Podcasts about nelson institute

Jane Hirshfield—widely regarded as one of America's greatest living poets—joins Madison Book Beat for a rich conversation about poetry, the natural world, and the human condition. The New York Times Magazine has called her work “some of the most important poetry in the world today,” and her latest collection, The Asking: New & Selected Poems, showcases the depth and range of a life devoted to lyrical inquiry.In this episode, host David Ahrens and guest co-host Heather Swan, a poet and faculty member at UW-Madison and the Nelson Institute, delve into the themes that define Hirshfield's work: ecological awareness, tenderness amid grief, and poetry as a vehicle for transformation.In an intimate and expansive interview, Ahrens and Swan trace Hirshfield's poetic origins through six life-shaping jobs (as recently profiled by Swan on Lit Hub) and revealing her belief in poetry's ability to create moments of changed understanding—acts of witness, clarity, and care.Jane Hirshfield will give a public reading from The Asking tonight — Monday, May 12 — at 6 PM at the Madison Central Library, 3rd Floor. The event is sponsored by the Madison Book Festival and the Nelson Institute, with books available for purchase from Mystery to Me and a signing to follow.

This episode of Going Green (a SPACES podcast story) explores the history of the environmental movement, focusing on the impact of Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring and the establishment of Earth Day. It highlights the growing awareness of environmental issues throughout history and the role of key figures in advocating for environmental protection. The conversation also discusses the legislative reforms and architectural advancements that resulted from the environmental movement.Subscribe to SPACES PodcastEpisode Extras - Photos, videos, and links to additional content I found during my research. Episode Credits:Production by Gābl MediaWritten by Dimitrius LynchExecutive Produced by Dimitrius LynchAudio Engineering and Sound Design by Jeff AlvarezArchival Audio courtesy of: Anna Samsonov, hjvd, The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel, Congressional Archives Carl Albert Center, Nelson Institute, EarthWeek 1970Mentioned in this episode:Gabl MembershipEmergingShe BuildsArchIT

UW-Madison announced some ambitious goals for the planet: power the entire campus with renewable sources of electricity by 2030, send no new waste to the landfill by 2040, and become carbon neutral by 2048. For an institution with 420 buildings and another 9,500 acres of off-campus property, that's no small feat. So how will they get there?  Dylan Brogan talks to two people at UW-Madison who are making it happen: Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Dean Paul Robbins and Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning & Management Cindy Torstveit. Wanna talk to us about an episode? Leave us a voicemail at 608-318-3367 or email madison@citycast.fm. We're also on Instagram!  Want more Madison news delivered right to your inbox? Subscribe to the Madison Minutes morning newsletter.  Looking to advertise on City Cast Madison? Check out our options for podcast ads. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new era for weather data in Wisconsin is on the horizon, thanks to an effort at the University of Wisconsin– Madison. Chris Kucharik, professor and chair of the UW–Madison Department of Agronomy, as well as faculty member with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies visits with Pam Jahnke about upcoming expansion of the state's mesonet.  A mesonet is a network that helps provide atmospheric and soil conditions, wind speed and direction, humidity, air temperature, solar radiation, and liquid precipitation. Below ground, soil temperature and moisture levels are measured at certain depths as well.  All to try and provide better weather modeling and forecasting in the state. Kucharik's goal is to grow the mesonet to approximately 90 active weather measuring locations, literally statewide.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Maryland aims to become offshore wind energy giant! Plus the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and Solar Appreciation Day 2023!

What are the current risks to our national and global food security? How do cyber-attacks play a role? What are the conflicts in the grain industry that prevent us from moving forward? Dr. Molly Jahn and Col. John Hoffman, two of the most sought-after food security experts in the world, provide their recommendations for real solutions to this growing problem.  About the guests: Dr. Molly Jahn is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she holds appointments in the Department of Agronomy, the Nelson Institute, and the Global Health Institute. She is currently on an interagency personnel agreement from UW-Madison to work as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She is also appointed Joint Faculty at the US Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where she chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate and sits on the Lab Director's SAC.  Col. John T. Hoffman is a senior research fellow with the Food Protection and Defense Institute (FPDI), a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence at the University of Minnesota. Col. Hoffman has extensive experience in developing, operating, hardening and sustaining extensive cyber systems.  Episode topics: Current global food security measuresImplications of cyber threats on food securityCyber-attack preparedness and current limitationsAction steps for the grain industryTo find more helpful resources, be sure to visit the GEAPS website and the membership page.   Grain Elevator and Processing Society champions, connects and serves the global grain industry and its members. Be sure to visit GEAPS' website to learn how you can grow your network, support your personal professional development, and advance your career. Thank you for listening to another episode of GEAPS' Whole Grain podcast.

In this episode, I provide highlights of my visit to Wesleyan University in Middletown Connecticut as well as my more recent visit to the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. I talk about viewing a Common Loon at Picnic Point! Said bird was viewed in company with the great birder Dexter Patterson and Dan Fallon! I also introduce Edward E. Baptist my next guest. His work focuses on the history of the 19th-century United States, particularly the history of the enslavement of African Americans in the South. He is writing a book enslaved captive's experience of the slave trades and forced migrations, the systems of labor that emerged, and the economic and political and cultural consequences for women and men and children. He also owns a farm with his wife in the Fingerlakes region of New york. And he is an AVID Cyclist too. Y'all listen in for Dr. Ed Baptist next time.  Links: https://nelson.wisc.edu/https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/rbryant/profile.htmlhttps://dexterpatterson.com/https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/common-loonhttps://research.cornell.edu/researchers/edward-e-baptist

In this essay, Hannah Kass discusses how the state, capitalism, and property are interconnected systems, working together to produce peasant dispossession and hunger. To challenge these systems and their social relationships, she proposes food anarchy: a new pathway for the food sovereignty movement to wield in their struggle to challenge the current food regime.  Hannah Kass is a joint Ph.D student in the Department of Geography and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hannah's most recent publication is the journal article from which this essay is adapted: ‘Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger', published in The Journal of Peasant Studies. Kass, H. 2022. Food anarchy and the State monopoly on hunger. The Journal of Peasant Studies. DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2022.2101099 This episode of ‘Anarchist Essays' was supported by a grant from The Lipman-Miliband Trust. Our music comes from Them'uns (featuring Yous'uns). Anarchist Essays is brought to you by Loughborough University's Anarchism Research Group. Follow us on Twitter @arglboro Artwork by Sam G.

Dr. Molly Jahn is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she holds appointments in the Department of Agronomy, the Nelson Institute, the Global Health Institute (on leave 2019-20 for Government Service), and a $0 appointment in the Wisconsin School of Law. She is currently on an Interagency Personnel Agreement from UW-Madison to work as a Program Manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Tune in to learn more about: The risks in the US food system and why they should be a concern; The multiple breadbasket failure; How COVID revealed the fragility of the food system; The negative effects of driving diversity out of the food system; How conflicts are a real threat to the stability of the food system; The future of microbial foods.  To learn more about Dr. Jahn and her work go to https://jahnresearchgroup.net/who-we-are/molly-jahn/. 

Rubber is one of those things that goes unnoticed most days, even though our modern lives depend on it for building supplies, medical and industrial equipment, and so many things that help us get around. Despite its tendency to fade into the background, the story of rubber, particularly U.S. rubber, is one worth noticing. In the early 1920s, Americans owned 80 percent of the world's automobiles and consumed 75 percent of the world's rubber. At the same time, global demand for rubber skyrocketed as the automobile industry took off. But only a tiny amount of rubber was produced on U.S. soil, and there just wasn't enough to meet demand. How to ease the rubber bottleneck? In his new book, Empire of Rubber, Historian and filmmaker Gregg Mitman described the largely unknown story of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, the tiny West African nation of Liberia, and its transformation into America's rubber empire. Empire of Rubber claimed that Firestone reaped fortunes from stolen land and the labor of the Liberian people and contributed to instability and inequality that eventually led to civil war. Drawn from extensive research, Mitman weaved a narrative through the deeply intertwined realms of ecology, science, commerce, and racial politics — a story that offers both lessons and warnings as we consider the human costs of supply and demand. Gregg Mitman is the Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is the founding director of the Nelson Institute's Center for Culture, History, and Environment (CHE) and is also past president of the American Society for Environmental History. He is the coproducer and codirector of two films, In the Shadow of Ebola, an intimate portrait of the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, and The Land Beneath Our Feet, a documentary on history, memory, and land rights in Liberia. Mitman is also the author and editor of several books, including Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes, Future Remains, Thinking with Animals, and several others. Kerri Arsenault is a book critic, teacher, book editor at Orion magazine, and nonfiction editor at the Franco-American journal, Résonance. Kerri's work has appeared in Freeman's, the Boston Globe, Down East, the Paris Review Daily, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, and many more. Kerri is also the author of the best-selling book, Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains, which won the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction and the Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists. Buy the Book: Empire of Rubber: Firestone's Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

On this episode we welcome Anneliese Abbott. Her name may be familiar to Acres U.S.A. readers. She writes a monthly column called History of Organic Agriculture in America. It's a must read that's always full of surprises — and so is her first book, Malabar Farm: Louis Bromfield, Friends of the Land, and the Rise of Sustainable Agriculture. The book explores the life and legacy of a famous, Pulitzer Prize-wining novelist who became an Ohio-based, hard-partying prophet of a new kind of agriculture in the post-war era. It's fascinating story that involves everything from Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall to wild parties, boxer dogs and techniques that now make up the foundation of sustainable agriculture. Abbott studied plant and soil science at The Ohio State University. She ran a Michigan CSA for four years. She's now a graduate student in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In our first episode of the Green Paths series, host Eliza Lindley speaks with Dr. Tim Lindstrom, who is the intern program manager for the UW–Madison Office of Sustainability as well as an instructor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. We'll hear about Tim's journey from Kansas City to Sweden to Madison, and how Tim's varied experiences, educational background, and personal interests finally landed him in his current position. About the Green Paths series There a million options when it comes to where to work, what kind of work to do, and which of the countless, pressing environmental issues to focus on. When it all feels so fuzzy and overwhelming, where we do we even begin? In this series, host Eliza Lindley talks with people who have built successful environmental careers in their own lives. How did they start out in their field? Where are they today? And what was the often non-linear squiggle of experience that got them there?

While Jamie is away on his quest to join the proletariat in order to secure a liveable wage, Skander is joined by Andrew, a fellow student from the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Oslo.   Together, with the help of arcane zoomic rituals, they conjure the spirit of Paul Robbins, Dean of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to ask him a few questions about the sacred political ecology textbook he once wrote... and re-wrote... and re-re-wrote. You know the saying, 3rd edition's the charm. Paul is a fantastic researcher and theorist who has published a plethora of fascinating research and work around questions such as: why it is that working on topics related to nature is inherently political? We discuss his work and efforts at the Nelson Institute, the academic wars of the 90s and what we can learn from the degrowth/ecomodernism divide. We left this conversation even bigger fans of Paul's work, having learned much about a field which we consider to be our (upcoming) own, and running to ask our local bookshops if they have copies of his book Lawn People.    You can find Paul on Twitter and more of his work on his website  Let us know your thoughts at risingwiththetide@gmail.com as well as what you'd like us to talk about next!  Links to all streaming platforms and socials: linktr.ee/risingwiththetide  Or head to our website! www.risingwiththetide.org  Songs for the Episode is "Muzzle of Bees" (Intro) by Wilco & "Waiting for the Great Leap Forward" by Billy Bragg

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were privileged to talk with Prof. Tracey Holloway, the Gaylord Nelson Distinguished Professor at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. Prof. Holloway holds joint appointments in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences. She also serves as the Team Lead for the NASA Health and Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, which connects NASA data with stakeholder interests in air quality management and public health. Prof. Holloway describes herself as an air quality scientist, working at the intersection of air quality, energy, climate, and public health. We asked Prof. Holloway about this fascinating cluster of research, teaching and policy interests as well as a number of initiatives and projects that inform her research and teaching. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Holloway, and hope you will too.

Tonight, the Perpetual Notion Machine continues the analysis of the current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment report. Our guest is Jonathan Patz, who studies the environmental health effects from climate change on the population in the Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison. He is also […] The post Latest IPCC Report – Climate Change is “Unequivocal”... appeared first on WORT 89.9 FM.

Africa is a large and diverse continent. Many different peoples, ethnic groups, tribes — these terms overlap but are not synonymous — speaking more than a thousand languages, organized into more than 50 nation-states. Most of those nation-states achieved independence in the aftermath of World War II, as European imperialism and colonialism died out. In few African lands has political stability and prosperity followed. And today, Africa is threatened by new predators. Violent and vicious jihadists are kidnapping, killing, and committing a long list of other crimes. Africa also is threatened by what I'm going to call neo-imperialism — not the European variety. Joining host Cliff May to discuss these issues is Dr. J. Peter Pham, who was the first-ever United States Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa. Before that, Ambassador Pham served as U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. He's also been a denizen of think tanks. Currently he is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, but his first DC think tank affiliation was an Adjunct Senior Fellow at FDD. In addition, he was a tenured Associate Professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University, and Director of the school's Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Ambassador Pham is the author of more than 300 essays and reviews and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books, primarily on African history, politics, and economics.

Africa is a large and diverse continent. Many different peoples, ethnic groups, tribes — these terms overlap but are not synonymous — speaking more than a thousand languages, organized into more than 50 nation-states. Most of those nation-states achieved independence in the aftermath of World War II, as European imperialism and colonialism died out. In few African lands has political stability and prosperity followed. And today, Africa is threatened by new predators. Violent and vicious jihadists are kidnapping, killing, and committing a long list of other crimes. Africa also is threatened by what I'm going to call neo-imperialism — not the European variety. Joining host Cliff May to discuss these issues is Dr. J. Peter Pham, who was the first-ever United States Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa. Before that, Ambassador Pham served as U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. He's also been a denizen of think tanks. Currently he is a Distinguished Fellow at the Atlantic Council, but his first DC think tank affiliation was an Adjunct Senior Fellow at FDD. In addition, he was a tenured Associate Professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University, and Director of the school's Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Ambassador Pham is the author of more than 300 essays and reviews and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books, primarily on African history, politics, and economics.

Deb Fitzgerald sits down with Steve Vavrus, Sr. Scientist at the Nelson Institute at UW-Madison, to talk about climate change and what's in store for Wisconsin in general and Door County's specifically. They also discussed what's causing climate change, and some ways people can change their behaviors to reduce their carbon footprints.

The topic: As a final wrap-up episode we look back at everything we've heard throughout the series and what the collective wisdom suggests for the future of U.S.-China relations. Our guests: It's time to give the students more of a voice in this discussion. What have they remembered most from all our conversations with U.S.-China watchers? What are their hopes and fears for this crucial bilateral relationship? The 18 students of Professor David Skidmore's class weigh in with a variety of heartfelt insight. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a bo --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

Welcome back to the Denton Insider! This week we have Mary Anne Alhadeff, Executive Director and Chief Officer of the TWU Jane Nelson Institute for Women's Leadership.

The topic: Producing any podcast series is a journey featuring plenty of twists and turns. And producing a series on U.S.-China relations can be especially challenging considering such a vast intertwined history to be addressed, on top of all the modern divergent views, outright disputes, and key players. As we near the end of our own podcast series, “Searching for Common Ground,” Professor David Skidmore and I thought it made sense to compare notes with another duo who recently published their own U.S.-China podcast just over a year ago. Our guests: Matt Sheehan and Holly He are the team behind “Heartland Mainland: The Iowa China Podcast,” a 2020 production of the Chicago-based Paulson Institute's think tank, MacroPolo. Matt is a nonresident fellow at MacroPolo who has served as a foreign correspondent in China and previously lived on the mainland for more than five years. He researches and writes on the Sino-U.S. technology relationship and ties between California and China. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, studied political science at Stanford, and in 2018 was shortlisted for the Young China Watcher of the Year Award. In 2019 he published “The Transpacific Experiment,” a book exploring the pre-pandemic ties and tensions between Silicon Valley and China. Holly is a research associate at MacroPolo, where she also works in web analytics and multimedia production. She previously worked as a multimedia fellow for the Texas Tribune, scripted and edited documentaries for CNN International, and worked with the Kindling Group in Chicago. She graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Full episode transcript: https://david-skidmore.medium.com/kyle-munson-and-david-skidmore-interview-with-matt-sheehan-and-holly-he-961eb903d708. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member w --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: Often in this podcast series we focus on the big picture: Taiwan's relationship to the Mainland, the contrasting strategies of U.S. presidents in tackling trade, or the massive influence of technological expansion. But what about the details of playing out international relations on the ground in China, as a U.S. businessperson with decades of experience? What about a frontline view of the economic and cultural forces shaping the bilateral relationship while simultaneously reflecting its larger themes? What cues can we take from this history of everyday business and other interaction between our two countries that may identify common ground or a productive path forward despite a widening political divide? Our guest: Business and travel between the U.S. and China has been Kit Spangler's life. He's a man of two languages and cultures who only this year retired from a career focused on the bilateral relationship. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, most recently he worked as China strategy and business development director for Diamond V, a company (and Cargill subsidiary) producing animal feed additives to improve livestock health and nutrition. He previously worked in a series of roles that focused on the agricultural trade—specifically dairy and livestock. He began his journey as an Iowa farmer who studied Chinese language and culture to expand his career options in the wake of the 1980s farm crisis. He has traveled throughout much of China and brings to this conversation a wealth of firsthand anecdotes about U.S.-China business relationships, agriculture, food security, trade, and citizen diplomacy. Full episode transcript: https://david-skidmore.medium.com/fri-4-9-3-34pm-40-32-b15e8668e9a7. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: How will--and should--the Biden administration go about fashioning its policies across the range of issues that make up U.S.-China relations? Should we expect major shifts compared to the approach of the Trump presidency? What can we glean from the views and backgrounds of Biden's key advisers? How might domestic politics impact policy-making toward China? Just what sort of challenge does China present to the U.S. and our allies? Our guest: Thomas Wright is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. He's also a contributing writer for the Atlantic and a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He's the author of "All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power," which was published by Yale University Press in May 2017. His second book, "Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order," co-authored with Colin Kahl, will be published in 2021 by St. Martin's Press. Wright also works on U.S.l foreign policy, great power competition, the European Union, Brexit, and economic interdependence. Full episode transcript: https://david-skidmore.medium.com/kyle-munson-and-david-skidmore-interview-with-thomas-wright-3e991bd67de7. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: U.S.-China relations rest upon more than the formalized chess moves of presidents and diplomats. Far greater in scope and depth are the people-to-people exchanges in business, education, arts and culture, journalism, nonprofits, tourism, and so much more. These societal ties provide ballast for U.S.-China relations even when the political situation is at its most tense. Iowa's people-to-people connections with China are particularly strong and extend back nearly half a century, continuing a tradition in which Iowa also helped to play a moderating force with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. How have these connections been built and sustained over time? What forms do they take? How do Iowans and their Chinese counterparts benefit from such ties? Our guest: Kim Heidemann is an international programming consultant, adjunct instructor at Des Moines Area Community College, staff member with the Republic of Kosovo Consulate in Des Moines, and an expert administrator in citizen diplomacy. During her 15 years with Iowa Sister States, she traveled extensively and helped to shape the grassroots ties between Iowa and several partner nations, including China's Hebei province, as "old friend" Xi Jinping returned to visit in 2012, triggering a heightened phase of trade and cultural exchange between the two nations. Full episode transcript: https://david-skidmore.medium.com/kyle-munson-and-david-skidmore-interview-with-kim-heidemann-bfefce55cca5. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: Huawei, ZTE, TikTok, WeChat: The list of Chinese high-tech companies that have been characterized as threats to American national security continues to grow. But how real are such purported threats? And are efforts to digitally "decouple" from China realistic? Are there alternative ways to address security concerns? Our guest: Tom Lairson is emeritus professor of political science and international business at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. Tom received his doctorate in political science and a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky. He was also the first Ford Foundation professor of international relations at the Institute for International Relations in Hanoi, Vietnam, and founder of the Rollins in Shanghai program. Full background on this episode: https://medium.com/p/b68039dab91. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: In the wake of the Trump-era trade war and COVID-19 pandemic, what will become of the heavy ag trade between the world's two superpowers? What are the primary food security concerns for each nation? How do other large international markets such as Brazil affect the relationship? How might the post-pandemic marketplace reshape the dynamic? Is it still possible for agriculture to act as a moderating force on the political relationship between the two nations? Our guest: Bill Niebur, president and chief operating officer of Hi Fidelity Genetics in Des Moines, is a seed and crop scientist and consultant who has spent decades working in research and development in both the U.S. and China, most of that time with DuPont and DuPont Pioneer. He began his career as a corn geneticist in Illinois before extensive work in both Europe and Asia. In 2015 he was named one of 50 people "Shaping the Future of the U.S.-China Relationship" in the Pacific Power Index. Complete episode transcript: https://tinyurl.com/w8rvnrr5. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: As China's military modernization shifts the balance of power in East Asia, the naval forces of the U.S. and China find themselves facing off in tense encounters across the maritime routes off China's coastline. How can the dangers of military conflict and escalation be controlled as disputes related to the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and Taiwan play themselves out? What are the roles to be played by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other coalitions? Can a security architecture be constructed that reconciles the core interests of all players? Our guest: Professor Zhu Feng is Executive Director of the China Center for Collaborative Studies of the South China Sea, Nanjing University. He writes extensively on regional security in East Asia and China-U.S. military and diplomatic relations. He is co-author of "America, China and the Struggle for World Order." Complete episode transcript: tinyurl.com/3v5gl9cm. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: How does American politics appear from the perspective of a Chinese scholar? How do Chinese observers process the U.S. electoral system through the prism of China's own historical and contemporary political development? What are the most important things that Americans and Chinese people misunderstand about politics in the other country? Our guest: Ren Junfeng is a professor of political science at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Professor Ren specializes in Western political thought and American political history. He has served as visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong, St. Anthony's College, and Oxford University in England, and as a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. He visited Iowa to observe the lead-up to the 2020 Iowa Democratic caucuses. A Beijing publication recently featured his reflections upon that experience. Complete episode transcript: tinyurl.com/1tebagrj. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: Journalists serve as critical intermediaries between American and Chinese societies, reporting and interpreting events for audiences in both countries. Yet China has become an increasingly difficult place for American journalists as Chinese authorities have denied visas, placed restrictions on activities, and leveled criticism at Western media coverage of China. In turn, Chinese journalists have been forced to leave the United States. How do American journalists on the China beat cope with such challenges? How can outsiders gain information about such charged stories as the expanding detention camps in Xinjiang? Our guest: Austin Ramzy is a Hong Kong-based reporter for The New York Times, focusing on coverage of the city as well as regional and breaking news. He previously covered major events around Asia from Taipei and Beijing. He has covered the 2015 election in Myanmar, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and mass protest movements in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where he was based in 2014. Previously, Austin reported for Time magazine (2003-2013) from both Hong Kong and Beijing. Major assignments includes the Beijing Olympics, the Wenchuan earthquake, and China's response to the 2007-08 financial crisis. Complete episode transcript: tinyurl.com/5yc6p6z6. The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: There's little question that China's rising power poses new challenges for American foreign policy-makers. But to what purposes does China intend to put its newfound economic and military capabilities? Do Chinese leaders seek to overturn the basic rules and institutions of the existing international order? Do they wish to challenge the global leadership of the United States? A Chinese scholar offers surprising answers. Our guest: Wu Xinbo is professor and dean of the Institute of International Studies and director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University. He teaches and researches China's foreign and security policy, Sino-U.S. relations, and U.S. Asia-Pacific policy. Professor Wu is the author of a half dozen major books on U.S.-China relations and Chinese foreign policy, including, most recently, "China and the Asia-Pacific Chess Game" (Fudan University Press, 2017). His work has also appeared in English language journals such as International Affairs, The Washington Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary China, Contemporary Southeast Asia, and Asian Survey. Complete episode transcript: tinyurl.com/ie5wfb3s The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

The topic: Former Iowa Governor and U.S. Ambassador Terry Branstad has a history of about 40 years with China, most notably his recent service in Beijing where he led negotiations on everything from the trade war to nuclear tensions with North Korea. Branstad's unique perspective on U.S.-China relations is based on decades of promoting economic, cultural, and civic ties while representing the agricultural state of Iowa. This Iowa farm boy ended up with a career capstone that included high-level negotiations between two superpowers on controversial issues (including national security, human rights, and the pandemic) and close personal ties with the leadership in both the U.S. and China. Our guest: Branstad, 74, is not only a farm boy but also an attorney and the longest-serving governor in American history. In 2017, President Donald Trump appointed him U.S. ambassador to China. Branstad offered unique personal credentials beyond Iowa's robust agricultural trade with China: The governor in 1985 welcomed a young Xi Jinping to Iowa when the future Chinese president was a provincial official leading a routine trade delegation. That inauspicious connection years later would qualify Branstad as an “old friend” to the powerful leader of an emerging superpower. Branstad served a little more than three years in Beijing, returning in the autumn of 2020 ahead of the American presidential election. Episode transcript: https://link.medium.com/UqRTk1CEZdb The series: David Skidmore and Kyle Munson produced this podcast series in conjunction with Skidmore's Spring 2021 U.S.-China international relations course at Drake University. Your hosts: David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. He currently chairs the board of the Western Iowa Journalism Foundation. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

Tuesday on Lake Effect : We learn about the game Distrix and how it illuminates the issue of gerrymandering through gameplay. A UW climate science professor explains why she is taking part in a new group called Science Moms. We learn about the physics of sledding - from the kind of sled you use to the best snow conditions. Plus, we hear from Stephen Hull, a self-taught musician from Racine about why he feels so connected to blues music. Guests: Matt Petering, associate professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering at UW-Milwaukee and the owner of Distrix games Tracey Holloway, UW-Madison professor in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and Department of Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Dr. Jax Sanders, assistant professor of physics at Marquette University Stephen Hull, Racine-based blues musician

  UW Madison Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies U of I LAS Global Studies

David Skidmore and Kyle Munson outline a new podcast series intertwined with a Spring 2021 international relations course at Drake University. Click here for a complete transcript of this episode. David Skidmore is a Professor of Political Science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he has taught since 1989. Skidmore's teaching and research focuses on U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-China relations. During the 1996-97 academic year, he taught at the Johns Hopkins-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China. He also served as a Fulbright Scholar based at the University of Hong Kong in 2010-2011. He is past Director of the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (2002-2017) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs (2012-2017), both at Drake University. Skidmore is author, co-author or editor of six books including a monograph titled The Unilateralist Temptation in American Foreign Policy (Routledge, 2011), and has published numerous articles or chapters in various academic journals and books. His most recent research focuses on China's Belt and Road Initiative. His editorial writing has appeared in Fortune, U.S. News and World Report, Salon, The Conversation, the Diplomat, Global Times and the Des Moines Register. Kyle Munson is a journalist, writer, podcaster, and content strategist who currently works in content marketing and financial services. He previously spent 24 years with The Des Moines Register/Gannett in a variety of roles, including eight years as columnist. In 2017 he was awarded a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to report on U.S.-China relations early in the Trump administration as Amb. Terry Branstad began his tenure in Beijing. That resulted in the project “Iowa in the Heart of China.” Munson also reported on Chinese President Xi Jinping's 2012 visit to Iowa. He has volunteered and served as a board member with Iowa Sister States, a nonprofit dedicated to citizen diplomacy. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/uschina/message

An exciting research project recently launched through the Dairy Innovation Hub analyzes the costs and benefits of manure management regulations for dairy farm economic viability and soil and water sustainability. The goal of this project is to analyze how and under what circumstances manure regulations improves water quality. Dairy Stream host Mike Austin talks to experts Dr. Jeremy Foltz, professor in the department of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison and Dr. Marin Skidmore, post-doc in the Nelson Institute for environmental studies at UW-Madison. Thanks to Agri-King for sponsoring this podcast. This podcast is co-produced by the Dairy Business Association and Edge Dairy Farmer Cooperative, sister organizations that fight for effective dairy policy in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

Earth Day was founded by Wisconsin's very own Gaylord Nelson. Then a senator, and former Wisconsin governor, Nelson had a simple idea for a day of awareness for the planet.  The year was 1970. Gas was cheap. There were no regulations like the Clean Air Act or the Clean Water Act to keep factories from polluting our air, land, and water. A rising consciousness after several environmental disasters had the country buzzing with a desire to do more. His idea took off, and millions joined in across the country. Today, Earth Day is celebrated by more than a billion people around the globe. Nelson's daughter, Tia, is paving the way for his legacy to live on through her environmental advocacy. She is the managing director on climate at the Outrider Foundation. In this episode, she sheds light on her father's work, what Earth Day means to her and how you can get involved.Learn more about Nelson's legacy in the spring issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine: https://dnr.wi.gov/wnrmag/ Learn more about Outrider Foundation at https://outrider.org/features/earth-day-film/--------------------------------------TRANSCRIPTAnnouncer: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNRs Wild Wisconsin - Off The Record podcast, information straight from the source.Katie Grant: [00:00:12] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin - Off The Record. I'm your host, DNRs digital media coordinator, Katie Grant. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. That's 50 years of living, changing and advancing. In 1970 a gallon of gas was 36 cents. The Beatles released, "Let it be" and then later broke up and a quarter would get you a dozen eggs. It was also the year of the very first Earth Day founded by former Wisconsin governor Gaylord Nelson. It was a time when factories pumped pollutants into the air, lakes and rivers with few repercussions. Gas guzzling cars ruled the roads. Before 1970 there was no EPA, no Clean Air Act, and no Clean Water Act.Then a senator, Gaylord Nelson, had an idea to raise awareness about air and water pollution. His idea took off and on the first Earth Day in 1970 millions of Americans participated in rallies, marches and teach-ins for environmental education across the country. Earth Day catalyzed a movement in the United States that founded the Environmental Protection Agency and ignited a spirit of stewardship that has driven progress for five decades.Today, Earth Day is celebrated around the world with billions of people participating in their own way. Although Gaylord Nelson passed away in 2005, his legacy lives on through his daughter, Tia, who was 14 at the time of the first Earth Day. She has since followed in her father's environmental protection footsteps.Today, Tia Nelson is the managing director on climate for the Outrider Foundation. She is internationally recognized as a champion for environmental stewardship and climate change. Before the Safer at Home order, we spoke with Tia in early March to hear more about her father's life work, what Earth Day means to her and how you can get involved.Just because most of us are at home doesn't mean you can't celebrate Earth Day this year as we all do what we can to slow the spread of COVID-19, the DNR encourages you to celebrate 50 years of Earth Day close to home. Be sure to practice social distancing if you're out in the community. At the Wisconsin DNR, we embrace Earth Day 365. For us, every day is Earth Day. Sit back and listen in to how a Wisconsin senator helped establish Earth Day 50 years ago and how his daughter keeps his memory alive today. Tia Nelson: [00:02:37] My name is Tia Nelson. I'm managing director for the climate change program at the Outrider Foundation. We seek to educate, engage, and inspire action on big global challenges like climate change, help people understand the risks, but importantly also help them understand the opportunities to be a part of the solution.Katie Grant: [00:03:00] Fantastic. So you could be doing anything in the world. Why are you so passionate about the environment? Tia Nelson: [00:03:07] I have always had a love of nature. I spent a lot of time in the outdoors as a child. I went on to study wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin. I had wanted to be a veterinarian, but I'm pretty severely dyslexic, and so I struggled in school and once I found out that veterinarians had to go to school as long as doctors did, I figured that wasn't the best path for me.And I had the real privilege to study under, uh Joe Hickey, uh, who had done really important early work on how DDT was thinning, uh, eggshells and impairing, uh, the reproduction of bird species, especially, uh, predators, um, in Wisconsin and across the country. It was a big inspiration to my father who then went on to introduce the first bill to ban the use of DDT.So I was, uh, influenced, um, by great professors like Joe Hickey, uh, Orin, Ronstead, uh, Bob McCabe. Um, Bob was Dean of the Wildlife Ecology school. When I, uh, started attending the university and he actually inscribed, uh, and gave to my father the first day that my father was sworn in as governor, uh, a inscribed first edition copy of the Sand County Almanac with a beautiful inscription in it. I haven't here on my desk, um saying, um, "with and in between the lines of this book, you shall find great wisdom." Um, so I guess that's a long way of saying that, uh, nature was imbued in me as a child just as it was for my father, and I just seem to gravitate to the issue naturally and studied it in school and went on to work in the Capitol.I worked for the DNR as a fisheries technician summertimes while I was in college. It was a great job. Um, it's always been my life's work and my passion. Katie Grant: [00:05:07] Yeah. Did you ever feel pressure to work in the environmental space or you just knew it was what you wanted to do? Tia Nelson: [00:05:13] I just did it. It just was me. It was just a part of me and, uh, a keen interest of mine from a very young age.Uh, it must have obviously been influenced by my father and his work. Um, but I don't remember an epiphany moment. Um, it simply was imbued in me from a very early age, and it wasn't something that I honestly gave a lot of thought to. It was just who I was. Katie Grant: [00:05:43] Tell us a little bit about your father's legacy. For anyone who doesn't know, why is he so important to Wisconsin and Earth Day in general? Tia Nelson: [00:05:50] Well, my father grew up in a small town called Clear Lake in Polk County in northwestern Wisconsin. Not far from the St. Croix River where he camped and fished and canoed and his experiences in nature as a child had a big influence on him.The places his father took him, uh, the St. Croix, uh, which I just mentioned. Also, they visited the Apostle Islands. It's interesting for me to reflect on the fact that those childhood experiences in nature here in these magnificent, uh, natural landscapes in Wisconsin became inspiration for him once he was elected to office.And he served in the state senate for 10 years. He became governor when I was two. In 1958, he was elected and he became known pretty quickly as across the country as the conservation governor, principally because of a bold initiative that he put forward to tax uh, put a penny, a pack tax on cigarettes to fund the Outdoor Recreation Action Program --known by the acronym OREP -- uh, to fund, uh, the protection, uh, of public recreation lands for the citizens of Wisconsin, and to create opportunities for, uh, fishing and hunting and recreating. And that program was wildly popular and, uh, drew a lot of national attention, the National Boating Magazine, um, in I think around 1960, um, their front page was "All Eyes on Wisconsin" with a picture of the state of Wisconsin. And my, an image of my father overlaid and a story about how the, the great, uh, conservation innovation that was taking place in Wisconsin.So that was my father's, um, early efforts as governor, he took that experience and the popularity of that program, which is now known as the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund, named after my father and Republican governor Warren Knowles, who succeeded my father when my father was elected to the senate. Um, uh, so Wisconsin's had a long bipartisan tradition of support for those types of initiatives.The OREP program was wildly popular, um, to members of both parties. My father went off to Washington as the United States senator. He took with him a scrapbook of all the good press that he'd gotten for, uh, pushing, uh, conservation and outdoor recreation, uh, agenda as governor in Wisconsin. And, uh, he managed using that, good press that he'd received here in Wisconsin to convince President John F. Kennedy to do a conservation tour. My father was looking for a way to get politicians to wake up to the fact that the, uh, citizens, uh, were eager and interested in, uh, passing laws that protected our rights to breathe clean air and drink clean water and, uh, protect, uh, outdoor recreation areas. The conservation tour failed to accomplish what my father had hoped. Um, indeed, it was cut short after a few stops, as I recall. Um, and, um, sadly, President Kennedy was assassinated several months after that conservation tour, and it was between 1963 and 1969 my father continuing to push and talk about the environmental challenges of our time. And to try to think of an idea that might galvanize, um, uh, the people and, uh, shake as my father said, shake the political establishment out of their lethargy, um, and, uh, step up to address the big environmental challenges of our time.Keep in mind that Lake Eerie was so polluted at the time, um, that it had burned for days. Um, and, uh, today you can, uh, fish some good walleye out of there. Katie Grant: [00:10:15] Right. Right. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old, uh, Swedish environmental activist has gained international recognition for her climate strikes. She's also known for, having said "adults keep saying we owe it to the young people to give them hope, but I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to act as if the house, house is on fire because it is." How does it make you feel to see her and other young activists who are leading the environmentalist fight? And do you think they fit with your father's legacy? Tia Nelson: [00:10:48] Yes, they certainly do.It's really, the story of Greta Thunberg is, um, a really inspiring one, and it is one that I reflect on quite often for the following reason. It would have been impossible for Greta to imagine when she was sitting alone protesting in front of the Swedish parliament that that simple act of defiance would launch the global youth movement just as Rosa Parks could not have known that that simple act of defiance saying no to that bus driver when he demanded she moved to the back of the bus, she simply quietly said one word, no. It changed the course of history. Just as my father could never have known that the simple idea of setting aside a day to teach on the environment on April 22nd, 1970, would launch the environmental movement, propel the environmental movement forward in these unimaginable ways.Keep in mind there was no Environmental Protection Agency. Uh, it was signed into law by a Republican president, Richard Nixon. Um, some months after the first Earth Day, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, uh, Endangered Species Act, a whole slew of laws that we take for granted today, passed that first decade after Earth Day. More environmental laws were passed, um, in the decade that followed that first Earth Day than any other time in American history. And so Greta's story is inspiring to me and the way that Rosa Parks story is inspiring in the way that my father's story is inspiring. These were individuals who had a set of values and cared passionately about something, and they took action and they kept at it and they changed the course of history. It demonstrates to me the power of individual action to inspire others to become involved and be a part of the solution. And that to me is, is incredibly inspiring. Earth Day was successful beyond my father's wildest dreams. He never could have imagined that 20 million people would gather on that day or that 50 years later we would be celebrating his legacy in this way.Katie Grant: [00:13:20] Right. Tia Nelson: [00:13:20] And I, and, and I, I think that, that people on the 100th anniversary of Earth Day, uh, will be saying the same thing about Greta Thunberg and the youth activists around the world who have done exactly what my father had hoped youth would do and youth did do that first Earth Day. It shook up the establishment and made them pay attention.Katie Grant: [00:13:45] Right, right. You've mentioned in past interviews that you have a kind of fuzzy memory when it comes to what you were doing on that first Earth Day. As you got older, though. Do you recall any of your father's continuing work with regard to Earth Day? Tia Nelson: [00:14:02] Um, yes. Well, I, I was almost 14 when the first Earth Day occurred and I did not remember what I was doing.I, of course, get asked this question quite often. I, you know, was tempted to make up a good story, but I thought better of it. Uh, the way I learned that I was cleaning up trash at my junior high school is I was doing a talk show, a radio talk show, and one of my, uh, um, friends from junior high called and said, you were with me, we were picking up trash. So, um, but as the years, um, ensued, uh, I think it really dawned on me the significance of Earth Day on the 20th anniversary. I was on the Washington Mall with my father for the 20th anniversary. That was a magnificently large, um, and significant anniversary event. And it was pretty obvious that this would be a big, and enduring, um, uh, thing for a long time, uh, to come.My father worked tirelessly and he also he, he felt very, uh, drawn and very duty-bound to speak to youth. And he accepted the smallest school. If the kids wrote him a letter and asked him to come speak to them about the issues, the environment, he went. Um, he saw great promise in our youth. He knew that, uh, it were, that it was the young people in 1970 that, uh, made such a big difference, uh, in, in the success of that event.And so he would give speeches to big audiences. He would give talks to little schools. Uh, he was tireless in his advocacy, outreach and, um, public efforts to engage people because he saw the power, uh, of, um, doing that. And so, um, he was, uh, tireless, and in, in delivering that message and traveling around, giving talks, visiting schools, giving media interviews and doing everything he could to continue to advance the cause.Katie Grant: [00:16:20] When you spoke with us, uh, for our article in the Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine, you said one of the reasons the first Earth Day was so successful was because of the way it grew organically at the local level, rather than being planned from the top down. Why do you think the simplistic approach worked in his, kind of made it work for the last 50 years? Tia Nelson: [00:16:40] If you look at the first Earth Day, there were literally thousands of organizers in, um, communities across the country. My father did not prescribe a specific agenda. He didn't tell him what issues they should be talking about. He encouraged people to think about what they cared about, where they lived, what the challenges, the environmental challenges, quality of life challenges, were, wherever they lived, uh, whether it was in, uh, the city or the countryside. Um, and people responded, I think if you look at Adam Rome's book, he interviewed over 140 people, um, dozens and dozens and dozens of these local organizers. And one thing that's obvious is by not prescribing what the agenda was and what the issues were and how my father, uh, trying to prescribe from Washington what people were supposed to do, but rather letting them identify their priorities and values, um, uh, where, where they lived, um, and worked, uh, and raised their families.Um, that was very powerful. So some people planted trees, some people picked up trash, some people protested, some people had concerts. I have images of the, uh, Earth Day, uh, on State Street. State Street was closed and, uh, an entomologist and in, you know, a professor of insects, uh, set up a booth. A rather shabby looking one at that, uh, with information about the importance of insects as pollinators.Um, my point is, uh, whether it was entomologists educating people on the importance of bees as a pollinator, uh, or, uh, uh, Girl Scout troop picking up trash and in their local neighborhood or another group, um, planting trees, um, people felt empowered to take action in a way that was meaningful to them.And in, in not trying to control what people did and how they did it and how they messaged around it, um, turned out to be really, uh, uh, a stroke of genius on my father's part. Katie Grant: [00:19:07] For sure. For sure. So over the years, I'm sure you have participated in Earth Day and a lot of different ways, uh, do you have any particularly memorable ways that you have celebrated it?Tia Nelson: [00:19:20] Um, well, they're all meaningful to me. It's always been important for me to honor my father and my own, uh, life's work on Earth Day. It's particularly been important to me to, uh, tell his story to kids um, so that they understand that my father was just a little boy from a little town, um, in Wisconsin, and he grew up to change the world in unimaginable ways, and I want kids to know they have that power, too.Um, so I have always done as much as I can, uh, uh, some local events, media events, um, uh, try to talk to, uh, schoolkids, uh. This year is different though. This year I have a spreadsheet with, gosh, close to 40, um, appearances, interviews, podcasts, like the one we're doing now. Um. Uh, I'm very proud, very excited that we'll be debuting a, uh, uh, film, uh, at Earth X, the largest environmental film fest in the United States in Dallas, Texas on Earth... on the eve of Earth Day.We'll be opening that, uh, Earth X event. Uh, we will be closing out the Smithsonian's Earth Optimism event on April 25th. Uh, the day the mall or a mall event will occur. We've been invited to show at Tribeca Film Fest, uh, in New York and are still trying to figure out whether we can do all of these things in, in the short timeframe of a week.Uh, I will be showing the film at the University of Wisconsin Nelson.. Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies on Monday, April 20th. Uh, and what's exciting to me about the film is I recruited the youth activists Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, and Bob Inglis, the former Republican congressman, founder of a group called RepublicEN.Uh, the two of them have joined me, uh, in this film to honor my father and in a call to action to people today to come together and address the biggest environmental challenge of our time, which is climate change. And that, uh, Bob and Varshini, uh, eh, are joining me and talking about the need for a multigenerational bi-partisan socially just movement to address climate change is just a source of enormous excitement and pride for me. So I'll be showing that film around the country. Uh, I will be doing more podcasts, more media interviews. Um, I'll be keynoting, uh, after Earth Day at the annual meeting of the United Church of Christ, uh, at the Midwest Renewable Energy fair up in Custer, Wisconsin. Um, I, I'll, I'll, I'll be tired by the time it's all done, but it's, uh, um, it's a good challenge to have and I just, I couldn't be more grateful or excited to have the opportunity to tell my father's story, the story of other activists today. Um, and to encourage people to get involved and, um, be a part of, uh, building a brighter future.Katie Grant: [00:22:40] At what point did you and your family really start getting the sense that Earth Day had become something special? And did you guys ever discuss how big of a deal it had become?Tia Nelson: [00:22:51] Um, well, sure. I talked to my brothers about it, uh, on a regular basis. I'm updating them on the stuff I'm involved in, uh, here.But, uh, as I mentioned a little earlier in our interview, I think it probably first dawned on me, what a big deal it was on, uh, probably the 10th or the 20th anniversary. Um, that it was clearly going to be an enduring, um, event, uh, in a part of an important part of my father's legacy. Um, and the family's talked about it.Um, you know, we talk about it all the time. Uh, so, um, but especially, you know, this time of year. Katie Grant: [00:23:31] What are a few ways Wisconsinites and beyond Wisconsin can embrace your father's legacy and celebrate Earth Day this year? Tia Nelson: [00:23:38] Well, there's an unlimited number of things one can get involved in or be a part of, uh, you in, in your local community, um, or, uh, through, uh, established organizations. And that was one of the things that was really exciting to me about the video we've produced the, uh, the Sunrise Movement is very oriented towards youth activists. Uh, RepublicEN is oriented towards a more conservative audience. What they share in common is prioritizing, addressing the issue of climate change and, um, uh, the future of our environment.There's really literally an organization for anyone and everyone to join, uh, and there's, uh, uh, website, uh, the Earth Day Network has a site where you can go plug in your zip code and it'll show you, uh, local events here in Madison. I invite everyone to attend the University of Wisconsin Nelson Institute of Environmental Studies Earth Day, um, celebration, which goes on, is really going to be fabulous this year and has a number of significant national speakers, uh, and workshops. And that's on April 20th, all day at Monona Terrace. Uh, there are, um, uh, more local activities one could get involved in, uh, if you don't feel like joining a group. You can, uh, do something with your neighbors or friends um, uh, that, uh, would be probably pretty similar to what people were doing in 1970 deciding, you know, how they wanted to get involved, whether they wanted to go pick up trash or plant trees or join an organization. And, uh, there's sort of an unlimited in terms of, of what one can do because every, every individual action matters and, and people, um, uh, have an opportunity to get involved in any number of ways. Katie Grant: [00:25:48] Yeah. So at Wisconsin DNR, we are embracing Earth Day 365 and encouraging residents to take small steps all year so that taking care of our natural resources isn't just a thing that we think about once a year. Do you have any suggestions for small steps that people can take to make a difference?Tia Nelson: [00:26:05] There's a number of powerful small steps one can take from reducing food waste to avoiding single-use plastic to composting food scraps to using energy-efficient appliances to things like ... Funny little fact to know and tell is that something called phantom power, meaning our devices plugged into the wall when we're not using them probably about 15% of average home owner's electricity consumption. Simply unplugging those appliances when you're not using them, uh, is a way to save energy and it saves money. Um, so, um, being a conscious consumer, uh, being aware of one's impact, uh, on the planet, knowing that, you know, one of my favorite quotes from my father is "the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment. Not the other way around." And so um, we have to recognize that our natural resource base is finite, um, and that we have to be good stewards of it. And that individual action, how we conduct ourselves in our daily life really does matter. Um, voting for, um, uh elected officials, whether it at the local or state level, who put forward policies that protect our rights to breathe clean air and drink clean water is really important. Outrider.org has a section, um, about how you can help. Uh, it includes a way to assess, uh, your personal greenhouse gas footprint and things that you can do to, um, reduce it.So, um, get involved. Talk about it. Take action and join an organization that suits your particular interest.Katie Grant: [00:28:02] At a time when there can be a lot of doom and gloom in the news, how do you stay optimistic about the future of our environment? Tia Nelson: [00:28:08] I often say I'm in a complicated dance between hope and despair.You can't be involved every day of your life in the environmental challenges that we face today and not be concerned. Uh, the science tells us we have a lot to be worried about. On the other hand, I know the power of individuals to make a difference. I know how on that first Earth Day, a simple call to action, uh, precipitated significant progress in how we manage our resources and, uh, protect our environment. And so I reflect on my father's legacy and work. I reflect on the fact that he worked tirelessly and was, felt a sense of defeat, um, many, many times, but he got up the next day and went back to work and made significant progress.And I believe in American ingenuity. I know that we have a bright future of clean and renewable energy. That today renewable energy is... costs less than fossil fuel energy. We have some big challenges as we make that transition, but we know what the solutions are. And, uh, it's a question of creating the social will and political capital to move forward, uh, swiftly with a sense of urgency to address these challenges. And I believe we can do it, but we, we have to join together. That's why I'm so excited about the film with Bob Inglis and Varshini Prakash. They have very, very different ideas about what the solution is. That doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that they've come to the table to have a conversation about how we can work together and solve these big environmental challenges. That's what matters. And as long as we're having the conversation and agreeing that the problem requires an urgent response, we'll find a way to build the social capital and the political will to act.And so that is how I think about it and motivate myself to carry on the work. Katie Grant: [00:30:34] You've been listening to Wild Wisconsin, a podcast brought to you by the Wisconsin DNR. Show us on social media how you're celebrating Earth Day this year by using #EarthDayAtHome and tagging Wisconsin DNR in your posts.For more great content, be sure to subscribe to Wild Wisconsin wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or tell us who you'd like to hear from on a future episode. Thanks for listening.

Very early in my career, way back in the 90's I received the gift of a book, South of Haunted Dreams by Eddy Harris. As a young Black man venture out into a professional environment that was mostly white I took great comfort in this remarkable story of a person with a background similar to my own who was successfully leading a life of travel and adventure. In his book, Harris recounts his experiences of making his way through the Southern United States on motorcycle while enjoying occasional stops on trout streams to do a little fly-fishing. Though concerned that he might subjected to the mistreatment of racism Harris said his ability to navigate through places that are unfamiliar or even a bit frightening hinges upon his willingness to be vulnerable and receptive to the kindness of complete strangers. As writer myself I ask him, is that also a way to be an effective storyteller? "I never actually thought of it that way. But it's something that I do as a literary device. I'm a traveler. I've been a traveler since I was 16 years old. The way I travel is not organized. I have no plan when I go someplace. Whatever happens happens," Harris told me in an interview. "When I meet people and they invite me in for coffee or drinks or dinner, I almost never say no. I'm receptive to generosity, and I just put myself out there. I've discovered that that if you want people's stories, you make yourself available to them and they will in fact tell you're their stories." I believe that in many ways Harris's attitude toward travel and to how find one's place in the world directly influenced my own. Over the years that followed after reading that first book I went on read his other titles that include Mississippi Solo about his adventures paddling a canoe down the Mississippi River and Native Stranger that details a trip he made through the continent of Africa. But it was in article that he wrote for Outside Magazine 1997 on the disparities among people color as active participants in outdoor recreation that really got my attention. It was through the work of Eddy Harris that I first began to explore the divisions of diversity, equity and inclusion that I call “The Adventure Gap”. Now more than 20 years later I have a wonderful opportunity to learn from one of my favorite literary heroes. In 2018 I had the great pleasure of hosting a visit with Eddy Harris at the University of Wisconsin Madison. As adjunct faculty at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies it was my honor to speak with him as a guest interviewer on the Edge Effects Podcast. After 30 years of reading the work of Eddy Harris as a fan I now count him among my friends. It's that same spirit of humility and vulnerability that makes him such an endearing person and very compelling writer. You can find more of his work online at Eddyharris.com.   Thanks again to my colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Department of History podcast Edge Effects. New music this week by Ilya Truhanov and Brick Fields courtesy of Artlist.   The Joy Trip Project is made possible thanks to the generous support of American Rivers, The National Forest Foundation and Patagonia.      

Very early in my career, way back in the 90's I received the gift of a book, South of Haunted Dreams by Eddy Harris. As a young Black man venture out into a professional environment that was mostly white I took great comfort in this remarkable story of a person with a background similar to my own who was successfully leading a life of travel and adventure. In his book, Harris recounts his experiences of making his way through the Southern United States on motorcycle while enjoying occasional stops on trout streams to do a little fly-fishing. Though concerned that he might subjected to the mistreatment of racism Harris said his ability to navigate through places that are unfamiliar or even a bit frightening hinges upon his willingness to be vulnerable and receptive to the kindness of complete strangers. As writer myself I ask him, is that also a way to be an effective storyteller? "I never actually thought of it that way. But it's something that I do as a literary device. I'm a traveler. I've been a traveler since I was 16 years old. The way I travel is not organized. I have no plan when I go someplace. Whatever happens happens," Harris told me in an interview. "When I meet people and they invite me in for coffee or drinks or dinner, I almost never say no. I'm receptive to generosity, and I just put myself out there. I've discovered that that if you want people's stories, you make yourself available to them and they will in fact tell you're their stories." I believe that in many ways Harris's attitude toward travel and to how find one's place in the world directly influenced my own. Over the years that followed after reading that first book I went on read his other titles that include Mississippi Solo about his adventures paddling a canoe down the Mississippi River and Native Stranger that details a trip he made through the continent of Africa. But it was in article that he wrote for Outside Magazine 1997 on the disparities among people color as active participants in outdoor recreation that really got my attention. It was through the work of Eddy Harris that I first began to explore the divisions of diversity, equity and inclusion that I call “The Adventure Gap”. Now more than 20 years later I have a wonderful opportunity to learn from one of my favorite literary heroes. In 2018 I had the great pleasure of hosting a visit with Eddy Harris at the University of Wisconsin Madison. As adjunct faculty at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies it was my honor to speak with him as a guest interviewer on the Edge Effects Podcast. After 30 years of reading the work of Eddy Harris as a fan I now count him among my friends. It's that same spirit of humility and vulnerability that makes him such an endearing person and very compelling writer. You can find more of his work online at Eddyharris.com.   Thanks again to my colleagues at the University of Wisconsin Department of History podcast Edge Effects. New music this week by Ilya Truhanov and Brick Fields courtesy of Artlist.   The Joy Trip Project is made possible thanks to the generous support of American Rivers, The National Forest Foundation and Patagonia.      

This week, let's talk about the father of Earth Day! He did a lot of great stuff - like pushing for side effects to be listed with medications - and preached some racisms. Why do people suck so much? Resources Wikipedia Nelson Earth Day Founding of Earth Day Death-related article 95 speech on Earth Day Is the way we think about overpopulation racist? I’m an environmental journalist, but I never write about overpopulation. Here’s why. (Roberts) Environmentalism’s Racist History Perpetuating neo-colonialism through population control: South Africa and the United States Is Thanos Right About Killing People In 'Avengers: Infinity War'? Featured image from NASA Transcript Welcome to another edition of the Spooky Sconnie Podcast, the podcast that talks about everything, spooky paranormal, and weird in the state of Wisconsin. Since it's April, I thought that it would be remiss of me to not discuss the founder of Earth Day and the actual founding. And it was created by a Wisconsinite naturally. His name was Gaylord Nelson and he was born on June 4th, 1916 in a city called Clear Lake. Um, it's located up in Polk county which is kind of the upper north western corner of the state and it's about an hour away from Minneapolis. Nelson's father's parents - so his parental grandparents - were immigrants from Norway who moved to the area in 1878 and I couldn't find much about his maternal grandparents, but his mother was a nurse. Um, at least she completed the training to do that, but she spent most of the time kind of at home, spending time with the kids, that kind of stuff. ----more---- She taught Nelson a lot about the natural landscape and the world around him - while Nelson's father who was a doctor and very politically active, taught him about political life. And this reminded me a lot actually of college in an interesting way. Um, one of my history professors in college who I love, uh, we had a course on feminism in history and we talked a lot about the two spheres of the world in about the same time period. You had the domestic sphere, which was the realm of the woman who, you know, cleaned house and all of that. And then you had the public sphere, which was the realm of the man who did all of the outward things and voted and all that crap. So I had, this was a really clear cut example of that, which was interesting. In the time period we're talking about Clear Lake was not a great space to be in. There was a lot of pollution. Um, there was a lot of poverty. Of course, we're talking leading up to the Great Depression, which was not great anywhere, but especially in kind of tiny towns and rural areas. The Great Depression, you know, brought a lot of itinerant workers to the area. Um, a lot of people got grumpy about itinerant workers and not only was there an uptick in just general assholery, um, there was a lot of racism, a lot of extra bigger tree going on. And, and it's not exactly xenophobia because that's not, it's not exactly what this is what you can have people coming in from other spaces that are not your own space, I guess for lack of a better word xenaphobia is what was going on. Um, a bunch of the county's farmers actually went on strike in 1933 and it forced the local creamery to close down, which I think was interesting. Um, the works progress administration launched a bunch of projects in the region to do things like build roads, take care of wetlands, built the town's first sewer system, you know, things like that. Um, and Gaylord Nelson actually took a job shoveling stone on one of the crews, um, right after graduating from high school in the mid 1930s. And not only was it a lot of hard work, he also really didn't like the fact that he contributed to disturbing and destroying a lot of really beautiful natural habitats in the area and ruining fresh water in the name of progress. And that kind of pushed him to go to college. He followed his older sisters to San Jose State University. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what is actual major was in some sites said economics. Others said political science. Uh, I guess we don't know. I probably could have found out if I dug deeper, but I did not have time. It's okay. He really loved kind of exploring California and looking at all of the beautiful nature in the area, especially at the time period. And he would always come back home during the summers and worked in a cannery. He graduated in 1939 and in 1942 he also completed a bachelor of law degree at the UW law school here in Madison and was set to begin practicing law, but was quickly drafted into the army. While there he made first lieutenant, trained as a medical technician, um, commanded a segregated black company, and then spent the rest of the in Okinawa and actually met his future wife there who was a nurse named Carrie Lee Dotson. I honestly, I think it's really cute that his path, you know, like I don't know how his father and mother met, but to have to medically minded people in a relationship and then be somewhat medically minded and wind up in a relationship with another person similar. I think it's kind of cute. I'm a nerd. Um, when he came back from the war, the political landscape of Wisconsin was shifting a lot. The Republican Party, and when I'm talking about this right now, I'm not talking about the same Republican Party we see today. We're talking about the Republican Party of Lincoln era ideals. So think slightly more liberal than actual Republicans we think of today. So, they had enjoyed almost an exclusive rule of the state of Wisconsin since, uh, before the civil war. So really long standing and you know, there may be like rifts between groups in the party. There were some third parties, the popped up, but nothing that really stuck around significantly. And during this time period though is when things did start to shift from Lincoln era, republicans to Fox News he era Republicans - obviously, uh, you know, no TV yet, but that's kind of what was happening. And it was, uh, destroying the ideals of the party, shifting the party's platform, shifting who wanted to stay in the party. Um, and this was not something specifically limited to the Republican Party at the time, was kind of a everybody thing. I mean, think about it with the war, with the war ending, with all of the things that had just gone on, um, there was a lot of isolationism like, why the hell did we get in the war in the first place? It's not our business. Um, and that's kind of the, funny enough, that's one of the things that, um, at the time started help shifting, um, political ideologies. It's not much different than today, right? Where we have people questioning why are we getting involved in this conflict or that conflict? And not necessarily thinking about the, the general human rights of people everywhere. I don't know. That's a tangent. Um, so during this time period, Philip and Robert La Follette, um, who, who are the sons of the legendary progressive firebrand fighting Bob La Follette. Um, and we'll, we'll talk about him eventually. They had lead followers out of the Republican Party in 1934 and had suffered a lot of defeat and kind of came back and 46 and in that November, um, Bob the younger lost his Senate seat, which really signaled the end of an era here in Wisconsin. And you know, Gaylord Nelson was like, all right, I am going to try to bring this Republican progressivism to clear lake and I try to be in the state assembly. Let's do it. And he lost. Um, at the time though, he decided he was gonna move back to Madison. So he did that and he offered legal counsel to unions, spent time with a lot of friends from law school, really made some great connections. And then spent a lot of time talking with friends from law school and other spaces about rebranding the Democratic Party and about bringing that progressivism to this side. So what they really wanted to do was link people Milwaukee who were, um, you know, at the time, very pro union really, uh, you had a very large working class and then you had a lot of progressives who were feeling the pain of the shifting ideology and connect them with people in Madison who were and still are very much seen as, uh, a base of intelligence, right. Um, with the school here, with all of the educational opportunities, it's, it's kind of the smart kid town, um, to put up bluntly - not that people, Milwaukee aren't smart, but it's kind of seen as liberal safe haven. So to kind of link these two groups and see what they could do together, um, and see how much they could lift up people in rural areas and around the state. So in 1948 after what the capital times called a 'rip snorting hide tearing kind of campaign,' (oh my God) Um, won a seat in the state senate and he really championed advancing civil rights and reforming the government, um, and really pushing progressive ideals that people had been thinking about when Bob La Follette was really popular. Um, and, and making such big waves. He worked tirelessly throughout the state as the Democratic Party cochair for Wisconsin. And um, thankfully with, with all the work that he put in, um, you know, he, he was able to shift the state's political leanings and not single handedly mind you, but you played a major part. Through a large number of local and then statewide races through the 1950s, things began to change and shift back to more progressive ideologies and Democrats managed to replace Joe McCarthy - Yes, the motherfucker who haunted down leftists - with William Proxmire in 1957 and that was a huge win, not only for the state, but nationally and internationally. We had scared off a lot of entertainers, a lot of writers and artists who were very, very, very left leaning with the whole like Red Communist scare and McCarthy's, uh, for lack of a better term witch hunts. So it was really good to get him out. And maybe at some point if I feel like torturing myself, I will do an episode on him. I'm going to have to do it. I know I am, but not soon. The following year, so 1958 Nelson ran a successful campaign to be the state's second democratic governor of the century and the first governor ever from northern Wisconsin, which is pretty great. Um, he served four years as governor, uh, which was two, two year terms. And throughout his reign in, in the early 1960s, he pushed for better care and better protections for the environment. Um, he took what was at the time, a fairly large set of departments and divisions and Smush them down into the department of Resource Development, um, and established a youth conservation corps, which helped employ over a thousand young people and created green jobs for them where they were doing things to help preserve nature. And I'm really good things across the state. He also fought to earmark $50 million for the outdoor recreation action program, which, you know, bought up thousands of acres of land and converted them into public parks and wilderness areas. And those spaces serve, um, not only adds great spaces for families to visit and exist in, um, and you know, free, uh, entertainment spaces essentially. But they also really helped preserve a lot of wildlife. So I live in Madison. Um, you know, it's not necessarily - when you think of a college town, you don't think of deer walking down the road, you know, League of Turkey's crossing the road in the middle of your morning commute. And those things happen here and they have because we have the natural spaces that allow wildlife to thrive and live alongside humanity in a way that, um, uh, lots of places don't have because they didn't plan for it. And I think to Nelson's credit, um, he really helped create a space where wildlife and humanity could live side by side and not necessarily, um, but has a lot, unless someone's running late for work. And then there's a lot of honking - the Turkeys, uh, in our area that kind of wander about a two mile about area between like the school and our side of, um, like almost heading into Middleton, which is just a block over from us. And we'll see them walking down the sidewalk. They'll wait until they know it's safe to cross. Sometimes they'll stand in front of buses and it's always the dude's, and they will get very puffy and show off all their fancy feathers. And I just imagine Joe Pesci, that's the turkeys voice. I, I just kind of do, I'm gonna fuck you up. Like, I don't know. That is a super tangent too. I am so sorry. Not really though, because now you all envision what I envision every time I see the Turkeys job, she, um, another one of the things that Nelson really worked towards was ending the kind of lobbying system as it was set up then for the state of Wisconsin. If you're familiar with how lobbying works on the national level and how many people who are pro gun get a ton of money from, say the NRA or other, you know, uh, people who don't want to put so many restrictions on tobacco, get money from cigarette companies, et Cetera. Um, it's, I think it's a little better now than it was in the 90s. Thanks to some laws that had passed, but, um, it was bad. It was very bad and that was something similar going on in the state level here in the 60s, uh, like late fifties, early sixties. So he really switched that up. He, um, put a lot of restrictions on lobbyists so that they couldn't do that. He, um, just overall really consolidated the state government departments and made them work more efficiently. He really tried to champion, um, you know, racial - Oh my God, I'm having brain fog and I cannot think of the word that I want to use. Racial equity. Jeez, I'm so sorry. Um, just as an aside, if you don't have chronic illnesses, brain fog is something that's like almost a cognitive delay and you can't think of the right word or you might say Broccoli when you mean to say antidisestablishmentarianism like something that completely doesn't make sense. Anyway. So he really championed, um, racial equity and putting an end to discrimination, um, specifically on the basis of race or religion. Those were his babies. And he envisioned what he is quoted as talking about as "the creation of a social structure founded on quality instead of quantity and moral might instead of military might," which having been through war I'm sure came across really well to like, I've been through this, I helped treat people through this. It sucked. It was awful. Let's not do the military thing. In 1962, he was elected to the National Senate and served three consecutive terms. So he wound up serving from 1963 to 1981. And when he got there in [inaudible] 63, he basically immediately signed on as a cosponsor of President Kennedy's civil rights bill and participated in the march on Washington. Um, he also convinced JFK to start a national speaking tour to discuss conservation and environmental issues. And as President Johnson came into power, he really, um, Nelson pushed for advanced civil rights legislation and ending poverty. He really, really wanted to fight that. And I'm sure growing up during the Great Depression, um, and in a city where people were very, very hard hit by that pushed him to champion that cause he really saw these, um, things linked to his environmental agenda. Right. Cause it's not just about conserving natural resources, it's about using human resources. Well it's about, you know, uh, if we end poverty, there will be fewer excuses to do things that negatively impact the environment. Um, because we'll be able to live at a baseline that allows us to make smarter decisions and, um, do things that help protect the environment as opposed to negatively impacting it. In 1964 he wrote the following. We cannot let us situation continue in which millions of our fellow citizens do not have a suitable environment in which to live and raise their families. So he proposed a slate of federally funded green jobs. He talked to officials around the country and um, you know, talked a lot with President Johnson about how much, you know, Labor was out there not being utilized. Um, and how if we could create more jobs focused on environmentalism where you are not only help the environment, the create jobs that could help bring families out of the poverty cycle and lift them up. In 1965, he chided President Johnson for not doing enough to stop the lawlessness, terrorism and economic coercion in the Jim Crow south perpetuated against civil rights activists. He worked to secure federal protections for activists as a part of the civil rights act in 1968. He was an early and very passionate critic of the Vietnam War and also really disliked the misappropriation of public funds that was happening. Um, during the time period too. It became clear to him that spending so many public funds on even things like environmental Islam was not going to actually fix things. Yeah. DDT, a pesticide that was developed during this time period, um, and it was sprayed on lawns like here in the Madison area. And we watched as it began showing up and fish and groundwater all over the nation after it was used. Um, you know, other synthetic chemicals and things like detergents or as a result of mining practices and industrial production and pollution, you know, spread it throughout the water. He had smog all over because of no standards on car missions, contaminants in food, um, large numbers of pharmaceuticals showing up in waterways because people would just flush them instead of like turning them into the police, which is probably out of that system got started. Um, and really what he saw, and he talks about this in 1965 is that quote, man cannot live or act apart from his environment. And, and really what he saw was, you know, we were being so wasteful. We were being so thoughtless and careless, um, and not necessarily always have our own accord, right? The average person isn't like, 'oh, nothing's going to happen if I flush these down the toilet.' Like, they've got a other things going on. Right? But how do we lift up through education? How do we offer it up through, um, talking about it through public awareness so that we know that those things are great to do. Right? So he immediately called for sweeping government regulations, bans on pesticides like DDT and the end of the internal combustion engine, bans on dumping and waterways and oceans and even, um, had a constitutional amendment that guaranteed every person had the right to a decent environment, which I think is a fascinating idea. In July of 1967, there was a riot in Milwaukee that, um, turned deadly and I don't know the full story, so we'll probably explore that at some point. But he attributed this to thousands of citizens with inadequate educations, low incomes, poor housing, and poor job opportunities as a soldier in Johnson's war on poverty. He got more excited about that than the president did. He wanted to have a 10 billion with a B dollar program of public works projects and job training. Um, and wow Johnson was excited about that. He was like, I'll give you a 10th of what you asked for. And you know, Nelson proposed a ton of projects and they really took off, including things like the national teacher core, what's trained new educators, particularly a high concentration of people of color to then turn around and teach in impoverished schools. And kids began seeing themselves in their teachers. And I think that is incredibly amazing. During his 1968 reelection campaign, Nelson was praised by Vince Lombardi, the general manager and former coach of the green bay packers as the nation's number one conservationist at our banquet in Oshkosh. And Oshkosh is about an hour southwest of Green Bay or 25 minutes south of Appleton, if you know where those places are. Um, Nelson decided while his campaign, I don't know who exactly made the decision to turn that banquet speech into a radio and television campaign commercial and pissed Lombardi off because Lombardi was, uh, like he and his wife were very republican and the Republican Party was pissed too. So it did not, uh, make him friends with the Lombardy's. Let's just say that in 1970, Nelson called for congressional hearings on the safety of combined oral contraceptive pills, which are famously called the Nelson pill hearings. And as a result of the work that he did, side effect disclosure in patient inserts were required for the bill, which was the first disclosure for a pharmaceutical drug. I'm going to say it again. That was the first disclosure of side effects for a prescribed drug that got to patients. Holy Shit. Like I take a bunch of medications. Okay. Like I am alive because of that literally or inflammation in my body would probably have killed me by now. And the fact that I could potentially not have known about a side effect by being born just a couple of decades earlier, Holy Shit. And to not know which side effects are coming from which medications or side effects or even possible from some medications like birthdays. Great. And we'll get into it. But this, this is what makes Nelson cool in my mind. He made it so that patients knew what we were getting ourselves into and that is bad ass anyway. So, earth day. Or if they began as a teach-in about environmental issues and um, he really, Nelson wanted to propose a day where everyone around the nation could host like a teach in, you know, teachers could teach it to students and people could talk about it in library or universities and, and elsewhere, right, to really talk about environmental problems and what can we do to fix them. And immediately it took off national media, like picked it up and ran with it and his office got flooded by letters of support. Um, so he, he turned around and he created very small national office, um, that was there to help offer support to people around the nation that were going through, um, and creating grassroots efforts to educate and to enact change. He didn't like the idea of something like a top down organization because it never works out the way you want it to. Um, instead, he, he later reflected "earth day planned itself." An estimated 20 million Americans gathered on April 22nd, 1970 to talk about, um, the ecological troubles going on in their cities going on in larger spaces and not only to demand action from each other and to plan direct action, but also to demand action and accountability from their elected officials. And that's important. It really kicked off the, um, environmental decade, right? We think of the 70s, we think of vague he'd be is and Oh, all these people who on a leg not go to war and like not destroy the environment. So weird. Um, with, with all that Nelson did in the 60s, he tried to pass so many things. He tried to get so many things moving and now he was involved in so much. So not only did he, um, create earth, Earth Day, right? He's also involved in clean water act, the National Wild and scenic rivers act, the Federal Pesticides Act, the clean air act, the Environmental Education Act, the national hiking trails and national scenic trails act, and the establishment of the apostle islands national lake shore. That lake shore and where the apostle islands are - it's about two hours east of Duluth, Minnesota or like six hours north of Madison and it's beautiful - the water is gorgeous. I've not been myself, but I look at pictures and I go, 'I need to go to there.' Um, and it's just a gorgeous space and to be able to preserve that so that it's there for everyone to visit and enjoy. It was pretty great. He was also actually a pretty big advocate of small businesses, which I think is cool. He was a chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee and um, led efforts to authorize the first modern White House correspondence on small business, created the system of small business development at universities and really improve the way that federal agencies handle small business and other entities, um, through what's called the Regulatory Flexibility Act. I'm not going to talk about it. It's like over my head. But he did the thing. In 1973 he was one of three senators who opposed the nomination of Gerald Ford to be vice president, the other two word, Thomas Eagleton and William Hathaway. I couldn't figure out why, but I also didn't really look that hard into it. So hmm. After Nelson's 1980 defeat for reelection, he became counselor for the Wilderness Society in January of 1981 in September of 1980 or sorry, in September of 1995 in recognition of all of his work for the environment, he received the Presidential Medal of freedom. He viewed the stabilization of the nation's population as an important aspect of environmentalism. And these are his words: 'The bigger the population gets, the more serious the problems become ... We have to address the population issue. The United Nations, with the U.S. supporting it, took the position in Cairo in 1994 that every country was responsible for stabilizing its own population. It can be done. But in this country, it's phony to say "I'm for the environment but not for limiting immigration."' We're gonna get into that. Trust me. He also rejected the suggestion that economic development should be more important than an um, environmental protection because as he said, "the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment, not the other way around." At the end of the Cold War, um, he called for the US and Russia to allocate resources to working on environmental issues. He lobbied friends and Congress to stand up to, um, the vintage McCarthyism of the executive branch after the September 11th terrorist attacks, which I think is cool. Um, and then in the nineties, he really did get into this overpopulation idea. It's bad. We're going to go into it in just a second. I just want to like get to where he dies first and then we're going to go back into this. Um, do, do, do, do, do. So yeah. He received numerous awards and tuning, including two for the United Nations Environment Program. Um, he gave a speech about Earth Day in 1995 where he said some of the following: "All economic activity is dependent upon that environment with its underlying resource base. When the environment is finally forced to file under Chapter 11 because its resource base has been polluted, degraded, dissipated, irretrievably compromised, then, the economy goes down into bankruptcy with it because the economy is just a subset within the ecological system." - which, yeah, I mean, that makes sense to me. "We are dealing with a social, ecological and economic challenge unlike any other in our history. It is a challenge that begs for the kind of dedicated, inspirational leadership provided by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in their pursuit of victory in the Second World War. This challenge is far more serious than the military threat to the democratic west in World War n. Nations can recover from lost wars-­witness Germany and Japan--but there is no recovery from a destroyed ecosystem." - which again, like, yeah, that makes sense. In 2002, he appeared on the show To Tell The Truth as a contestant. Um, and then he died of cardiovascular failure at age 89 on July 3rd, 2005. There's a buncha places around the state named after him, including the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, or it's also just called the Nelson Institute here at Uw Madison. So now let's get into this overpopulation bullshit. So it's not great. It is not great fam. Um, some in the 1990s is when he starts championing this. There's this guy named Paul Ehrlich who is the author of, a classic book in Environmental Studies called the population bomb. And he served as an earth day adviser to Gaylord Nelson. And one of the things that Nelson wanted to push for, um, I think partially because of Ehrlich was for better family planning services and it wasn't because let's make sure people are ready to have kids. Let's make sure you know, people's choices as human beings are respected. It was because of concerns about overpopulation. He pushed the u s to shrink immigration quotas and help other nations establish their own population controls. And you know, people really push back because it's dismissive of things. The immigrants and people who go through asylum or like, apply for asylum. Go through. Um, it doesn't take into account disparities in various parts of the world. So the, the crux of the matter is the ideas about overpopulation are often rooted in racism, classism, ableism, and of course the cisheteronormative, white patriarchy. Um, often people who are harmed by these policies are not white. They are not middle to upper class, they are not abled. And often they're also not cisgender or heterosexual or men. And I think we have to sit with that thought, right? Sure. More people might live in different parts of the state and the different parts of the country, more people tend to move to cities because those are where the jobs are. That doesn't mean that we set - whether at the city, state, or national level - limits on how many people can live here. If we go back to the idea of America being like every person for themselves and the American dream and pursuit of happiness bullshit, which was never actually accurate, um, any of those limits would put a huge damper on all of that. And those, those ideas don't Mesh. Um, in a 2017 article for Vox, David Roberts dives deeper: 'In practice, where you find concern over “population,” you very often find racism, xenophobia, or eugenics lurking in the wings. It’s almost always, ahem, particular populations that need reducing. History is replete with examples, but perhaps the most germane recent episode was less than 20 years ago, at the Sierra Club, which was riven by divisions over immigration. A group of grassroots members, with some help from powerful funders, attempted to take over the national organization. These members advocated sharply restricting immigration, saying the US should be reducing rather than increasing its population. Their contention is that the country’s open immigration policies are hurting the environment by bringing in poor immigrants and making them richer, thus increasing their environmental impact. Of course, they swore up and down that xenophobia had nothing to do with it... I don’t doubt that it’s possible to be concerned about the environmental stresses population brings without any racism or xenophobia — I’ve met many people who fit that description, and there were well-meaning (if quite mistaken) population-focused groups in the ’70s and ’80s — but in terms of public discussion and advocacy, anyone explicitly expressing that concern starts out behind the eight ball. The mere mention of “population” raises all sorts of ugly historical associations.' Roberts is not wrong here at all. I think he's just leaving out pieces that maybe two years later we understand better or maybe it's because I'm disabled, Queer and Trans, I don't know, but we're not talking about the ableism. We're not talking about that. The US already places heavy restrictions on the number of disabled people that come come over because of what a 'strain' on our resources they would be - and let's not pretend the countries like Canada are any better. All the people after the 2016 presidential election telling me I should move to Canada - guess what? Canada won't have me because I will place too much of a burden on their healthcare system. First world countries already put these kinds of restrictions in place and we're supposed to think that making those restrictions broader and even more awful is going to help? All it's going to do is lead to population decrease because people are dying. And I don't know about y'all. I don't want that fucking shit on my conscience. (I almost said conference again, brain fog.) Um, and the way Roberts talks about this in the article, it's not about article. I definitely suggeste just reading it but do keep in mind it's from a very cis, Hetero Normative Lens, Aka there's binary gendered language and um, it's under the assumption that like parents who do the sex are going to have the kids because one does the eggs and one does the sperm and that's not reality. Um, yeah, so I've put a link to it in the show notes. I've put a link to a couple of other, um, pieces that are along a similar nature. There's a piece from the Guardian that discusses two sides of the issue, um, including like how beneficial large cities are, how they can be like technological-idea-producing cities out like, like San Francisco. That was phrased terribly - I am sorry. But like, cities tend to push technology further and it's like not only because of necessity but also like it just serves as an incubator. Green living tends to excel in cities too because you've got people like in San Francisco that are doing composting. They have city-wide composting. Madison just did composting for a while. It wasn't well like put out there. I had no idea until they stopped the program. Uh, now you got a bunch of people living in apartments and they have nowhere to do their compost. Like I know for a city, so rooted in environmental action, not great anyway. You know, it seems, it seems to me that the people who are against overpopulation are also against ways we might fight against that. (You know, like not ones rooted in white supremacist Bullshit.) If the concern was about actual quality of life or the environment, right, we would focus not on population density or overpopulation. Instead we'd put our energy into lifting up the quality of life of everyone, especially those living in large cities. We would focus on improving access to things like family planning, comprehensive sex ED, contraception. We would improve equality between the many genders, including pay, and destroy legislation that allows not only different genders, but disabled folks to be paid cents on the dollar. We'd improve adoption rates. We'd work better to like provide foster families with the resources and tools they need. We'd promote and accept families created in any form instead of telling Queer families they can't adopt more kids. We'd also stop approving and putting out articles, tearing down millennials like me who aren't going to have kids. But then again, I'm American and white, so my kids are the ones that they'd probably want to have around until they learned that I'm disabled. And that's what I got to say about that. Yeah, it's always good to end the episode on a great diatribe. Ah, yeah. Um, cool. Please, please, please, please, please, if you are listening on stitcher or apple podcasts or another program that allows you to rate, please do it. It helps people find the podcast. It makes me feel good and lets me put up cool things at work that say, 'hey, people should listen to my podcast cause other people like it.' Yes, I'm a nerd. I just started a fulltime job and um, and told people about the podcast. People are already excited about the prospect of listening to it. They probably will have forgotten the name of it, which I'm okay with. But um, it's exciting to be able to talk more about it as like something cool instead of like, oh yeah, I got this thing mumble, mumble, mumble. Anyway, please. Again, if you have the ability to subscribe, stitcher lets you do that. Well like every podcast app lets you subscribe I guess. But subscribe rate. Tell me what you think is going on that's good, or bad. Tell me if you think I should edit more then I do, which is not very much. Um, yeah, give me your thoughts. Send me emails to me. Facebook messages. Let's tweet at each other. Let's be friends. Um, I'd love to hear from people. I'd love to hear what people think is working, not working, what they'd like to see, all that stuff. Um, but for now, I have a date with some tacos and I hope soon who you also have tacos. You just listened to the Spooky Sconnie podcast. It is produced every two weeks by me, Kirsten Schultz. The intro, outro music is from Purple Plant. You can find show notes and more over at spookysconnie.podbean.com, including a transcript in case you missed anything. Take a minute and rate and subscribe if you can. You'll help more people see the show by rating and you won't miss a single episode if you subscribe, and that's pretty dope. You can support the show over at patreon.com/spookysconniepodcast and you can email me anything you'd like me to know at spookysconniepodcast@gmail.com. Meantime, sleep tight. Don't let the badgers bite. Bye.

Ep. 65:  Dr. Molly Jahn - Prof. Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison - Dept. of Agronomy; the Nelson Institute; the Global Health Institute; and chairs the Scientific Advisory Council of Energy & Environment @ DOE Oak Ridge Labs || Dr. Molly Jahn is a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Agronomy, the Nelson Institute, and the Global Health Institute, and chairs the Scientific Advisory Council of the Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate at the US Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory.   Professor Jahn leads a global alliance of research organizations focused on building and testing modern knowledge systems for sustainability. An award-winning teacher and researcher, Jahn also consults globally for business, governments, philanthropic organizations and others. During our 45 minute conversation we gain Dr. Jahn's perspective on what it'll take to address climate change on a planet of 7.6 billion people. We also discuss how our current approach in producing food and using water are in fact one of the most pressing National security concerns. Dr. Jahn shares how the Government shutdown at the end of '18 / early '19 is impacting real science which so vital in dealing with climate issues in a timely fashion. And, how that science is now losing traction under current governance. Dr. Molly Jahn has previously served as dean of the University of Wisconsin’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, and Director of the Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station.  From 2009-10, she served as Deputy and Acting Under Secretary of Research, Education, and Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jahn has >100 peer-reviewed publications and >60 active commercial licenses.   She has numerous awards, fellowships and lectureships for her research, teaching and outreach.  In 2014, she was named the first Lilian Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Martin School.  Her innovative approaches to inter-sector partnership, engagement with emerging institutions and integrated large projects focused on impact and technology transfer have been highlighted in a number of studies and books.  She has served on numerous boards and scientific advisory panels around the world including the US National Academies of Science Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, NASA’s Applied Sciences Advisory Council. It was an honor getting to speak with Dr. Molly Jahn about food, science, the climate and about the power of hope and potential.  TuneIn to hear more. www.SourcingMatters.show

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin is joined by City Transportation Director Tom Lynch, Fleet Service Superintendent Mahanth Joishy and City Traffic Engineer Yang Tao for a public presentation and discussion on the future of Madison's transportation system from electric vehicles in the City fleet, a bus rapid transit (BRT) system for area commuters, residents and visitors and a next generation of smart streets that are safer, more efficient and compatible with future technologies. The event is be moderated by Asli Göçman, Associate Professor with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

Vanishing Bees: Amanda asks Sainath Suryanarayanan, Assistant Scientist for the Study of Transdisciplinary Biomedical Research, Population Health Institute, Institute for Clinical & Translational Research Faculty Affiliate, Center for Culture, History and Environment, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, to explain what people in the field were seeing in the beginning

Topic:Fresh Water, Climate Change, and Community Resilience In This Episode:[02:10] Guest Rebecca Wodder is introduced. [03:19] Rebecca expresses how the first Earth Day impacted her life and career path. [05:06] Rebecca tells if fresh water has always been the focus of her environmental career. [05:48] Rebecca talks about how water affects climate change. [09:18] Rebecca explains the degree to which our fresh-water supply is being threatened. [11:28] Rebecca describes the Clean Water Rule. [14:41] Rebecca shares which industries are most impacted by the 2015 Clean Water Rule. [16:26] Rebecca addresses natural capital and social capital. [18:33] Rebecca speaks about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. [21:39] Rebecca states where people can learn more about her work (check out the Resources section below!). [23:10] Rebecca mentions the wisdom she would pass along to her younger self on Earth Day 1970. [25:52] Rebecca talks about whether she’s more hopeful now than she was in the past. Guest and Organization:Rebecca Wodder is a nationally known environmental leader whose conservation career began with the first Earth Day. As president of the national advocacy organization, American Rivers, from 1995 to 2011, she led the development of community-based solutions to freshwater challenges. From 2011 to 2013, she served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior. Previously, Rebecca was Vice President at The Wilderness Society, and Legislative Assistant to Senator Gaylord Nelson. In 2010, she was named a Top 25 Outstanding Conservationists by Outdoor Life Magazine. In 2014, she received the James Compton Award from River Network. In her writing and speaking, Rebecca explores how communities can enhance their resilience to climate impacts via sustainable, equitable approaches to rivers and freshwater resources. She serves on the boards of River Network, the Potomac Conservancy, and the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Take Away Quotes:“When the first Earth Day came along…my high school chemistry teacher asked if I would organize this event for the community. We really didn’t know what it was supposed to be about, but we knew it was intended to engage people and help them recognize the environmental issues that were so prominent at the time…The first Earth Day was just a great event in my life because it showed me how I could combine my passion for making a difference with my academic interests in science and biology.” “Water is the way that we experience weather, and weather is the way we experience climate change in our daily lives.” “Ultimately, the reason that we have a blue planet, the reason there is life on this planet is because of water. It is the fundamental reason for life.”   “One of the things that is so important about small streams is that they are the head waters, they are the sources of our drinking water, and something like one-third of all Americans get their drinking water—it starts with these small streams.” Resources:https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/03/23/fight-attempt-kill-clean-water-rule/99540030/ (Fight the attempt to kill the Clean Water Rule) https://islandpress.org/book/the-community-resilience-reader (The Community Resilience Reader: Essential Resources for an Era of Upheaval)  https://islandpress.org/resilience-matters-2015-download (Resilience Matters: Forging a Greener, Fairer Future for All )(Free e-book!) https://www.rivernetwork.org/ (River Network) https://islandpress.org/urban-resilience-project (Island Press Urban Resilience Project)

Listen NowIn mid-January the CDC abruptly canceled a three-day "Climate and Health Summit" the Center had been planning for months.  The meeting was intended to discuss public health risks caused by the climate crisis and steps being taken to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases or its adverse consequences on human health.   (It was speculated the meeting was canceled because the CDC did not want to run afoul of the incoming president who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax” perpetrated by the Chinese.)   The American Public Health Association (APHA) and others however went ahead and held a one-day meeting on February 16 titled,"Climate and Health" at the Carter Center in Atlanta.  The meeting was keynoted by former Vice President Al Gore.   Dr. Jonathan Patz, the Director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was one of the meeting's organizers and participants.    During this 24 minute conversation Dr. Patz discusses how the meeting came about and what was accomplished, e.g., he summarizes the afternoon's panels that discussed what's being done to reduce green house gas emissions.  He also discussed how to better involve the professional medical community  and how to effectively communicate the reality of the climate crisis. Dr. Jonathan Patz is the Director of the Global Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He is a professor and the John P. Holton Chair in Health and the Environment with appointments in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Population Health Sciences.  For 15 years, Dr. Patz served as a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (or IPCC)—the organization that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.  He also co-­chaired the health expert panel of the U.S. National Assessment on Climate Change, a report mandated by the Congress.  Dr. Patz has written over 90 peer-reviewed articles, a textbook addressing the health  the health effects of global environmental change and co-edited the five volume Encyclopedia of Environmental Health (2011).  He has been invited to brief both houses of Congress and has served on several scientific committees of the National Academy of Sciences.  Dr. Patz served as Founding President of the International Association for Ecology and Health.  He is double board-­certified, earning medical boards in both Occupational/Environmental Medicine and Family Medicine.  He received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University (1987) and his Master of Public Health degree (1992) from Johns Hopkins University.A webcast of the February 16 meeting is at: https://www.climaterealityproject.org/health.  Listeners are particularly encouraged to listen to Vice President Gore's 30 minute keynote address.  For more information concerning the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health go to: https://medsocietiesforclimatehealth.org/.Since I mention during the discussion the Obama administration's 2016 "The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the US: A Scientific Assessment," a review of the paper is, again, at: http://altarum.org/health-policy-blog/nature-bats-last-a-warming-earth-will-exact-adverse-health-effects-but-our-responsibilities-are.    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.thehealthcarepolicypodcast.com

The word science is often used as a shield when discussing wildlife policies, particularly management of predators in relation to depredation. Whether it’s governments, lobbyists for hunters and trappers, or even some wildlife protection advocates, the word can get flung around so much you’d think there’s an endless well of studies on the subject. But there’s a surprisingly small amount of reliable research available – and much of what has been published in journals has significant flaws. That means that, to paraphrase the title of the study we’re discussing today, wildlife management becomes a shot in the dark. Dr. Adrian Treves of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with his coauthors, published a study earlier this month in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment that looks at the existing science on this subject. Titled Predator Management Should Not Be a Shot in the Dark, Treves and his team reviewed the majority of available studies on the effectiveness of depredation, and their shocking findings led them to recommend a suspension of all “lethal predator control methods that do not currently have rigorous evidence for functional effectiveness in preventing livestock loss until gold-standard tests are completed.” To talk about his study, the research, and the ramifications he and his team may face for going against the status quo, Defender Radio was joined by Dr. Adrian Treves.

Author, Professor at University of Wisconsin In 1941 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of diethylstilbestrol (DES), the first synthetic chemical to be marketed as an estrogen and one of the first to be identified as a hormone disruptor—a chemical that mimics hormones. Its residues, and those of other chemicals, in the American food supply are changing the internal ecosystems of human, livestock, and wildlife bodies in increasingly troubling ways. In this gripping exploration that forms her new book, Nancy Langston shows how these chemicals have penetrated into every aspect of our bodies and ecosystems. Nancy Langston, a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology with a joint appointment in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was president of the American Society for Environmental History in 2007–9.

Author, Professor at University of Wisconsin In 1941 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of diethylstilbestrol (DES), the first synthetic chemical to be marketed as an estrogen and one of the first to be identified as a hormone disruptor—a chemical that mimics hormones. Its residues, and those of other chemicals, in the American food supply are changing the internal ecosystems of human, livestock, and wildlife bodies in increasingly troubling ways. In this gripping exploration that forms her new book, Nancy Langston shows how these chemicals have penetrated into every aspect of our bodies and ecosystems. Nancy Langston, a professor in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology with a joint appointment in the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, was president of the American Society for Environmental History in 2007–9.