It takes the average Latina, 12 extra months to earn what the average White, non-Hispanic man earns. That is because Latinas are only paid .55 cents to the dollar of […]

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Today Professor Nicholas Powers joins Ali Muldrow in a conversation about his new book, Black Psychedelic Revolution. Psychedelics such as LSD and ketamine are beginning to gain popularity as increasing evidence supports promising treatments of psychological conditions, trauma, and changing one’s autobiographical narrative. They also heard from callers who shared transformational personal experiences while using psychedelics.

What is the difference between recreation and medication? Powers suggests that the line may be finer than you think. The idea is that recreational activities like art, poetry, or even psychedelic drugs can be healing. Powers also noted that the most safe way to have a psychological experience is in a controlled and safe environment with a guide. If a person is in a state of trauma or depression, the chemicals from these drugs might lead to a further inability to cope once the trip is over, and that is when these drugs can become addictive. However, Powers emphasized that it’s the prior state of trauma that creates the addiction rather than the drug itself.

Powers said that the way these psychedelic drugs work is by inhibiting the ego, which leads to questioning core beliefs and the stories you were told about your life. This is why after a psychedelic trip, people often change their previously held beliefs. It is also why people tend to change their beliefs the most during college. During the transition period between being reliant on your parents and becoming an independent adult, young people question the stories that they were told. Powers encourages this kind of discussion in his college classrooms and asks his students to try to find the truth in their experiences.

Additionally, there is a surge in the glamorization of drugs and removing the stigma associated with them. Drugs such as ritalin or adderall are given to children at younger ages reducing the stigma for using drugs to treat mental health, but there is still a sense that they are necessary. Powers says there is a delicate balance between maintaining a healthy skepticism about the medical industry without denying its benefits entirely. He encourages people to always think about who is profiting, whether from criminalizing marijuana or giving ritalin to four year olds.

The discussion ended with the positive experiences that can come from having a controlled psychedelic experience. Some examples included helping alcohol addiction, understanding the core reasons why a marriage ended, finding peace and answers within the counterculture of the 1960s, and becoming a more compassionate person.

Nicholas Powers is an Associate Professor of English at SUNY Old Westbury. Powers has presented talks and reports from the Psychedelic Renaissance since 2017. He has written for numerous psychedelic publications from Lucid News to Double Blind. Alongside published articles, he has given talks at Naropa University and Chacruna. Powers has published three books with Upset Press. The first is a book of poetry, the second a mix of reportage from disaster zones, protests, and Burning Man. The third is a political vampire novel. He regularly attends Wild Seeds Writers Retreat and Cave Canem Black poetry workshops. Powers lives in Brooklyn with his son.

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Earlier this week, the Atlanta City Council approved an addition $31 million dollars for the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. This was after more than 16 hours […]

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Today host Douglas Haynes is joined by Kris Tazelaa of Second Harvest Food Bank, and Melissa Bublitz professor of human ecology at UW Madison. Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin distributes 26 million pounds of food to over 300 partners and programs, including local food pantries, mobile food pantries, youth programs, and many more.

The language around access to food centers on “food insecurity,” but the conversation often omits the need for healthy food. Bublitz highlights the importance of nutrition security, an effort to provide communities with not just food to survive, but the food necessary to thrive. One of the ways Second Harvest is addressing nutrition security is by partnering with local farmers to provide fresh, local and nutritious food. The majority of the 16 counties that Second Harvest serves are rural, so Second Harvest Food Bank buys excess food from farmers to make sure the local producers also have the support they need. The fresh food is often distributed the very next day.

For a lot of families, there is a patchwork of sources necessary to get the food they need. Rather than going to the grocery store for everything, they rely on state programs, local food pantries, and FoodShare (SNAP) benefits. Although SNAP is a critical lifeline for many people, it is intended to be supplemental, and has not kept up with the rate of inflation. The program is not enough to provide everything, but Bublitz and Tazelaa said it is still the most efficient way to address food insecurity while also improving the local economy. For every SNAP dollar spent, $1.60 is created in the local community.

There are myriad sources of mental and physical stress on families without food security. There is still a stigma attached to swiping the green SNAP card at the grocery store and shopping at local food pantries. Many people in small communities travel 20-30 miles away to avoid being recognized by neighbors at their local pantries. There is the added stress of government paperwork and figuring out eligibility for food programs. Bublitz and Tazelaa reference feeling “hangry,” emphasizing the importance of being fed to increase your quality of life and reach your highest potential, and how nutritious food will make a world of difference.

Kris Tazelaa is a Wisconsin native who has been with Second Harvest Foodbank of Southern Wisconsin for nearly 15 years, currently serving as the organization’s Media and Public Relations Manager.

Melissa G. Bublitz, Ph.D. is the Liz Kramer Professor of Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on understanding and influencing consumer behavior to promote the well-being of individuals and families as well as in the communities where they live and work. Her research studies food and nutrition access, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, and public policy to increase consumer well-being. Utilizing qualitative and participatory research methods, her research is characterized by a strong commitment to creating real-world impact and is often conducted in partnership with social impact organizations.

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“The Philippines is under a new administration, but still the government’s case against de Lima hobbles along, a symbol of the country’s degradation from the Duterte years of violent populism […]

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On today’s pledge drive edition of A Public Affair, host Esty Dinur is in conversation with former host, Zoltán Grossman about grassroots resistance to creeping dictatorship in the US and the resilience of Indigenous communities around the world. They dedicate the program to the memory of Dr. Al Geddicks, who Grossman calls “the quintessential scholar-activist.” He was the driving force behind the anti-mining movement and author of Resource Rebels.

They discuss where Grossman finds hope, including in the backlash against ICE raids and detention centers. He says that there is a growing break in the longstanding bipartisan consensus for military and intelligence spending, even though the Senate passed the ~$70 billion budget reconciliation package for immigration enforcement. He calls this “anti-weaponization” fund another form of “internal repression” that will fund paramilitary militias.

Grossman is also optimistic about ecological and Indigenous resilience in Western Washington where he lives and teaches. He describes the wins for resource co-management and resistance to US military interventions, and why these actions seem more possible in Washington than they do in Wisconsin. They also discuss Palestine, Grossman’s Hungarian lineage, and the fall of Viktor Orbán.

Note: This pledge drive interview was edited to remove parts of the show dedicated to station fundraising. We thank our listeners for their generous support.

Zoltán Grossman has since 2005 been a Professor in Geography and Native American ​ Indigenous Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, and previously taught at UW-Eau Claire. He earned his Ph.D. in Geography and Graduate Minor in American Indian Studies at UW-Madison in 2002. He is a longtime antiwar, antiracist, and environmental organizer, and was a co-founder of the Midwest Treaty Network in Wisconsin. He is a past co-chair of the Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. He was co-editor of Asserting Native Resilience: Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations Face the Climate Crisis (Oregon State University Press, 2012). He is author of Unlikely Alliances: Native Nations and White Communities Join to Defend Rural Lands (University of Washington Press, 2017).

Featured image if the removed Glines Canyon Dam in Washington via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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Sold in headshops and on the grey market, “spice” or K2 is a way to get high while avoiding showing up on a drug test. Whether or not they’re legal […]

The post Synthetic Cannabinoids, the Analogue Act, and an Unprecedented Prosecu... appeared first on WORT-FM 89.9.

From the first Piggly Wiggly to automated self-checkout machines, the supermarket is a microcosm of modern food systems, labor, and the idea of convenience. On today’s pledge drive edition of A Public Affair, host Bert Zipperer speaks with Ann Larson about her book, Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register.

Larson got a job at a supermarket at the outset of the COVID pandemic after spending a few years on the margins of the professional class in New York City. She worked for over a year at a grocery store before leaving and writing her book. Her main takeaway from that experience is that there is no such thing as unskilled labor. Supermarket cashiers, like herself, need patience, technical and communication skills, product knowledge, and more. They’re also likely to develop repetitive stress and muscular-skeletal disorders, workplace injuries that increasingly go un-investigated due to cuts to OSHA.

The second lesson of Larson’s book is that all laborers have dignity. When workers–like cashiers–are underpaid, they become devalued. In our culture, status is tied to pay, but Larson wants to bust the myth that so-called “low-skilled” workers deserve low pay. She says that unfortunately we seemed to have quickly forgotten the lessons about essential work that the pandemic taught us.

From her time cashiering, Larson saw the supermarket function as a community space where people could escape from the heat or cold, for example. But it’s also a place of precarious labor. On top of that, the shift to self-checkout machines in the name of “convenience” shifted labor from their employees to their customers. They also discuss the issue of Piggly Wiggly, the lack of unionization among retail workers, and the need to enforce anti-trust laws.

Note: This pledge drive interview was edited to remove parts of the show dedicated to station fundraising. We thank our listeners for their generous support.

Ann Larson’s writing on education, debt, and low-wage work has appeared in The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fast Company, and The Nation, among other publications. She is coauthor of Can’t Pay Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition and is a fellow with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She lives in Salt Lake City, UT.

Featured image of the cover of Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register.

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