A Public Affair
A Public Affair is WORT’s daily hour-long talk program. It aims to engage listeners in a conversation on social, cultural, and political issues of importance. The guests range from local activists and scholars to notable national and international figures.
Listeners may call in to join the conversation and ask questions of the guests. Callers are asked to pose a question relevant to the subject at hand and refrain from calling more than once per week.
Host Schedule
- Monday Archive
- John Quinlan
- Tuesday Archive
- OPEN
- Wednesday Archive
- Karma Chavez and Tim Hansel
- Thursday Archive
- Allen Ruff
- Friday Archive
- Esty Dinur
Studio Call-in Phone #: (608) 256-2001
Toll-free Line: (866) 899-WORT
For booking questions, please contact Molly Stentz at (608) 256-2001 or newsflash@wort-fm.org
09/14/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Friday September 14th, JoAnne Thrax subbing for Esty Dinur spoke with television talk show host Phil Donahue. Donahue was recently a speaker at the Fighting Bob Fest. About Fighting Bob: “Fighting Bob Fest is an annual Chautauqua featuring progressive speakers, networking opportunities, and entertainment. Fighting Bob Fest carries on the tradition of Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette by providing a forum for progressive ideas on issues facing Wisconsin and the nation. Freedom and justice are defended through education, and the exchange of ideas promotes solidarity among progressives. To this end, Fighting Bob Fest strives to provide citizens with a forum for democratic participation where frustrations with current policies can be constructively molded into calls to action” -www.fightingbobfest.org About Phil Donahue: “Phil Donahue and the DONAHUE show have been honored with 20 Daytime Emmy Awards, including nine for Outstanding Host and a George Foster Peabody Broadcasting Journalism Award. Phil Donahue used the television talk show format he pioneered in 1967 to interview world leaders, celebrities, newsmakers and people from all walks of life. For over 29 years, DONAHUE examined human behavior, focused national debates on political and social issues and has provided a democratic forum for presidential candidates.” -www.fightingbobfest.org To read more about Fighting Bob: http://www.fightingbobfest.org/ To listen to the entire interview:
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09/13/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Thursday September 13th, Allen Ruff talked with Arun Gupta who just returned from the Republican and Democratic conventions. Gupta is an Independent journalist, regular contributor to The Guardian, and a co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and The Indypendent. He reported from both conventions and wrote a number of pieces which observed that despite their vast differences, there are a whole range of commonalities between the two parties. He recently stated, “In terms of the protests, these security scare stories around the conventions keep the public away from substantial protest and dissent. The Olympics are about pushing the poor out through massive gentrification and infrastructure projects. What these conventions do — both political conventions, as well as NATO and G8 — is leave behind a massive security matrix that is used to police the poor and restrict dissent. Much of the rhetoric from the podium involves the establishment Democrats and Republicans jabbing at each other, but it highlights the broad areas of agreement between the Obama and Romney camps: The six wars (Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Iraq) — just now, outrage has erupted in Yemen over the killing of 13 civilians in a U.S. drone strike on Sunday. There’s also substantial agreement between the two camps on corporate trade deals, expanding oil and gas drilling, civil liberties restrictions, the general policy toward Wall Street. Both are silent about the home foreclosure crisis and both parties want to cut Social Security and Medicare as the solution to the economic crisis caused by the banks. On many of the most important issues, the Obama and Romney camps take on the minority position of the 1% and oppose most of the U.S. public.” To read more from Arun Gupta: http://www.indypendent.org/authors/arun-gupta To listen to the entire interview:
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09/12/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Wednesday September 12th, Molly Stentz subbing for Brenda Konkel spoke with a panel about the recent teacher’s strike in Chicago. Molly spoke with Chicago high school social studies teacher and blog writer Adam Heenan, writer for The Progressive Magazine Kari Lydersen and reporter for the New York Indypendent Newspaper Jaisal Noor. Kari Lydersen recently wrote in her piece “Chicago Teachers vs. Rahm Emanuel and Corporatized Education:” When 26,000 Chicago Teachers Union members hit the picket lines Monday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel called it a “strike of choice” that is “unnecessary,” “avoidable” and “wrong.” He stayed with the narrative he’s been pushing for more than a year – that teachers are acting selfishly upon their own interests at the expense of students and parents. Talking with some of the thousands of teachers, school nurses, counselors and other staff who manned picket lines and rallied downtown Monday and Tuesday, I also got the impression the strike was a conscious “choice.” Not a choice to throw the lives of students and parents into chaos in a bid to get better pay and less scrutiny, as Emanuel’s administration has painted it, but a choice to stand up to a powerful city administration and well-funded national “education reform” interest groups in a battle that epitomizes larger fights over public sector unionism and the future of public education nationwide.” Molly spoke with the panel about why Chicago Teachers have decided to strike and the impact this decision might have on education in the windy city. To read Adam Hennan’s blog: http://classroomsooth.wordpress.com/ To read Kari Lyndersen’s article in full: http://progressive.org/chicago-teachers-vs-rahm-emanuel-corporatized-education To watch Jaisal Noor’s reporting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFqrg4SVCqA&feature=youtu.be To listen to the show:
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09/11/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Tuesday, September 11th, Anjuli Brekke subbing for Cynthia Lin tackled the important issue of climate change and how it is being discussed by the Republicans and Democrats during this election season. Now that the conventions have finished, and with the Presidential elections just around the corner, both the Obama and Romney campaigns are presenting their visions for the future. This edition of A Public Affair delved into the plans these candidates have, or lack there of, to deal with the pressing issue of climate change and the future of the environment. The guest for the first half of the program was Daphne Wysham, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and founder of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. She has worked on research and advocacy regarding climate change, human rights, fossil fuels, international finance, carbon markets and sustainable economies. Later on in the program Anjuli spoke with retired professor and conservation specialist Richard Steiner. Steiner was deeply moved by the disastrous impact of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He recently stated, “Neither the Republican Party, nor the Obama administration seem to grasp the severity of the energy/climate crisis we are in. While the Republicans are further from an energy plan that addresses the situation, both are playing games with something that is truly a life and death situation.” Wysham and Steiner discussed the barriers facing environmentalists both with the current administration and the further challenges that will be faced if Romney is elected in November. To learn more about Daphne Wysham: http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/daphne To read articles from Richard Steiner: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-steiner/ To listen to the entire program:
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09/10/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Monday September 10th, host John Quinlan interviewed a panel of guests from Madison’s OutReach LGBT Community Center about their Annual Banquet taking place this Friday. 2012 Award Recipients: Woman of the Year: Cindy Crane Man of the Year: Joel Duffrin Organization of the Year: Alianza Latina Volunteer of the Year: Fay Ferington Ally of the Year: Karen Baker Special Recognition Award: Arthur Durkee Courage Award: Scott Anderson OutReach Vision Statement: Our vision is to create a community where the presence and contributions of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender people are welcomed and celebrated; where intolerance is challenged and defeated; where justice prevails; and where civil rights of all people are valued and respected. To read more about OutReach: http://lgbtoutreach.org/?q=node/13 To listen to the entire show:
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09/7/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Friday September 7th, host Esty Dinur spoke with the award-winning author and visual artist Christine Stark about her recent book Nickels: a tale of dissociation. The novel deals with the difficult issues of incest and physical and verbal abuse from the survivor’s point of view. It discusses how dissociation is employed as a means of coping. Stark explains how her motivation in writing the novel began with her social justice work around sexual violence. “Nickels follows a biracial girl named Little Miss So and So, from age 4-½ into adulthood. Told in a series of vignettes, Nickels’ lyrical and inventive language conveys the dissociative states born of a world formed by persistent and brutal incest and homophobia. The dissociative states enable the child’s survival and, ultimately, the adult’s healing. The story is both heartbreaking and triumphant” -Bertram’s Books To learn more about Christine Stark: http://www.christinestark.com/ To listen to the entire interview:
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09/6/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Thursday September 6th, host Allen Ruff spoke with Frederick Clarkson, independent journalist and author, about Reverend Moon and his Cult following. “A longtime observer of the Religious Right, including Rev. Moon, he devoted a chapter to the Moon organization in his book, Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy. His profile of Moon critic Steven Hassan will be published this week at the webzine, Religion Dispatches. ‘Rev. Sun Myung Moon was among the most pernicious anti-democratic figures in the United States in the latter half of the 20th century. Moon hated America. He hated our tradition of individual rights and independent thought. He hated democracy and said he wanted to replace it with a theocracy under his rule. Although many would be loath to admit it, Moon has been a central figure in the development of the modern American conservative movement since the 1960s — from Richard Viguerie’s direct mail operations to the religious and political empire of Jerry Falwell. Whether one’s religious or non-religious identity — Christian, Jew, atheist or whatever – the Moon organization has treated the minds and sacred beliefs of others like they were targets of a covert operation. The Moon organization has no respect, and only contempt for the views of anyone who is not a member of the True Family, and part of the covert operation.’” -Institute for Public Accuracy To read more about Frederick Clarkson: http://www.frederickclarkson.com/about/ To listen to the entire interview:
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09/5/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Wednesday September 5th, host Tonya Brito spoke with Stephen Copley, Director of the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance, about the problems with the current minimum wage. Copley is the Chairman of the national nonpartisan group Let Justice Roll Living Wage Coalition. He recently said, “Our motto at Let Justice Roll is ‘A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it.’ Today’s minimum wage is a poverty wage, not a living wage. At $7.25 an hour, just $15,080 a year, the minimum wage is set so low that growing numbers of hardworking men and women turn to food banks and homeless shelters to try and fill the gaping hole in their wages. It is immoral that the minimum wage is worth less, adjusted for inflation, than the over $10 value it had in 1968, the year Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis while fighting for living wages. It’s time to raise the minimum wage.” To read more about the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Coalition: http://letjusticeroll.org/ To listen to the entire show:
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09/4/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Tuesday September 4th, Cynthia Lin talked with Professor Mildred Elizabeth Sanders about the recent Republican and Democratic Conventions. Sanders addressed the issue of whether such conventions are still relevant. “Sanders is professor of government at Cornell University and author of “Roots of Reform” and a the forthcoming ‘Presidents, War, and Reform.’ Beginning Wednesday, she scheduled to be at the American Political Science Association Convention in New Orleans. Sanders recently wrote the piece ‘What We Should be Talking About: Romney’s Foreign Policy Advisers.’ She said recently: ‘The conventions seem even less important this year, since we have an incumbent Democratic ticket, and two pretty well-known Republicans — plus an era of stable, highly-polarized partisanship that leaves little to learn about the two sets of candidates and their platforms.’” -Institute for Public Accuracy To read articles by Sanders: http://www.accuracy.org/what-we-should-be-talking-about-romneys-foreign-policy-advisers/ To listen to the entire interview:
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09/3/12 12:05 PM | A Public Affair
On Monday September 3rd, host John Quinlan interviewed historian and professor of politics Peter Dreier with a special labor day program. “As the American electorate veers from frustration and anger to apathy and cynicism, with both sides of the political aisle to blame, a heartening new work by historian and professor of politics Peter Dreier reminds readers of the true source of progress and social change in the United States: movements for social justice. Dreier’s new book, The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame (Nation Books; July 2, 2012), explores the remarkable individuals who won victories for social justice over the course of the 20th century, and looks at major milestones in worker’s rights legislation. ‘These accomplishments did not occur because progress is inevitable or because a set of benevolent ‘haves’ took pity on the have-nots of society,’ says Dreier. ‘The credit for these achievements goes to the activists who fought to take their ideas from the margins to the mainstream. We all stand on the shoulders of earlier generations of reformers, radicals, and idealists who challenged the status quo.’” -Nation Books To read more about “The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century:” http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/perseus/book_detail.jsp?isbn=1568586817 To listen to the entire interview:
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