Dear Friends,
Here’s the 38-minute documentary I mentioned last week: Dear President Biden. The film’s director, Jon Bowermaster, is my first guest this week. Jon’s a journalist, author, filmmaker, and adventurer. He’s landed six grants from the National Geographic Expeditions Council, one documenting a 3,741-mile crossing of the Antarctic by dogsled. Dear President Biden will, I hope, inspire more people to write or call President Biden demanding real, consistent leadership on the climate crisis.
Joe Biden as a candidate for President, with Bold Iowa activist, Sam Kuhn, and a sign that suggests Mr. Biden understands the urgency of climate change.
For me, the film brings back so many memories of Bold Iowa’s 2019/2020 “Climate Bird Dog” effort leading up to the Iowa Caucuses. Dang, we did good work! Over 200 activists statewide, hammering home the urgency of the climate crisis day after day to candidates in every nook and cranny of the state.
How did the President respond to Bold’s bird dogs? CLICK HERE TO VIEW THOSE INTERACTIONS. What do you think? Is Mr. Biden following through on his commitment to treat climate like a crisis?
Also on this week’s program, I talk with Danny Kern, baseball director at Central Iowa Sports, about the insane number of Little League parents being ejected recently for appalling behavior. Iowa nice? It seems some people have yet to figure that out.
Charles Goldman joins me to discuss a recent article in The Atlantic: “Is America growing apart, possibly for good?” It’s an interesting perspective, and one that Charles agrees with more than I do. I just find it overly simplistic to divide the country into blue and red states. Heck, my neighbor (a real decent fellow, by the way) is a solid red Republican. Do I live on a blue block or a red one? Anyway, it’s an important discussion.
Finally, we skip across the ocean with Kathy Byrnes to learn about an indigenous-led movement in Hawaii to plant traditional “food hubs.” Efforts to reclaim food and farming from agribusiness giants are finding powerful, localized manifestations everywhere. That’s encouraging, and the momentum is growing.
Thanks for reading, listening, and giving a darn! – Ed
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LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S FALLON FORUM:
(01:46) Is President Biden failing on climate?, with Jon Bowermaster;
(19:32) Little League parent ejections, with Danny Kern;
(37:58) Is America growing apart, possibly for good?, with Charles Goldman;
(53:47) Hawaiian food hubs upset the GMO apple cart, with Kathy Byrnes.
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Please support the local businesses and non-profits who make this program possible. Click on their logos on the Fallon Forum website and in our weekly email, and visit Dr. Drake Family Psychiatry, Story County Veterinary Clinic, Bold Iowa, and Birds & Bees Urban Farm. Thanks for supporting the civil alternative to the shock jocks!
Ed Fallon
On the one hand, some of Biden’s ideas and supposed campaign promises have been geared toward a better environment, part of the “Build Back Better” thing. But then, deciding on an anti-abortion judge, and his reversal on new drilling plans for the Gulf of Mexico, where more than “enough” pollution has already taken place over time, is exactly the opposite of what we need…in some ways I’m sorry to have voted for Biden/Harris, except for the end of Trump’s reign; I still think the Democrats should have put Bernie on the ballot instead of Hillary, because his record in Congress has proven that he has the courage and the motivation to speak truth to power, and to the people, in order to get the right things done. But then, that would put a number of “centrist” Dems in a bad place…we can’t have that now, can we…?