5 Minutes on the Farm 5 Minutes on the Farm

Think about your favorite science fiction space opera.  Whether it’s Star Wars, Star Trek, or something more obscure like Larry Niven’s Ringworld novels, sooner or later someone’s going to jump into a spaceship, mutter some mumbo jumbo about warp drives, light jumps or wormholes and go winging past the stars at some fantastic speed,  crossing to the other side of the galaxy in a matter of minutes. It makes for great storytelling, but it’s all bunk. Even if faster than light travel were possible — and most scientists think it isn’t — spaceships would spend not lifetimes, not generations, but hundreds of thousands of years to get to anywhere really interesting.  The Manfred Olson Planetarium at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has a new program designed to impress us with just how really, really big the universe is. Dr. Jean Creighton, Director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on January 13, 2020.

The Madison Cooperative Development Coalition (MCDC) – a project funded by the City of Madison and developed by the UW-Center for Cooperatives — aims to develop worker cooperatives in Madison as a way of providing equitable development, business and job creation.  Toward that end, the Madison Public Library is sponsoring “Co-Ops 101,” a series of talks to create public awareness of the opportunities available through the Madison Cooperative Development Coalition. Steve Herrick is the Co-Op Coordinator for the Madison Cooperative Development Coalition.  WORT listeners know Martin Alvarado as the host of Global Revolutions, but in his day job he works for Madison’s Central Library.  Steve and Martin joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on July 8, 2019.

With nearly 40 percent of all working-age Americans struggling to make ends meet, one might imagine that workers would be more than happy to receive a pay raise or promotion, but that’s not always the case. Because the struggle for basic family needs often requires the use of public assistance programs, some workers are concerned about earning more than the minimum amount required for this program. Low income workers have to make a choice whether the benefits of these programs outweighs the cost of making more monthly income. For workers, it can be hard to decide whether earning more money will make them worse off or better, which researcher Susan Crandall calls the “cliff effect.” As director of the Center for Social Policy, she studies low-income working families and their struggles for financial freedom and security.

In 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered Radium, the 88th element on the periodic table.   Quacks of various sorts soon attributed all sort of magical benefits to the new radioactive, element. Radium started showing up in toothpaste, hair creams and food products, with manufacturers claiming it could cure all manner of ills.  Radium also had the unusual property of glowing in the dark, and by the early 1900’s radium was used for industrial applications like watch faces. Far from curing illness, we now know that radium in fact causes radiation poisoning, as the young women painting watch faces at the United States Radium Corporation in New Jersey and the Radiant Dial company in Illinois eventually found out, to their detriment.  Kate Moore’s new book “Radium Girls” covers the tragic and influential story of these women. Kate Moore joined Monday Buzz host Brian Standing on October 8, 2018.

Madison and Vilnius Lithuania have been sister-cities for almost 30 years, providing cultural and charitable exchange between the cities. Jan interviews Debbie Kmetz and Daina Zemliauskas-Juozevicius from the Madison-Vilnius Sister-City organization about their organization and an upcoming “Singing Revolution” being held in the Capitol Rotunda on May 12th.

Jerome Dillard interviews David Liners from WISDOM, a grassroots organization comprised mostly of religious congregations of many denominations, from about 160 congregations of 19 different religious traditions. Besides criminal justice reform,WISDOM and its local organizations promote Immigrant Rights, Economic Justice, Health Care availability, Public Transportation, Workforce Housing, and more.