KPFTOJ

Jan Huff is a mother and wife and independent entrepreneur and spirit who came upon an impending health crisis a few years ago. She challenged herself to turn things around -and did so, The result of her self-discovery became her 24 hour dietary challenge that is one of the core elements of her creation- SYOLife, which means Save Your Own Life. Jan joins us on this episode of OJ to talk about her path to wellness, the challenges and discoveries she made on the way - and to offer us all an opportunity to gain a better perspective and control of our own well-being and to even save our own lives. She is also a friend of OJ

The Houston Women's March will bring together women and allies for a peaceful protest on Saturday, October 2, 2021. Participants will gather at Discovery Green and then march to Houston City Hall beginning at 9 a.m. The event will also include voter registration stations, speakers, and musical performances. The march will serve as a peaceful protest of dire current events in Texas, including Senate Bill 8, which is tantamount(equivalent)to an unconstitutional ban on abortion; recently passed voter suppression laws; redistricting measures; discriminatory proposals harming the trans community; the inhumane treatment of immigrants along the border and throughout the state; attacks on Asian Americans; and more.  Joining us to add some detail and background information are Robin Paoli and Chris Caldwell. Robin is a 6 generation Texan. Robin volunteers and serves as president of the executive committee behind the group. Chris Caldwell is a newcomer to Houston. They are a 27 year old Dallas native who has always been passionate about human rights and protecting the arts. After college, they went to New York City and has been an active part of queer organizing in the Brooklyn area. They are now the VP of a grassroots organization, Hoochies of Houston.

This month marks one year since the horrific police murder of Houston’s George Floyd in Minneapolis, a galvanizing moment for the Black Lives Matter movement and the cause of racial justice in the United States and across the world. Open Journal has presented a series of discussions on race and racism over the course of time, especially this past year. Cherry Steinwender is founder and co-director of the Houston-based Center for the Healing of Racism - dedicated to the healing of racism through education and empowerment since 1989. Joel Goza is a Houston-based writer, minister and advocate. His first book, “America’s Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics” - is an examination of the religious and secular thinkers who inspired our Founding Fathers and leaders’ addiction to racist and classist ideas.

The Texas Tribune is the only member-supported, digital-first, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Erin Douglas is the environment reporter for the Texas Tribune. She was previously a business and economy reporter at the Houston Chronicle where she covered labor, energy and the environment. Before moving to Texas, Erin worked as an intern at Bloomberg in New York and at The Denver Post, her hometown newspaper.

Tierney Malone is a visual artist and storyteller who uses African-American history and pop culture to create mixed media works that challenge contemporary culture and politics. Additionally, Malone is the creator of the Jazz Church of Houston and is host of the Houston Jazz Spotlight on 90.1 KPFT every Wednesday afternoon from 4-6pm. Tierney has exhibited his art widely throughout Texas and the United States. Born in LA, raised in Miss. and Ala. and based in Houston’s historic Third Ward, he considers himself a Southern Seed. We consider him a friend and are happy to have this conversation with him today.

A conversation about the legendary Montrose restaurant store: AL Quick Stop

A conversation with Tracie Jae: The Quiet Rebel

Soccer, or futbol for most of the world, has a history that goes back 150 years to England. Soccer has long struggled to gain the mainstream American status of Baseball, Football and Basketball, even Hockey. Still, Houston as the fourth largest city now has 2 professional soccer teams, Houston Dynamo(M) & Houston Dash(F), several collegiate teams and many thousands of youth playing in leagues. And with some 2026 World Cup matches likely headed this way, soccer is definitely on the rise. With us this edition of OJ is sportscaster Glenn Davis. Best known as lead play-by-play announcer for broadcasts of the Houston Dynamo and his weekly radio show - "Soccer Matters: with Glenn Davis” -Davis has called World Cup matches, Olympic socce, MLS matches, collegiate soccer and more. A pro soccer player in the 1980s, Davis has also coached youth soccer and works as a consultant. His charitable work includes a youth soccer camp titled "Kick Cancer" that features former and current soccer players as coaches to raise money for pediatric cancer research. He also has a KPFT connection. Glenn Davis -We are happy to welcome you back to Open Journal.

Julia Lewis has been organizing within the climate movement for 2 years. She is a junior at St. Catherine's Montessori High School, and also works on the Actions Team at Sunrise Houston. Vidya Muthupillai(moo-two-pee-lie) has been involved in the climate movement for the past 4 years. She is currently a senior at Glenda Dawson High School and a youth organizer in other issues as well. Devin Guevara is a senior at Sharpstown International School. He joined the climate movement back in 2019, and has been working to advance a comprehensive solution to the climate crisis ever since. All three are co-general coordinators of Houston Youth Climate Strike.

Located on the western edge of Memorial Park, the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center offers an escape from the hustle and bustle of city life and the opportunity to experience the natural world. This 155-acre urban nature sanctuary plays a vital role in protecting native plants and animals in the heart of the city where development threatens their survival. Conservation Director Stephen Benigno and Education Director Tiffany Ritter are with us to tell us more about the urban oasis in the heart of the city.

The COVID-19 Wall of Memories is the brainchild of Mohammed Nasrullah. Observing the steady rise in the numbers of sick and dead from the disease, he began thinking of a way to memorialize them, to keep them from being merely statistics. When the United States reached 100,000 deaths, he felt called to action, to create something to remember and honor their lives. Mohammed imagined a digital version of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. He shared his vision with his wife, Ruth, a freelance journalist who proposed that the website also provide context and details through a news and analysis page. Mohammed’s brother added his software design skills and the Covid-19 Wall of Memories was begun.

Based in Galveston, Artist Boat was founded in 2003 as a nonprofit to promote awareness and preservation of the coastal margins and the marine environment through land conservation and fun, educational, inspiring adventures. Founder and Executive Director, Karla Klay has over 25 years experience in arts and environmental education.

We’ve long heard the nursery rhyme: March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers. April is a good time to start harvesting water so plants can drink during dry days. Nell Wheeler & Dean Cook design systems that can collect and store as much as 3,000 gallons of rainwater in metal tanks. Veterans of the KPFT’s former beloved program, Eco-ology, Nell and Dean have been involved in the environmental justice movement for many years.

Houston Media Source provides education, equipment, and a content-neutral platform for people who want to produce their own television or radio programs. By giving Houstonians access to the mass media, HMS empowers them to address issues and tell stories that are not covered by traditional media outlets, highlighting the rich cultural tapestry of our city. Executive director Tom Richards, who is no stranger to the KPFT airways, is with us to tell us about HMS, how they have been handling the pandemic and what’s ahead.

For nearly a week in mid-February, most of the state suffered through subfreezing temperatures. Millions lost power and heat. When pipes burst and water systems shut down. Just this week, the New York Times reported that 111 people had died in the freeze, almost doubling the number of deaths officials had reported earlier. A month and a half since the freeze hit Texas, we’re still trying to make sense of what happened. A decade ago, University of Houston Energy Fellow, Ed Hirs predicted this failure would happen. He is an energy economics professor at UH and he’s with us today to help understand how the system collapsed, the fallout since then and what can be done to prevent this from happening again.

Kim Perry is the Food Access Director with Urban Harvest. Prior to that she was County Extension Agent for Prairie View University within Texas A&M’s AgriLife Extension system. Kim hails from Denver, Colorado, where she studied Social Work with an emphasis on Child Welfare and the Law. She received her Master's degree in Agriculture Science from Texas A&M - Kingsville. In 2009, Kim co-founded and operated Healthy Habits produce co-op that grew from 2 to over 300 families. For the past six years Kim has been a Harris County Master Gardener, and was awarded their Outstanding Service Award in 2020. Gabriel Borja serves as Urban Harvest’s Mobile Market Manager. He is a garden educator, permaculturalist and chicken-wrangler.

Stephen L. Williams joined the City of Houston as the director of the Houston Health Department in June of 2004. He serves on several boards of community, professional and civil rights organizations and is a past president of the Texas Association of Local Health Officials. Under his leadership, the HHD launched community outreach programs such as Project Saving Smiles, See to Succeed, Assessment, Intervention, and Mobilization (AIM) efforts and in 2006, Williams and his incredible team initiated the Hip Hop for HIV Awareness intervention project and collaborated with Enroll Gulf Coast to aid in providing access to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act of 2010 to the region’s estimated 1.4 million uninsured while also gaining national attention and White House support. His most recent endeavor includes pioneering the recovery efforts for the COVID-19 pandemic.

-As many of us are trying to understand the difference between allergies and flu symptoms or determine if we are an asymptomatic superspreader for COVID-19, it seemed now would be a good opportunity to get some facts. So, we on OJ thought it might be timely to have a little sit-down with subject matter experts that have a background in public health to talk thru some of what we are all dealing with right now. Hopefully, we might gain some insights and perhaps obtain access to information and tools to help us during these trying times.

Micki Fine

Lelia Rodgers, owner of Rudyards joins KPFTOJ

Rich Levy and Krupa Parikh from Inprint Houston join OJ

Comedian and host of Whiskey Brothers joins us on Open Journal

David Leslie of the Rothko Chapel joins KPFTOJ

Listen in for a conversation with voting registration activist Tamara Sell

Cherry Steinwender, Founder/Co-director, Center for the Healing of Racism & Joel Goza, author/activist Can our current racial and ethnic divide be turned around? Recent events surrounding the police murder of George Floyd and others have brought tens of thousands into the streets. The BLM movement has galvanized the moment. Images of protestors confronted, attacked and gassed by military units in our nation’s capital have exacerbated old wounds and brought others into focus. The Houston-based Center for the Healing of Racism is dedicated to the healing of racism through education and empowerment. The organization’s roots go back to 1989 when an ethnically diverse group of individuals met in Houston to discuss the impacts of racism. Founder and Co-director, Cherry Steinwender of the Center for the Healing of Racism,is with us. Joel Goza is a writer, minister and advocate who has lived with his wife and children in Houston’s 5th Ward for over a decade, where he has provided leadership in urban redevelopment, immigration and educational reform initiatives. He has written for The North Star, The Houston Chronicle, and Salon. His first book, “America’s Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics” - is an examination of the religious and secular thinkers who inspired our Founding Fathers and leaders addiction to racist and classist ideas.

Loreta Kovacic is known for her virtuoso performances from Mucky Duck to Carnegie Hall. She calls herself a “three for one special”: pianist, singer-songwriter and a storyteller. She started out as a classical pianist in her native country of Croatia. After immigrating to Texas and graduating with a Doctorate in Music from Rice University, she worked as a performer and a teacher, later adding the "Alchemist Piano Theatre" children's theatre. She has created 7 albums over the years and her "Brother Tadpole Classics" was nominated for a Grammy in 2011. This pandemic time found her recently creating her first album based on her original one-act tragic play, The House of Gilda Haas, set in 2019 in Houston Northside immigrant neighborhood, the story revisits Federico Garcia Lorca’s classic play La Casa de Bernarda Alba with a new, contemporary twist. She has a flair for transformative work and is sometimes found performing in a style she likes to call: Texas Slav. A friend of KPFT, an HISD teacher at Burbank Middle School, we are pleased to welcome Loreta Kovacic to this edition of Open Journal.

In a different time, Ginny Stogner McDavid would be jetting off to here and beyond as a crew member on a United Airlines flight. In addition to her duties as flight attendant whose career goes back to 1990 and Continental Airlines, Ginny is the first woman to serve as president of the Harris County Labor Assembly. She’s with us this evening to discuss her dual role as airline employee and labor leader, as well as the struggles caused by Covid-19. And, with the election only a couple of months away, she likely has some ideas of who labor is supporting this time around. Welcome Ginny and thank you for joining us on Open Journal.

The United States Postal Service(USPS) has existed since 1775 and the first Postmaster General was Benjamin Franklin. The USPS aka the Post Office, delivers over 48% of all the mail in the world; it has a fleet of over 228,000 vehicles; processes and delivers 182 million pieces of first class mail daily (~20M/hour); for $.55 you can send a letter to anywhere in the USA; it employs over 600,000 people (497K career/136K contract ~2019), generates $236M in revenue per day and costs the American taxpayer ZERO $. Gordon Anderson is a retired postal worker with 37 years as a letter carrier in Houston, Texas and served 10 years here as union representative in NALC- National Association of Letters Carriers, Local 283, with the aim of upholding the rights of letter carriers who were at times subject to management injustices. Gordon is currently the host of the Black on Both Sides radio program, airing every Friday from noon until 2:00pm on KPFT-HD2. His show primarily focuses on issues impacting diaspora Blacks from a Pan Africanist perspective. Jamie Partridge is a retired letter carrier from Portland, Oregon. He is an organizer with CPWU - Communities and Postal Workers United, a national network of local coalitions to save the postal service (cpwunited.com), a member of Rank and File Postal Organizers, a national network organizing to save the postal service during the pandemic (FB: Save Our Postal Service) In the past, he served as shop steward, editor, organizing chair, and political director, NALC -National Association of Letter Carriers, branch 82. He is currently on the local union executive board.

Karen Warren has a job that many people envy. As the lead Houston Astros photographer for the Houston Chronicle, she spends countless summer nights near the dugout in Minute Maid Park photographing baseball games. Since landing at the Chronicle in 1997, she’s photographed more than 1,500 Astros games. She has also worked at 14 Super Bowls, and covered the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a Little League World Series. In addition to keeping her eye on sports, her other duties include taking portraits of the Chronicle’s Pets of the Week. Karen was there during the loud, exciting games when the Astros won the World Series in 2017 and lost the series in 2019. Today Minute Maid Park is a much quieter place as the Astros and their opponents play out the season before a few officials and a small contingent of media. Karen is with us this week to tell us what it’s like to cover Major League Baseball these days.

Among the methods used to help slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus (pandemic) - beyond hand-washing, social distancing, masking up and getting tested is the process known as contact tracing. If someone tests positive for COVID-19, a contact tracer from the Houston Health department will contact you by phone, email or text message. Making a choice to work with contact tracers helps protect your family and your community by slowing the spread of COVID-19. It involves tracking down persons who may have interacted with someone who has contracted the virus and informing them they should self-quarantine, among other things. The City of Houston has hired hundreds of contact tracers to assist in getting a handle on this deadly pandemic. Many of us have only heard anecdotal information about this process; some of it perhaps not fully accurate, some even incorrect or misleading. Joining us this week on OJ to discuss their job as contact tracers are Basel Simon, a graduate of Michael E. Debakey HS and current junior at Vaughn College in NYC as well as Jackson Cloyd, a graduate of Houston Academy for International Studies (HAIS) and junior at the University of Houston. They are both global citizens and Eagle Scouts that have served as friends and volunteers to KPFT. Basel and Jackson, welcome back and thank you for joining us today.

It seems fitting that we are concluding our portion of KPFT’s Summer Sizzle Fund Drive with one of our very own, financial planner Leo Gold, who for years was host of “The New Capital Show” on KPFT. Leo is a financial advisor with his own firm, New Capital Management.

Lynn Ashby is a Houston institution. A longtime journalist - or should we say newspaperman - who spent most of his career at the Houston post, Ashby continues to churn out weekly columns that appear in the Brazosport Facts, the Heights-based The Leader, Spring Branch’s The Courier and other neighborhood papers. We pleased to have him with us today to give us his views about what’s going on today around the city, state and nation.

We’re more than halfway through a summer most of us will never forget. The Covid-19 pandemic dash a lot of hopes for summer activities. We’ve been stuck at home for months. Spring break came and went but our children never returned to school. Homes turned into offices and all of a sudden, families were together 24/7. With all this family time, coupled with a major change in the way we live our lives, came a lot of stess. But are there still ways to turn summer around and enjoy that time? Sarah Gish of Gish Creative is a culture and family activist and she is with us to offer tips on how to make the best of our time together.

The Internet, social media, and telecommunication are so important to our everyday lives, that it’s hard for some of us to imagine life without them. Yet, we are all too often unaware of the forces that seek to change the way these services work, and how these changes will not only change our lives, but could also change us. Change has already come, and more are coming, so we’re visiting again with our media expert and friend of the show, Dr. Lucas Logan, Asst. Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Houston-Downtown. Dr. Logan keeps an eye on all things internet;from time to time we ask him to break it down for us. Lucas Logan- welcome back to the Open Journal!

Crime Stoppers of Houston is Houston’s top non-profit dedicated to public safety and since 1980 has remained committed to its mission to solve and prevent serious crime in the Greater Houston Area in partnership with citizens, media and the criminal justice system. Crime Stoppers of Houston began in 1980, an some04 years later, it is often recognized for being the largest and most successful Crime Stoppers in the nation. CEO Rania Mankarious is with us to tell about Crime Stoppers and its efforts to reduce crime in our city

Cherry Steinwender, Founder/Co-director, Center for the Healing of Racism & Joel Goza, author/activist Can our current racial and ethnic divide be turned around? Recent events surrounding the police murder of George Floyd and others have brought tens of thousands into the streets. The BLM movement has galvanized the moment. Images of protestors confronted, attacked and gassed by military units in our nation’s capital have exacerbated old wounds and brought others into focus. The Houston-based Center for the Healing of Racism is dedicated to the healing of racism through education and empowerment. The organization’s roots go back to 1989 when an ethnically diverse group of individuals met in Houston to discuss the impacts of racism. Founder and Co-director, Cherry Steinwender of the Center for the Healing of Racism,is with us. Joel Goza is a writer, minister and advocate who has lived with his wife and children in Houston’s 5th Ward for over a decade, where he has provided leadership in urban redevelopment, immigration and educational reform initiatives. He has written for The North Star, The Houston Chronicle, and Salon. His first book, “America’s Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics” - is an examination of the religious and secular thinkers who inspired our Founding Fathers and leaders addiction to racist and classist ideas.

Cherry Steinwender, Founder/Co-director, Center for the Healing of Racism & Joel Goza, author/activist Can our current racial and ethnic divide be turned around? Recent events surrounding the police murder of George Floyd and others have brought tens of thousands into the streets. The BLM movement has galvanized the moment. Images of protestors confronted, attacked and gassed by military units in our nation’s capital have exacerbated old wounds and brought others into focus. The Houston-based Center for the Healing of Racism is dedicated to the healing of racism through education and empowerment. The organization’s roots go back to 1989 when an ethnically diverse group of individuals met in Houston to discuss the impacts of racism. Founder and Co-director, Cherry Steinwender of the Center for the Healing of Racism,is with us. Joel Goza is a writer, minister and advocate who has lived with his wife and children in Houston’s 5th Ward for over a decade, where he has provided leadership in urban redevelopment, immigration and educational reform initiatives. He has written for The North Star, The Houston Chronicle, and Salon. His first book, “America’s Unholy Ghosts: The Racist Roots of Our Faith and Politics” - is an examination of the religious and secular thinkers who inspired our Founding Fathers and leaders addiction to racist and classist ideas.

The Women’s Fund is a nonprofit dedicated to providing Houston area women and girls with the tools they need to be advocates for their health. For 41 years, The Women’s Fund has been educating girls and women through classes, workshops, lectures and publications focused on physical, mental, financial, emotional, health and wellness. The Women’s Fund serves close to 12,000 women and adolescent girls each year. The Women’s Fund collaborates with community partners to provide its programs and resources free of charge to the communities with limited access to health information. Houston area women and girls learn resiliency skills to increase self-efficiency, decision-making, goal setting, communication and resourcefulness to be their own health advocates. Executive Director Linda Rhodes is with us on Open Journal to tell us about the Women’s Fund and its role in the community

Stephen Klineberg, Kinder Institute, Rice University Dr. Stephen Klineberg, a professor of sociology and founding director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, has been tracking changes in demographics, forecasting the local economy and documenting the trending social concerns of Houston area residents since 1982. This year’s Houston Area Survey was conducted before the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus and recently released. And as a bonus this year, Dr. Klineberg has just published a look at our city in a book titled “Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America.” He is with us on Open Journal to talk about this year’s survey and tell us about his new book.

As mandated by the U.S. Constitution, our nation gets just one chance each decade to count its population by counting every resident in the United States. The data collected by the census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives (a process called apportionment) and is also used to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities. Houston in Action has mobilized for a complete count for the 2020 Census in Houston and Harris County. Ray Shackelford, a community organizer for the Houston Urban League as well as Lisa Sargent, the Census and Civic Engagement Coordinator for the Texas Freedom Network is with us to talk about Houston in Action and its efforts to make sure everyone counts.

The world is in the midst of an event unlike any other since the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. Because of the justifiable fear that accompanies the Covid-19 outbreak, many physicians have seen a marked fall in visits to their offices. However, when parents try to keep their children from being exposed to Covid-19 by not receiving their recommended immunizations, society risks having an outbreak of measles, whooping cough, mumps or other vaccine-preventable illness. Every year, roughly 3 million people die from vaccine-preventable diseases, and countless more suffer life-long disabilities. The Immunization Partnership believes in preventing what's preventable. President and CEO Allison Winnike, is with us to talk about the Immunization Partnership and how it helps individuals, physicians and others make smart choices about protecting our community from vaccine-preventable diseases as well as the need for routine immunizations.

We’re at the end of a school year profoundly disrupted by a pandemic that has forced children out of the classroom and into quarantine at home. And this already difficult situation is even more complicated for children of divorce, who have more than one home. Parents who put their children first and co-parent amicably can help kids make the best of this scary situation. Unfortunately - for parents involved in ugly custody battles - the quarantine can be seen as an opportunity: to distance their children even further away from the other parent. If it takes a village to raise a child, the well-being of the child affects the whole village, so tonight we’re talking about co-parenting and covid-19 with co-parenting advocate Wendy Perry. Wendy Perry is Co-founder of Parental Alienation Awareness USA, and Chair of Dallas-Fort worth Parental Alienation Awareness Day. Wendy also hosts monthly support groups and meets with legislators in Washington on Family Law Reform. Wendy Perry

A.Kendra Greene is an author, writer and artist; she has an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa; she is a Fulbright scholar and is the reicipient of a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship and Harvard Library Innovation Lab Fellowship. She is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas, a guest artist at Dallas’ Nasher Sculpture Center and an associate editor at Southwest Review. She joins us today from Dallas to discuss her just-released work published by Penguin Books, “The Museum of Whales You Will Never See.”

On March 30, 2020 Governor Abbott issued a state-wide executive order, instructing residents to minimize any gatherings or in-person contact with people who are not part of the same household, and remain home unless conducting essential activities and services. But in the age of social distancing and public safety, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted everyone’s daily lives. Rituals, worship, hospital visitations, burials and familiar ways to grieve and mourn a loved one have been altered gravely. We are joined by Spiritual Care Coordinator Dr. Myron Cloyd, to discuss some ways to reduce stress, manage trauma and navigate this new normal. Dr. Cloyd guides people through very difficult end of life transitions. The challenges of his work have been amplified since the pandemic. A volunteer and friend of KPFT, we welcome back Dr. Cloyd to share with us his observations, and possible insights on depression, goal setting and positive life considerations in the age of COVID-19.

Gerry Van Bakel is a dear friend of Open Journal and KPFT; long-time listeners to Open Journal will be immediately familiar with her name and her distinctive voice. For years she worked as a daily volunteer, producer and reporter for the KPFT News and helped with the daily, morning version of Open Journal prior to her returning to her native Netherlands about 3 years ago. During her time in Houston she also fostered her love for bicycling, riding to KPFT’s Montrose studios and joining several riding groups, including Toxic Shocks and MS150 Team ElMeson. SHe was deeply involved with Bike Houston and continues her bicycle advocacy and practice now back in the Netherlands. During this National Bike Month, we have gone overseas to bring our former-resident expert and source back into our virtual KPFT OJ studios for a discussion of life post-Houston, bicycling here and there and more. It is our joy and sincere pleasure to welcome back to KPFT’s airwaves Gerry Van Bakel.

With the pandemic raging and changing our lives in so many ways, it’s increasingly challenging to keep our spirits up. So in the coming weeks, we’re going to be visiting from time to time with people who just make us feel good. People who inspire us through the arts, poetry, music, stories and laughter. Last week, we went for the laughs with comedian Rob Mungle, and we’re going back for more this evening with another of Houston’s favorite comedians - Slim Bloodworth. A prolific writer and performer, touring nationally and internationally, Slim’s long list of credits include headlining in “The Yellow Rose Comedy Festival,” Houston’s first all-female comedy show; traveling the globe with the “Dykes of Hazard World Tour”; and entertaining our troops in Korea, Kuwait and Iraq. And she’s been featured in the comedy documentaries "The Circuit" and "Red, White and Bitch.”

Over the last two months, concern over the spreading COVID-19 virus has increasingly gripped our nation. In this public health crisis, people need access to accurate and authoritative information so that they can make decisions about their health and safety. Newspapers are on the front lines of the pandemic, there to inquire, authenticate and report the facts. Veteran reporter and editor Mizanur Rahman is with us to discuss newspapers’ role and dfficulties in covering the pandemic. Mizanur has worked in the Detroit area, at The Virginian-Pilot, Dallas Morning News and is currently the senior metro editor at the Houston Chronicle.

The nation’s food banks are being hit hard as the economy suffers from the Covid-19 virus fallout. The Houston Food Bank is no exception. America’s largest food bank in distribution leads hunger relief in 18 Southeast Texas counties. CEO and president Brian Greene joins us to talk about how the food banks are coping with this crisis.

Julia Lewis is a sophomore and the Community Outreach team lead for the Earth Day Climate Strike. She has been involved in youth climate activism in Houston for a year, and has worked with groups such as the Citizens Climate Lobby and the Sunrise Movement. Vidya Muthupillai (Moo-two-P-lie)is a junior who serves on the core team of the Houston Climate Strike team, which organized the 9/20 climate strike and is collaborating on a national livestream climate strike for Earth Day 2020. She heads the Regional Leads team, focused on integrating Houston’s suburbs into our city’s wider youth climate movement. Madeline Canfield is a senior and a Co-General Coordinator for the Houston Climate Strike team. She has co-led the Political Actions team of the Houston hub for the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate justice organization, for a year.

Laura Conely, the founder of Urban Paths, is with us to share some tips about walking in the time of the pandemic and maybe get us inspired to open the front door and get back in sync with nature.

Duane and Stephanie will be talking with law professor and author of “The GodFather of Sex Abuse,” Deanna Pollard Sacks.