. We play three of his songs on this episode! ‘Bench Talk: The Week in Science’ is a weekly program that airs on WFMP Louisville FORward Radio 106.5 FM (forwardradio.org) every Monday at 7:30 pm, Tuesday at 11:30 am, and Wednesday at 7:30 am. Visit our Facebook page for links to the articles discussed in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/BenchTalkRadio All music on this episode is written and performed by Tom Lehrer who placed it into the public domain in 2022: https://tomlehrersongs.com/

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, rips out his lawn for an exciting conversation with Becca Trueman, a local advocate for native plants who is engaged with Kentucky Watershed Watch and Wild Ones Louisville. She serves on the board of the Kentucky Conservation Committee and is a former supervisor for the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District. She was a presenter at the October 17, 2025 Ohio River Confluence on the topic of “Planting for Change: Native Plants as a Catalyst for Restoration, Community, and Advocacy” (you can see her slides at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1reRX3EWIgie2k0AXBueCj3JbhUEQSRoJ/view?usp=sharing). Listen in as we discuss how native plants help connect people, nature, and community. Cultivating native plants is an easy way to make a difference at home and small gardens and local efforts inspire learning and connection. We dive into the role that programs and partnerships play in making it easier for people to get involved; how community, education, policy, and business all work together; and why supportive city and county rules matter for native landscapes. But we also dive into larger scale change such as how restoration and native plants can grow local economies; how small efforts add up to massive collective impact; and how the same ideas that guide big restoration projects also work in our own backyards. Becca shares these resources: Kentucky Conservation Committee: https://kyconservation.org/ Kentucky Native Plant Society: https://www.knps.org/ Kentucky Invasive Plant Council: https://www.se-eppc.org/ky/ Kentucky Watershed Watch: https://www.kywater.org/ Kentucky Master Naturalist Volunteer Program: https://naturalist.mgcafe.uky.edu/ Wild Ones Louisville: https://louisville.wildones.org/ Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District: https://www.jeffcd.org/ Growing Natives KY-IN Swap Hub: https://www.facebook.com/groups/growingnatives As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! is hosted by Dr. Justin Mog and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at https://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at https://appalatin.com

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a community conversation about “Generational Shift: An Assessment of Evolving Student Attitudes on College Campuses Towards Israel” that was recorded October 22, 2025 as a virtual event organized by the Oberlin Club of Washington, D.C. Tune in for this conversation with Stephen Zunes (Oberlin College ’79), Professor of Politics and Director of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco. Dr. Zunes is in conversation with his former classmate, Clyde Owan (Oberlin College ’79) from the Oberlin Club of DC who facilitates the conversation. Few issues have seen such a generational divide in terms of public opinion than Israel/Palestine. Professor Stephen Zunes '79 will assess political changes in the United States and the region, review polling data, and share anecdotes from his experiences at various campuses to explain how student attitudes appear to be evolving on this important and controversial topic, why the issue has been so polarizing, and how the impact has challenged institutions and relations between students. Join us for an informative conversation. Stephen Zunes has been at the University of San Francisco since 1995, teaching courses on the politics of the Middle East and other regions, nonviolence, conflict resolution, U.S. foreign policy, globalization, and the politics of war and peace. A prominent specialist on U.S. Middle East policy, Professor Zunes has presented hundreds of public lectures and conference papers in both the United States and over a dozen foreign countries and has traveled frequently to the Middle East and other conflict regions. He has served as a political analyst for local, national, and international radio and television and as a columnist for several print and online publications, has published hundreds of articles in academic journals, anthologies, and magazines, and has served as a writer and senior analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus, an associate editor for Peace Review, and a contributing editor of Tikkun. At Oberlin, Stephen earned a degree in Government and earned his PhD in Government from Cornell University. Watch a full recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xeaGhzwYM4 On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else! Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

A discussion of the book Decolonizing Economics by Devika Dutt, Carolina Alves, Surbhi Kesar, and Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven with two of the authors, Dr. Dutt and Dr. Kesar. Their book outlines the biases within the field of economics regarding theory as well as the bias of economists in general. Too much of the economics discipline is filled with "eurocentrism."

Democratic Socialist Robert LeVertis Bell is Democratic candidate in the 2026 election for Kentucky's 43rd District. In this interview, he presents his ideas on how to improve life for Kentucky's working class and others struggling to make ends meet. Included in the conversation are his views on affordable housing, Kentucky schools (he teaches in the public school system), healthcare, his alignment with Democratic Socialism and other issues that he would support if elected to the Kentucky House.

Annelle Sheline is a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. She previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs (DRL/NEA), before resigning in March 2024 to protest the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israeli military operations in Gaza. She is a senior non-resident fellow at the Arab Center of Washington DC and a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. She holds a PhD in political science from George Washington University. She has written for Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and The New Republic, and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, CBS, and Al Jazeera

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, catches up with a local journalism legend, Marcus Green, former reporter at WDRB and the Courier-Journal, now striking out as an independent consultant as Principal at Greenlight Projects LLC. Marcus Green is an Emmy-award winning former journalist who spent more than 25 years reporting on Louisville, southern Indiana and Kentucky. In 12 years writing on the newspaper's business and city desks, he covered small business, agriculture, the Thoroughbred racing and breeding industries, the Ohio River Bridges Project, the KFC Yum! Center, and local housing and demographics. He moved to WDRB News in 2013 to become a digital journalist and investigative reporter. He left WDRB last month to launch Greenlight Projects LLC, a startup consulting firm. Listen in as we discuss the state of local journalism and how it's changed, as well as some of the issues Marcus covered that dealt with sustainability -- like the Ohio River Bridges Project, the Bernheim pipeline/bypass, Urban Government Center, and others. Marcus and Justin reconnected in October at the Ohio River Confluence summit. They discuss this inspiring moment for the future of the Ohio River Basin, last week’s UPS flight disaster at the Louisville airport, and the upcoming I-65 closure. Connect with Marcus at https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcus-green-0208a8374/ As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! is hosted by Dr. Justin Mog and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at https://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at https://appalatin.com

This is a look back at the history of segregated hospitals and health care in the United States.

A conversation with Marxian/socialist economist Michael Roberts on the current state of the global economy and where things may be headed. Are we in a period of secular stagnation or the "winter" of a long wave economic cycle. Is "time running out" on the capitalist economic system, and if so, what can be done?

A conversation with Dr. Cecilia Rikap on the influence of Big Tech on the development and control of AI. Dr. Rikap is an expert on this topic and has been studying it for some time as a researcher with Univeristy College of London's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

James D'Angelo, founder of the D.C.-based think tank, Congressional Research Institute, explains the reasoning behind his (and his think tank's) push for more secrecy and less transparency in Congressional Committee meetings in order to, as his Institute's website states, "improve democratic outcomes with respect to race, justice, income and wealth."

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a vital community conversation with Chief Glenna J. Wallace of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma and Jordan Lubetkin of the National Wildlife Federation on the importance of indigenous perspectives to the restoration of the Ohio River Basin. Glenna Wallace was elected to the office of the Chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma in 2006. She is the first woman ever elected to this office. From 1968 to 2006, Chief Glenna worked at Crowder College in a variety of roles and received numerous honors and awards. Throughout the years Chief Glenna has been active in numerous organizations and boards in the community and for the tribe. As Senior Director of Ohio River Restoration at the National Wildlife Federation and Ohio River Basin Alliance Board of Trustees member, Jordan Lubetkin, has decades of experience in communications, public policy, and coordinating geographic restoration initiatives. Having worked on the Healing Our Waters: Great Lakes Coalition, he is very familiar with the success of sustained federal funding to improve water quality, restore ecosystem health, and support local economies through boosting recreation potential and maintaining commerce. In this conversation, Jordan explores the work that’s been done by Ohio River watershed stakeholders and partners, including the drafting and release of the Ohio River Basin Restoration and Protection Report by the Ohio River Basin Alliance, the National Wildlife Federation, and the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute. This report, for which Jordan organized and facilitated 31 community listening sessions across the basin and worked with regional tribal chapters to recognize Indigenous stewardship, reaffirm Tribal rights, and forge authentic partnerships to advance Indigenous policy and conservation, makes a case statement to support the need for federal funding in the basin. Chief Glenna J. Wallace, the chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, will join Jordan to discuss their shared goals and the importance of collaboration with Indigenous groups in restoration. This work will help ensure that future investments in the Ohio River basin are guided by community knowledge to address the threats and challenges most important to constituents. After their conversation, the floor was opened for Q&A. This conversation took place on October 18, 2025 at the Ohio River Confluence (https://www.ohioriverway.org/2025-ohio-river-basin-confluence). For the first time, the Ohio River Basin Alliance, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, and the Ohio River Way held a special joint summit in place of their individual annual conferences. This event was co-hosted by the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, and Thomas More University. The Ohio River Basin Confluence Summit took place October 16-18, 2025, at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville. The Summit brought together advocates, professionals, and water leaders of all kinds to learn, plan, and build a diverse identity across our important river basin. On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else! Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Did you know that the earth broke a seven-year pattern in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions to the atmosphere last year? Instead of increasing by 2.3 ppm per year (as it did from 2017 to 2023), CO2 levels in 2024 rose by 3.5 ppm! A 52% jump. Dave Robinson opines on the importance of the 'CO2 greenhouse effect' vs. land use management on climate disasters like storms, flooding, high temperatures, water scarcity, and sea level rise. Then, Leslie Moise introduces Rocky, the three-legged horse that has captured the world's attention. She reads a poem she wrote about Rocky and the people who are trying to help him. Finally, Scott Miller tells us about the planets, constellations and meteor showers we can see in the night sky in November. ‘Bench Talk: The Week in Science’ is a weekly program that airs on WFMP Louisville FORward Radio 106.5 FM (forwardradio.org) every Monday at 7:30 pm, Tuesday at 11:30 am, and Wednesday at 7:30 am. Visit our Facebook page for links to the articles discussed in this episode: https://www.facebook.com/BenchTalkRadio

As the weather turns and trees begin to go dormant, this week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, grabs a shovel to catch up with our friends at Louisville Grows (https://LouisvilleGrows.org). On the show to discuss the many community tree planting opportunities on the horizon are Executive Director, Christine Brinkmann, and Urban Forestry Manager, Colin Meadows. Tune in to hear about the new partnership between Kentucky State University and Louisville Grows to expand environmental workforce pathways in Louisville's West End by expanding access to training in conservation, urban forestry, horticulture, and community agriculture. Louisville Grows will support participants as they gain practical experience throughout the city and surrounding areas in conservation, tree planting, orchard development, greenhouse management, soil restoration, and sustainable agricultural practices, contributing to a healthier urban environment. Then grab a shovel, gather your friends, and join the Louisville Grows team at SIX tree planting events this fall to help grow Louisville’s tree canopy! • Friday, Nov. 7th & Saturday, Nov 8th, 9 AM - 1:00 PM - Glenview Neighborhood - River Road Tree Planting, 4301 Lime Kiln Lane: Outdoor Pavillion Help us plant over 100 new trees along River Road and residential addresses! To sign up and learn more, FRIDAY: https://tinyurl.com/Nov7Planting SATURDAY: https://tinyurl.com/PlantGlenview • Tuesday, Nov. 11th, 9:00 am - 1:00pm, Alberta O. Jones Park Microforest Tree Planting Wrap Up https://tinyurl.com/AOJWrapUpPlanting • Friday, Nov 14th, noon - 4:00pm - Cardinal Harbour Neighborhood Tree Planting, Cardinal Harbour Clubhouse near Goshen (1905 Cardinal Harbour Rd, Prospect, KY) To sign up and learn more, visit: https://tinyurl.com/CHPlantingVolunteer • Saturday, Nov 15th, 9:00 AM – 1pm - Community Wide Planting Day - Hazelwood Neighborhood Join District 15, Metro Forestry, Trees Louisville & Louisville Grows to help us plant 100 trees in the Hazelwood neighborhood! Trained Citizen Foresters will lead groups of volunteers to properly plant trees on public and residential properties. No experience is necessary, everyone is welcome to come play in the dirt with us! To sign up and learn more, visit: https://tinyurl.com/HazelwoodPlantingBOB • Saturday, Nov 15th, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM - St Joseph Neighborhood Tree Planting, Meetup: 760 Eastern Pkwy (Our Mother of Sorrows church) To sign up and learn more, visit: tinyurl.com/CommunityWidePlantingDay As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! is hosted by Dr. Justin Mog and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at https://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at https://appalatin.com

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a vital community conversation with Louisville's U.S. Representative, Morgan McGarvey (D-KY-03) about The Ohio River Restoration Program Act. Representative McGarvey is one of the co-chairs of the Ohio River Basin Congressional Caucus and is dedicated to Ohio River Basin Restoration through bi-partisan collaboration. In this session, Rep. McGarvey discussed the Ohio River Restoration Program Act with Michael Washburn, Executive Director of the Kentucky Waterways alliance. They discuss shared goals and challenges, and the next steps for this process, before opening the floor for Q&A. This conversation took place on October 18, 2025 at the Ohio River Confluence (https://www.ohioriverway.org/2025-ohio-river-basin-confluence). For the first time, the Ohio River Basin Alliance, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, and the Ohio River Way held a special joint summit in place of their individual annual conferences. This event was co-hosted by the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute, and Thomas More University. The Ohio River Basin Confluence Summit took place October 16-18, 2025, at the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville. The Summit brought together advocates, professionals, and water leaders of all kinds to learn, plan, and build a diverse identity across our important river basin. On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else! Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Patty and Brian talk about "dark tourism," testing many examples against their definition along the way.

Members of Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care, Kay Tillow and Dr Melissa Lucas discuss the differences between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. The primary difference being that under Medicare Advantage your Medicare Parts A, B and D are bundled into one, technically known as Part C. and a for-profit, private insurance company is given by Medicare, a specific amount of money per client to pay the client's medical bills, as well as the authority to determine which payments are made to your providers such as doctors and hospitals and specialists and therapists And which of those payments may be denied. The more claims that are successfully denied, the more profit is made by the insurer.

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, digs up some delicious fun with Matt Robertson, founder and owner of Clover Systems (https://cloversystems.org), which offers permaculture landscaping and hardscaping, home remodels, ADUs, and tiny homes; as well as a backyard permaculture nursery in the St. Joseph neighborhood. For the past five years, Matt has been working professionally as a carpenter, building additions, ADUs, and general home remodels. Usually working alone or with one partner, Matt has been directly involved in every phase of a home build many times over. Since 2018, Matt has studied permaculture and explored how it applies in the real world. He even lived off-grid and started a tropical food forest in Okeechobee, Florida, in 2020. Then, after returning home to Louisville, Matt founded Clover Systems in 2023 to offer solutions to our community by applying permaculture principles to local construction and urban agriculture. Listen in as we discuss the value of edible landscapes and Matt’s Louisville food forest mission; Clover System's backyard permaculture nursery; the new Preston Park Food Forest; and the permaculture construction side of Clover Systems, including the advantages of building ADUs and your dream of a tiny home cottage court neighborhood with edible landscaping. As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! is hosted by Dr. Justin Mog and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at https://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at https://appalatin.com

On this edition, host Ruth Newman held a microphone up to random participants at the NO KINGS protest, held October 18, 2025 in Louisville, KY, at the Belvedere downtown. Folks responded to questions like "Why are you here?" or "Do you consider yourself to be a radical leftwing terrorist?" or "Do you hate America?" Ruth followed this with some documented reports from the Brennan Center for Justice on Trump Administration moves to undermine upcoming elections. Also included are Ten Effective Things Citizens Can Do To Make Change in Addition To Attending a Protest.