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This is the Civic Media Spotlight.
In this special edition of the Civic Media Spotlight, we will showcase the greatest segment of this past week of Nightlight with Pete and Greg.
In the second hour of the Civic Media Spotlight, we will showcase the best of segments from Daybreak.
with Jamie and Brian in the first two segments with Night Light with Pete and Greg, Donald Chee, DDS, Professor of Oral Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin, who joins them to break down the growing debate around fluoride.
Welcome back to Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bogg here on the Civic Media Network.
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Coming up in the second hour, we're welcoming back to the
show, Dr. Susan Kearns, who is in charge of the Milwaukee Film Festival beginning this Thursday.
And you will get your chance to win an all access pass to the Milwaukee Film Festival with our Win Your Way into the Milwaukee Film Festival text to win contest.
That's all in the second hour coming up.
And then, of course, we wrap everything up with the nightcap.
But now let us welcome our first guest of the evening.
He is a PhD professor of oral health sciences at the University of Washington, Donald G. DDS.
Welcome to the show this evening.
How are you today?
I'm doing great.
Great to be here.
Welcome.
We are so happy to have you on the program this evening.
There is, I mean, honestly, there's so much to talk about because when we, you know, when we were discussing you being on the show, one of the major things we wanted to talk about was fluoride in our water and the resistance to fluoride, specifically from the secretary of health, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
But in one of the articles that you were, you were quoted in, in CBS News, you know, fluoride is a major conversation that we will have, but the state of dental care in this country is
taken a huge nosedive specifically since COVID, can you talk more about that?
Absolutely.
So I practice in clinic a day a week here in Seattle in a clinic that treats mostly low income families and children.
I'm a pediatric dentist.
And one of the things that we saw before the pandemic is that there was a pretty large unmet need.
Lots of kids coming in with cavities, needing fillings, sometimes root canals and stainless steel crowns.
Sometimes teeth would need to be extracted or removed if the cavities were big enough.
And I think what
happened with COVID is that families were stressed, many of them were at home, kids were at home all day, had a lot of screen time, snacking behaviors, I think just skyrocketed and went through the roof where sugar intake was just at an all time high.
And at the same time, I think hygiene behaviors just
got lost.
So a lot of families were just trying to make it through the day.
And so I think, you know, tooth brushing didn't happen in the way that it needed to.
So I think what happened as a result of the COVID pandemic, and we see this in clinic is that kids from low income families who used to come in with pretty substantial, you know, cavities are coming in with just, I mean,
really, really just large cavities, lots of unmet need.
During that first two, two and a half years of the pandemic, a lot of dental clinics were intermittently closed.
And so I think a lot of families just weren't thinking about dental care on top of all of this.
And I'd say that we're still catching up from the consequences of COVID and clinic where, you know, I'll still see families in clinic, you know, as of recently, you know, that have said, well, you know, yeah, we're still kind of recovering from COVID.
and we're just kind of getting reacquainted with the dental care system.
It's great to have you here, Dr. Chi.
And I just want to say I flossed twice before you got here just to really
get ready for the interview.
Oh, OK.
He is a show-off
and suck off.
All right, cool.
Just a little bootlicking before I ask my question.
So I read in an article, too, that you said you deal with up to six families a day that don't want fluoride treatment.
You're a man of science dealing with what you hear on the outside or you have people like RFK Junior saying that fluoride is bad or whatever.
What do you tell those families and how do you try to get through to them to convince them that they need fluoride if you even do that or feel comfortable doing that?
Absolutely.
You know, Pete, you hit on something at the end of your question there about convincing parents.
And I think that that was the approach I used to take.
You know, when I first
saw fluoride hesitancy in clinic as a resident.
So this is a fresh out of dental school.
I was a newly minted dentist learning how to become a pediatric dentist.
When I saw families for the first time who would come to me, you know, they have their.
kids teeth fixed and cleaned when families would say no to fluoride.
That's immediately where I went to.
I immediately went into cell mode of how is it that I could convince families to accept the fluoride.
And I think that the thing that I learned through that approach is that oftentimes
I would get a lot of resistance from families.
And they don't always have to say resistance related words for you to feel like there's resistance.
And sometimes these interactions would just get really, just really heated and everyone would end up feeling bad at the end of the appointment.
And so what I ended up doing was that I wanted to study this.
There had to be a better way than me trying to convince families to accept fluoride.
I was studying
for a PhD at the same time.
So I had done all the readings of all the studies.
I tried to incorporate that into practice where I would say, hey, look, there was this huge study and talk to parents about these scientific studies.
And for the most part, parents didn't want to hear that.
They did not want to hear about the studies.
They didn't want to hear about me showing off my scientific knowledge.
And what I realized in hindsight
is that I think what families want is that they want a provider who listens.
And so rather than me go directly into cell mode, what my research has shown me is that I need to step back a little bit, Dennis need to step back a little bit and try to understand where parents are coming from.
Why is it that a family is concerned about fluoride?
And I think that's the only way a provider
is going to get at the root of what's causing that concern.
And I think from that point on, then you can make a decision as to what type of conversation you're gonna have with the parents.
Some parents don't wanna talk about fluoride at all.
Like they've made their decision, they don't want it for their kids, and that's the end of the story period.
And I have to, as a provider, respect that.
I will obviously provide my professional advice as to whether their child should be getting the fluoride that I'm recommending.
But some parents don't want to talk about it.
Other parents do want to talk about it.
And I think the reason why a parent is hesitant about fluoride is really, I think, a good starting point for a conversation that may take place over the course of multiple visits.
So maybe not just during the visit today.
Conversation has to happen every six months for the next year or year and a half for us to get to a point where we can provide the care that's going to lead to the best outcomes for their kids.
I just want to say that must make your job, that must add an element to your job that you didn't anticipate when you went to dental school.
Having to sell people on science and research, that seems like it would be exhausting.
You know, it's interesting.
I think, you know, I was trained under the old model, you know, it's kind of, you know, we call it paternalism in healthcare, where you basically, you know, you tell the patient what to do.
They largely go in and do it.
There's not a lot of resistance.
And then you move on to the next patient.
And boy, that's a really convenient, easy way of delivering health information.
And it's not like that these days.
I think that their, you know, patients want more dialogue.
They want, you know, to make sure that their providers are engaged
and shared decision-making, meaning that it's a dialogue.
It's not a one-way conversation.
It's a two-way conversation.
I can only imagine the frustration, though.
I mean, I'm all for two-way dialogue, and I am very much a person if a doctor tells me to...
to do something I consider and I'm like this is a doctor and I usually take the advice but nowadays with social media everyone thinks they're a doctor or at least thinks that they're their favorite influencer is somewhat a doctor because they come across as confident with a nice lighting system and million dollar videos but before we get further into that can we take a step back in time and talk about our relationship with fluoride in our water in this country something they've been doing for a long time and then you know I didn't even know it was there until someone like tried to approach me with a conspiracy theory I'm like I'm
What?
What are you talking about?
So for those who don't know, what's a brief history of fluoride in our water in this country, at least, that really kind of set people on the path of saying, getting into rabbit holes of alternate facts, if you will.
Yeah, absolutely.
So fluoride was first noticed in the early 1900s in Colorado.
And so there were certain parts of Colorado where individuals had a stained enamel, or enamel is the outermost surface of teeth.
And so dentists were noticing that there were pockets of geographic areas in Colorado where patients were coming in with this staining.
And what they realized was that while the staining was, it didn't look good.
it didn't look good.
These patients, these same patients with this brown staining on their teeth, seemed to be resistant to getting cavities.
And so even though the staining was there, they didn't seem to develop cavities as much as individuals who didn't have this staining.
So there were a lot of lab studies that were then done.
And subsequently, what was discovered was that these areas, there were certain areas in Colorado where the water was naturally fluoridated at a very pretty high level to lead to this brown staining.
And what what researchers found was that it was fluoride.
And so subsequently, you know, lots of lab studies to try to determine, okay, how can we maybe take advantage or harness the powers, the preventive powers of fluoride, but minimize the staining.
And that's really where some of the first community based trials, you know, came into play of trying to figure out what that
that optimal level of fluoride is.
And so for most communities, what that means to get to that optimal level, that means you have to add a very careful amount of fluoride to the water to make sure you don't add too much fluoride.
But you want to also make sure you're adding enough to get that preventive effect or the preventive benefit to prevent cavities.
And that's really how water fluoridation started in this country.
And almost from the day that water fluoridation started in the country, there have been groups in the US that have called water fluoridation, an attempt at mind control, lots of conspiracy theories.
This is the Soviets trying to take over the masses, lots of different theories on the actual or the real reason we floored our water.
And really, this was simply a way to make sure we could prevent tooth decay.
Okay.
Well, you're just part of a monster outfit trying to steal our children's souls.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't want to laugh, but it's kind of funny too, but not because of where we are in politics, but go ahead, Pete.
Our guest is Dr. Donald G. DDS.
He is a professor of oral health sciences at the University of Washington.
So we've got a congressman trying to introduce bands on fluoride.
uh dentistry and and dental insurance has been cut by the big beautiful bill.
I'm trying to follow the money here.
How does that benefit or where does them is it just a question of cutting the money out of a budget?
It doesn't seem like people can get rich or politicians can get rich cutting fluoride like I don't understand the motivation here I guess.
Yeah.
And that's a great question, Pete.
And I don't know either.
It's really hard for me to understand because something like water fluoridation is beneficial.
It's safe.
It's effective when done under supervision, which is the way water is fluoridated in the US.
Water hygiene specialists have to have licensing and credentials and constant continual training to be adding fluoride to the water.
What I think it is, is that I think a lot of politicians in the US are maybe taking advantage of some of the anxieties that exist in the population.
And so part of this, it kind of goes back.
to to our earlier comment about okay why is it that individuals are coming in and why are they concerned about fluoride and I think some of it has to do with empowerment you know that the internet has democratized knowledge and so anyone can go online and look up information on anything and and I think that with that knowledge then you know comes some you know comes
the sense of empowerment that they have gained some knowledge.
And so then they come into the dentist's office or the physician's office with maybe some made up minds about what they want to do.
And in this case, it's fluoride.
Well, we're going to keep this conversation going with Dr. Donald Chee, DDS.
He's a PhD professor of oral health sciences at the University of Washington right here on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
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Still ahead talking to Dr. Susan Kearns about the Milwaukee Film Festival starting this Thursday and your chance to win an all-access pass to that festival.
So stay tuned in the second hour and we're wrapping everything up with a nightcap.
We're talking with Dr. Donald Chees, a dentist and PhD professor of oral health sciences at the University of Washington.
He is our guest this evening.
And I want to say the following.
I understand that there's no replacing the brushing, the flossing, and all the good everyday things you're supposed to be doing.
But with the help that fluoride in water has, if that were to somehow be taken away,
That is going to affect a lot of folks who don't have health care.
Now, again, fluoride in water does not replace those other things, but it's something.
And what would you think would happen if those folks who don't have access to health insurance or to dentistry and lose fluoride, I mean, there's going to be a definite shift for those who are, you know, they are vulnerable to those things because of their lack of access to health care.
What do you think the problem there would be if we all of a sudden just said, fluoride's gone?
Yeah, absolutely.
And we have studies to show what happens when communities pull fluoride out of the water is that cavity rates go up.
I mean, you know, it takes maybe about nine to 12 months to see those cavity rates go up.
But yeah, cavities will increase.
And actually it's lower income.
more socioeconomically vulnerable individuals and communities and families that that actually will bear the brunt of those cavity increases.
And so, you know, if you're if you're wealthy or if you're middle class, you know, you have a lot of protective things in life.
You know, you have health insurance that dental offices will take you tend to eat healthier.
You tend to have other sources of fluoride like fluoridated toothpaste that you're using twice a day at home.
But that's not the case with our lower income
populations and so cavity rates will increase and the poor will get more cavities than others.
And that then creates further strain on the dental care system because that means more cavities, you know, that means more visits to the dentist.
And if you can't get to the dentist, that's going to start affecting hospital emergency rooms.
So we know that we know that when you can't get into the dentist for routine care or for emergency care, a lot of individuals end up
going to the emergency room, going to hospital emergency rooms, where they can't actually fix the problem.
So they may give you some painkillers and then tell you to go to the dentist, which then doesn't really solve the problem.
Dr. Joe Rogan says, I'm just kidding.
How often, fluoride aside, how often should people see the dentist if they do practice good oral hygiene?
How does good oral hygiene lead to better gut health?
Because I've been reading a lot about that lately too.
Yeah, I think in terms of frequency of dental visits, most people go to the dentist every six months.
Some dentists may say, well, come back in 12 months or 18 months.
Some individuals have to come back more often.
So we have a lot of really high-risk kids, kids who are more prone to getting cavities that we want to see back every three or four months.
So it's all based on risk.
If you're at higher risk for tooth decay, dentists tend to want to see you more often.
And if you're at lower
risk, then you can go a little bit longer between visits.
In terms of the links between oral health and gut health, I think the jury is still out.
I think maybe, primarily because the studies are still being done now, our group is actually working on a project funded by NIH, looking at the links between what happens in the mouth and what happens in the lungs in individual specific fibrosis.
And we're actually seeing links
between that.
So if you have cavities, if you have gingivitis that you may be more likely to have more severe lung disease as an individual with cystic fibrosis which again starts to get at this link between what's happening in the mouth and what's happening in other parts of the body.
I promise I'll make this connect.
I have a lot of tattoos and one thing in the tattoo world we always say is when you go to get a tattoo make sure you connect with your tattoo artist.
If you're not feeling it, you're not liking it, you don't feel comfortable
Don't go.
You have every right to leave.
There are a lot of folks out there, Dr. Chi, who have not gone to the dentist in a long time.
And I will admit, I'm one of those people.
I try to practice good oral hygiene, but I don't get the dentist as much as I should.
And what happens, I know for a lot of my friends is as we don't go, we get more and more afraid of what will happen and also how we may be treated.
And a friend of mine went to a dentist after many years of neglect and they said simply out loud,
We're here to make you feel comfortable and happy and we will never judge you.
What do you say to folks who say to you, I haven't gone in a long time.
I'm very scared.
Dental fears and anxieties are common.
I would say, you know, lots of people are afraid of going to the dentist.
You know, you may have had a negative experience going to the dentist as a child.
You may have gone to the dentist as an adult and not been treated nicely, you know, in terms of pain control.
So you may have had like a root canal and maybe you felt it and that can trigger dental anxiety and fear.
So, you know, first thing I'd say is dental fear and anxieties are absolutely normal.
The other thing I would say, going off of what you just said, Greg, is shop around.
If you're not happy with your dentist,
find a dentist that you're comfortable and that you trust.
This is really super important.
The mouth is a really intimate part of the body.
Dental visits can be really uncomfortable.
Even routine visits that are just cleanings and x-rays can be really uncomfortable.
And you want to make sure that you trust the provider that's going to be spending some minutes in a very private, intimate part of your body.
And I appreciate that.
That's something in 2026 I told myself I would do.
I'd find a new dentist and I want to go somewhere I feel safe and welcome and not judge for not making it there.
So Dr. Donald Chi, thank you so much for being here.
We really appreciate your time this evening.
Thanks for inviting me
Dr. Donald she is a DDS PhD professor of oral health Sciences at the University of Washington.
He has been our guest tonight If you missed any part of the conversation go to civicmedia.us last shows look for nightlight You can download the entire conversation and listen anywhere any time coming up in just a little bit Dr. Susan Kerns from the Milwaukee Film Festival your keyword to possibly win a all-access pass to the film fest Plus we're talking about the question of the night.
What's your favorite game?
show all right here on Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.
I can talk!
On the next two segments of the Civic Media spotlight, we keep it with Nightlight with Pete and Greg.
They speak with sports reporter Mike Clements to break down the latest from the Bucks and Brewers.
They react to Doc Rivers' comments on the season, discussing the team's explosive first quarter performance, and check in on the Brewers as they try to snap their recent losing
streak.
That's the song.
Hey, welcome back to Nightlight, ladies and gentlemen.
I am Pete Schwab, a sitting upstate from Greg Bach, who is coming to you from...
I don't know what to do with that wave that Greg is doing right now.
And Dom Lee, who is in Madison, we are the Yatterhey Triangle here
Oh,
finally
back.
Yeah, talking about all things current events this hour.
And now we're going to shift it to some sports because we have one of our good pals here today.
He covers civic media.
He covers sports or civic media like a maniac.
He is our civic media sports authority and our pal, Mr. Mike Clemens.
Hey, Mike, how are you?
Hi, Pete.
Hi, Greg.
How are you guys?
Doing
well.
How are you today, sir?
Better now.
Keep it busy.
Of
course.
24 hours.
Well, it's always busy for you.
You're always traveling all over the country.
You're everywhere, all the places, all at
once, all the ways.
Yeah, I was chasing the teams.
We had that little blizzard come through about a month ago that kind of screwed things up a little bit.
But other than that, no, you know,
We were watching for this to happen, that Doc Rivers would be stepping down as the head coach of the Bucks after two and a half years.
I saw one headlight and said he was fired, and I said, I'm not sure that that's it.
A month ago, Stephen A. Smith, the commentator on ESPN said, look for Doc Rivers to step down and retire at the end of this losing season for the Bucks.
You know a year of reports and drama about is he honest want out is he going to be treated as you want to go to the next or all those kinds of things the injuries that they've had Going back to the Damien Lillard, you know torn Achilles and everything and then You know we started watching these games and like in the last month you would watch like the fourth quarter of a game whether on the road or here at home and
And one day one of the beat guys said, hey, you know, when you guys huddle in the fourth quarter, it looks like your assistant, Darwin Ham, is kind of out there running the plays, goes, yeah, yeah, because you know why?
He's an NBA head coach, and I want the world to see that.
You know, we played that clip, you know, in our sports updates.
Yeah, so he's basically saying, I'd like to see this guy, you know, considered for my job or somewhere else, you know, back in the NBA, to get back to a head coaching job.
He'd been with the Lakers.
And then, just a couple weeks ago, we had these pre-game press conferences with Doc, and just kind of chicken-chacked back and forth, and he'd been inducted now into the... He's got plans this summer and August, he's going to be inducted into the basketball hall of fame there in Springfield, Mass.
And he said, you know, I got grandkids now.
I'm like seven, eight years old, and I'm missing grandpa Day and stuff like that, and I'm kind of looking forward to that.
So he's all but telling us.
So does that sound to you like you was fired?
Because I talked to him Friday night, last home game of the year.
First quarter was unbelievable.
I mean, they put up 38 points.
And in the last 10 games or so, they've been, you know, they've emptied the bench.
They're trying to assess this roster.
Guys don't get much playing time, how they're clicked.
They've got this Cormac Lion.
Kitted, you know, 18 points in the first quarter.
Three-point shot was going.
And they were playing the kind of offense that Doc Rivers has been trying to get this team to play really all year because he even set on record.
Look, at the start of the season, John Horst, the GM and I knew that this wasn't that deep of a roster after losing Damian Luthor and the other things.
They thought that Kevin Porter Jr.
could replace that role as a shooter next to Yanis.
He's been out the last month with a swollen knee that had to be scoped about a week ago, so he's been shut down.
So they were in terms of the injuries.
They had so many more obstacles again in the whole time that, you know, doc has been the head coach there.
And so I talked to him about this first period and he's all of a sudden, he just went into this speech.
Listen to this.
You hear him, you'll hear me ask him about how they scored 38 points in the first quarter against the Nets in their win Friday night.
Doc, I wanted to ask toward the end of the first quarter, how good was the ball movement, the passing?
It
was
unbelievable.
Yeah.
It was beautiful.
I'm telling you, uh, with this team, because we didn't, you know, for the most part of the year have a lot of guard play.
But when we played that way, when the ball moves and just in people's hands for a second, and it's just, we made some plays today around the horn, passing unselfish plays.
It's fun to watch, you know, if you're a fan, uh, and it's fun to coach.
And so it was really good to see.
Guys.
Thank you, media, especially local media.
This is all that's really here.
I know I've been a pain in the ass at times.
But really, you guys, I've always respected all of you guys.
I've not, like always handled you well at times because I'm always going to be fiery.
And I was at times, but overall you guys have been phenomenal.
I think you've covered me fairly.
You've covered the team fairly and that's all I can ever ask.
I do have a bite when I don't think things are fair and the fact that I've not had that with you guys in the two and a half years tells me all of you gave me a fair shake and given our team a fair shake and that's really important.
You guys don't understand that maybe right now but
When you get my old age, you will understand that.
And so I really appreciate all you thank you.
I mean, it sounds like a guy who is on his way out.
It sounds like a guy who's like checked out.
And I mean, a fiery dock rivers.
I'm Mike.
I've been listening to his post.
Game conferences for a while now, and he never seemed fiery at all.
He'd always, in fact, there were times where I said to people like, it doesn't even sound like he cares whether they win or lose.
Like when they lost, they're like, yeah, I lost.
So what?
Like they're just, I never felt personally like there was a ton of passion behind Doc Rivers.
And I may be wrong.
I'm not the world's biggest basketball fan, but it just felt like, you know, this was another stop for him.
And now he's done and he's going to go play with his grandkids, which is great.
But I never took him as fiery.
Yeah, now, maybe he just wanted to overcompensate for that, you know, in certain interviews, one-on-one.
But I mean, he came over and shook my hand, you know, he's been around a while, right?
Yeah, you know.
I mean, so, here's a guy who came in and thought, wouldn't it be great if I could finish my career?
Because he was actually a consultant for the team before they hired him to bring him in.
He'd also been, you know, on ESPN, too, as an analyst as well.
So, with this Yanis stuff going on and off and on and off, and even the player Bobby Porce saying about a month ago, I believe on a podcast, so not officially it is locker, saying, you know, this Yanis stuff is really starting to wear on all of us.
And then it goes to the next level, Greg, in terms of, you know, somewhere, they came back from a road trip, three or four game road trip, and I'm down there, and all of a sudden the staff, like the people I deal with every day,
PR some front office they kind of walked around like zombies like and I ended how are you Mike?
Who are you people?
And I'm
How are you guys doing?
I realized see Peter Fagan the president of the last 12 years he's gone and you say hey what about Brian the new guy I haven't met him yet you know okay I mean so there could be major regime change going on
What if Wes Eden leaves and they hand it over to Jimmy Haslam?
And then he's already brought in a new president.
I've actually heard some pretty good things about Jimmy, who is the guy that's messed up the Cleveland Browns and some of their trade moves over the years.
But whatever the case, we're looking for, is ownership going to change?
And then after that, are they going to stick with John Horst as a GM?
And then after that, you know, who are they gonna hire as a coach?
And then any decent candidate for a coach coming from the outside, it's like, well, what's your roster gonna look like?
Are you gonna have the honest or not?
And which is also why the owners then told John Horst, you will sit this guy, okay?
We don't wanna see another blown Achilles.
I don't care if he wants to play with his two brothers, and if he's recovered from the hyper extended knee.
That guy's a commodity now, and he's either gonna resign and commit to stay here for another contract,
or he's property and we're going to get the most value for him when we trade him, but he's not going to go injured.
So that's why they sat him, and it's going to be a busy summer with the Bucks.
That's the voice of Mike Clemens.
He's talking about Yanis there at the end.
He is our Civic Media Sports Authority joining us to talk about many Wisconsin sports stories.
Just to put a button on this mic, that makes sense because I was like,
They had a winning I think they were like 48 and 34 or 32 last year or whatever and then Yanis only played like 40 games this year So he can't really put all of that on Doc Rivers, but I do agree with Greg I never heard crazy passion in his voice since he's been here.
So great reporting my friend.
That's that's really
excellent And then and the number 36 out of 82 games Yanis was there 36 games this year That's how bad and of course the last couple he wanted to play
But they set him down.
They shut him down.
Yeah.
Was I'll go
ahead, Greg.
I was
going to say, was there tension?
Is there tension between Yanis and Doc Rivers?
I mean, again, like now that he is apparently on his way out, people are revitalizing the question.
OK, where is Yanis?
Is is he going to stay and maybe have a hand in like picking the new coach and telling what he wants in order to stay here to win, to possibly bring home another trophy?
I mean, like it kind of leaves the.
Unfortunately, the Bucks are looking for another head coach, but also it bring in when it's sandwiched with does Yanis stay.
Do you think Doc Rivers leaving gives Yanis more more value as far as staying here?
Now he can like maybe start a new or just does he want to get out?
I know I think that Yanis would love to stay in Milwaukee if they had a roster that they thought they were working around them.
They did not have that roster.
Then on top of that, they had the injuries.
And Yanis is like, this is wasting my time.
But whoever's going to be Yanis's new head coach has got a lot to handle there because Yanis is a 14-year-old kid who just wants to play every day.
And that's part of his problem.
He's 31, and he needs to act like a 31-year-old player and not play for it in the Greek nation last summer.
And then wonder why his calves wear out halfway through the season.
That's great.
Yeah, Mike.
I know we have some other things we want to discuss.
Maybe we've got to do a break in about two and a half minutes.
You want to give us an update on Chris McIntosh, the another person who stepped down as the athletic director of UW, and then maybe we could do some brewers talk after the break.
But what's going on in Madison?
BadgersExtra.com, breaking the story last night about six or seven o'clock that the athletic director for Wisconsin Badgers, all those sports programs and over 20 programs,
is leaving and he's taking a job, a new job, being created at the Big Ten conference.
And so, you know, I'm texting about one buddy that's a former player at a party, and he says, yeah, I'd heard something like this starting Friday, I wasn't sure, but how about that?
And when you start to look at it today, it's like, all right, look at, you know, he's made some good hires, like Mike Hastings, the head coach of the men's hockey team that got all the way to the finals of the Frozen Four.
So that was the last three years.
But, you know, the Luke Fickles story as a head football coach has been, you know, up and down.
This NIL thing has been a whole new landscape in the last five years.
And he's going off to the conference that doesn't have to worry about this stuff.
At the same time, look at, I mean, his, his boss, the chancellor, Jennifer Nukin, she's taken a job with Columbia University.
I think they made that official today.
And then the board of regents fired a president of all the universities, Jay Rothman.
Do they know?
I mean, in other words, Chris McIntosh is looking at this.
I'm going to have a new chancellor and a new, you know, board of regents.
You know, I'm out of here.
I don't know who my next boss is.
And it's just turbulent waters.
I think that's what's going on in Madison.
That's crazy because, like, as an alumni and a player, it seems like that's the dream job.
And what he's going to do for the conference seems so kind of vanilla.
But I guess if you're a climber, maybe he has more opportunity there.
And the decision makers are done.
And I asked about, well, this Barry Alvarez could get involved.
Like, no, you know, very retired.
He's in Florida.
He's got tea times.
Yeah.
right.
Great stuff.
Mike Clemens is here, folks.
Civic Media Sports Authority and our pal.
And when we come back, I'm sure Greg is going to pepper him with questions.
Get that baseball reference about your Milwaukee Brewers.
We're coming right back at Nightlight with Peach Wabba and Greg Bach on the
Civic.
Says I am the greatest That is understood But even I
didn't know I could pitch that good
All right, now you got me pumped up down.
Sitting in my car all day, little stones, now I'm ready to go.
That's the goal.
I don't know what I was doing before, guys, but I'm with you now.
All right, this is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.
We are talking to our pal, Mike Clemens, who does an outstanding job covering sports, and he's been a busy guy this weekend.
Mike, I think you need a couple of assistance with all these stories going on right now.
Tell us what is going on with Greg's Milwaukee Brewers, a five-game skid, not good.
Yeah, and I mean that you know there was a whole thing last year where the bruises never lost more than three in a row now they've lost five in a row and That's the first time that's happened in the with the franchise.
I think in three years first times this has lost a series been swept by the Nationals since 2011 the Nationals came into town and they were kind of playing some brewer ball You saw them very aggressive
on the base running a couple times though the guy would get caught in a pickle and get thrown off because the Brewers infield is so good but you know the bats started going silent in the last week or so but the road trip that they had out against the Red Sox and then coming home this weekend and you know at the end of the game last night you know Pat Murphy went back to just saying look man you know there's no Jackson Tray away right now that fractured hand
And Andrew Vaughn, first baseman, another, you know, long ball hitter.
He's been out with a fracture in his hand.
So they'll be coming later.
In terms of the rotations, like, you know, leverage pitchers like Jared Koenig, a starter like Quinn Priester, Rob Zee, they'll get some of these guys back.
So they've had a number of injuries.
And then, at the end of the game, you saw Christian Yellich,
exit after an at bat.
He's got a hamstring now.
I don't know how bad it is because, but he was going in for an Amorano after yesterday's loss to the, to the, and it looked like the Nash, like the Brewers are going to come back.
Jake Bowers crushed one out to right field and I thought it was going out and then it fell about three feet short of the wall, you know, at the warning track.
So they had the bats, the hits just weren't falling the right places yesterday.
They just kept losing their leads and and blowing ties and like they only one game where they got Like they got smoked the rest of them there were there was there was some decent hitting and some and there are runs coming and they just couldn't keep up and you know I'm watching a game where they're losing and Then they come up to tie and then they just start losing again or the other night where it was 3 3 and then boom I look at 7 3 like
It's it's like it feels like a systematic failure right now where it's not just the bats in the or the pitching it's a combination of both and as you said with Early on injuries now.
We're already looking at Kristen Yelich with you know getting an MRI.
We're looking it just it just feels very Off-putting that to start so strong and now we just boom like kind of lose it all in the matter of a week
Yeah
But, you know, at the end of the day, you talk to the starter, Brandon Woodruff, Woody, after the game yesterday, he's like, you know, pump the brakes.
You know, we're not, the wheels aren't falling off here.
And although, yeah, okay, it's not like we've lost five in a row around here.
This is pretty normal baseball for April and for the kinds of things that are going on.
And, you know, we'll find ways to circle around.
Now they got a good team coming in tomorrow night.
It was in the World Series, the Blue Jays.
So they opened up a series against them.
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at home before they have to go back out on the road.
But yeah, you know, to me it's just a sense of they just weren't getting the breaks that they usually get because other than that, that infield is unbelievable in its defense.
You know, and Joey Ortiz, he had a chance to be the hero the other night, and he grounded out.
He could have won the game, you know, and that's why he bats ninth.
But between him and what Bryce Trang does in second base, it's incredible what they, how good they are on defense.
Yeah.
It's just, it sucks to watch them go from first place.
Now they are in fourth place and that's not fun, but baseball.
It's only a game
out of first two though, right?
Well, I mean the standings, I mean, it's like right now the standings are really weird because
Cincinnati, St.
Louis and Milwaukee have the same record, but because of the percentages, they are in fourth place technically tied with the cards.
So it's just weird that like they could win one game and be in second place again, but it also just doesn't.
I don't like looking at fourth place.
Okay.
I've had enough of that back in the day.
Thank you.
Mike, our guest is Mike Clemens, Civic Media Sports Authority.
We've got about a minute, minute and a half left.
Can you tell us about this cool event coming up with your Green Bay Packers?
The tailgate tour is out there, and what's a big difference this year is it's not Mark Murphy doing his Shacky Green.
Hey, everybody.
Hey, welcome, ladies and gents.
There's a reference.
Ed Policy.
I knew that he would like that.
It's Ed Policy now.
That's the emcee, because he's the new president of the team.
But they're going to have some current players like Edger and Cooper.
It's going to be out there.
The great linebacker with some former players out there like Desmond Bishop was a linebacker on the Super Bowl team.
And Randall Cobb is going to be there too.
And James Jones.
And so they're going around that they'll start off in Green Bay tomorrow morning.
And they're coming down to Racine County.
I'm going to chase them there at a couple of stops and on Pleasant.
Then they go across the state.
They're going to go to Dyer'sville to the field of dreams and before they make their way back next Saturday to Green Bay.
Oh, that sounds like a blast.
That's
always a
good time.
I saw that.
Yeah, the wide receiver.
But see, they got some draft picks out of it.
And Wicks has been a good receiver.
I think he's kind of hit his ceiling.
And the Eagles are trying to stock up at wide receiver.
And so Goodykins with those picks he had to give away to get Micah Parsons, that huge deal with the Cowboys.
He's got a fifth round pick coming up in a couple of weeks.
And a sixth round pick next year.
and wicks got signed by 12 for 12 and a half million dollars in a one year extension with Philly.
He was never going to get that money in green.
So I think it worked out for both teams really.
Holy cow.
That's kind of a genius move, actually.
Um, Mike, I can't believe we got through, uh, when I got your text this morning, Mike, there's no way we're going to cover all this, but we did solid stuff, man.
Thank you so much.
Professional.
You bet boys.
Have a good, I appreciate the show.
And I'll have a report for you from the tailgate tour on the road this week.
Thanks.
I'm standing.
Thanks, buddy.
All right.
Mike Clemens folks, follow him on Twitter at Mike Clemens NFL.
And he does such a great job.
You can hear him also at the top and the bottom of the hour.
Greg, is he on both?
Yes.
Yeah, sports.
It's all about
the sports.
Yes, you can hear sports with our news weather every at the top and bottom of every hour from 6 a.m.
to 5 30 p.m.
In a related story, not
so much, it's National Scrabble Day, ladies and gentlemen.
Share with us what your favorite board game is.
That's our Nightlight Question of the Night.
I'm Pete Schwabe.
He's Greg Bach.
We're coming back after the news to read your texts.
We'll be right
back.
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