From Thistle: After nearly two years, I ventured back into WORT studios in Madison to record a music show with my friend, Lucy Kilpatrick. From beginning to end, this musical hour features my musical voice and stories of bicycle adventuring. My music is available for purchase here: www.thistlepettersen.com. It was tough getting approval from the station to allow my music to air due to trans activists complaining that I am "transphobic" and "hateful and bigoted." Because of these accusations, WORT leadership would not allow me to do the program live from the studio for fear that I may say something "hateful" or "discriminatory towards marginalized groups." Knowing I was perfectly capable of not "spewing hate" as I am accused of, I agreed to this restriction and recorded my show in the studio on December 28th, 2019 with no incident. Even though the news director told me immediately that I had passed the test and had uttered no wrongspeak during the recording, she also said that the entire board of directors, staff and volunteers at the station needed to review the recording before it would be approved. Finally, by the end of January, the news director at WORT, Chali Pittman, told me my show had been approved and would likely be airing sometime in February. She also told me that there would be no promo ad for the show leading up to it. The final date for the airing was Monday, March 16th, 2020, almost exactly two years after I aired my news program interviewing Meghan Murphy and Julie Bindel about gender identity, pornography and prostitution. You can listen to that program here: https://soundcloud.com/wlrn-media/interviews-with-julie-bindel-meghan-murphy-on-wort-899-fm-in-madison The night the music show aired, right afterwards, I called the station and the news director answered, reporting that there were an equal number of favorable and unfavorable calls to the station. When asked if the unfavorable calls were claiming I should not be on the air because I am "hateful and bigoted", the news director replied "basically, yeah. That's it in a nutshell." It is not too late to write to the news director after listening to this show to let her know that you appreciate me and my music and that you hope to hear more of it at the station. You can also thank her for allowing the music show to air. Please send an email to Chali Pittman at chali@wortfm.org. Thanks for staying tuned!