Shows
A Public AffairCelebrating 30 Years of Esty Dinur
On November 7,1995 – 30 years ago today– Esty Dinur hosted A Public Affair for the first time. Over her 30-year career, her show has been known for its critical perspective, focus on resistance, and fresh voices. That’s what host Carlos Dávalos celebrates today by swapping seats with Esty Dinur and asking her about her tenure on WORT.
Esty says that her listeners remain very important to her and that the topics that she was covering 30 years ago are still the topics she covers today. Her mission has always been to bring information that is not...
2025-11-0751 minA Public Affair“We Are Here” Says Palestinian Activist Ahmed Abu Artema
Ahmed Abu Artema is a Palestinian writer and human rights activist. He joins host Esty Dinur from exile to talk about the situation in Gaza right now. He discusses life in Gaza before and after October 7, 2023 and the Israeli propaganda that makes possible the ongoing genocide.
Abu Artema says that the Israeli propaganda machine is trying to portray the October 7 attack as the start of the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but the Israeli blockade of Gaza had already been in place. He discusses the non-violent Great March of Return of 2018 that gathered 100,000 peaceful participants who...
2025-10-3152 minA Public AffairRunning Joyfully Toward the Future
For the last 20 years, Rob Hopkins has organized community-led, bottom-up solutions to the climate crisis, from creating community energy companies to food systems. He joins host Esty Dinur to talk about his latest book, How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World, that draws on his career of community-based work and asks, what would our activism look like if we had a longing for the future?
Hopkins says that there’s so much to fight for and to demand that our governments do to serv...
2025-10-2453 minA Public AffairThe Struggle and Triumph of the Crimean Indigenous People
WORT 89.9FM Madison · The Struggle and Triumph of the Crimean Indigenous People
Today, Host Esty Dinur speaks with cultural anthropologist and professor Greta Uehling about her book Decolonizing Ukraine: the Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom.
Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea, made up 90% of the population of Crimea. Their language was the primary language spoken there until 1783, when they were subject to atrocities similar to the indigenous peoples of America; being removed from their land, dissolving their culture, and broken agreements. During World War II, the Third Reich took control o...
2025-10-1753 minA Public AffairHonoring 30 Years of Esty Dinur in your Ears
On the show today, long time-host Esty Dinur celebrates 30 years on A Public Affair. We flip the script and instead of Esty sitting in the host chair, she sits in the guest’s seat to be interviewed about her time on the air by Norman Stockwell. She says her driving motivation has always been to focus on issues that aren’t covered by mainstream media and to cover issues from the perspective of the folks most impacted.
In 1984, Dinur arrived in Madison with a love of short-wave radio having listened to Radio Moscow, Radio...
2025-10-1054 minA Public AffairA New Definition of Antisemitism Will Be Used Against Jews Too
A proposed bill getting bipartisan support in Wisconsin would require state agencies to follow the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism. Our guest today, Raz Segal, tells host Esty Dinur that this definition is not only vague but actually produces antisemitism contrary to its stated goal.
The IHRA working definition of antisemitism conflates criticism of Israel and its policies with antisemitism. It imagines there is one way to be a Jew and so it can be used to targeting anti-Zionist Jews or Jews who criticize Israel. The definition offers 11 examples of...
2025-09-2651 minA Public AffairStacey Abrams and Thant Myint-U on How to Build Peace
From the murder of Charlie Kirk to the fatal shooting at a Colorado high school this week, political violence is front and center in the news and today’s conversation. In this two-part show, host Esty Dinur discusses the state of the US with Leader Stacey Abrams and reflects on the life of the peacemaker U Thant with his grandson Thant Myint-U.
Stacey Abrams says that “violence has become a tool of communication for too many” and in this “faltering democracy” we need to reject the use of violence toward political ends. Her recent work...
2025-09-1252 minA Public AffairCollective Acceleration Counteracts Modernity
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by Norma Wong to talk about her new book, When No Thing Works. Wong says that it’s not true that nothing works, but it is true that there are many things that aren’t working. She wants people practice what she calls “collective acceleration” to counteract how everything is moving faster and faster toward devolution. This could look like envisioning better forms of governance (not governments), learning from the knowledge of Indigenous peoples, and creating circles of mutuality and support.
Wong reflects on Hawaii’s e...
2025-09-0500 minA Public AffairOpen Line with Esty Dinur
Listeners kept the phones ringing today during our open line show. Host Esty Dinur heard from callers concerned about vaccines and public health as well as the political health of the democratic party.
In May, RFK told the CDC to stop recommending COVID vaccines for infants and pregnant women, despite the advice of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists who continue to recommend the vaccine since vaccine safety during pregnancy is well established.
Esty also reflects on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, an event that she calls a harbinger of...
2025-08-2951 minA Public AffairPrivatization Poisons Democracy
There’s so much chaos in the news and in many communities across the country. To discuss this week’s headlines, Esty Dinur is joined by writer and political analyst, Mary Geddry. They discuss how Trump’s authoritarian chaos is only spreading and how the privatization of healthcare, infrastructure, and all the services that are essential to everyday life, is the antithesis of democracy.
Geddry calls Trump’s deployment of troops to DC as a test run for greater federal expansion in blue states, an expansion that she previews will result in the arrest o...
2025-08-2252 minA Public AffairThe Invisible Doctrine of Neoliberalism
On today’s show host Esty Dinur is joined by Peter Hutchinson to tackle the overwhelming and slippery topic of neoliberalism and this ideology’s impact on everyday life. Hutchinson co-authored the book Invisible Doctrine, and is the filmmaker of the documentary of the same name. He says that he and his co-author, George Monbiot, wanted to make the inception, propagation, and policies of neoliberalism accessible to more audiences.
Hutchinson says that the “ugly, eerie, and soulless” aesthetic of the Invisible Doctrine film was intentional, meant to “deploy technology against capitalism.” They have gotten push...
2025-08-1552 minA Public AffairCorruption Feeds Violence from Washington to the West Bank
In the first part of today’s two-part show, host Esty Dinur speaks with Branko Marcetic who writes about the Epstein case and Project 2029 for Jacobin. He calls the current status of the Epstein files, “a political crisis of the president’s own making.”
Marcetic updates listeners about the status of the sealed and unsealed Epstein documents, cautions against relying on the word of the self-interested Ghislaine Maxwell, and says that Trump must, at the very least, have been aware of Epstein’s relationship to underage women. Marcetic’s article about the Epstein files describ...
2025-08-0852 minA Public AffairDisability Activists Find Joy and Pleasure in Community
On the heels of the 35th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Disability Pride Month, guest host Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford hosts a roundtable on the intersection of race, gender, and disability with Nicki Vander Meulen and Dr. Sami Schalk. They talk about disability and education, evaluate how Madison is doing in terms of accessibility, and discuss how to find pleasure in life.
Last month Congress passed the budget reconciliation bill which includes dramatic cuts to Medicaid. Vander Meulen says that she’s trying to channel her energy int...
2025-08-0600 minA Public AffairHow to Inoculate Young Men Against Fascism
Fascism wouldn’t exist without young men promoting and spreading this far-right ideology. Today’s guest, Craig Johnson, tackles how to intervene before young men get swept up in the contemporary fascist movement. He joins guest host Christina Lieffring today to discuss his new book, How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism.
Though people argue about the definition of fascism all the time, Johnson says that there are two major differences between fascism and mainstream conservatism: fascists don’t play by the rules and they don’t care about law or established norms. Th...
2025-08-0551 minA Public AffairFormer police chief says we can’t have masked police
According to a new analysis from the ACLU of Wisconsin, 13 of Wisconsin’s 72 sheriff’s departments have signed cooperative agreements with federal immigration authorities. Under these agreements, they will help ICE identify and deport undocumented residents housed in local jails. Today’s guest, David Couper, predicts that up to 80% of Wisconsin sheriffs will eventually sign on. He joins host Esty Dinur to talk about ICE and democratic policing in Madison.
Couper says the city needs to continue fighting for “democratic policing,” a practice that includes being fair in the use of force, obeying the law wh...
2025-08-0153 minA Public AffairAn Imbalanced Bill
On July 4, Donald Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law. The 900+ page bill increases tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations while reducing healthcare and food assistance spending. Our guest today, Liz Pancotti points out a number of other, overlooked line-items in the bill, like the $325 million direct handout to Elon Musk and the elimination of a tax on firearms. She joins host Allen Ruff to talk about her recent article for Rolling Stone, “Trump’s Big Bill Will Make Americans Uninsured Again.”
What has been truly shocking to many is the fact t...
2025-07-3150 minA Public AffairThe Time For Change
In April of this year La Crosse, Wisconsin elected its first Black, gay mayor. Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey joins host Ali Muldrow to talk about his journey to becoming Mayor and what he hopes to achieve while in office.
Mayor Washington-Spivey got his start working in public schools and shares what it was like to work in education during COVID. His background working with youth has influenced his approach to politics, saying that he understands why young people want to see change and see it quickly. He predicts more young people running for office...
2025-07-3052 minA Public AffairThe Impact of CPB Funding on Community Radio
Last week, Trump signed a bill to cut over $1.1 billion dollars of federal funding to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB). The cuts were presented as attacks on NPR and WPR stations, but community radio stations are being painfully impacted by the cuts as well. Joining our show today is Jessie Dick, station manager for WXPR in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Karl Halbeck, the manager of WOJB community radio on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe reservation, and Nathan Moore, manager of WTJU in Virginia, and a board member of the National Federation of Community Broadcasting.
...
2025-07-2800 minA Public AffairColonialism and Ecocide in Bastar and Kashmir
On today’s two-part show, we get updates on issues facing the Indigenous peoples of India and Kashmir. Host Esty Dinur is joined by advocates Lokita Singha and Apekshita Varshney to talk about the violence being done to the Adivasi people and their mineral rich lands and by anthropologist Ather Zia who discusses the state of colonialism in Kashmir.
The Adivasi people make up about two-thirds of the population of Bastar, India. They are one of the most ancient tribal populations and they follow communitarian and sustainable practices, says Singha. They live in a...
2025-07-2500 minA Public AffairJoan Walsh Discusses the Cruelty of “Alligator Auschwitz”
The new detention center in the Florida Everglades is called “Alligator Alcatraz.” Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis worked with the federal government to create the tent-based camp that can hold a projected 3,000 detained migrants at the price tag of $450 million a year. Today, host Allen Ruff is joined by journalist Joan Walsh to talk about her recent piece in The Nation, “The Abominable Sadism of Alligator Auschwitz,” in which she draws the comparison between the new camp and the Holocaust.
The goal of “Alligator Alcatraz” is not just confinement but suffering, says Walsh. This cruelty is...
2025-07-2452 minA Public AffairIs it Satire or Reality?
Today, host Ali Muldrow is joined by comedian Andrew Wegleitner to talk about how comedy is more important than ever. Wegleitner has been doing stand up for 15 years and got his start right here in Madison, WI. He’s coming back to town to record his debut comedy special on August 3 at the Bur Oak as part of Madison Comedy Week.
Wegleitner talks about how he got his start in comedy, doing stand up at The Pub and Comedy on State. He says that Madison has a very welcoming scene for new comedians. Ne...
2025-07-2352 minA Public AffairAre our voting rights being protected by the SAVE Act?
On today’s show, guest host Dana Pellebon breaks down a piece of legislation called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act with two immigration experts, Cecilia Gillhouse and Huma Ahsan. The SAVE Act would require that voters provide proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The purpose of this law is to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting and eliminate voter fraud.
It is already against the law for non-citizens to vote in federal and state elections and voter fraud is rare. These facts lead our guests to discuss the ideological re...
2025-07-2250 minA Public AffairGenocide is an absolute line
“No tragedy is too great to shrug away now,” amidst our “every growing tolerance for calamity and violence,” writes Omar El Akkad in his new New York Times bestseller, One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This. On today’s show, El Akkad joins host Douglas Haynes to talk about his new memoir, which weaves the personal essay with cultural critique in order to grapple with the US’s support of Israel’s slaughter and starvation of civilians in Gaza.
The purpose of literature is to bear witness, says El Akkad, especially at a time when...
2025-07-2153 minA Public AffairThe Past and Future of Madison Transportation
On today’s show, guest host Grant Foster interviews Tom Lynch, the recently retired Director of Transportation for the City of Madison. They take a deep dive into transportation policies like Vision Zero, the history of Madison’s transportation department, and what could come next for the BRT line.
Lynch served as Madison’s Director of Transportation for several decades. He describes how his job was created in the 80s, but due to some city drama, the role was empty for 30 years. Before he retired, Lynch gave a presentation to the Madison Common Council...
2025-07-1753 minA Public AffairHunger Makes Everything Harder
Recent cuts in state and federal budgets are leaving local food banks and food assistance organizations concerned about accelerating food insecurity. On today’s show, guest host Jonathan Pollack speaks with local non-profit leaders Michelle Orge of Second Harvest, Jackie Anderson of Feeding Wisconsin, and Ellen Carlson of WayForward Resources about food insecurity in Southwest Wisconsin.
The guests describe an uptick in people accessing their services. There’s been a 13% rise in people considered food insecure in Southwest Wisconsin, says Orge. She describes how Second Harvest responded during COVID, a time when they need...
2025-07-1548 minA Public AffairA Proven Model of Universal Childcare Exists
Since Governor Evers signed off on the new state budget, childcare advocates have voiced alarm at the lack of support for childcare in the budget. Though the state budget allocated over $360 million to help address the childcare crisis, the organization Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) says that “we were asking for the bare minimum, and somehow we got less.” Less than one-third of the allocated funds will go directly to keep childcare providers operating, and this funding will only last for one year.
This is a topic we’ve been following on this pr...
2025-07-1453 minA Public AffairTrading Civil Liberties for Fascism
On today’s show host Esty Dinur speaks again with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson about the decline of the American empire. Wilkerson says that on both the global and domestic fronts, the nation is doing very badly.
We’re less secure and safe than we’ve ever been in a general sense. In a national security sense, we’re doing better than ever, but there’s one major exception: nuclear weapons. The US has destroyed every nuclear treaty created during the Cold War and he worries about how the nation may deploy them again as it loses...
2025-07-1154 minA Public AffairSurprised by the Speed of Trumpism
On today’s show, host Allen Ruff speaks with longtime friend of the show Matt Rothschild who has been sounding the alarm about Trump since his first term as president. Recently he’s had speaking engagements across Dane County to talk about the dangers of MAGA and Trumpism.
Rothschild says he can smell a fascist a mile away, and he’s frustrated by the willful minimization and normalization of Trump and MAGA. When mainstream media outlets say that Trump doesn’t have a worldview, Rothschild offers a correction: Trump has a worldview, and it’s a ra...
2025-07-1051 minA Public AffairState and Federal Budget Debrief with Rep. Hong and Angela Lang
In the early morning of July 3, Governor Evers signed the two-year Wisconsin state budget after months of debate about funding for education, childcare, and more. The next day, President Trump signed into law the Big Beautiful Bill, which guts Medicaid and will result in the transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest Americans. At the state and national levels, the quality of our healthcare, childcare, and education system is in jeopardy, and to break down how these budgets will impact folks in Wisconsin and across the country, host Ali Muldrow is joined by...
2025-07-0953 minA Public AffairBeyond Firearms: Reimagining the Defense of Marginalized Communities
In a September 2024 presidential election debate, Kamala Harris said, “Tim Walz and I are both gun owners.” Nationally, democrats are becoming gun owners at a higher rate than conservatives. To talk about spiking demand for gun ownership and gun education, especially among queer-centered self-defense organizations, guest host Matvei Mozhaev is joined by Youtuber, Tacticool Girlfriend.
They talk about what self defense and protection mean within marginalized communities in the US. Tacticool says that US gun culture is too driven by consumption, and not driven enough by safety, including environmental safety, and suicide prevention. And...
2025-07-0851 minA Public AffairYou Can’t Have Your Meat and Your Conscience Too
On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes is joined by philosopher and writer, John Sanbonmatsu to talk about his book, The Omnivore’s Deception: What We Get Wrong about Meat, Animals, and Ourselves, published last month from NYU Press. Sanbonmatsu says that there’s a better way to be on this planet than approaching animals with dominion and violence.
Sanbonmatsu felt compelled to write this book after studying the politics of the Left and reading works like Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation, in which Singer says we have to take animal suffering into account...
2025-07-0753 minA Public AffairMiddle East Expert puts US Bombing of Iran in Perspective
Norman Stockwell sits in for Allen Ruff today to debrief with Annelle Sheline of the Quincy Institute. They talk about Trump’s decision to bomb Iran and the history of the US’s intervention in the Middle East that got us here today.
Sheline says Israel and the US’s bombing of Iran caught Iran off guard because Trump seemed to be engaged in good-faith negotiations. The diplomatic process broke down even though Tulsi Gabbard testified that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon.
Iran was enriching uranium for civilian purposes, somethin...
2025-07-0354 minA Public AffairA Win for Reproductive Freedom in Wisconsin
This morning the Wisconsin Supreme Court ensured access to abortion care in the state by ruling that an 1849 law banning abortion cannot be enforced. This news comes on the heels of the three-year anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme and in the same week as the US Congress could vote to defund Planned Parenthood. To talk about the status of reproductive rights, host Ali Muldrow is joined by Analiese Eicher of Planned Parenthood, Wisconsin.
Eicher says that people are feeling this as a victory of reproductive freedom a...
2025-07-0253 minA Public AffairWhen progressive ideas about government became anti-American
Many people conflate the anti-communist Red Scare of post-World War II America with the Hollywood blacklists portrayed in movies and TV shows or, particularly in Wisconsin, with McCarthyism. Today, guest host Christina Lieffring speaks with Clay Risen about his new book, Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America, in which he shows that the movement was much bigger than one industry or one man. The Red Scare was the first time there was a large-scale conspiratorial fear of the federal government such that progressive ideas became un-American.
Risen says that...
2025-07-0152 minA Public AffairRural Communities in Alaska Face Down Climate Change
Last week huge swaths of North America experienced record high temperatures, and the Alaskan arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the globe. To talk about the ways that climate change is affecting rural communities in Alaska, host Douglas Haynes is joined by ProPublica and KYUK journalist, Emily Schwing, about her recent article, “Newtok, Alaska, Was Supposed to Be a Model for Climate Relocation. Here’s How It Went Wrong.”
Schwing says that there are over 140 communities in Alaska like Newtok facing coastal erosion, permafrost deterioration, and the implosion of infras...
2025-06-3053 minA Public AffairAddressing Housing from the Ground Up
On today’s show, host Carlos Dávalos speaks with scholar, Danny Parker, about her on-the-ground research on unhoused folks in Madison. Often we’re presented with a very top-down picture of civic infrastructure, but Parker reports from the front lines and focuses on the lived realities of the most vulnerable in our communities.
Parker’s early ethnographic work took place in Madison. She spent years sitting on sidewalks with unhoused people, eating and going to the hospital with them, and watching how the world responded to the people she was with. Based on her...
2025-06-2752 minA Public AffairThis War is about Oil
Political geographer and activist, Zoltán Grossman joins Allen Ruff to talk about the Israel-Iran-US war. They move beyond the mainstream media narratives and sanitized versions of history used to justify the US’s military engagement in the region. Grossman reminds listeners that 1953 was the beginning of the antagonism between the US and Iran and that the oil industry has always driven the US’s involvement in the Middle East.
Grossman also describes the development of anti-Muslim sentiment in the US, especially after 1979 and how this ideology has been used to sell the publi...
2025-06-2653 minA Public AffairLessons from Youth Poets
Young people are too often victims of our broken criminal justice system. 1 in 14 US children either has or has had a parent behind bars. And too often their teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, and even their own friends routinely overlook or stigmatize these young people as troubled, or trouble.
To talk about the experiences of youth impacted by the justice system, host Ali Muldrow welcomes back to the show Victor Trillo Jr. and Amy Friedman, to talk about the collection, Home and Away.
They talk about the profound hopefulness of youth artists i...
2025-06-2553 minA Public AffairThe Ongoing Violence of US Empire
On today’s show, host Sara Gabler speaks with Stephen Zunes and Negin Owliaei about the rapidly developing situation in Iran. On June 13 Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Tehran and only days ago President Trump ordered the bombing of three locations in Iran. Even if (as of this morning) the nations have reached a possible ceasefire, Israel and the US’s escalation of force will have long consequences for Iranian civilians and so much more.
Zunes describes the situation and how decades of US meddling in Iran got us here. He’s confide...
2025-06-2452 minA Public AffairState Budget Roundtable with Jessie Opoien and JR Ross
Every two years, Wisconsin goes through a grueling budget setting process. Last week, the GOP-led Joint Finance Committee cancelled their meeting despite the looming June 30 deadline for the next state budget. To make sense of the situation, host Douglas Haynes is joined by two veteran journalists, Jessie Opoien and JR Ross.
Issues like childcare and education are front and center for state lawmakers and for Wisconsin residents. Opoein says that spending for the UW System is a sticking point on both sides of the aisle. The proposed $87 million cut isn’t enough for some...
2025-06-2353 minA Public AffairHow Banality Enables Evil
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with two guests about Israel’s actions against Palestinians and now Iran. First, we’re joined by scholar Elizabeth Minnich who explains her philosophical study of banality and her new book, The Evil of Banality: On the Life and Death Importance of Thinking.
Studying under Hannah Arendt, Minnich watched the public’s confused reception of Arendt’s concept of the “banality of evil.” It was hard for people to accept that mundane actions could be monstrous. So Minnich strove to expand the definition of banality.
Now, Min...
2025-06-2053 minA Public AffairAnalyzing the LA protests with Truthout reporter Schuyler Mitchell
Today’s show breaks down the recent events in LA, from the growing impunity of ICE and the National Guard to the increasing authoritarianism of the Trump administration. Host Allen Ruff is joined by Schuyler Mitchell to talk about her recent piece in Truthout.
Mitchell describes witnessing 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in LA following the murder of George Floyd. At the time, the Governor and Mayor authorized the deployment of National Guard troops, and these troops, along with local law enforcement, responded to peaceful protesters with force. Since then, the city has paid out...
2025-06-1952 minA Public AffairAdding Tears to the Sparkle of Pride
On today’s show, host Ali Muldrow celebrates Pride month with two guests in the studio: Alder Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford and Alder Sean O’Brian, who both serve Madison’s east side. They highlight the important work of LGBTQ+ leaders at a time when attacks on queer and trans folks are being promoted by the Trump administration.
Muldrow opens the show by talking about how in this political climate, Pride feels full of conflicting emotions. It calls for people’s most exuberant selves, but there’s no crying in glitter. Martinez-Rutherford says there’s a lot of cr...
2025-06-1852 minA Public AffairYouth-Centered Spaces Are Missing in Madison
On today’s show, guest host Sabrina Madison speaks with two local leaders, Justice Castañeda and Rosa Thompson, about an issue that many folks overlook: the lack of teen-centered spaces in Dane County, especially for Black youth. They talk about what would be possible if youth were centered in the design and programming of public spaces. Because we close schools during the summer and community centers don’t stay open late, youth don’t have many places to go. What they need are spaces where they feel safe, that have robust programming, mentorship, and care fo...
2025-06-1752 minA Public AffairFostering Food Justice and Outdoor Education
The Annual Nourishing Minds, Sustaining Futures Summit will take place this Wednesday, June 18. Now, in its third year, the program aims to foster food justice and food education in schools and is open to the public. Host Douglas Haynes speaks with three of the organizers–Allison Pfaff Harris, Sonya Sankaran, and Kathy Oker–about the event’s speakers, workshops, and the importance of environmental education.
There’s a lack of equity in outdoor education and within outdoor spaces more generally, says Oker. She wants to help all people repair their relationship with the natural w...
2025-06-1652 minA Public AffairLA Stands Up for Immigrants’ Rights
Today’s guests give an on-the-ground perspective on the ongoing ICE raids in Los Angeles. Bill Gallegos and Aquilina Soriano Versoza highlight the work of immigrant rights activists and protesters who have taken to the streets to oppose Trump’s sending of 200 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines to LA.
Soriano Versoza describes how the raids are being executed without warrants and how ICE is showing up in places where they know immigrants live and work and making arrests without probable cause. As of Wednesday, there were over 300 confirmed disappearances, and legal advocates are being...
2025-06-1353 minA Public AffairHow Aid is Being Weaponized in Gaza
On today’s program, Allen Ruff speaks with friend of the show, Mouin Rabbani, about Yasser Abu Shabab, the continuing genocide in Gaza, the chaos created by US-backed aid organizations, and Israel’s military and political interventions in surrounding states like Syria, Yemen, and Iran.
Rabbani describes how the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a joint US-Israel project, is weaponizing aid in order to gain control over the distribution of supplies. The GHF’s former leader, Jake Wood, was an exorbitantly paid US mercenary and well known Christian Zionist, resigned last month saying the organization couldn...
2025-06-1200 minA Public AffairA Safe, Decent, Affordable Home for Everyone
On today’s show, host Matvei Mozhaev speaks with Maria Foscarinis, a principal architect of the 1987 McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the first major piece of federal legislation to address homelessness. They discuss her recent book, And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America, which details the impact of homelessness on people’s lives and argues that ending homelessness in the US requires the recognition of housing as a basic human right.
Foscarinis discusses the last four decades of the homeless crisis in the US. She started her career when Regan came...
2025-06-1151 minA Public AffairWhat’s in Madison’s Water?
On today’s show, host Greg Michaud interviews Joe Grande, the Water Resources Manager at Madison Water Utility. They discuss what’s in Madison’s drinking water, how consumers can have confidence in their tap water and stop buying bottled water, and what Madison Water Utility does to determine if water is meeting standards, as is disclosed in the recent Annual Drinking Water Quality Report.
Grande describes how Madisonians get their tap water, which typically is sourced from 1-3 of Madison’s 20 wells. To produce their annual report, the Utility samples roughly 27,000 times over the...
2025-06-1100 minA Public AffairAI Data Centers are Coming to Wisconsin
On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes unpacks the future of AI in the state of Wisconsin. He’s in conversation with Brett Korte who describes why big tech companies are looking to Wisconsin as the future home of their data centers. Wisconsin happens to be water rich, and these data centers require water. But Korte says that Great Lakes water is governed by compacts with lots of stakeholders, making water harder to access. Korte adds that data centers require rezoning, so there’s room for community action. Nevertheless, there’s been widespread support for these ce...
2025-06-1052 minA Public AffairMedia in the time of the American Empire’s Decline
On today’s show, economist Richard D. Wolff joins host Esty Dinur to talk about the state of the American empire and the state of independent media. We’re also joined in the studio by Norman Stockwell who reiterates that funding independent media is as important as ever in light of potential cuts to the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. Wolff says that we’re living through the decline of the American Empire and that decline is gathering speed. He says that we can’t accept that what has happened to every other empire won’t happen her...
2025-06-0653 minA Public AffairTrue Community is a Subversive Thing
Today we turn the tables; Allen Ruff sits in the guest seat to talk about his life and times. Ruff has been hosting the show for over 20 years and logged over 1000 hours of tape over that time, many of which you can find on the WORT website. Guest host, Bert Zipperer, interviews Ruff about what brought him to Madison, how he developed his subversive analysis, and the early days of WORT.
In this rare interview, Ruff opens up about how his youth amidst working class radicals in New Haven and later education at A...
2025-06-0553 minA Public AffairLife Lived on the Edge of Freedom
On today’s show, guest host Yuri Rashkin is joined by independent journalist, Jonathan Fink. These two popular YouTubers of the Rashkin Report and the Silicon Curtain (respectively) break down the recent development in the war in Ukraine and champion the work of independent media on the increasingly politicized topic of Ukraine.
They discuss Ukraine’s recent drone strike on Russian aircraft and how the world is starting to see that Ukraine has more cards in its hands. Fink calls this an “inflection” moment because Ukraine is acting from a position of strength and inno...
2025-06-0452 minA Public AffairOn the Morality of Taxpaying
On today’s show, host Sara Gabler speaks with sociologist Dr. Ruth Braunstein about money and morality. They discuss her new book, My Tax Dollars: The Morality of Taxpaying in America, which was published on April 15, or Tax Day–an auspicious day that Braunstein calls an American “ritual.”
Braunstein says that tax paying is the most significant way that everyday people interact with the federal government. And people invest a lot of symbolic value (in addition to material value) in the act of tax paying. Groups like war tax resisters and anti-abortion activists resist pa...
2025-06-0352 minA Public AffairResisting Nuclear Energy in Wisconsin
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by two representatives from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) to talk about the Point Beach Nuclear Reactor in Two Rivers, Wisconsin on Lake Michigan. Amy Schulz and Alfred Meyer discuss the potential relicensing of this power plant despite the reactor being past its lifespan and how to oppose this relicensing.
Meyer is concerned that the regulatory studies done on nuclear plants don’t account for the effects of climate change on these reactors. Meanwhile the Trump administration last week issued four executive orders that would...
2025-05-3053 minA Public Affair“You can’t put the oil back in the pipeline”
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by two legal experts from Earthjustice–Andre Segura and Stefanie Tsosie–to talk about the Trump administration’s attacks on the environment.
They discuss the reconciliation bill that was passed yesterday and what this billionaire’s bill will mean for the environment. Segura says that this bill is a huge giveaway to the oil and gas industry and will make it easier to drill and transport oil and gas, impacting ecosystems the world over. Increased drilling in the Alaskan Arctic, Gulf of Mexico, and beyond will...
2025-05-2352 minA Public AffairA Conversation on Seeds, Stories, and Solidarity
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with three panelists taking part in a program next week to celebrate World Day for Cultural Diversity. Dr. Claudia Calderón, Avexnim Cojti, and Cherie Thunder are part of a panel called Let’s Get Growing: Seeds, Stories & Solidarity happening on May 21 from 5-7pm at Aubergine on Willy Street.
As part of today’s roundtable, they talk about seed sovereignty, which is the right of people to use and exchange their own seeds in order to maintain the foodways and autonomy. This movement counters the bill...
2025-05-1654 minA Public AffairWhy Is Trump Still So Interested in Greenland?
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” President Trump said during his first State of the Union of his second term. “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
That bold claim set off a new wave of awkward diplomacy, including surprise visits from Donald Trump Jr., and Vice President JD Vance and his wife, Usha.
Acquiring Greenland is not a new obsession. Trump floated the idea in his first term. Numerous presidential administrations have floated the idea, at least privately. Even Truman made a secret offer...
2025-05-0953 minA Public AffairPeace activists are shut out from getting aid into Gaza
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with a peace activist and a scholar about the humanitarian situation in Gaza. It has been two months since Israel began a full blockade of all aid to Gaza. In response, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, made up of volunteers from over 21 countries, attempted to open a sea-based relief route. Last night, their vessel was attacked by drones, and the vessel was substantially damaged. Cassandra Dixon joined us today from Malta to describe the attack.
We’re also joined by Jennifer Loewenstein who discusses the healthcare situ...
2025-05-0253 minA Public AffairAn update on lawsuits brought against Standing Rock protesters
In late March, the climate advocacy group Greenpeace was ordered to pay $660 million in damages to Energy Transfer, the oil company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The grassroots protests against DAPL in 2016 and 2017 were organized by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous water protectors. Greenpeace peacefully supported the protests but was charged with defamation by Energy Transfer.
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by Cody Hall who reminds listeners of what happened at the Standing Rock protests and No DAPL movement against the incursion of the Energy Transfer oil pip...
2025-04-2553 minA Public AffairSkunk Hill Spring Gathering
This Spring, Fred and Germaine Pidgeon have reason to celebrate. On May 3, the Friends of Powers Bluff are hosting a Spring Gathering and Homecoming at present day Powers Bluff County Park in Arpin, Wisconsin, also known as Skunk Hill or Tah-qua-kik. This area was originally home to the Potawatomi, Ho Chunk, Ojibwe, and Menominee People. After years of work by the Pidgeons, the land is being preserved, and this will be celebrated with presentations, walks, crafts, and giveaways.
Host Esty Dinur outside the WORT station with Fred and Germaine Pidgeon.
The Pidgeons tell h...
2025-04-1800 minA Public AffairThe Uhuru 3 Legal Victory
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by Chairman Omali Yesitela, the leader of the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Solidarity Movement, and Penny Hess, the Chairwoman of the African People’s Solidarity Committee. Uhuru means “freedom” in Swahili and is used as a greeting and a demand because of its historical significance in the struggle against colonialism.
In 2022, Chairman Omali and Hess, along with Jesse Nevel, were targeted by the FBI. Their homes were occupied, equipment confiscated, and financial records taken with military force. They were later charged, wi...
2025-04-1153 minA Public AffairWisconsin Film Fest Preview Extravaganza
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur previews the Wisconsin Film Festival with four directors and the Festival’s senior programmer Mike King.
She speaks with filmmaker Tim Hunter, an American television and film director. His 1986 film River’s Edge won that year’s award for Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards. His film, Tex will air at the Wisconsin Film Festival on Saturday at 4pm at the UW Cinematheque. His narrative film, Returning to Earth will also play at that time, and his documentary, By Kevin Thomas will play on Sunda...
2025-04-0456 minA Public AffairNews Roundup Call-In Show
On today’s show we take our cue from you, our listeners. Host Esty Dinur opens the phone lines to discuss current issues in national and state politics with callers. They cover the abduction of pro-Palestinian activists, Kristi Noem’s photoshoot in El Salvador, the importance of independent media, and more.
Wisconsin is under the microscope because of our state Supreme Court election next week. Billionaire Elon Musk promised voters money in exchange for their votes, but deleted a social media post saying he would “personally hand over” $2 million hours after he posted it. ...
2025-03-2853 minA Public AffairRebroadcast: L’Eau Est La Vie Camp And Standing Rock
This week the climate advocacy group Greenpeace was ordered to pay $660 million in damages to Energy Transfer, the oil company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The protests against DAPL in 2016 and 2017 were organized by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Indigenous water protectors. Greenpeace peacefully supported the protests but was charged with defamation by Energy Transfer.
Now, a North Dakota ruling in favor of Energy Transfer could have far reaching effects on first-amendment rights and is an alarming instance of a corporation using a lawsuit to intimidate activists. Greenpeace is appealing the verdict. ...
2025-03-2551 minA Public AffairA Genocide Generating World of Lies
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is joined by Raz Segal, a professor of Holocaust and Genocide studies. They talk about the history of Zionism and how settler colonialism and white supremacy are linked. Segal describes how the Holocaust is weaponized to justify genocide and ethnic cleansing in his most recent article, “Settler Antisemitism.”
In the US, Jews who voice support of Palestinians and criticize the Israeli state are increasingly censored and called antisemites. Segal says that this is possible because since 1948, the political discourse has come to conflate Jews with the state o...
2025-03-0753 minA Public AffairIt’s Better to be Awake than Asleep
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with Bill Fletcher Jr about the Trump presidency, independent media, and settler colonialism. He says that the Trump Administration’s actions have been predictable, and we know this because his advisors are taking pages out of Viktor Orbán’s playbook.
Fletcher and Dinur talk about Elon Musk’s shift to the political right after 2020, ecofascism, Trump’s admiration of President McKinley, and the plans to turn the Gaza strip into a US development. In response to criticisms of “wokeness,” Fletcher says “it’s better to be awake than asl...
2025-02-2854 minA Public AffairThe Crisis in Gaza with Ilan Pappé
On today’s show host Esty Dinur is joined by Professor Ilan Pappé, an Israeli historian, political scientist, and former politician. They talk about Mahmud Muna, the Palestinian book shop owner who, along with his nephew Amad Muna, was arrested by Israeli police and charged with “inciting and supporting terrorism” because they carried books by Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappé, and others.
Pappé describes how Palestinians inside Israel are daily being harassed and terrorized by Israeli gangs. He says that the death tolls from these attacks are rising and the Israeli police seem to be encour...
2025-02-1453 minA Public AffairBig Oil and the Climate Crisis with Rebecca John
In his first two weeks in office, Trump withdrew Biden’s “forever chemical reform plan,” sought to keep lead in Americans’ drinking water, and froze already allocated Inflation Reduction Act funds. Trump has also appointed chemical and oil industry insiders to the EPA, fired every scientist on two of the EPA’s most influential science advisory panels, and seems poised to attempt mass firings of EPA staff. And we just learned that 2024 was the hottest year on record, hotter than the previous record set in 2023.
To make sense of all these changes, we’re joined by...
2025-02-0753 minA Public AffairToday’s fake news becomes tomorrow’s fake history
Host Esty Dinur has been speaking with Project Censored editors since 1997. Our guests today, Mickey Huff and Shealeigh Voitl, talk about how the media landscape has changed and how Project Censored has adapted to the digital world, news deserts, conglomeration and more. They say critical media literacy is essential to democracy and a pillar of the work they do at Project Censored, including in their new book, State of the Free Press 2025.
The cover of the State of the Free Press 2025 is a revisioning of the famed painting of “Washington Crossing the Delaware.” It de...
2025-01-1753 minA Public AffairPlutocracy with Maureen Tkacik and then Indigenous Cooking with Nico A...
On today’s two part show, host Esty Dinur kicks off the hour with journalist Maureen Tkacik, Senior Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project and the Investigations Editor at The American Prospect. They discuss Tkacik’s recent piece for the Prospect, the assassination of CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson, and the billionaire impact on the the 2024 election.
Then Esty speaks with Cherokee chef Nico Albert Williams about indigenous cuisines ahead of Williams’s four dinner residency at Seven Acre Dairy Co. in Paoli next week. Tickets for the dinner series can be found he...
2025-01-0353 minA Public AffairProject 2025 and The Impact on Broadcasting
President-elect Trump says he hasn’t read Project 2025, but several of the picks for his administration wrote parts of the document. That includes his nomination for chair of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr. Carr, who has served as a member of the FCC since 2017, wrote the portion of Project 2025 that addresses the FCC.
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur talks with WORT’s News, Talk, and Public Affair Director Chali Pittman about the broad scope of Project 2025 broadly. They dive deep in how the agenda could impact broadcasting and WORT’s future.
2024-12-2753 minA Public AffairYou should know what is happening in Sudan
Due to ongoing fighting in the country, Sudan is experiencing the world’s worst displacement crisis and record levels of hunger. The war has pushed the country to the brink of collapse, and there is no end in sight. Escalating tensions have forced millions of families to flee their homes and has killed thousands. Outbreaks of measles and cholera continue to devastate Sudan’s population, and humanitarian aid has been curtailed by fighting, leaving most in dyer need.
Nisrin Elamin joins host Esty Dinur to explain what lead to the ongoing war and what...
2024-12-2053 minA Public AffairA Report from the West Bank, Then an Update on Syria
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with activist and longtime friend of the show Cassandra Dixon who just returned from the West Bank. They discuss the settler outposts in the area and violence facing Palestinians. They also discuss the realties facing olive farmers and shepherds in Masafer Yatta and how listeners can help.
On the second half of the show, Dinur is joined by professor Mohamad Bazzi to discuss the ousting of Bashar al-Assad and what that means for Syrians. Bazzi is the director of the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Ea...
2024-12-1353 minA Public AffairFighting Against Oil Pipelines with Paul DeMain and Greg Mikkelson
Last month the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced the decision to issue Enbridge Inc a wetland and waterway permit with hundreds of conditions to replace a segment of its Line 5 liquid petroleum pipeline in Ashland and Iron counties. This happened while the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians has two legal cases against Enbridge.
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with folks with long histories fighting against oil pipelines. Paul DeMain (Skabewis) joins the program to discuss the dangers Line 5 poses to Lake Superior an...
2024-12-0654 minA Public AffairThe State of U.S. Empire with Col. Lawrence Wilkerson
On today’s show we’re joined by Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a self-identified Republican who was awakened to the “imperial hubris” of the United States after 9/11. He has since criticized aspects of US foreign policy, especially the Iraq War, and is in favor of holding military officials accountable. Col. Wilkerson and host Esty Dinur talk about the role of APAC in US foreign policy, how big oil shapes US wars from Iraq to Ukraine, the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and the threat of Trump’s Christian nationalist cabinet picks.
Lawrence B. Wilkerson is a retir...
2024-11-2953 minA Public AffairPushing Forward: Organizing in a Post Trump Reelection US
On today’s two part show, Esty Dinur speaks about what can be done to strengthen movements around immigration and other social justice issues. First Dinur speaks with photojournalist David Bacon who has a long history of documenting and fighting for immigrant rights. Bacon’s most recent piece in Dollars and Sense is Domestic Workers: A New Face of Solidarity. He joins the program to discuss what needs to be done to protect the most vulnerable.
Then Dinur speaks with organizer Nicole Carty about her recent article for the Intercept titled How to Forti...
2024-11-2254 minA Public AffairFighting Fascism with Clarence Kailin: A Conversation from 1999
In August 1999, lifelong socialist, union supporter, and activist for peace and social justice, Clarence Kailin joined Esty Dinur in the studio to talk about his effort to erect a monument to the 45,000 International Volunteers who fought for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War, including the 2800 Americans who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Kailin himself was a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He speaks to Esty and a number of callers about his experience fighting against fascism. The monument Kailin was working on now stands to the right of the Gates of...
2024-11-0951 minA Public AffairAre We Witnessing Israel’s Final Solution and Ethnic Cleansing?
As the now regional war between Israel and Hamas continues, more than 43,000 people in Gaza have been killed. At least 100,000 have been injured. These numbers are most definitely an under count. Today’s first guest is Wilhelmi Massay, a critical care and trauma nurse based in Omaha, spent 6 weeks treating the sick and injured in Gaza. He tells host Esty Dinur that “Israel is committing it’s final solution,” comparing the ongoing war to the Nazi Holocaust. Massay is one of the many health care workers who have signed a letter to President Biden and...
2024-11-0150 minA Public AffairHamas explained with Helena Cobban
Since the deadly attack on an Israeli music festival on October 7, 2023, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ramped up to what is now a regional war and Hamas has become a widely vilified group. But what and who is Hamas? On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with Helena Cobban, who co-authored Understanding Hamas: And Why That Matters with Rami G. Khouri. Cobban highlights Hamas’ origins in the as a political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, its rise due to dissatisfaction with the Oslo Accords, and its evolution from an anti-Jewish to an anti-Zionist stance
Hel...
2024-10-2553 minA Public AffairRev. Dr. Mitri Raheb On the Dangers of Genocidal Theology
We’re joined on the show today by renowned Palestinian theologian Reverend Dr. Mitri Raheb, for a conversation on the moral and theological dimensions of the war on Palestine.
Rev. Dr. Raheb is the most widely-published Palestinian theologian to date. His latest is Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible (Orbis Books, 2023), which examines Israel’s expansionist ideology and its misuse of biblical language to justify the oppression of Palestinians.
The Reverend Professor joins host Esty Dinur for his perspective on the genocide in Gaza. Dinur and Raheb delve into the...
2024-10-1853 minA Public AffairAir Raids in Beirut and Hurricanes in the Coastal South East
The topic today: disasters.
First, Esty talks with Journalist Hanady Salman who joins us from Beirut where at least 22 people were killed in the latest strike. Salman explains that air raids have become a daily occurrence in Lebanon and that they are bracing for an invasion by the Israeli army.
Then, Esty pivots to hurricanes. This conversation comes just days after Hurricane Milton hit Florida’s Gulf Coast. Milton, which at one point reached a level five tropical storm, came just weeks after Hurricane Helene which claimed hundreds of lives in th...
2024-10-1153 minA Public AffairEsty Dinur’s Look Ahead to the Wisconsin Book Festival
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with three authors who are coming to Madison during the Wisconsin Book Festival’s 23rd Fall Celebration on October 17th through 2oth.
First, she speaks with by Bill Adair about his forthcoming book Beyond the Big Lie: The Epidemic of Political Lying, Why Republicans Do It More, and How It Could Burn Down Our Democracy.
Bill Adair is an award-winning journalist and educator. He is the creator of PolitiFact and cofounder of the International Fact-Checking Network. In 2013, he became the Knight Prof...
2024-10-0454 minA Public AffairThe Women of the Red Power Movement
The Red Power Movement was a Native American movement for self-determination in response to years of Termination and Relocation policies in the U.S. The Warrior Women Project is bringing to light the often forgotten or ignored stories of the women involved in the movement. The project documents oral histories, maintains an archive, and produces media to be used in home communities and to educate through decolonial learning experiences.
Director Elizabeth Castle joins A Public Affair host Esty Dinur to talk about the project and the Warrior Women film which details the life...
2024-09-2753 minA Public AffairIsrael’s War on Gaza Will Be an Ongoing Health Catastrophe
According the to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th, 2023. Another 95,000+ have been injured. These numbers are certainly an undercount. The number of Gaza’s Silent Killings, or those who have died due to the crumbling medical infrastructure, continues to climb. Cases of polio have been found amongst Palestinian children. Communicable diseases are being spread due to a lack of sanitary infrastructure. People are been unable to access medical treatments for their critical, but treatable illnesses.
On today’s show, Esty Dinur talks...
2024-09-2053 minA Public AffairChallenging Voter Legitimacy, Then Expanding Voting Rights
On today’s two part show, host Esty Dinur talks about fighting for voting rights. First, we talk with author and journalist Greg Palast about his new documentary Vigilante Inc: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen. The film centers on self-appointed vote-fraud hunters or “vigilantes” who are challenging voter registration and blocking ballots from being counted. Vigilante Inc is now streaming here.
Then, we continue the show by recognizing the 30th anniversary of the 1994 Crime Bill. The extensive federal crime legislation authorized tougher convictions and granted money to states to expand correctional facilities, thus signif...
2024-09-1354 minA Public AffairTaking Action to Protect the Porcupine Mountains and Lake Superior
Last September, A Public Affair Esty Dinur spoke with organizers behind the ProtectThePorkies campaign. The show on WORT was the first media interview the campaign had. One year later, the group has announced the Gichigaming Water Walk on September 14th. It is a collaboration with area Tribal Nations, and is being held in response to proposals for new metallic sulfide mines within the Lake Superior watershed; specifically the Copperwood Mine, the closest metallic sulfide mine to Lake Superior in history.
On today’s pledge drive special, Dinur speaks with three organizers behind the even...
2024-09-0654 minA Public AffairA Dissonant DNC Holds Itself Above Protesters
On today’s show, Esty Dinur hosted a roundtable about the side of the Democratic National Convention that doesn’t normally get talked about. First we heard from Halah Ahmad about the way the DNC avoided talking about the war in Gaza, and how the Harris campaign looks likely to continue the Biden Administration’s tepid response to the genocide. Then Nick Wylie from the Public Media Institute and WORT’s own news team of Chali Pittman, Faye Parks, and Carlos Dávalos shared what they saw during their reporting in Chicago, including the disconnect between t...
2024-08-2353 minA Public AffairThe long line of grifters before Trump
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur speaks with journalist Joe Conason about grift, Trump University, and what Conason says is the moral decay of conservatism. In Conason’s new book, The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism, he traces the long line of con artists leading up to the rise of Trump within the GOP.
Conason points to the Australian physician, Frederick C. Schwarz, who founded the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, Robert Welch and the John Birch Society, Richard Viguerie and direct mail campaigns, and Jerry Falwell as key figur...
2024-08-1653 minA Public AffairTechnologies of Border Violence with Petra Molnar
This week anti-immigrant rhetoric and online misinformation spurred riots in Great Britain following the fatal stabbing of three girls. The rioters attacked Muslim and migrant communities and immigration centers across the UK. Before that, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump supporters waved posters and changed “mass deportations now.”
In addition to these very visible scenes, profit-seeking corporations and individuals are quietly targeting vulnerable people escaping violence, poverty, and climate change. To discuss this, Esty Dinur speaks with lawyer and anthropologist Petra Molnar. Her new book, The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in t...
2024-08-0953 minA Public AffairListener call in special
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur opens up the phone lines to hear from listeners. Callers weighed in on COVID, the upcoming Democratic National Convention, and the war in Gaza.
Have ideas for a future Friday edition of A Public Affair? Email talk@wortfm.org.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate hereThe post Listener call in special appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.
2024-08-0253 minA Public Affair“Stoking the Flames of War” with Jennifer Loewenstein
This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received applause while addressing the US Congress. That’s despite the rising death toll in Gaza, which some analysts consider to be near 186,000. On today’s show, Jennifer Loewenstein joins host Esty Dinur to discuss the absurdity of Netanyahu’s visit to Congress. Loewenstein calls the genocide in Gaza a slow motion genocide and says that the US is “stoking the flames” of a major regional war in the Middle East by supporting Israel with military aid.
According to Loewenstein, Israel is significant to the US because it...
2024-07-2652 minA Public AffairThe Peace Movement Endures During a Dangerous Era
As both political parties in the United States seem determined to continue American involvement in wars across the globe, it can feel like a daunting time to be part of the peace movement. On today’s show, host Esty Dinur talks with two peace activists about how they approach their work in these troubling times.
Coleen Rowley is a retired FBI agent who is a long-time member of Women Against Military Madness and Veterans for Peace. She recently protested at the RNC against the genocide in Gaza.
Matthew Hoh is a fo...
2024-07-1954 minA Public AffairArrests at Waupun with Attorney Lonnie Story and Sheriff Dale Schmidt
On June 5, Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt charged the Waupun Correctional Institution’s warden, Randall Hepp, with misconduct in public office. Eight other Waupun employees face charges of felony inmate abuse. Three of them are also charged with misconduct.
On today’s show, host Esty Dinur talks with Sheriff Schmidt about the arrests and ongoing problems at Waupun. We’re also joined by attorney Lonnie Story who represents the families of Donald Maier, Cameron Williams, and Tyshun Lemons who died in Waupun, and whose deaths are the cause of the arrests earlier this month...
2024-06-2153 minA Public AffairDeep Dive into Antisemitism with Bartov, Lorber and Burley
“I’ve never felt more Jewish than I do nowadays,” says A Public Affair host Esty Dinur near the end of an hour with radical ideas about combating antisemitism and divorcing it from Zionism. We start the show with Professor Omer Bartov who explains his personal journey from writing about the Holocaust to writing on Israel-Palestine and how the actions of Israel has led to an increase in antisemitism.
Then Esty talks with Ben Lorber and Shane Burley about their brand book Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism. Ben and Shane wi...
2024-06-1451 minA Public AffairLauren Benton on Imperial Violence
On today’s special pledge drive show, Esty Dinur talks with historian Lauren Benton on her new book They Called It Peace: Worlds of Imperial Violence. The book is a historical account of how imperialism has redefined war and peace. She joins Esty to talk about the ongoing impact of imperial violence on indigenous peoples worldwide and the unequal nature of truces and ceasefires.
Lauren Benton is the Barton M. Biggs Professor of History at Yale University and recipient of the Toynbee Prize for significant contributions to global history. Her books inc...
2024-06-0754 minA Public AffairLife in Turkey with Robert Schoville, Then Palestinian Art with Laila ...
On today’s two part, A Public Affair, host Esty Dinur is first joined by Robert Schoville who is best known in Madison as the founder of the Brazilian percussion group, The Handphibians. Robert has spent the last five years living on the Aegean coast of Turkey with his family. He joins us in the studio to talk with Esty about life under the current president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the role of the country in the Middle East, and much more.
Then, textile artist Laila Hasan joins us by phone. For many year...
2024-05-3153 minA Public AffairPalestinian Prison Memoir and College Encampments
On today’s two-part show, host Esty Dinur is joined by translator Luke Leafgren and publisher Judith Gurewich to discuss Nasser Abu Srour’s book, The Tale of a Wall. Abu Srour is a Palestinian imprisoned in Israel. His book covers decades of imprisonment and the effect it had on his mind, body, and soul. It’s also a book about the history of Israeli occupation and the struggle of the Palestinian people told with great feeling, lyrical prose, and magical realism.
In the second-half of the show, historian and journalist Rick Perlstein talks a...
2024-05-2453 minA Public AffairSeeking Asylum: Efforts to Support Refugees
On today’s show, we spend the first half of the program with two immigration lawyers working with the Project Immigration Justice for Palestinians. Project IJP is a coalition of organizations and immigration attorneys as an emergency response to the crisis in Gaza. Ban Alwardi and Amanda Gennerman join host Esty Dinur to talk about the opportunities available to Palestinian refugees and as well as outline the barriers they face. Project IJP accepts support here.
Then, Jewish Social Services of Madison‘s Refugee Resettlement Director Sunday Nzitatira joins Esty to talk about his expe...
2024-05-1753 min
Inside StoriesINSIDE STORIES: Esty Dinur(Consider contributing to Inside Stories to help us cover our production costs: https://www.rubinjen.com/the-podcast.html) We listen to a story Esty Dinur told at the Moth StorySlam in Madison in 2019. We explore the story behind the story and discuss how she crafted the story.Find us on twitter at @InsideStoryPod and Facebook at @insidestoriespodcast
2019-08-0723 min