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

Once Secretary of State and long-time Presidential adviser, Henry Kissinger died on Wednesday, November 29th at age 100. Host Allen Ruff welcomes American historian Greg Grandin, author of Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman, back on the show to talk about the legacy Kissinger leaves behind and grapple with the question: How do we begin to evaluate his impact?

Greg Grandin is an American historian, author, and a professor of history at Yale University. He is author of a number of books, including The End of the Myth, which won the Pulitzer Prize for general non-fiction and was a finalist in the history category, and Fordlândia which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History, as well as for the National Book Award and a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Image used under Public Domain: Henry Kissinger on the Phone to Brent Scowcroft, April 29, 1975 by David Hume Kennerly (NARA). Accessed via Flickr

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As the holidays approach, many of us will be pilling into the car and speed down a portion of the Earth’s 40 million miles of roadways. But what is the impact of those roads on the natural world around us? In what the New York Times has called a Notable Book of 2023, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb argues that roads kill more wildlife than any single natural disaster, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.

“You’ve got noise pollution from roads that’s really altering wildlife habitat and human lives as well,” he tells A Public Affair. “You’ve got all of that road salt that we pour on our highways as a deicing agent… Midwestern states tend to be some of the heaviest users and all of that road salt–or at least a lot of it–runs off into surrounding rivers and lakes and streams, and turns them brackish. You’ve got the genetic fragmentation that roads cause: all of these walls of traffic, preventing animals from finding each other and mating.”

Ben Goldfarb joins host Carousel Bayrd to talk about the impact of roads as laid out in his new book Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. 

Ben Goldfarb is an independent conservation journalist. His previous book is Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, winner of the 2019 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

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In Holy American Burnout!, which is out today from Split/Lip Press, Sean Enfield uses personal essays and classroom narratives to tell the story of his time as a middle school teacher. He joins host Ali Muldrow to talk about using Kendrick Lamar to teach To Kill a Mocking Bird, shouldering the burdens put on educators, and writing Holy American Burnout!

Sean will be in Madison at A Room of One’s Own on March 21th, 2024. Learn more here.

Sean Enfield is an essayist, poet, gardener, bassist, and educator from Dallas, TX. His writing attempts to find connection through music and words as reclamation of labor as community care and as resistance to the many forces of white supremacy working against marginalized bodies.

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In an email to chancellors of UW campuses, which was attained via records request by The Daily Cardinal, UW System President Jay Rothman writes:  “Consider shifting away from liberal arts programs to programs that are more career specific, particularly if the institution serves a large number of low-income students.” The suggestion was an item on a list of “lessons” he took away from a Chronicle of Higher Education report. Campus News Editor Liam Beran broke the story for The Daily Cardinal in a piece titled Exclusive: Facing budget shortfalls, UW System president privately suggested chancellors ‘shift away’ from liberal arts programs at low-income campuses. He joins A Public Affair host Douglas Haynes to discuss the piece and the response since publication.

A Public Affair invited President Rothman to join the program. He was unavailable, but Universities of Wisconsin Media Director Mark Pitsch shared this statement:

President Rothman shared with chancellors a detailed, 50-page report from The Chronicle of Higher Education that he believed included interesting lessons and ideas, some of which he acknowledged would not be applicable to the Universities of Wisconsin. He did not suggest that chancellors move away from liberal arts programs. However, as evidenced by the $32 million workforce proposal, the universities are seeking to expand capacity in high-growth STEM, health care, and business disciplines to meet workforce needs.

To be clear, President Rothman has consistently stated the importance of a liberal arts education to developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In fact, to win the war for talent that the President has championed, he has highlighted the need for these skills repeatedly.

In the second part of the show, Douglas speaks with Neil Kraus, professor of Politics, Geography and International Studies from UW River Falls, about what he sees as austerity for austerity’s stake, a weakening of the UW-System, and the importance of liberal arts education.

Photo by Jacob Thorson on Unsplash

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Is the attack on Gaza and what seems to be an attempt to depopulate the area at least partially about oil and gas?

On today’s Birthday Boost show we speak with Charlotte Dennett, a former reporter in the Middle East, investigative journalist, author and attorney. She is the daughter of America’s first master spy in the Middle East, Daniel C. Dennett. By investigating the plane crash that killed him after a top secret mission to Saudi Arabia, she discovered the role of “protecting the oil at all costs” (as stated by her father) in the Middle East wars, including the post 9/11 endless wars, and now, the war in Ukraine and the Israel Hamas war.

Charlotte joins host Esty Dinur to talk about the book, Follow the Pipelines: Uncovering the Mystery of a Lost Spy and the Deadly Politics of the Great Game of Oil, focusing largely on the ongoing violence in Israel’s attack on Gaza.

Charlotte Dennett is the co-author of Thy Will Be Done: The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil as well as the book discussed in this show.   You can learn more about Follow the Pipelines at followthepipelines.com

Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

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As the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas continues, we welcome Mouin Rabbani back on the program. In a recent analysis titled “Thoughts on Truce,” Rabbani writes, “Israel’s military failures notwithstanding it is also the case that if it resumes operations, its most difficult challenges lie ahead rather than behind it.” Rabbani joins host Allen Ruff to discuss explains what he means. He also goes into the the events of the truce and the role of world governments in the ceasefire and war.



Mouin Rabbani is a researcher, analyst, and widely published commentator on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He has previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with Crisis Management Initiative/Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, and Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. Rabbani is Co-Editor of Jadaliyya and Contributing Editor of Middle East Report.

Photo by Huzaifah Patel on Unsplash

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