A Public Affair Patty Peltekos, Carousel Bayrd, Ali Muldrow, Allen Ruff, & Esty Dinur

On today’s show, long time WORT supporter and former operations coordinator Norman Stockwell drops in to talk about recent pieces featured in The Progressive Magazine. Norm is the publisher of the magazine, and WORT donors can receive a 12 month subscription by donating $45 or more.

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In their 2022 annual report, The American Booksellers Association said the year was one of “incredible growth” for independent bookstores. However bookstores are still facing big threats–from soaring rents to politically motivated attacks both online and in person. They are fighting against book bans and Amazon’s low prices. A book store’s resilience, adaptability and customer loyalty are just as important now than they have ever been. 

To explain the plight of bookstores and uplift the successes, Danny Caine joins host Jade Iseri-Ramos on today’s A Public Affair. Danny is the author of the recently published book How to Protect Bookstores and Why: The Present and Future of Bookselling. WORT’s Diego Alegría also joins to show to ask for listener sponsors.

Danny will be speaking at A Room of One’s Own (which is featured in the book) next Wednesday, October 4th at 6pm.



Danny Caine is the author of the poetry collections Continental Breakfast, El Dorado Freddy’s, ​Flavortown, and Picture Window, as well as the book How to Resist Amazon and Why. The Midwest Independent Booksellers Association awarded him the 2019 Midwest Bookseller of the Year award. He’s a co-owner of the Raven Book Store, Publishers Weekly‘s 2022 bookstore of the year. .

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Earlier this month, the CDC announced that new COVID-19 boosters are recommended for all everyone 6 months and older. The federal government is also offering four free COVID tests to every household this fall. The virus is certainly still prevalent, but days of mask mandates, social distancing, and isolation are must less prevalent. Which leaves us to ask, “is COVID over?”

Wisconsin State Health Officer Paula Tran says that we have more tools and information than we did at the beginning of the pandemic. “We weren’t able to test for COVID, and we didn’t have a vaccine, and we didn’t have therapeutics,” she explains to A Public Affair host Ali Muldrow. Paula, who was recently named to de Beaumont Foundation’s ‘40 under 40 in Public Health’, joins the show to explain how the COVID response has changed and what public health officials have learned from the pandemic.

Paula Tran is the Wisconsin Department of Health Services’ State Health Officer and Administrator for the Division of Public Health. She leads the vision for statewide public health and health equity strategies. She oversees aging and disability resources, communicable diseases, community health promotion, environmental and occupational health, health informatics, policy and practice alignment, and preparedness.

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Workers at Leinenkugel’s main location in Chippewa Falls spent nearly 2 months this summer on strike.  Molson Coors (Leinenkugel’s parent company) and the 40 workers (represented by Teamsters local 662) reached an agreement just before Labor Day. Today’s host, Sara Gabler, reported on the resolution for WORT. She was surprised to learn that despite the “micro-brew” aesthetic of Summer Shandy and Juicy Peach, Leinenkugel is a cooperate brew.  As it turns out, macro-breweries have a long history with unionizing.

VinePair’s Dave Infante joins Sara to break down the union efforts within the industry and what workers in the micro-brewery space can learn from organizing at places like Leinenkugel.



Dave Infante is VinePair contributing editor and columnist and podcast host of Taplines. His work has been featured in the The New York Times, Fast Company, Splinter News, HuffPost, The Guardian. His independent newsletter on drinking culture is called Fingers.

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The Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park is a 60,000-acre of wilderness, waterfalls, and lake shores in the Upper Peninsula. The wetlands, wildlife, and water of the Porcupine Mountains (which are fondly referred to as the Porkies by many) are at risk of pollution due to the plans of a Canadian company.  Highland Copper has began building a copper mine that they are calling Copperwood Mine. Their plans include drilling under the Presque Isle River to seize minerals from directly beneath the Porkies. In their preparation, Highland Copper have already violated permits and degraded wetlands.

They are now facing push back from The Save The Porkies movement. In their first media appearance regarding the Copperwood Mine, Chris Vaughn, Johnson Bridgwater, and Marty Erspamer join Esty Dinur on A Public Affiar.

You can sign their petition and learn more about the movement at protecttheporkies.com



Chris Vaughn moved a few years ago from Omaha, Nebraska to the Wakefield area. After falling in love with the Porcupine Mountains, Lake Superior, and surrounding areas, he was appalled to learn about the plan to open a copper mine in the middle of so much majesty. In response, he launched ProtectThePorkies.com and the accompanying petition.

Johnson Bridgwater is Water Advocates Organizer with River Alliance of Wisconsin. Johnson has more than 20 years of advocacy and non-profit experience, working on local, statewide, and international environmental issues. He grew up in central Minnesota, relocated to Oklahoma where he served as Director of the Oklahoma Chapter of Sierra Club, and is now settled “Up North” on the Montreal River working for River Alliance of Wisconsin with a special focus on mining issues.

Marty Erspamer is a musician & activist from Ironwood. He works in the hospitality business and hosts many tourists every year coming in search of beautiful nature. He manages the social media for the Protect The Porkies campaign.

Image by: Yinan Chen, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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In the early 1900s, child-savers, who were mostly white and wealthy, set out to “protect” the children of immigrants who were living in overcrowded homes and were facing disease, poverty, and violence. Their efforts were the seeds from which the family court as we know it grew. 120 years after its creation, and 100 years of reform, the court is doing more harm than good. 

In her recently published book, Jane Spinak lays out a history of the court and those who worked to reformed it, and she concludes that it must be abolished. The former juvenile right attorney joins host Jade Iseri-Ramos to discuss The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and Families.



Jane M. Spinak is the Edward Ross Air-ah-Now Clinical Professor of Law Emerita at Columbia Law School. There she directed clinical programs in family regulation for 40 years. She also served as the attorney-in-charge of the Juvenile Rights Division of the Legal Aid Society of New York, was the founding chair of the board of the Center for Family Representation, and co-chaired the Task Force on Family Court created by the New York County Lawyers Association.

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