Sitting On The Porch, Talking Sustainability (Hour 2)

Transcript

Sitting On The Porch, Talking Sustainability (Hour 2)

Civic Media Mid-Mornings · Mon Jan 26, 2026

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anywhere.

We are so appreciative of you being here this morning.

We are here for another hour.

Don't go anywhere.

We are waiting the arrival of Asia Barber, who is a writer, a stylist and a consultant who works in deals in the world of fashion.

We're talking to her about everything she does, what she writes about and deeper conversations on the world of fashion and how it affects us on an everyday level, but we are still waiting her.

to be here.

We appreciate your time this morning.

If you've been here since the beginning, if you haven't, we had fantastic conversations today with Mark Becker.

Mark is the host of rational revolution, which is right here on civic media from 2pm to 3pm on the civic media radio network.

You can also go to civicmedia.us slash shows can download episodes that have been recorded already, catch up on them.

And then, well, we talked to him about,

what happened in Minneapolis this weekend.

And I'm sure you know by now, you know, you don't have to be so busy that you don't see headlines on your phone, but another person was fed fatally shot by ice.

This is the third this year, two by on duty, one off duty, but this is the third shooting death involving an ice agent.

in 2026.

And we spoke to him about not only his show, which is a program that seeks to find balance in our conversations where we try to find out what unites us more than divides us.

And I do believe that there is more.

I know that's a handy dandy line from politicians, handy dandy line from many folks, but it really is true.

And I think we're seeing that more and more with the outcry

of what happened.

But he also wanted to talk about his experience with Mr. Pretty because he went to school with Alex Pretty in Green Bay.

And just gave an idea of who Mr. Pretty was as a young person and who he is today.

And if you don't already know, Alex Pretty was an ICU nurse who worked at the VA.

And

He, you know, the picture that I posted on my social medias was him sitting in front of an American flight because he was, in my opinion, serving this country, serving our vets.

And it was a good conversation.

And Mark is a fantastic human being.

I would really implore upon you to go to civicmedia.us slash shows, look for our show page.

By the way, really quick, as a side note,

There is a civic media mid mornings page now on civicmedia.us slash show.

There will be episodes available there.

And I'm going to work to get the old episodes linked there so you can listen to them.

Cause we had great conversations last week as well.

And the weeks before that, and Matt and Aaron Aaron, we want you to be informed on the conversation, but Mark talked about what Alex's presence in his life meant to him.

The, you know,

seeing someone you know being murdered on TV.

I mean, I've probably seen the video now just since I've been here dozens of times because they keep showing it.

It's horrible to witness, but it's what happened.

Mr. Pretty was a man who was legally allowed to carry a firearm, who was disarmed, was mobbed, and then shot in the back.

And I'm saying all this slowly and intentionally because I don't want us to forget.

Mark said in an interview with us, please do not forget this.

Do not stop talking about this.

These are conversations we need to keep having.

They're right next door to us.

And we are seeing on a very, very regular basis now marches through every day, marches in the streets of Minneapolis to protest what is happening, which is clearly unpopular with the people of Minnesota and do not allow

the administration, the supporters to respin the narrative for you.

Alex Pretty was a hero.

He was a patriot.

He was murdered.

And frankly, we should never forget that Miss Good was murdered.

Mr. Porter was murdered by these ICE agents.

And frankly, I feel that if we keep the conversation going,

We can never forget about it and also just as a just I think I've done like four side notes here We're very much to the side here Calvin.

By the way, Calvin buton off on the boards on the ones and twos I didn't say good morning.

Thanks.

We were so busy.

Good morning.

Calvin.

How are you today?

I'm hanging in there great.

Yeah.

Yeah understood understood This is you know the invasion of ice the

National Guard, all of the stuff that's happening in the past few months, taking to the streets with ferocious force, if you will, are all distractions on the fact that they passed a budget last year that is going to steal from our safety nets, from our Medicare, Medicaid, from our SNAP benefits.

And they don't want us to remember that.

And we can't forget that.

So they send in these distractions.

And distractions can feel like a light term.

It can feel like,

Oh, a distraction is, is too cheap of a word, but they've had to up the ante on their distractions.

And let's also not forget the other thing that, that is talked about on a regular basis.

Thank goodness.

As the obscene files is that they are not even close to releasing the entire thing because they have to work really hard to redact all of those pages.

But those are the, those are the reasons why these are happening as well.

They want to distract from two of the most major points, the, the, the budget.

that is going to seek to put billions of dollars in the pockets of their friends and themselves through gutting our social programs and the Epstein file, which is something they campaigned on for years to release and to expose and to educate and enlighten.

And that's what Congress passed a bill that made it by law.

They had to release it and they're far past that deadline.

Why?

They don't want you asking questions.

So instead they send troops into Minneapolis.

And when people are murdered, standing up for their rights and freedoms, they call them terrorists and would be assassins.

So we could have conversations like this.

Well, we're going to keep having conversations like this because Renee Nicole Good's life and Alex Pretty's life being taken are the results of this kinds of actions.

And one of the conversation points that we had with Mark was the fact that we're seeing people's minds being changed.

And when you see that happening to you, do not walk away from them.

Do not put your hand in their face.

Do not tell them that they are in the FA portion or the FO portion of this equation.

Swallow your pride, put away your cynicism and talk to them.

Because the more of us there are on one side facing these brute.

Thugs the better off we are for this country for us as a people and then we can go on disagreeing about taxes and we can go on disagreeing about all those things and we can you know, we can Have a normal argument at Thanksgiving.

There's always arguments that Thanksgiving, but let's go back to having normal ones, but We then spoke with state senator dora drake if you weren't here about what happened in Minneapolis, how it affects us in, Wisconsin

not just the fact that Alex Pretty spent some time here as a kid, but the fact that we have a dominating and growing conversation about ice in the streets of Milwaukee, what that will look like, what your rights are, and as a just a reminder too that they're not just in the streets of the big cities.

They are in our smaller communities.

They are rounding up folks off of farms.

They are rounding up folks off of main streets, small main streets.

And they are putting them into trucks and they are carting them off.

And that is not what I think a lot of people voted for.

They voted to have the criminals taken out of this country, put out of this country, arrested, deported, all the things.

And that's not what we're seeing.

State Senator Dora Drake spoke about the fact that she is always in contact with leaders on various levels community leaders of elected officials on the plan for Milwaukee But if you live in smaller areas, I want to make sure that you know what the plan is for your community They're currently if I'm not mistaken.

They're working on a bill that would force sheriffs to work with DHS if

those sheriff's departments do not work with DHS, essentially with ICE, then they will cut your shared revenue in your county by 15%.

And when we're talking about 15% cut, we're not talking about a 15% cut to the police force or to the salaries of those who are in elected positions.

We're talking about 15% of the shared revenue.

And when that is

I guess, you know, what's the term I'm looking for?

They love to say it in these.

Distributed, it's not going to be the things that are necessary.

It's not going to be those things that are cut.

It's going to be your social programs, your parks, your after-school programs.

School funding will be cut because that 15% has to come somewhere and it's never going to be to folks who could.

easily do without a little funding and trickle down.

That was the term I was looking for, trickle down.

It was an informative hour.

And I really appreciate State Senator Dora Drake and Mark Becker for being here.

Another thing we talked about too, as well as the state constitutional ballot that's going to be on the, I'm sorry, the state constitutional amendment question that's going to be on the ballot this year in November.

We're talking about right now, it's January.

We have 10 months

and some change to talk about this.

And I wanted to bring up something really, really quick here.

Alicia on the live stream was looking it up and it says, just to quick read, the amendment looks good.

That's why they want you to vote yes, because it will say, and this is not an indictment on you, Alicia.

I'm saying there are a lot of great folks out there who will read this and go, well, that's good.

We don't want to give preferential treatment and we don't want to discriminate, but we already have

rules in place.

And this targets DEI hiring practices, which this state has been demonizing for years.

Representative and Assembly Speaker Robin Boss has said that it is quote, unquote, cancerous.

They withheld money from UW schools.

because they wanted them to end, and they did end DEI practicing hires before they would release money to build a new engineering building.

They are doing everything they can, then they are doing everything they can to vilify, demonize, everyone who benefits from these practices, rather than look at the actual answers, look at the actual reasonings and actually do the work.

It's just easier to make enemies and to say, well, they're the bad people.

You're the good person.

You're a great person.

You pay your taxes, you work hard, but that guy down the street, you don't know what he, you know, how did he get his job?

Why should he get a, why should he get a leg up?

You didn't get a leg up.

They're sewing discontent and they're sewing division and that's not how we do things.

So we're going to keep talking about that amendment and I want you to talk to your friends about, if you guys believe in DEI hiring practice, diversity, equity and inclusion, making sure all folks from marginalized groups, from veterans to disabled to queer folks, to people of color,

to older folks.

If that's important to you, this is something that you need to talk about.

This amendment seeks to change that fundamentally.

So we're going to keep talking about it.

And again, if you want to hear more about it, go to civicmedia.us slash shows.

You can go to the civic media mid mornings page.

You can find the, find the.

The backlog of shows that is growing now because we have a new page there can be in touch any questions or comments eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five Seven five civic leave a comment on that live stream.

We are here for you.

We appreciate your time This is civic media mid mornings.

My name is Greg Bach stay tuned stay informed and stay close

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Welcome, welcome back to mid mornings on Civic Media.

My name is Greg Bach.

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Let no one tell you differently.

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We are currently streaming on the platform that we still, it's a place, Facebook, YouTube and platform.

We will always call Twitter, but I still to ahead, we have Greg's friendly tip at the end of the show, but now she is here.

Aja Barber is our guest and Before we get into everything because I've been I've been teasing you throughout the show and I've been talking about fashion, but I want to read So your website ajabarber.com and to all the folks out there Yes, I have been pronouncing it incorrectly two reasons one because of the WNBA player and to my one of my bestest friends her name is also Ajay Asia named after the Steely Dan album She has

she has

she has a lot of comments on that but the point is

Alright.

Ashabarbers.com.

I want to read this because this is the best intro ever.

Everyone should always introduce you like this.

This is Hello.

I'm a writer, stylist and consultant whose work deals with the intersections of sustainability and the fashion landscape.

My work builds heavily on the ideas behind privilege, wealth inequality, racism, feminism, colonialism and how to fix the fashion industry with all things in mind.

I like your dog 99.9% of the time.

That's good because she likes you, Asha.

She likes you a lot.

So you know what?

I like all dogs.

Yeah, they're just, I mean, they're just, they're, I mean, even like it's like, okay, I'm going to say this.

I'm just going to put on, even like babies, even the ugly ones are cute.

So, um,

I

agree.

Yeah.

Asha, thank you so much for being here this morning.

We appreciate your time with a, with an introduction like that, with a, with an opening statement like that.

Tell us about you because believe it or not, if you look at me, everything about me says this guy definitely buys his.

uh, livestock feed and his clothes at the same place.

And that's not untrue.

But I think about fashion a great deal, uh, just from, you know, an expression point of view, but it goes much deeper.

So tell me about you and what it is that you work to achieve with your, your writings.

Yeah.

So, uh, first of all, thank you for having me.

And I just want to, I.

you know what I got online at one point and I realized that I was writing about all of these social issues from race to feminism.

I was writing about them separate and then I was writing about fashion but I was also feeling really icky about it because there are parts of the industry that are super gross and then I realized that you could actually put these

Topics together because there are so many different intersections the fashion industry is one of the biggest industries in the world and people don't like to Think about it from those terms because ill gross women stuff, but in actuality everyone wears clothes, right?

I've

heard that I've heard that

Yeah, you know, so everyone will, some people don't, but you know, most people do.

And so I kind of started to look at the feminist issues within the fashion industry.

80% of the garment sector is women.

And then if you look at who owns the mega.

big corporations who make all the clothing and also pollute a large portion of the planet.

If you look at who's at the top of a food chain, it's a lot of men.

And so there you go.

Of course, it's already a feminist issue where you've got women that are unpaid who are making the clothing and underpaid.

You have living wage issues.

You have organizing issues.

You have environmental issues because we have a system where the industry both pollutes in the creation

of the garments, but then in the afterlife of the garments, there's also a pollution issue.

So you've got various environmental issues.

Basically, there are so many different ways to look at this industry in a way where it's really a part of the deeper conversations we're having every single day.

Well, and that's the thing, you know, something that has really been on the rise in the conversation, which is the industry of fast fashion.

And I feel like it's a term which can be both its sweet pill and its poison pill.

Fast fashion.

Come get it.

It's super cheap.

You're on a budget.

You know, everyone's looking at their pocketbook.

And then fast fashion is it's made fast.

It goes way fast.

And as you said, it can sit in a landfill very fast and sit there forever.

But can you talk more on the rise of that as, you know, it's everywhere now.

It's absolutely everywhere.

So one of the cool things about being a millennial is that you've seen so many things happen with your and within your lifetime I'm actually tired of living through historical events at this point But you know we saw you know We were the last generation to sort of live without the internet and to know what life looks like without social media The younger generations they don't know the other thing that you know I had coming up was fast fashion really wasn't a thing It's become a thing within this lifetime when I was a kid

you would go to the mall and, you know, the department stores would get clothing in six times a year.

It would be all the seasons plus Easter and Christmas.

You would get all sorts of, you know, your choices were pretty limited.

And then in the 90s, that started to change and that changed with, you know, the deregulation of certain industries, the offshoring of jobs, all sorts of changes involving NAFTA.

And then all of a sudden clothing really, really started to speed up.

Like it's been gradually speeding up since the Industrial Revolution, but things really have taken off in my lifetime to the point where the average citizen buys five times more clothing today than we bought in 1990.

Oh

my, okay.

We're going to keep this conversation going with Aja Barber, who is a writer, a stylist and a consultant.

who works in the world of fashion.

And I feel like I have like nine hours worth of questions, but we're gonna, we're gonna, we'll keep it, we'll keep it quick, but we're gonna be talking more with Aja after the break.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them on the live stream.

We're on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

Give a call 855-752-4842.

You can text us if you like.

We'd love to hear from you.

But more with Aja here on Civic Media, mid mornings.

Go grab a snack.

Get some water.

It's important to stay hydrated.

Come on back.

Stay tuned.

Stay informed.

Stay close.

Welcome, welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.

My name is Greg Bach.

I am your host, your buddy, your pal, your believer in all things you because you are amazing.

So let no one tell you differently, especially, especially yourself.

We are here right now in the civic media network.

Don't go anywhere.

Still got lots of great programming ahead.

After us from 11 to two, we have got Tom Hartman.

And then from two to five, we have got John and Gordy.

Let's see here.

Yeah, John and Gordy from two to five.

And then Pete Schwabba with Nightlight from five to eight.

So lots of great programs still ahead.

You can always catch up on everything by going to civicmedia.us slash shows, go to civicmedia.us slash news.

Everything is there at civicmedia.us.

But right now we are talking to Aja Barber, who is a writer, stylist and consultant.

who works in the world of fashion and we're talking about fast fashion.

We're talking about sustainability and you had a book called consumed and talk about the book really quick and also the, you know, we were talking about in the life of the secret show, which is only available on the live stream.

So get on the live stream.

But we were talking about that, you know, the statistics of how much people are buying then versus now and because of all of the availability and

the what they believe is you know the affordability of it all but there's always it always comes with a price and that's not a pun but go ahead and talk about your book

yeah so my book is basically an explanation of why people need to stop buying so much why these corporations are evil and ruining the planet why they are targeting us as individuals and you know doing everything within their power to get us to just feed our money into this

gosh awful chain and so my book is um

it's a very gentle explanation of why the system kind of sucks and what we can do to make it better as citizens.

That's basically it.

And I think online sometimes, you know, we exist on these apps and I got very popular on Instagram.

And I feel like people don't realize that the apps are like, they're like real rage inducer.

So

people sometimes read something I'm talking about on Instagram and they would just get so angry about it.

But then when they read the book and they're reading the long form, they're going

actually, this is making a lot of sense.

And so I really wanted to just get myself out there in a different medium because social media is pretty weird these days.

Also, someone said Alicia said, anyone who likes my dogs is good in my book.

And Alicia, I love your

dog.

I'm going to tell my dog Maybell that she's got a new friend today.

I cannot wait.

Speaking of comments, I just wanted to say that to Nancy listening on WA UK said Nancy from Illinois here, I buy 90 to 95% of my

clothes from resale shops.

I think I dress pretty nice.

Also, I had my 32 year in chair reupholstered, did not want it in a landfill.

I would like to be like Greta Thunberg.

She is a hero.

And I think, you know, and, and I think those are

great to keep it

up.

Nancy, you've got it.

You've got the right idea.

You know what you're doing here.

You don't you don't need me, Nancy.

You're good.

And I think that's I think that's something that I want to talk about really quick, too, is that, you know, we talked about this on The Secret Show, which is when we talk when we introduce the word sustainability into anything we buy, whether it's furniture, clothing, food, I think people automatically tack price tag onto it.

Oh, my gosh, it's going to be so much more expensive.

But sustainability doesn't mean that it just means tell me.

Tell me in the audience, when you talk about sustainability, what do you mean by that?

I mean, if I can't find it from a seller who pays their workers, I don't even expect people to know all the ins and outs of all the science and all the different levels, scope through emissions and a factory stuff like that.

I'm not expecting the average citizen to know that.

What I'm expecting to look for is to look for brands that actually pay their workers because all of that stuff really coincides with the environmental stuff.

And so if you can just get that one thing ticked, that's great.

you cannot find a brand where you were like, ooh, I feel like this brand doesn't, this thing I'm looking for, I'm not sure about the ethics of it.

Can you buy it secondhand?

These are the two things that I tell people to look for the most.

And if everyone just did that, I think we could actually transform the world in a small way.

And so for me, sustainability is when you actually need to buy something, when you need to,

Can you do it in a way that is has the least amount of impact on the environment?

Something else you go

on.

Yeah, go

ahead.

I was

going to say something

else that

you mentioned was that just wear the clothes that are in your wardrobe.

Oh, goodness.

When we talk about how much clothing is being sold, I don't think people understand there was a time period where.

all started to buy a lot more clothing.

And I've watched that speed up throughout my lifetime.

We did not shop this way in the 80s.

We didn't shop this way in the 90s.

And I began to feel really icky about it.

And I knew that it wasn't just me.

I knew that it was like everyone.

I remember babysitting for someone where they were like going on a family holiday and they were like, oh, I don't feel like doing laundry.

So I just like went to Old Navy and got the kids new clothes.

You know what I mean?

Like that's sort of.

That's I've known people that have just bought a new pack of underwear from forget cuz they're like I don't want to do laundry or whatever You know, so like we're starting to engage in some habits that are really not mindful in regards to the system and I try and

point that out to people but social media of course also plays its part in that.

And I think that's something that you write on your website that opening statement from you I feel like when we when we use the term privilege a lot of times now it's being used when we're talking about

White privilege, which is a conversation we

need to

have.

But this speaks more to financial privilege.

And we're not even talking about the rich.

We're talking about people who can go to Old Navy and spend maybe $100 or even more detrimental to themselves, put it on a credit card and then pay 30% a month on interest.

And so like when you talk about the fashion industry, you're not just talking about

the the environmental impact, but you're talking about your own financial impact, because you can say, I don't want to do laundry.

So I'm going to buy my kids some new clothes.

Okay, I'm going to get some points.

But I'm also paying 20 15 to 30% interest over time.

And now I've I could have bought more sustainable clothes.

Had I done it,

a week ago, like, like that's where I see it as the financial privilege of it all too is just saying like, we have the access to credit and we have the access to cheap clothes.

So we just put two and two together and go, well, why not shrug shoulder?

And then we're sitting here going, why do

I

owe $6,800 on my MasterCard?

Because you'd rather do that than do a load of laundry.

I'm sounding real

like

an uncle right now, but that's where I'm at.

No, you and me are the same.

Let's like sit on our porch and yell at some kids.

Basically, I feel like we've got a few different things going on.

People don't feel empowered in our society, right?

Like our politicians, the world is kind of a bit of a mess right now.

And I also feel like, you have a system where people are not able to get jobs and health insurance is dubious if you live in the US.

People are being hurt in the streets, whatever.

There's this real powerless feeling.

And I think that's when people lean into consumerism even more.

Like Xi'an, which is a website out of China, is the biggest clothing manufacturer in the world.

When did Xi'an come into prominence during the COVID-19 lockdowns?

You had all these people who were sitting at home, who were bored, who were scared, who, you know, couldn't see their friends, didn't have the same social life.

And at the same time,

TikTok is starting to take off.

And then you have this thing where people start buying all of the clothing from Xi'an and then doing TikTok calls.

And then it starts trending and every third person is doing it.

And before you know it, Xi'an is one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in the world.

And

that all happened.

And

here I am.

I am not about to tell.

a mom who has three kids and is in a lockdown and trying to teach their kids math and has a husband and has a life and all these things.

Hey, don't buy those cheap clothes.

I'm not going to tell her that because who am I to tell her anything?

But what happens is that, you know, you brought it up before about social media, but that is what has happened.

Just, I mean, social media has been around for a little while now, but it didn't really make the venomous impact that is done since

since the lockdown and and these influencers getting up and saying anything from buy from this company to take this pill to don't talk to this person and it's it's all it's absolutely all tied in together and I feel like there is an amount of like there is now social media skepticism when when the when the video is a little too produced and a little too slick and you look down and it says

Partnership with you like oh you'd actually don't care about this skin cream.

I can tell you don't have skin cream face

Or how about when they don't market as a partnership?

Yeah, because there's a lot of that like if every influencer who who Sold a product

you know, online, anytime you feature something that you have been gifted, you're actually supposed to market as an ad.

So if every influencer who didn't do that was, you know, pinged with a penalty, it would be probably

60% of influencers.

The amount of times I see something that I know is product placement happening on social media, but no one has said it's an ad or it's an affiliate link or it's a sponsorship or even I was gifted it for free.

These are the issues with social media that makes it really, really not a great place to be in some place that I think is quite pernicious for young people because this is not

reality.

Asha, I would say this, not just young people either now.

I mean, how many conversations have you gotten to folks who are millennial and older who say like, oh, you know what?

I found out about this thing.

Dot, dot, dot.

What are that thing is?

I'm like, who did you hear that from?

Was it a doctor?

No, it was a yoga instructor on TikTok.

Then you should burn your phone forever because it just, we're not listening.

Sorry, we are very much on the porch right now yelling at kids.

We all know someone like

that, honestly.

It's an epidemic.

Yeah, and I'm just, you know, I am not a millennial.

I am someone who is, you know, Generation X. But do you see that in your conversations with people your age and younger who are just sort of becoming very suspect of what you see on social media as like, before it was just like, oh, they sent me this set of knives because I'm a chef.

And I really like this to now it is targeted intentional partnerships that are nothing more than a 30 second commercial.

For products

that

products suck too.

They suck so

I mean I mean honestly like tiktok is like the home shopping network Yeah, we've like got it in our phone and like it is it's I think some people are skeptical I think we've become even more polarized as a society because that was when my work also took off during lockdown my

My account grew very big.

My Instagram grew really big.

So you basically had two people, two groups of people.

You had people that were looking at all the systems and lockdown, also looking at their house and being like, why do I have so much crap?

Like that

was one group of people and they were going, oh, and this is tied to the environment.

Okay.

I don't want to do this anymore.

And then you had people that went in the complete other direction of consumerism.

And I feel like you keep becoming more and more polarized as a society.

And I think that consumerism, when couched in a voice that they like or trust or let's face it, they might be attracted to on that social media.

Or they want to be friends with that person and see their life.

It can lead them down a really, really suspect and dangerous rabbit hole.

And that's where we have to be like, I don't want to go to Thanksgiving with them because they're terrible now.

But that's, well, you know what?

We're going to have another new segment.

Aja and Greg sit on the porch and yell young people.

That's the new segment.

We're going to

join the show next, next time, next time she comes here.

Why, why music isn't as good as it used to be, but Aja Barber has been my guest today.

She is a writer, a stylist and a consultant working in the fashion world.

Aja, thank you so much for being here.

Please come back.

Let's keep this conversation going and get her book consumed.

You can go to ajabarber.com.

That will be on the, on the show notes, but Aja have a wonderful day.

If you're in a cold space, stay warm.

If you're in a warm space, don't go outside.

I appreciate you.

Thank you.

All right.

When we come back, Greg's handy tip to end up the show, but don't go anywhere.

We still got programming ahead.

Be a part of the conversation and read your texts and your, uh, your live stream comments as well.

But here on civic media, mid mornings, my name is Greg box.

Stay, stay tuned.

Stay informed.

Stay close.

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information, and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website, civicmedia.us.

Welcome, welcome back to Civic Media.

Mid mornings.

My name is Greg Bach, your host, your buddy, your pal, your co-conspirator and all things awesome because you are all things awesome.

Let no one tell you differently, including yourself.

You want to be part of the conversation.

You can do that by calling or texting.

The number is the same, 855-752-4842, 855-755.

Leave a comment on that live stream.

Still more programming ahead today.

We've got John and Gordy from two to five.

We got.

Tom Hartman after us after the 11 o'clock news from 11 to but then John and Gordy in the afternoon from two to five Then we got Pete Schwabbo with nightlight from five until eight So don't go anywhere if you want to catch up with all things going on with our shows civic media dot us slash shows again civic media dot us slash shows Yeah, I got that right.

So yeah, I got that right.

I got that right Calvin, right?

Can I get the right civic media?

Yes today civic media dot us slash shows.

Yeah, okay.

I knew

that

Yeah, you got it.

I didn't doubt you if you're in radio park You want to cannoli come on down to radio park because I've got a bunch of them

and no

one's eating them at all You can also download the free civic media app that way you can take us on the go You can listen to us live you can listen to talk you can listen to music you can call text leave a voice message You don't even have to like me to leave a voice message.

That's fine But we want you to take us with you.

You can take us all over the world We've gotten text messages from Vienna from st.

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New Zealand and East Brunswick, New Jersey, but those are just great ways to stay in touch with us.

And then, and I haven't talked about this in a while and I apologize to my friends out there, my colleagues.

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We, that's, that's how we grow.

That's how we know more.

That's how we bring more people into the fold of these good conversations we're having.

Like the one we have on the top of the show, we talked to state Senator Dora Drake, then Aja Barber from the world of fashion.

These, this was a fantastic show.

Calvin, what did you think about today's show?

Yeah, I mean, we kind of covered all our bases.

We did indeed.

Calvin is the ultimate hype man.

I'm waiting for the day where he'd be like, you know what?

Three out of ten, three out of ten show buddy.

And that'd be on me.

That would be all on me.

I'll give it a solid

seven and a half, maybe in the last couple of minutes we can make it an eight.

Oh wow, that's not gonna stay with me all day long now.

All right, well, before we get onto anything else, we got some texts coming in.

I'm gonna read these texts that came in this morning because it's...

important to hear your voices.

We were talking earlier to State Senator Dora Drake about the DEI amendment that will be on the ballot this November.

We're going to keep talking about this matter because I want everyone to be informed on the history of this ballot measure, what it means for DEI hiring practices in Wisconsin, and why it is not something that just affects people of color.

It affects all Wisconsinites.

This is not.

a matter for one group.

It's a matter for all of us because we are all neighbors here.

But Tiffany from River Falls listening on WCFW said, I hate ballot measures.

They are never thoroughly explained.

Is there a campaign to push social media education on this amendment?

We need easy to share and understand memes.

We need more memes.

And post about this to get the word out and flood the people with education.

That's what we're doing right now, Tiffany.

We're going to keep this conversation going.

And I would tell you, go to civicmedia.us slash shows.

I got it right, Calvin.

And go to today's episode in the first hour, download it, share it with people.

And we'll keep talking about it, Tiffany.

Bring this up.

And if people push back and say, Oh, a DEI is bad, ask them why they think it's bad.

If they say, because it gives unfair advantages to certain groups, they're kind of calling themselves out and just putting that one out there for you.

But that's

Tiffany, don't you worry about that.

We got you.

We're going to keep talking about this.

Andrew on the law, on the text, listening to WA UK, maybe a question for Jim Santel is, uh, can the state of Minnesota issue arrest warrants for every ICE agent operating in the state?

Oh, at least until the direct directly involved are positively identified.

I don't know about that.

We did talk to the ACE.

Oh, we did talk to, I think it was the ACLU of Wisconsin.

No, it was not.

It was, I cannot remember right now.

Oh shoot.

But we spoke to somebody about this, about the fact that right now it's about making sure that the state of Minnesota can properly seek legal steps of, I guess, suing the federal government, whether it's the, whether it's the district attorney, whether it's the AG, but as far as arresting each of them, I don't know about that, but there are steps where Minnesota as a Minneapolis and Minnesota as a city and state respectively can seek steps to getting them out.

So.

We'll talk more about that with Jim Centell this week.

He goes on to say, in addition to just being human beings, they're executed by immigrant enforcement employees.

ICE is wreaking havoc so they can implement the Insurrection Act and roll into martial law.

There will be no election that comes from Mary listening on the line as well.

And finally, Andrew also follows up with...

The justification of buying new clothes instead of laundry is an interesting way to get your exercise in, in my opinion, very, very smart there.

And really quick, I wanted to make this about a tip.

If you want to buy some new clothes, really take a look at where you're buying from.

I mean, I'm not, I'm not saying anything different than when Aja said, but like, you know, instead of throwing it on a credit card, go to the thrift shop, go to the, go to the place that, you know,

is a local business, maybe invest in something.

If it's better made, you're going to have it for longer.

And don't be afraid to express yourself through your fashion.

That was what I wanted to talk about in this last segment, but we got to, you guys were just so, so informed and involved today.

I love this.

Alicia on the live stream says, I absolutely wait until there are holes and everything in my clothes.

And PJ says, you can dress like a millionaire by shopping at thrift stores.

Absolutely.

I will say this though really quick though.

Here's my tip.

Stay away from the thrift stores that sell like, you know Guns and Roses t-shirts for $200 not worth it.

Don't do that.

They're not sustainable Don't do that shop better, but be informed.

That's what we're here for and I again, I really appreciate you and your time I want to thank mark becker state senator dora drake and aja barber freeman guests today We got more coming up tomorrow.

We're gonna be having Brett Goldstein back on the not Brett Goldstein.

That's an actor

Kevin's telling me to be quiet.

Bennett Goldstein from the Wisconsin Watch talking about his article that covers about the problem with the will to secrecy.

So that's tomorrow.

Don't go anywhere.

Still lots of programming coming up on Civic Media.

Stay tuned.

Stay informed.

Stay close.

You're amazing.

See you tomorrow.

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