A Public Affair Douglas Haynes, Ali Muldrow, Carousel Bayrd, Allen Ruff, & Esty Dinur

MMoCA’s new Director, Paul Baker Prindle has Madison roots. He worked at the museum store 25 years ago and attended both Edgewood College and UW–Madison. Now, as he steps into his new role at MMoCA, he joins host Douglas Haynes to talk about how to find joy in the experience of contemporary art. 

During Baker Prindle’s first few weeks on the job, he’s been thinking about what it means “to museum.” He says that museums are buildings that have a community, and MMoCA has an important role to play in Madison’s vibrant downtown life. Baker Prindle and other museum staff believe it’s their responsibility to make sure that MMoCA is an inclusive, community oriented space and a resource for Wisconsin artists. 

For some folks, art museums are still rarified spaces. But Baker Prindle says that all are welcome at MMoCA. He advises that you don’t have to see all the art in one visit. Rather, take your time, look for patterns and repetitions, and trust your instincts on what you like and enjoy.

Currently on view at MMoCA is Entering the Unconscious, an exhibit curated by the eleven high school students that make up the Teen Forum. This program offers mentoring and training to young people so they can gain the professional skills to access museum work and the art world. Baker Prindle says he’s looking forward to this year’s Art Fair on the Square, scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, July 13 and 14. Like MMoCA’s exhibits, the fair is free to attend. 



Paul Baker Prindle is the Gabriele Haberland Director of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Prior to starting this job, Baker Prindle was the Director of the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum at California State University, Long Beach. Baker Prindle’s photography is even featured at MMoCA.

The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art is always admission-free. Its vision is to be an organization that fosters the exchange of ideas and creates experiences that will inspire a wide audience; be a nexus for the work of emerging and established regional, national, and international artists; serve as a catalyst for the continued development of a vigorous community of artists; and provide a forum that will encourage people to be challenged by, reflect on, and make connections between art and the world around them. 

Photo courtesy of Chali Pittman/WORT.

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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 experience as a immigrant from Rwanda and the support that JSS provides to refugees from any country.



Ban Alwardi is a California-based immigration law attorney. Ban serves as a Co-Coordinator for Project Immigration Justice for Palestinians and offers attorney support and pro bono representation for Palestinian US Citizens and Green Card holders who seek to be reunited with loved ones in Gaza through the immigration process. Ban is an anti-war, anti-imperialist life-long activist and also serves as a writing mentor for Palestinian students in Gaza through the We Are Not Numbers (WANN) campaign.

Amanda Gennerman is a Wisconsin based immigration law attorney practicing in the field ofsince 2003.  She is a partner at the Madison law firm Pines Bach LLP. Mandy serves as a Co-Coordinator for Project Immigration Justice for Palestinians. Mandy is likewise a Co-Founder and Board Member of the Community Immigration Law Center based in Madison, WI.  She serves as the Pro Bono Coordinator of the WI Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). Her Pro Bono service has been recognized by the Dane County Bar Association, WI Chapter of AILA and State Bar of Wisconsin.

Sunday Nzitatira is Jewish Social Services of Madison’s Refugee Resettlement Director and oversees the transition for every client. He is originally from Rwanda and speaks 7 different languages.

Image by Karen Sandler from Pixabay

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In his recent piece for The New Yorker, Dan Kaufman writes about a progress bid for the U.S. Senate by  full-time community organizer Zach Shrewsbury. Kaufman joins host Allen Ruff to talk about the coal industry, it’s relationship with labor in West Virginia, and the how it has shaped the state’s politics.

Dan Kaufman is a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. He is the author of The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics.

Image by Pavlo from Pixabay

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Within the last couple of months, two of the most powerful women in the music industry dropped highly anticipated albums. At the end of April, Beyoncé hit us with her country album: Cowboy Carter. About 3 weeks later Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department. These two albums came after they both went on massive tours in 2023: Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour and Taylor’s Eras Tour–which is still going on internationally.

Today, host Ali Muldrow talks about the financial power of these two stars and their loyal followers with Misty Heggeness.



 Misty Heggeness is an associate professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Kansas. Previously she worked as a principal economist and senior advisor for the U.S. Census Bureau. Misty is the creator of Swiftynomics 101, non-traditional and free economics curriculum and teaching materials. Her research focuses on poverty & inequality, gender economics, and the high-skilled workforce and has appeared in outlets like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, The Economist, and Science. Her forthcoming book is Swiftynomics: Women in Today’s Economy

Image by Ronald Woan on Flickr used under Creative Commons license

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[This show originally broadcast on March 20th, 2024]

In her latest book, Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia author Kate Manne uses intimate stories and sharp analysis to explain why anti-fatness has become a vital social justice issue. She joins host Richelle Wilson on today’s A Public Affair to discuss the harms caused by both blatant and subtle fatphobia.

“Between two thirds and three quarters of us by some measures are fat; and yet, we often regard ourselves as really a thin person waiting to emerge victorious after the next diet or exercise program,” Manne tells us. The feminist moral philosopher goes on to say that because of this perception, we don’t stand together in solidarity, instead  “we try to change ourselves rather than work on changing the systemic oppression that I argue is really what’s plaguing us.”



Kate Manne is an associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University, where she’s been teaching since 2013. Before that, she was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Manne did her graduate work in philosophy at MIT. Her previous books are Down Girl and Entitled.

Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash

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From the first day in police academy to the last day on the force, police officers are told that they could be injured or killed at any moment. No traffic stop or neighborly dispute comes without the risk of violence. The day they let their guard home is the night they don’t go home to their families–or that’s what they believe. Through more than 100 interviews and 1,000 hours riding along on patrol, Michael Sierra-Arévalo outlines a culture that desensitizes violence and values officer safety above all.

Sierra-Arévalo joins host A Public Affair host Jade Iseri-Ramos to talk about The Danger Imperative: Violence, Death, and the Soul of Policing (Columbia University Press). The book is an on the ground report of modern policing. They discuss the training, networks of communication, and on the patrol experiences that further the use of violence by officers.  Sierra-Arévalo argues that in part, “violence is actually not unintentional in policing. That is that is the point of the institution.”



Michael Sierra-Arévalo is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His writing and research have been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, GQ, Vox, NPR, and other outlets. From 2020 to 2023, he served on the City of Austin’s Public Safety Commission. He holds a PhD in sociology from Yale University.

Photo by AJ Colores on Unsplash

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