On Truth to Power, we bring you community conversations like you won't hear anywhere else on your radio dial! Join us as we discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city!
Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 7pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at http://forwardradio.org

Truth to Power

On July 18, 2025, the Kentucky Resources Council hosted Laura Krauser, GIS Research Coordinator at the UofL Center for Geographic Information Sciences, for an engaging, beginner-friendly look at how mapping tools are helping researchers and communities understand — and respond to — a changing planet. This session, part of KRC's ongoing Kentucky Environmental Leadership Institute (KELI) series, explored how geospatial technologies — like satellite imagery, drones, and interactive web maps — are being used to document and respond to environmental change. We'll look at real-world examples from research and community projects, and discuss how mapping can serve as both a scientific tool and a catalyst for public engagement. No GIS experience required — just curiosity! 
You can watch the full recording at https://youtu.be/SxTpIkIRQlw. 
Additionally, Laura has provided the slides from the meeting and some additional resources. Find all of this here: https://bit.ly/KELIMappingOurWorldRecordingAndResources 
Learn more about the Kentucky Resources Council and upcoming KELI events at https://kyrc.org

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Truth To Power | Laura Krauser | Mapping Our World | 7-25-25

Forward Radio was proud to be at the 19th Annual Anne Braden Memorial Lecture, entitled “Abolition Feminism and Anti-Racist Praxis” featuring Dr. Beth Richie of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Richie’s extensive research examines how race and gender impact experiences of criminalization and justice, and she has long collaborated closely with communities, impacted individuals, and movements, including as a founding member of INCITE!: Women of Color Against Violence. She is Distinguished Professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and of Black Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, author of “Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation”; co-editor with teachers from Stateville Prison of “The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom”; and co-author with Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, and Erica Meiners of “Abolition. Feminism. Now.” This event was held on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 at the University of Louisville's Strickler Hall, Middleton Auditorium.

Read more about Dr. Richie’s work and the lecture in her interview with the UofL College of Arts and Sciences at https://artsandsciences.louisville.edu/news/scholar-activist-dr-beth-e-richie-share-reflections-freedom-feminism-and-justice-annual-anne

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Truth to Power | Dr. Beth Richie | Abolition Feminisim | 11-21-25

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a community conversation about reducing single use disposable plastics in foodservice and the food safety codes that impact efforts to avoid disposables. This conversation was hosted by Beyond Plastics Louisville at their November 20th meeting, and it featured Alison Schleck, Environmental Health Supervisor for the Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness Food Safety Program. Alison engaged in a rich dialogue with Beyond Plastics Louisville members about our food safety codes as they apply to reusable containers for food and drink.

Learn more about Beyond Plastics Louisville at https://www.facebook.com/groups/beyondplasticslouky. Watch a recording of the evening at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SniWcZrwwA 

The next meeting of Beyond Plastics Louisville will be a dinner gathering on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 at 6pm at Mashup Food Hall in NuLu (750 E Jefferson St.). Join fellow plastic haters at this in-person gathering for dinner, followed by a discussion of the new book, The Problem with Plastic, by Beyond Plastic’s founder, Judith Enck.

These are some things we learned from our conversation with Alison:
• The Food Safety Program oversees 4,600 food facilities in the Louisville metro area, with 17 inspectors and 2 supervisors. Most facilities have two inspections per year.
• When restaurant customers dine in, they may bring reusable containers for their leftovers, as long as the restaurant staff do not handle the containers. For other carryouts, the kitchen cannot accept a customer’s container.
• For coffee shops, the vendor may prepare beverages and transfer into the customer’s container, as long as the transfer is contamination free, with no direct contact. Shops, such as Starbucks, may choose whether or not they will allow customers to bring their containers.
• Another option (used at some college campuses and in other locales) would be for a food service to provide food in a reusable container that the customer would return to the business or a third party service to be cleaned and sanitized before being reused.
• Pam asked if the food safety code addressed possible chemical or microplastic contamination from plastic packaging, containers, or utensils. Alison said the food code standards require that food contact surfaces not allow “migration of deleterious substances’ into food. The current code prevents contact with some metals such as lead, copper, or galvanized metal. Regarding concerns about PFAS, Alison said the code specifies that cooking surfaces with Perfluoroalkyl non-stick coatings may not be scratched.
• Pam also asked about processes where food is cooked in plastic. These are currently allowed by the code.
• Beatriz asked about the process for adopting or changing the KY food code. Who decides which federal code is followed? Alison answered that the KY Dept. for Public Health adopts the code. This department is under the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
• Beatriz also asked if the Metro Food Safety Program regulates food trucks. She has noticed that most food trucks seem to use Styrofoam containers. Food trucks are regulated and inspected, but Styrofoam is allowed by the code.
• Arnita asked about educational resources for a friend who teaches fifth graders. Pam recommended programs from kNOw Waste Louisville. Both Pam and Shayla recommended the film Microplastic Madness.

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Truth To Power | Beyond Plastics Louisville | Allison Schleck | Food Safety Codes | 11-28-25

This week on Truth to Power, we are thrilled to share a community conversation with two brilliant artistic minds who were awarded the 2025 Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature on November 11th at the Brown Hotel's 16th Floor Gallery. This year's winners are Irene Sankoff and David Hein, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics for the award-winning Broadway musical Come From Away. 

This remarkable, moving, and award-winning comedy is based on true events in the Newfoundland town Gander. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the United States, dozens of commercial aircraft with approximately 7,000 passengers aboard were ordered to land at Gander International Airport. The airport’s impressive name belies the fact that Gander was and is a small town in Newfoundland; nonetheless, Gander residents scrambled to feed, shelter, and, most importantly, welcome thousands of passengers, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religious or sexual preference, or nationality. The compassion and kindness of the citizens of Gander and their generosity toward stranded passengers created enduring friendships and connections among people who were recently complete strangers. Come From Away highlights the many occasions for human compassion even in the midst of a global tragedy. After the play’s immense success, Sankoff and Hein wrote the screenplay providing international access to the staged performance of Come From Away.

Irene Sankoff is a Canadian Tony- and Olivier-nominated, Grammy-nominated writer for theatre, film, and television. A writer and actor, Sankoff has received a Meritorious Service Cross of Canada. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Writers Guild, and ASCAP.

David Hein is an Olivier Award-winning, Tony- and Grammy-nominated writer. He and Irene Sankoff created My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding based on his mother's true story, earning Best Musical awards across America.

The Spalding Prize is awarded by the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University. Learn more at https://www.goodriverreview.com/spalding-prize

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Truth to Power | Irene Sankoff and David Hein | Come From Away | 12-5-25

This week on Truth to Power, we bring you a community conversation about one of Kentucky's most notorious antislavery slaveholders! "Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform" was the topic of discussion at the Filson Historical Society's Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series on the evening of Thursday, December 4, 2025 at the Kentucky Center for Performing Arts' Bomhard Theater. Cassius Marcellus Clay, a fiery nineteenth-century Kentucky antislavery reformer, was both admired and despised. A duelist, newspaperman, and ally of Lincoln, he fought slavery’s expansion while still enslaving people himself. 

Historian Anne E. Marshall’s biography reexamines Clay as emblematic of white Americans who opposed slavery’s economics more than its injustice. By portraying Clay’s contradictions, Marshall reveals why emancipation required war and why true racial equality faced enduring resistance. Marshall is an associate professor of history at Mississippi State University and on December 4th she was in conversation with the Filson's President, Dr. Patrick Lewis, who fielded audience questions. Watch the event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRSKtIEte_8

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org


Truth to Power | Cassius Marcellus Clay | KY's Antislavery Slaveholder | Anne Marshall | 12-12-25

This week on Truth To Power, we bring you the Faith & Science Forum held on the evening of December 11, 2025 at St. Stephen Baptist Church on 15th St. During this, the second installment of the "& Science" Forums, we heard from an expert panel discussing the key intersections of faith & science. UofL's Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute is hosting this new quarterly series called “& Science"" which provides a community forum for conversations at the intersection of health, the environment & science. 

This installment of the series features leaders from different faith traditions with the following objectives: Explore key intersections of faith & science; Discuss challenges & opportunities for voices of faith in a time of climate crisis; Share examples of faith community responses to matters of health & environmental concerns; Envision a brighter future for faith & science. Panel Speakers include:
•    Dr. Kevin W. Cosby (Senior Pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church and President of Simmons College of Kentucky)
•    Dr. Angelique Johnson (CEO/Founder, MEMStim LLC)
•    Dr. Justin Mog (Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives, University of Louisville)
•    Waylon Riley (Youth Program Manager & Assistant Camp Director, Trager Family JCC)
•    Rev. Dr. Leah Schade (Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, Lexington Theological Seminary)"

Watch a full recording of the evening at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPI6O1u2lLo

On Truth to Power each week, we gather people from around the community to discuss the state of the world, the nation, the state, and the city! It's a community conversation like you won't hear anywhere else!

Truth to Power airs every Friday at 9pm, Saturday at 11am, and Sunday at 4pm on Louisville's grassroots, community radio station, Forward Radio 106.5fm WFMP and live streams at https://forwardradio.org

Truth To Power | Faith and Science Forum | 12-19-25

Forward Radio is independent, listener-sponsored, volunteer-powered, grassroots community radio WFMP-LP Louisville, Kentucky. We have been broadcasting at 106.5fm and live-streaming at forwardradio.org since April 9, 2017. Please donate at forwardradio.org to keep us on-air. It costs $42/day to keep this programming coming your way.