On today’s show, guest host Dina Nina Martinez-Rutherford speaks with trans advocate, Josie Caballero. Across the country, there are more trans candidates running for office than ever, and these candidates are more viable than ever, says Caballero. These candidates include trans veterans who are continuing their path of federal service even after the Trump administration’s transgender ban. Caballero is one of these candidates, running to represent the 1.1 million people of Montgomery County, Maryland, an area that borders DC where roughly 40,000 people have been laid off from their federal jobs.
They talk about the courage it takes for trans individuals to run for elected office, putting themselves even more in the spotlight in a hostile political climate. But Caballero adds that trans acceptance is popular across the nation. She says that trans issues are being used by the Right to distract from the government shutdown, the Epstein files, and the demolition of the White House East Wing. Caballero reminds listeners to check in on your trans friends and family and be public about your support for trans individuals.
Their conversation also addresses the need for community support and mutual aid in light of SNAP benefits ending. Community support is the antidote to the desperation and hunger being fomented by the Trump regime. Caballero also supports the unmasking of federal immigration agents, the funding of public education, and champions the courage of other trans leaders.

Josie Caballero is a former nuclear power operator, deploying four times to hostile waters aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. She has proudly served within the Democratic Party as a presidential national delegate, a founding member of the DNC Trans Advisory Committee, and also was recently appointed to serve on the Maryland Commission of LGBTQIA+ Affairs. She is also the Director of Voting and Elections with Advocates for Trans Equality and President of the Transgender American Veterans Association. Caballero is running Montgomery County Council at-large.
Featured image: photo of Josie Caballero.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

In the last week of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, host Dana Pellebon speaks with Virginia Gittens Escudero, the Executive Director of UNIDOS. She shares the history of her anti-violence work and the role that UNIDOS plays in breaking barriers for Latinx survivors of domestic violence in Dane County through direct services and community education. 
They talk about the legal programs that are available to survivors in Dane County, like the support groups at UNIDOS and legal advocates at DAIS who support survivors navigate legal systems. UNIDOS serves the needs of the Latinx community through culturally specific approaches to SA and DV. They provide space for survivors to share their experiences in their language of choice and share information about topics like mandatory arrest, restraining orders and Visa eligibility on La Movida radio. 
They also talk about the Victims of Crime Act, flaws in the immigration system, human and labor trafficking, and misunderstandings about domestic violence. 
If you need help, you’re not alone. You can call UNIDOS La Red at 1-800 510-9195, reach out to DAIS by text at (608) 420-4638, or call Freedom, Inc at (608) 716-7324.

Virginia Gittens Escudero is the Executive Director at UNIDOS, a non-profit organization in Madison that provides advocacy, support, referral, and information to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking who identify as Latinx. Virginia Gittens has dedicated over a decade to serving survivors of domestic abuse and empowering individuals to rebuild their lives with dignity and hope. Through her leadership and community work, she has helped organizations strengthen their victim-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive approaches. 
Before joining UNIDOS, Virginia worked for approximately seven years at the Legal Advocacy Program at Domestic Abuse Intervention Services, where she provided legal advocacy, support, and court accompaniment to victims of domestic violence in Dane County. During her time at DAIS, she worked on initiatives that advocated for effective responses to victims of domestic violence in Dane County, including the DAIS Court Watch Program, the Restraining Order Clinic, and the Dane County Courthouse. Virginia is a member of the Wisconsin Governor’s Council on Domestic Violence.
Featured image of Virginia Escudero and Dana Pellebon courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes speaks with Nicole Foy, a reporter with ProPublica, about her recent reporting on ICE sweeps and the growing number of US citizens who are being detained by federal immigration agents. Her story on the abuses these citizens face while federal custody spurred Congressional democrats to announce a joint-investigation last week.
Foy found that more than 170 citizens (a likely undercount) have been detained by immigration agents, 50 of whom were detained because of questions about their citizenship. But the other 130 and more people were detained after protests on accusations of assaulting officers, impeding arrests, and other instances in which their citizenship was not in question. These folks were also detained violently, pulled from their cars, tased, and even shot. 
To obtain this count, Foy looked through news reports in English and Spanish, videos on social media, court reports, and she talked to people involved and other journalists. The scale of the issue shows that the abuses by federal agents are nationwide, not linked to a handful of protests. Her investigation also counters the idea put forward by Justice Brett Kavanaugh that if you’re a citizen, interaction with immigration agents is easy and straightforward.
They also discuss how these ICE raids are causing people to feel terrorized in their own neighborhoods. The lack of transparency and accountability are hallmarks of a secret police force, say other ProPublica reporters. The Trump administration has not been forthcoming when approached for information, which makes citizens filming altercations with federal immigration agents even more important for journalists, says Foy.

Nicole Foy is ProPublica’s Ancil Payne Fellow, reporting on immigration and labor. Before joining ProPublica, she was an enterprise and investigative reporter across the West, focusing on immigrants, Latino communities, farmworkers and inequality. She previously worked for CalMatters, the Austin American-Statesman, the Idaho Statesman, the Idaho Press and the Orange County Register.
Featured image of an ICE agent via Picryl.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

For the last 20 years, Rob Hopkins has organized community-led, bottom-up solutions to the climate crisis, from creating community energy companies to food systems. He joins host Esty Dinur to talk about his latest book, How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World, that draws on his career of community-based work and asks, what would our activism look like if we had a longing for the future?
Hopkins says that there’s so much to fight for and to demand that our governments do to serve their people. But we need counternarratives to the dominating stories of climate collapse and extinction that put forward the idea that in the future, we’ve won. Hopkins takes his cue from artists and activists like Black Quantum Futurism and adrienne marie brown.
Cultivating imagination and a longing for the future requires new skills in activists’ toolbox. And Hopkins recommends looking to poets like Robert Desnos, street artists, songwriters, and scriptwriters for inspiration who can help us heal from the collective assault on our imaginations. Imagination, for Hopkins, is not a luxury, but a necessity in our darkest moments. 
You can sign up for Hopkins’ newsletter and stream his album, Field recordings from the Future. 

Rob Hopkins is the co-founder of Transition Network and Transition Town Totnes. He is the author of several books, including The Transition Handbook, From What Is to What If, and How to Fall in Love with the Future. An Ashoka Fellow, Hopkins has spoken at TED Global and several TEDx events, and he appeared in the French film phenomenon Demain. He holds a PhD from the University of Plymouth, as well as 2 honoris causas. Hopkins is a director of Totnes Community Development Society, and he runs ‘Imagination Catalyst’ trainings for a wide range of organizations, including Balenciaga and Patagonia. He hosted the podcast From What If to What Next. In November 2022, he was made an Honorary Citizen of Liège, Belgium, by the mayor of the city.
Featured image: cover of How to Fall in Love with the Future: A Time Traveller’s Guide to Changing the World by Rob Hopkins. 
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

On today’s show, host Allen Ruff speaks with friend of the program, Mouin Rabbani, about the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and where it might lead. According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, Israeli forces have violated the terms of the ceasefire at least 80 times, killing dozens of Palestinians since the ceasefire was announced on October 10.
Rabbani describes the first stage of the ceasefire, which includes the exchange of captives, surge of humanitarian aid, partial withdrawal of Israel forces from the Gaza Strip, and the cessation of hostilities. He says that Israel has violated all these terms and the exchange has been partial. Hamas has released all remaining living Israeli hostages and has begun returning the bodies of deceased hostages. Israel says that it will not proceed to stage two of the ceasefire until Hamas releases all of the bodies, but refuses to allow access to the heavy equipment necessary to unearth the bodies from the rubble in Gaza. The US is pushing for advancing to the second stage, which would include discussions of governance. Rabbani says that nowhere in the agreements is accountability addressed.
They also discuss Israel’s promotion of inter-Palestinian conflict, the reason the ceasefire was organized  in response to Israel’s bombing of Qatar, Tony Blair’s role in the ceasefire, and how the genocide in Gaza is leading to increased violence in the West Bank. Rabbani says that decades of dehumanization of Palestinians means that they aren’t depicted as hostages or victims of genocide.

Mouin Rabbani is an expert on Palestinian affairs, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the contemporary Middle East. He’s currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies. Rabbani is co-editor of the e-magazine Jadaliyya and a Contributing Editor to the Middle East Report. He’s written widely and provided expert analysis to a variety of international and US national press, including Al-Jazeera, The Nation, and Democracy Now!.
Featured image of a 2024 Stop the Genocide protest in Helsinki, Finland via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

The term “equity” is used a lot in discussions about education; but despite the initiatives that aim to improve educational disparities, there aren’t a lot of equitable solutions produced, say today’s two guests, Decoteau J. Irby and Ann M. Ishimaru editors of Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change. Their new book champions the vital work equity in P-12 education and those folks who are leading the way.
Amidst generalized attacks on public education and direct attacks on DEI by the federal government, making a case for equity seems more complicated than ever. Dr. Ishimaru says that it remains important to correct the ways that equity initiatives can do better to address where disparities are actually coming from. 
Dr. Irby discusses how to create systems change in a field that is dominated by white instructors who carry resistance to change. The authors in the collection document strong resistance to change by white instructors but say that doing the work of equity needs to move past trying to convince white teachers to love Black or LGBTQ children. Instead, educators can prioritize expanding access to advanced placement tests and making sure that all students have the chance to take the SAT, for example.
They also discuss the struggles they faced in their research, like not getting approval to speak with educators in certain districts in the Bible Belt, and how the idea that integration is synonymous with equity in education remains a pernicious assumption. Dr. Ishimaru says that we don’t have to think about equity in education as a zero-sum game, we can discuss student identity and academic achievement in tandem.

Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru is an award-winning scholar, writer, educator and the Killinger Endowed Chair and Professor of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Policy at the University of Washington College of Education. Through her work, she cultivates the leadership and solidarities of educators, organizational leaders and racially minoritized youth, families and communities to realize more transformative futures. In addition to many peer-reviewed articles in top-tier educational research journals, she is also the author of Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities (Teachers College Press, 2020)
Decoteau J. Irby is a father, author, artist, and educator who works each and every day to advance education equity and justice for Black and Brown children and youth in community spaces, schools and districts, and higher education. His core philosophy is that when you improve learning conditions and opportunities through providing abundant resources and affirming support, children and young people’s aspirations, efforts, and high level academic performance will follow. A professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, he teaches in the College of Education’s top-ranked Urban Education Leadership program, co-directs the UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership, and leads the Brothers Teaching Initiative. He organizes Bronzeville’s Juneteenth Youth Baseball and Softball Tournament, tends community gardens, and advocates for vibrant public spaces on Chicago’s South Side. A self-taught guitarist, songwriter, and occasional performer, he has released three music projects under the name Decoteau Black, exploring Black love, struggle, and liberation.
Featured image of Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change edited by Decoteau J. Irby and Ann M. Ishimaru.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

For folks with histories of trauma, mainstream parenting advice may not feel relevant. On today’s show, host Dana Pellebon speaks with Dr. Robyn Koslowitz about her new book, Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle, Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be. They talk about how the experience of parenting can be an opportunity to break cycles of trauma, heal, and identify your core values for yourself and your kids. 
Dr. K came to her research from personal experience; as a survivor of childhood trauma, she didn’t want to let the things that damaged her in turn damage her children. But before 9/11 and TikTok, parenting advice didn’t say anything about dealing with a parent’s trauma. Even since, much of the normative parenting advice out there isn’t relevant for people who didn’t have a normative childhood. She wanted not only to understand what was happening to herself when she had flashbacks, for example, but how to communicate with her children about what was happening. 
As Dr. K developed her clinical practice, she wanted to share her experiences with other parents and take away the shame that comes from being a post-traumatic parent. She says that parenting is a chance for people to address their traumas and learn about their kids and themselves. In her book, she lays out a typology of different kinds of post-traumatic parents, from the perfectionist post-traumatic parent, to the disengaged parent, and even those parents who are living in survival mode. She says that breaking these modes can help people build stronger relationships with their kids. 

Dr. Robyn Koslowitz is a clinical child and family psychologist, and author of Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle, Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be. A sought-after speaker, consultant, and media contributor, Dr. Koslowitz has appeared on Fox, CNN, NPR, and more. Her Post-Traumatic Parenting podcast and Targeted Parenting blog on Psychology Today have reached wide audiences, with over 1 million reads. She is a licensed clinical psychologist, practicing in New Jersey, where she and her associates treat children, adolescents and families using a trauma informed approach. Dr. Koslowitz is a leading expert on cycle-breaking parenting, and is a post-traumatic parent herself.
Featured image: the cover of Dr. Robyn Koslowitz’s book, Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle, Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be. 
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

Across the country, there are more than 5 million paid caregivers and more than 50 million unpaid folks who care for their family members and friends. Yet the US faces a crisis in caregiving that includes a shortage of paid workers to meet the growing need and unpaid caregivers are feeling burned out. A recent PBS documentary, screened at UW-Madison, explores the challenges and joys of this work.
To talk about caregiving, aging, and community support, host Douglas Haynes is joined by four guests, Dr. Sue Wenker and Dr. Jennifer Timm from the UW Madison Center of Interprofessional Practice and Education and Jennifer Fischer and Kayla Olson from the Aging and Disability Resource Center of Dane County.
They talk about the rapidly aging US population and the time, resources, and skills needed to care for them. Care work occurs across the life spectrum, and now the “sandwich generation” is feeling the pressure of caring for young children and their aging parents. The guests recommend caregivers find respite whether they are are paid or unpaid and whether they identify as caregivers or not. They discuss the National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers and share resources for families, like ADRC’s list of questions to ask someone you’re looking to hire to be a caregiver and the Healthy Aging Initiative. 

Jennifer Fischer is the manager of the Aging and Disability Resource Center.
Kayla Olson is a Dementia Care Specialist at the Dane County Aging and Disability Resource Center. 
Dr. Jennifer Timm is the director of the Center for Interpersonal Practice and Education.
Dr. Sue Wenker is a researcher and co-coordinator of the Healthy Aging Initiative.
Featured image of a person standing behind a wheelchair via rawpixel.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here

WORT 89.9FM Madison · The Struggle and Triumph of the Crimean Indigenous People
Today, Host Esty Dinur speaks with cultural anthropologist and professor Greta Uehling about her book Decolonizing Ukraine: the Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom.
Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea, made up 90% of the population of Crimea. Their language was the primary language spoken there until 1783, when they were subject to atrocities similar to the indigenous peoples of America; being removed from their land, dissolving their culture, and broken agreements. During World War II, the Third Reich took control of Crimea. When Soviets gained control again in 1944, they executed a previously conceived plan to round up all the tatars and deport them to Siberia and Central Asia. This lasted until 1991 when the Soviet Union disintegrated and the tatars rejoined Ukraine until the Russian occupation in 2014. 
Crimea’s peninsula sticks out to the black sea, which is more like an island than a peninsula; its isthmus is only a few kilometers wide, making it an isolated area. Crimea was a desirable location for Russia due to its warm ports – in contrast to Russia’s ports, which would often freeze in the Winter –  and it was a strategic location due to its proximity to Turkey, just 144 miles away on the Black sea. In 2019, the bridge to Russia to the east was subjected to multiple attacks, compromising its integrity.
Uehling mentions that modern warfare is hybrid. In addition to conventional military tactics like missiles and tanks, the people of Crimea now face misinformation, election interference and cyber attacks. A final component of warfare is psychological manipulation, which disrupts previously harmonious relationships, creates tension in families, difficulties in romantic relationships, and friendships. This is especially the case in children receiving a Russian “patriotic education,” creating conflicts in families, which Russians are doing to Ukrainian children today. The war is destroying the physical infrastructure in Ukraine in addition to the emotional infrastructure, and the latter is much harder to rebuild.
Recording artist of Crimean Tatar ancestry Jamala won the Eurovision Song contest in 2016 for her song 1944, which mourned Stalin’s deportation of her people. Ukrainians resonated with this feeling of being silenced in history and their struggle under the Soviet Union. Uehling says that The Crimean people redefined their national identity, building on cultural characteristics and incorporating the shared values of democracy, anti-corruption, and transparency. The song helped them come together in solidarity.and exemplifies courage in the face of fear. 

Greta Uehling is a cultural anthropologist who works at the intersection of Indigenous and Eastern European Studies. She is a Teaching Professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she teaches for the Program in International and Comparative Studies and is Associate Faculty of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. Uehling is the author of three books: Beyond Memory: The Deportation and Return of the Crimean Tatars (Palgrave 2004), Everyday War: The Conflict over Donbas, Ukraine (Cornell University Press 2023), and Decolonizing Ukraine: The Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom (Rowman & Littlefield 2025). Throughout her career, Uehling has served as a consultant to organizations working in the fields ...

WORT 89.9FM Madison · Love Across Borders: Anna Lekas Miller discusses the Impacts of Immigration Laws on Families
Journalist Anna Lekas Miller joins Allen Ruff to talk about her recent article in the Progressive “Iced Out” which examines the effects of the new ICE immigration policies, along with her book Love Across Borders, which explores the human stories and the consequences of couples with mixed citizenships falling in love.
Miller criticizes the current ICE raids occurring under the Trump administration, specifically the alliteration in the names of the detainment centers, like Alligator Alcatraz in Florida, Speedway Slammer, located near Indianapolis, and Cornhusker Clink in Nebraska. The nicknames seem to be attractive to American citizens, and may be part of the mental disconnect that allows people to participate in reporting undocumented immigrants.
Miller highlights the myth that you can easily get married to receive a green card and become an American citizen; in some cases, such as if a person was previously deported, they are ineligible to receive citizenship. She says that immigration laws affect the daily lives of many American families, those with immigrant parents, spouses, or children who fear their family will not be able to come home at the end of the day. There is additional anxiety about suddenly becoming a single parent household, and the economic impact on individual families. Miller’s work centers around humanizing the immigration debate, which boils down to people wanting the ordinary American dream and trying to keep families together.

Anna Lekas Miller is a writer and journalist who covers stories of the ways that conflict and migration shape the lives of people around the world. She is the author of the book Love Across Borders, which tells the stories of couples and families around the world who have stood up to unjust immigration policies to be together and won the 2024 Arab American Book Award. She is currently working on her first novel and you can keep up with her writing on her Substack, which is also called Love Across Borders.
Did you enjoy this story? Your funding makes great, local journalism like this possible. Donate here