While the nation & the state have veered into conservative and even regressive social directions, there has been refuge & hope locally in the Eau Claire City Council, which included a strong progressive majority as of spring, 2018. Even while others were dragging their feet, work was proceding locally on sustainability, reducing the incarceration system, and increasing responsiveness to citizen concerns. We speak today with 3 members of the city council, Jill Christopherson (in her 1st year), Kate Beaton (in her 3rd year), & acting council president, Andrew Werthmann (in his 10th year).

Too many people ignore the power of local government to transform the most crucial aspects of our world, focusing only on our national government. A groundswell of local activism tilted the county board of Eau Claire, WI, in the progressive direction, and the lessons & possibilities are promising around the country. We speak with 3 recent members of the board of supervisors about their experience & motivations: Martha Nieman, Sandy McKinney, & Don Mowry.

Past/current religious/spiritual influences:
Quaker, Unitarian Universalist, Unity Churches

The music of Jennifer Levenhagen stirs deep currents and invites soul rejuvenation. While she’s shared her guitar, piano, violin, and exquisite voice in many settings, including playing bluegrass music, her current calling is to the meditative, rooting, flowing end of the spectrum, as evidenced by her recent release of piano improvisations, Another Sea, and her growing work in what she calls Listening Rooms, a place for personal deepening, reflection, and settling.

Ecologist Huda Alkaff is a founding member and director of Wisconsin Green Muslims, a volunteer environmental justice group based in Milwaukee. She uses her advanced education and her Muslim faith to educate others and forge interfaith collaborations in the service of sustainability. She also has connections with other environmental justice organizations, including Wisconsin Interfaith Earth Network, Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light, Wisconsin Water Thinkers Network, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and Greening Ramadan.

Xanthe Alexis is a captivating and enchanting musician from Colorado Springs who so clearly captures power, meaning and charm through her music. She self-describes her music as sepia-toned Americana, and while I don’t see it exactly that way, there is something reflective and deep that the listener will receive from her music, She performed for many years as part of The Hopeful Heroines including on their album, Goddamn Mess (Live), and just returned from the annual Folk Alliance International session in Montreal.

Throughout his career, Dwight L. Wilson has held many jobs: educator, administrator, chaplain. In each role, he worked to advance equality, opportunity and understanding. He continues this work in his carefully researched historical fiction series Esi Was My Mother, which follows the lives of an enslaved black family from 18th century Africa to the American Civil War. He strives to portray triumphant examples of black stories that will make history come alive for readers. He is also author of The Kidnapped: A Collection of Short Stories and Modern Psalms: In Search of Peace and Justice. Dwight writes about "characters who existed, those who could have existed, and those who should have existed."

Ali Handal's launch into music was via the kind of rock music done by Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses, and has blossumed into a variety of singer/songwriter styles. She can rock out with a powerful Whole Lotta Love and she can inspire with an anthem like Love More, and bounce jazzily with songs like I Love My Pussy Cat.

Gael Henry Carlut grew up in the Philippines on what was once a desert island. Gael's father is from France and his mother is from Iloilo in the Philippines. They fell in love and in 1986 settled on Pandan Island.  Their goal was to protect the extraordinary coral reef that surrounds the island and then share it with others. Gael left the Philippines and settled in France to study environmental science and water treatment processes. He felt a strong pull though to return not only to the Philippines, but to this remote island. On a recent visit to Pandan Island, Citizens Climate Radio host, Peterson Toscano chatted with Gael about the island, climate change, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Host Peterson Toscano visits with 3 Evangelicals fighting climate change, Kyle Meyaard-Shaap, Corina Newsome, & Rev. Josh Gibson. Comic creation, Tony Buffusio from the Bronx, talks climate change in the Bible. Scientist Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, host of the Global Weirding Podcast shares climate communication tips, and author Dr. Jeffrey Bennett and illustrator Roberta Collier-Morales inspire by their book, The Wizard Who Saved the World.