In Our Backyard Podcast

Sarah Ludington is a Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the First Amendment Clinicare and Kyle Compton is a Local News Fellow of the Clinic. The First Amendment Clinic at Duke University provides students the opportunity to work directly with clients facing free expression concerns, including defamation, content-discrimination, and reporter’s privilege. Their services are pro bono and open to the public’s use. BREDL has used their services as we were waiting for PFAS records from the NC Department of Environmental Quality for 8 months and when we reached out to the Clinic and they sent a demand letter on our behalf, we got the records immediately. To contact and connect with the Duke First Amendment Clinic is in the show notes below. Thanks for listening and enjoy the episode. Contact and connect: firstamendmentclinic@law.duke.edu First Amendment Clinic: https://law.duke.edu/firstamendment/

Jay Feldman is the Executive Director of Beyond Pesticides. Beyond Pesticides are science and research based. They seek to protect healthy air, water, land, and food for ourselves and future generations. By forging ties with governments, nonprofits, and people who rely on these natural resources, they reduce the need for unnecessary pesticide use and protect public health and the environment. They believe that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly and that decisions should not be made for us by chemical companies or by decision-makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them. With Jay, we discuss what pesticides are, common places they are found, effects they give to humans, research they’ve done and are continually doing, alternatives, and how it is all interconnected. Jay has a wealth of knowledge, so to contact and connect with him will be in the show notes below. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy the episode. This episode will be broken into two episodes since it’s longer, so be on the lookout for it in two weeks.

This is the continuation of last week’s episode of interviews from my week at the International Peace Camp in the Netherlands. Go back to the last episode to get the background of why we were there and actions we did, and those stories. And without further ado, here are the rest of the conversations. 45 of us from around Europe and the U.S. gathered together for a week of actions in protest against the U.S. Nuclear bombs stored at the Volkel Air Base. The Netherlands is one of five NATO members to host US nuclear weapons on its territory as part of a nuclear-sharing agreement. The Dutch air force is assigned approximately 15 B61 nuclear bombs, which are deployed at the Air Base. And The F-35 and F-16 fighter-bombers emit over 10 tons of CO2 per flight hour practicing to bomb the world with new, even ‘better’ nuclear bombs in the next war. And during the week, we heard those fighter-bombers practicing numerous times a day. First is Marion Kuper from Germany who is speaking at our gathering on Hiroshima Day about the nuclear free work in Germany and reads some of the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT), then we talk with Judith from Germany, Hubert from Germany, Vera from the U.S., Brian from the U.S., Onnau from Germany, Ria from Germany, Theo from the U.S. and then Susan from the U.S. These are just a few stories and testimonies from the week there. You can check out the links below to learn about why we were there and nuclear sharing in general. There is also some background noise, since I record this in person with people, so I apologize for that. News coverage: https://www.democracynow.org/2023/8/10/nuclear_protests_netherlands

Steve Preston is the Director of Parks with Parks and People. Parks and People have a single goal in mind: to improve the quality of life for residents of Baltimore by ensuring that everyone is connected to nature through vibrant parks and green spaces. According to the Parks and People, the act of reclaiming a vacant lot or beautifying a neglected open space, by even a few residents on a single block, can serve as a catalyst for positive change and growth throughout a community. They have seen this transformation take place time and again. In neighborhoods where someone establishes and maintains open public green spaces: people experience a stronger sense of community, develop closer relationships with their neighbors, and report feeling safer. With Steve we talk about the importance of parks in a city, how many parks Balitmorians have access to, what makes a well-designed park, park maintenance, and the possibility of getting Biden Administration funding for public spaces in Baltimore. Contact and connect with Steve: steven.preston@parksandpeople.org Parks and People: https://www.parksandpeople.org/

I’m airing Dr. Claudia Miller’s presentation on her theory of TILT. Dr. Miller is a Professor, Allergy/Immunology and Environmental Health at the University of Texas. For decades Dr. Miller has championed a new theory of disease to join the germ theory and the immune theory: Toxicant-Induced Loss of Tolerance (TILT). TILT explains the mystifying range of symptoms suffered by people with chemical intolerances. It is a two-step process. First, initiation involves acute or chronic exposure to environmental agents such as pesticides, solvents, or indoor air contaminants, followed by triggering of multi-system symptoms by exposure to small quantities of previously tolerated substances such as traffic exhaust, cleaning products, fragrances, foods, drugs, or food-drug combinations. Dr. Miller gave me permission to air her presentation where she further explains it along with her research and findings. To listen to the full talk with presentation slides, I have linked the youtube video by Beyond Pesticides below. Contact and connect with Dr. Claudia Miller: millercs@uthscsa.edu Watch the full presentation from Beyond Pesticides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8sjxyOZ-Ew TILT Website: https://tiltresearch.org/ Chemical Exposures: Low Levels and High Stakes, 2nd edition 1998: https://tiltresearch.org/provider-resources/publications/ Microbiome video: https://tiltresearch.org/2022/06/20/toxicant-induced-loss-of-tolerance-for-chemicals-foods-and-drugs-a-global-phenomenon/ Full Papers attached: Mast cells article: https://tiltresearch.org/2021/12/02/overlooked-for-decades-mast-cells-may-explain-chemical-intolerance/ TILT Connection article: https://tiltresearch.org/2021/06/28/new-study-provides-a-link-between-common-chemicals-and-unexplained-chronic-illnesses/

Todd Thiele is the president of the Norris Lake Protection Alliance (NLPA). Norris Lake, also known as Norris Reservoir, is a reservoir that is located in East Tennessee. The lake was created by the Norris Dam on the Clinch River in 1936 by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for flood control, water storage, and hydroelectric power. And today, Norris Lake is a recreation hub with 809 miles of shoreline and 33,840 acres of water surface and is the largest reservoir on a tributary of the Tennessee River. NLPA has a mission to provide a unifying voice to people who regard environmental preservation of Norris Lake as a top priority, enabling current and future generations to enjoy its responsible use. NLPA is currently working to monitor and prevent water contamination from a chicken farm under construction in Sharps Chapel TN. With Todd we talked about the history of Norris Lake, why he does this work, the projects they are currently involved in, water monitoring and more. Contact and connect with Todd: tthiele@harriscompany.com NLPA website: https://hoppyhiker.wixsite.com/nlpa More on Norris Lake: https://www.tnvacation.com/local/norris-norris-lake https://www.visitknoxville.com/listing/norris-lake/1033/