Runyon: Setting Politics Aside on Veterans Day
On Wednesday morning, a large and enthusiastic crowd lined several blocks of Main Street to celebrate our nation’s veterans. There was a joyous spirit. Men and women across a wide spectrum of age and...
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Strange Fruit: Upcoming Book Looks at Louisville’s Dirt Bowl
In an interview with Today’s Matt Lauer, Charlie Sheen revealed earlier this week that he’s HIV positive. But in the days leading up to that, media outlets were already reporting his status. And...
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Ideas For Making a Kentucky-Sourced Thanksgiving Dinner
The Thanksgiving tradition begins with the three-day celebration held in 1621, put on by Pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe members as the newcomers were completing their harvest and preparing for winter. In...
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Strange Fruit: Voting Rights Restored for Kentucky Ex-Felons
This week, outgoing Gov. Steve Beshear announced he would restore voting rights for Kentuckians convicted of most non-violent felonies. “The right to vote is one of the most intrinsically American...
View ArticleCommentary: Refugees in Louisville Face Challenges Adapting to New Homes
This piece has been translated from the original Spanish. Jorge Ruiz is the interpreter heard in the audio. To read and listen to the Spanish version, see below. There is a fine line between being a...
View ArticleStrange Fruit: Elizabeth Taylor Ran A Drug Ring (For HIV-Positive People)
This week, on World AIDS Day, we reflected on those we’ve lost and those who are still fighting — against both HIV/AIDS itself and the ignorance that leads to shame and criminalization. We also...
View ArticleCommentary: We All Deserve Juries Of Our Peers
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Olu Stevens caused a stir recently when he dismissed a jury because it lacked racial diversity. It was the second time Stevens had done so. After the first time, in...
View ArticleStrange Fruit: Soul Legend Jill Scott’s Philosophy on Music and Life
It’s our 150th episode! And who better to celebrate with than legendary soul singer Jill Scott? Scott performed in Louisville this week, and she took some time out of a busy touring schedule to visit...
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Strange Fruit: Lea DeLaria of ‘Orange Is the New Black’ on Music, Comedy and...
Lea DeLaria became the first openly gay comic ever to appear on American television, when she was on the “Arsenio Hall Show” in 1994. She chalks it up to hard work and the fact that “lesbian chic” was...
View Article#StayWoke With 2015’s Words of the Year
As 2015 draws to a close, we have our annual chat with Grant Barrett, an officer with the American Dialect Society, about the words and phrases that were on everyone’s lips (and texts, and tweets, and...
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Commentary: A Teen’s First-Person View of the Mall St. Matthews ‘Riot’
Miyale is a 14-year-old Louisvillian who was at the Mall St. Matthews with her friends and aunt on Dec. 26. She described her experience as part of WFPL’s weekly commentary series. I got to the mall at...
View ArticleStrange Fruit: Critical Media Consumption and the Mall St. Matthews Incident
The day after Christmas is always busy at shopping malls. The holiday blockbusters are in the movie theaters, and gift cards are burning holes in pockets. But this year on Dec. 26, security at the Mall...
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Strange Fruit: Movers & Shakers Who Make Our LGBT Scene Brighter
Louisville’s Fairness Ordinance is one of the oldest comprehensive LGBT protections in the nation. Since early 1999, it’s been illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity in...
View ArticleCommentary: Dr. King’s Words on Justice and Peace Still Resonate
As we begin the weekend-long celebrations, observations and reflections on the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I find myself reflecting on some of his most powerful thoughts on justice...
View ArticleStrange Fruit: How Do Doctors Treat Transgender Kids?
We’re lucky enough to live in a time when more and more parents of transgender kids are accepting, loving and trying to help their children be their authentic selves. And the medical community is...
View ArticleCommentary: Three Questions About The Governor’s Budget
Next week, Gov. Matt Bevin will submit his first budget proposal to the Kentucky General Assembly. By a quirk in our state constitution, this tremendous responsibility will come only seven weeks after...
View ArticleStrange Fruit: Stories We Remember From 2015
We’re halfway through the first month of 2015, and there’s been so much going on, we haven’t yet had time to bring you a look back at the conversations we loved in 2015. On this week’s show, we listen...
View ArticleCommentary: Why Not Consolidate Kentucky’s Colleges and Universities?
This has been a week for the Chicken Littles in Frankfort to cluck about the sky falling as a result of the 9 percent budget cuts recommended by Gov. Matt Bevin. Having watched the fiscal politics of...
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Remembering Marlow Cook, A Bygone Kind Of Kentucky Republican
Marlow W. Cook first flashed across the horizon of Louisville and Jefferson County a little more than a half-century ago, full of ideas, enthusiasm and youthful energy. He brought something that our...
View ArticleCommentary: Lawmakers Must Make Kentucky State University A Priority
State Normal School for Colored People is what it was called in 1886, when three teachers and 55 students became the second state-supported institution of higher learning in Kentucky. One hundred...
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