WORT 89.9FM Madison

The Dane County Board met last week to discuss the upcoming budget season. A presentation from the Dane County Chief Financial Officer informed supervisors what the 2027 budget is looking like so far. Image courtesy: Brian Standing / WORT News.

On today’s show, guest host Enjoyiana Nururdin speaks with Nick Pjevach about the local music scene–from the best concerts and summer festivals to how the city could better address equity in arts and entertainment. Featured image of the Veteran Memorial Coliseum.

Stu Levitan in conversation with historian Dennis McNally about his new book, "The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties"

Before cotton was king, there was linen. A group of Midwest farmers and fiber artists are working to revive the tradition of growing and wearing linen fabric. WORT’s Sara Gabler attended an event at the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection on the UW-Madison campus to learn about the history of linen textiles. Photo courtesy of Sara Gabler/WORT News.

A heat wave is blanketing Wisconsin for most of this week, with the heat index in our area slated to top a hundred degrees today and tomorrow. That kind of extreme heat isn’t just uncomfortable – it can be dangerous, according to local public health officials. Morgan Finke is the communication coordinator at Public Health Madison and Dane County. She joined our News Producer Faye Parks to share so...

When a health and diet scientist is funded by a corporation, the data released to the public should be looked at with discerning eyes.  In this edition of “The Milkweed,” Pete Hardin and Bert Zipperer scrutinize Dr. Ancel Keys of the University of Minnesota – who published misinformation favorable to Crisco and its producers…not the general public. Image courtesy: The Minnesota Daily.

Forecast from Monday, 6-29-26 by WORT 89.9FM Madison

You’ve probably heard that the AI boom is “inevitable,” but a global network of researchers, journalists, and scholars is fighting that narrative with the newly launched AI Resist List. It’s a publicly accessible, collaboratively built website that champions projects that are fighting Big Tech’s vision of AI. On today’s show, host Douglas Haynes speaks with climate communicator Heidi Lim about gra...

Gil Halsted talked with Cassandra Dixon, local activist for Palestine and Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch the Executive Director of the Middle East Childrens Alliance, known as MECA, about raising money for Gaza with the Big Ride for Palestine on July 19th. They talked about the bike ride itself as well as the complicated route by which funds get to Gaza and what they are used for and by whom. Big Ride for...

Award-winning Madison photographer Amadou Kromah talks about how he first picked up a camera, what he hopes to impart to younger shutterbugs, and what to expect at his retrospective exhibit at the Madison Public Library.

The felony case against fake electors in Wisconsin’s 2020 Presidential Election creeps forward, even though it faces political headwinds under the Trump regime. Votebeat Wisconsin’s Alex Shur gives us an update.

June 29th is the anniversary of the day in 1936 when 100 Chicano mine workers were deported as "undesirable aliens" following a strike in Gallup, New Mexico. For decades, two thousand coal miners had risked their lives to work more than six hundred feet underground, digging hundreds of thousands of tons of coal each week in Gallup. They came from all over the world. Most had been recruited in Mexi...

This week on Mel & Floyd: Mad magazine nailed it!; Jetsons vs. Flintstones; Goodie bags for South African immigrants; Too hot for climate change conference; Administration cracks down on [some] illegally retained classified documents; Plato’s rules for wealth; Some Old Testament talk; And other random topics; Notice something missing? For the complete Mel and Floyd Experience, buy the CD “The Very...

The Trump regime’s attacks on public education at the federal level are filtering down to the states, like in Texas where the flagship university, the University of Texas, recently consolidated African and African Diaspora Studies, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, American Studies, and Mexican American and Latino Studies into a single unit. On today’s show, host Esty Dinur is in conversation...

C.J. Bliss and Erika Koivunen preview the grand opening of Rogues Gallery and the Feral Garden Party.

Author Doug Bradley shares a moving look at his new caregiving memoir ahead of his Leopold's reading.

Joanne Junke breaks down the impact of moving special education oversight to the DOJ and HHS.

This Wednesday marked the 4 year anniversary of the Dobbs decision, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and rolled back constitutional protections to abortion rights nationwide. In this week’s episode of Legal Brief, WORT feature contributor Fiona Hatch explores a 1991 Supreme Court case originating out of Wisconsin that ended a lot more favorably for reproductiv...

Affordability, unity, and statewide Democratic victories were recurring themes at the Wisconsin Democratic Party’s 2026 State Convention this weekend. WORT Reporter Fiona Hatch recaps the highlights.

Forecast from Wednesday 6-24-26 by WORT 89.9FM Madison

More than 90 percent of Wisconsin’s fire departments are volunteer or mostly volunteer. But this model is showing signs of strain, according to a new report from Wisconsin Policy Forum. Volunteer levels are declining across the state, while 911 calls are on the rise. Mark Sommerhauser, communications director and researcher at the Policy Forum, joined our News Producer Faye Parks to explain how so...

A lobbyist the city of Madison hired last year to represent its interests in the state Capitol is urging alders to plan ahead and set their priorities for the next legislative session. But the high stakes midterm this fall will decide what’s possible. Image courtesy: Brian Standing / WORT News.

How can a young woman, immigrated from Cuba, find love and meaning in the mountains of eastern Kentucky? Marta Miranda Straub calls herself a “Cubalachian” - originally from Cuba who found her second home in Appalachia. Her book, “Cradled by Skeletons: A Life in Poems and Essays,” is full of passion, positivity and honesty about the challenges she has faced during her life, all while championing s...

Publisher/Editor of Our Lives Magazine, Patrick Faribaugh by WORT 89.9FM Madison

Wisconsin’s largest utility provider We Energies is requesting yet another rate hike – their sixth since 2020, if state regulators approve it. At a time when many Wisconsinites are already struggling to afford basic expenses, the average residential customer would end up paying an additional 262 dollars per year by 2028. Corporate greed and data center development are to blame, according to Wiscon...