This week on WURD: Comedian Luenell, more SEPTA woes, deadly explosion at PA steel plant

Luenell, the “Original Bad Girl of Comedy” and one of LA Magazine’s top 25 funniest people in Los Angeles, joined Dr. James Peterson on Evening WURDs for a hilarious interview discussing the comedians who have inspired her, life on the road touring from city to city and her thoughts on new up-and-coming female comedians.

Speaker of the PA House of Representatives Joanna McClinton represents the 191st district. McClinton joined Wake Up With WURD with Solomon Jones to talk about President Trump’s push to ban mail-in ballots, provide an update on the latest with SEPTA funding and discuss how essential public transportation is to the well-being of Pennsylvania.

Vanessa German is an artist, speaker and sculptor who is one of the most influential contemporary sculptors in America today. German joined The Midday Break Room with Tiffany Bacon and shared details about her first Philly-area solo show on Sept. 2 at Rowan University, called “Breathe from the Diaphragm: our eyes are in our lungs.” She also discussed how this exhibit offers respite from the volatility and injustice of today’s world.

Curtis Da’Von, organizing director for Clean Water Action/Fund Western PA, joined ecoWURD Magazine with P.O.C. to discuss the deadly explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in Pennsylvania. Drawing on more than 20 years of environmental justice organizing, Da’Von explained that while such incidents are tragically familiar, this one has sparked renewed attention because of the loss of life and the plant’s long history of pollution violations.

Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at La Salle University, Dr. Caitlin Taylor, teaches courses on mass incarceration, restorative justice and more. Dr. Taylor joined Evening WURDs to cover what some of the goals are of the criminal justice system, how the system fails at achieving the majority of those goals, and the difference between reform and abolition, while debunking some of the myths about abolition.