AMERICA, WE NEED TO TALK
Note: This program is no longer active on the WBAI schedule

Friday 6:00am - 8:00am

Hosted by: Joel Berg + Jennifer Jones Austin


Web Site: https://joelberg.net/about/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joel.berg.58
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Joelsberg
Blog: https://joelberg.net/blog/

Joel Berg
Jennifer Jones Austin

“America, We Need to Talk” – hosted by Joel Berg with rotating guest co-hosts – is a lively, take-no-prisoners show that not only diagnoses the ills of both New York City and the nation, but prescribes concrete cures. Combining humor and bombast with fact-based analysis of politics and policy, the program features candid conversations with newsmakers and activists, pointed commentary, and listener call-in segments.

Labeled “Mister Frowny Pants” by The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (on which he once
appeared), lead host Joel Berg has served for 17 years as CEO of Hunger Free America, which the Nation magazine called “one of the leading direct service and advocacy organizations on hunger and poverty in the nation.”

Berg has published two books: “America, We Need to Talk:a Self-Help Book for the Nation” – which Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison called “both important entertaining – and “All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America?” – which Playboy (which Berg reads only for the reviews) called “refreshing” for its “optimism … rationality and passion.”

Berg has been a Senior Fellow at both the Progressive Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress, two DC-based think tanks, and has staffed and consulted with many political campaigns. Berg has delivered hundreds of keynote speeches on four continents and in 37 states, from Maine to Alaska, while surviving moose attacks and volcanic eruptions. One audience member wrote, “Seeing Joel Berg speak in person is like watching the History Channel, C-Span, and Comedy Central all at once.”

Guest co-host Jennifer Jones Austin, Esq., a child and family advocate, is Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), an anti-poverty, policy and advocacy organization with 170 member human services agencies operating throughout New York City.

Prior to joining FPWA, Ms. Jones Austin served as Senior Vice President of United Way NYC, Family Services Coordinator for Mayor Bloomberg, Deputy Commissioner for the NYC Administration for Children's Services; Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and Vice President for LearnNow/Edison Schools Inc. Ms. Jones Austin has chaired and served on several influential boards and commissions. She currently is a Board Member of the National Action Network, the New York Blood Center, the NYC Board of Correction, and the Fund for Public Housing.

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