Summer Camp Dreams and Healthcare Screams

From the depths of a digital abyss, where truth drowns in a sea of clickbait and algorithms, a beacon ignites.

From the heart of Badgerland, from our studios on State Street in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, it's John and Gordy on 92.7 WMDX.

It's the big show.

John and Gordy in the morning on WMDX 92.7.

Gordy is out again and Sam will be filling in our producer while he still can.

Well, I still

can.

He's on his way out.

He doesn't know it yet, but... I don't?

What

do you have planned for me, John?

So, yeah, you're gonna, what technically is the last day that you're going to be producing this wonderful program?

Unless something changes the end of May, so what is the last week day of May?

Yeah,

what is that?

May 30th.

May 30th,

okay.

And then you're heading off, you're going someplace or you won't be around here anymore, you won't be able to stop in and say hello.

Yeah, I'm getting deported to Al Salvador.

Okay, well, see, that happens.

Ah, yeah, it was a mistake, you know, but that's what happens with mistakes.

You live with them, right?

Yeah,

exactly.

Yeah, so.

No, I'm going to work this summer up at a scout camp, a summer camp in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

And then this fall, right now I'm still looking, but hopefully I'm going to be working as a substitute teacher.

So you're leaving here, Madison, to go to summer camp?

Up north, yeah.

What's the first day you have to be there?

It's like a week later.

Oh, it is okay.

Yeah, take a week off.

Well, that's good.

That's good.

I don't know why you want to be a summer camp counselor.

You know, sometimes I don't either.

When I was going to summer camp, I went to a day camp, but I always wanted to be a counselor.

I thought, gee, this is really a

cool job, you know, you get to organize, you get to, you know, talk to the kids and inspire them and, you know, indirect them in the right direction, not that I was going in any direction at all or knew what the right direction was.

But, you know, being a camp counselor was just a cool position to be in.

I thought at first you were going to say when you were at summer camp, you were like the kid in

the song Letter From Camp, where he's complaining about all the horrible things happening at his summer

camp.

That actually is the story of my life when I went to overnight camp for two weeks.

Two

weeks?

Yeah, two whole weeks.

One is certainly enough, but two, oh my God, no wonder.

No one does that, no one goes to summer camp for two weeks, unless you're, you know, of course, training to be in a militia somewhere.

But yeah, it was the worst experience of my life ever.

I got poison ivy, really bad, and I just didn't enjoy myself at all.

Although they did have Olympic Day,

and

I really excelled at Olympic Day.

Were you an athletic kid?

I actually

was, yeah, not in school.

I think I was about 13, 14, but...

I was very good throwing sticks

as all

young boys are.

And I get this, this is true.

On Olympic Day, I actually got the gold for the javelin throw.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, congrats to 13-year-old John.

I

know.

It freaks me out.

To this day, I actually threw it farther than any of the camp counselors.

But I had, you know, I watched a lot of the jungle movies way back then, because everything was jungle gym, Tarzan, and I watched how the natives threw their spears.

And you copied them?

Well, here's the thing, you know, they're actors.

You're right.

They're not real natives.

But I learned from them and I realized that you don't throw a spear directly, you don't hold it in the middle.

You hold it in the back because you're pushing forward all the weight and the weight goes much

further if

it's all in front.

So that was my secret and that's how I did it.

If we ever bring stick throwing to the camp that I work at, then I'll take your advice, your guidance.

There you go.

Now you know how to do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Do the Olympic Day thing.

Boy, kids love it.

But the worst part of a summer camp was first thing in the morning, they made us go into the lake.

Why would they do that, right?

I think we were, you know, we drew the last straw as far as our cabins are concerned.

We had to go into the lake first, swim, and then have breakfast.

That was before breakfast.

Truly a nightmare.

I mean, it's a cold lake.

Right.

Cold mornings.

You don't need that kind of...

punishment and then of course we had cereals you know they had the little boxes of cereals the variety packs

sure

for all the kids so I was we were so late getting in every time after you know swimming ridiculous that the only thing left was the cereal that had peanuts in it and and I hate to this day I can't imagine having a peanut like a whole

yes but our captain crunch or something

no

No, no.

Not the crunchy style.

It was actual peanuts, which seemed odd.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's nothing like having a raisin in your cereal.

Okay, let's get to the National Day calendar.

Big day today.

A lot of little events, stupid events.

And aren't they all?

Okay, so here we go.

It's National Neck Care Day.

It's Bucket List Day.

All right, and I was curious as to what it really is.

What is Bucket List Day?

National Teach Children to Save Day.

National Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

See?

Yeah, take them both.

Wow, that's gonna be fun.

And pigs in a blanket day.

Yeah,

yeah.

That sounds tasty.

Yeah.

So, why don't we get into one of these days, National Neck Care Day.

You see all the ads on TV now where they have the special creams that you put on your neck to get rid of all the wrinkles when you get older.

I feel like your neck isn't the first part of you to get wrinkly though.

Why is that?

Why why do you have a neck cream?

But but it does it is one of the first things to go and one of the first looks That kind of turn in your age a little bit So yeah, but they don't work none of them work.

They have this special cream There's an ad now that's That's promising to just completely smooth everything out without surgery and it's just ridiculous But anyway,

you just got to do this was I think a bit in the Simpsons movie you got to take like all of the

extra skin that you have that's like saggy.

Now pull it back on your neck and then pin it there with a clothespin.

So it looks nice and tight.

That's

the easiest way to do it.

I think, you know, I think the surgery is similar to that.

So it says here, our goal is to empower people with all skin types to stop neglecting the neck and decolletage.

I don't know what that word is and prevent common signs of aging that it can appear caring for the delicate skin on the neck is just as important caring for the skin on the rest of the face No kidding.

All right.

It sounds it looks like it's it's an ad so I'm not gonna All right, so it's national bucket list day.

What is that all about?

It reminds us it's never too late to set new goals go on a dream vacation

and inspire people around you and enjoy the life that you have to the fullest.

And your bucket list is to be a camp counselor.

By definition, a bucket list is of things a person would like to do but has never experienced before.

Well, you have done that before.

Some people refer to them as milestones, while some people refer to them as goals, whatever you call them.

A bucket list is a list of things a person would like to accomplish.

Do you have anything on your bucket list?

Uh, no.

Nothing

at all?

Well,

no.

If you died today, you could die happy.

Yes, actually, I could.

But, you know, I do want to be here.

I do want to see the latest technology and I want to see my kids grow up and get into the things that they're going to get into for the next, you know, 50 or 60 years for them.

That's about it.

That's my bucket list hang on for a long

time

National teach children to save day and good luck with that Each year on the fourth Thursday of April National teach children to save day encourages children to develop good savings habits Bankers across the country volunteer every year to teach kids to save

Do they really?

Developing these habits as a young age creates foundations for lifetime savings, involving all children with savings plans, a managed f.

Can you think of the first like big purchase that you had to save up for?

Yeah, well, yeah.

Well, I, yeah, I

was like a tape recorder or something.

Actually it was.

Oh, I knew it.

It was

a real to real tape deck.

A wall and sack.

So anyway.

National take your daughters and sons to work day.

This is always fun.

You know, it's always, you know, so they were separate for a while on each.

This annual event is an educational program the United States and Canada where parents take their children to work with them for one day.

The day is designed to help children explore the workforce.

It inspires children to see the different roles required to run a business or build a project.

They may find it interesting

And who knows, you know, maybe even know what their parent does for a

living, right?

Maybe this is just a veiled attempt to get kids accustomed to child labor.

Maybe they're putting them to work when their parents bring them in for the day.

Yeah, I didn't think about that.

You know,

they are lowering their age.

Your dad works in a...

a steel mill or something like that, bring your kid in for

the day.

Wow.

Yeah, that would be a bad time.

We all imagine him going into some kind of office

atmosphere.

But

yeah, that would be terrible.

Okay, pigs in a blanket day.

This is celebrated around the world.

It refers, of course, to hot dogs or sausages wrapped in a biscuit or croissant dough and then baked.

My mouth is watering.

I think most people like that.

They kind of steer clear of it even when it's offered free at parties only because you can fill up on it and

they

usually have better appetizers.

They're not good for you exactly

either.

I want to get to that because all the nitrites that they have in these products, you don't want that.

So if they're nitrate free, that's the way to go.

And those are the kind of sausages I get.

I know that Oscar Meyer for a long time put out the nitrate free hot dogs.

And I never knew why that no one bought them.

They just sat there on display, but the regular hot dogs went like crazy.

I guess they were a little more expensive, but you don't want to get all that stuff.

And then I read an article where the

92.7, John and Courtney in the morning, John in alone today, except we of course have producer Sam and he will certainly participate in the Frivolities.

We have a few hundred stories to get to today.

And I'm just looking at a text here from Catherine as long as it's the show as usual.

You know, we never did settle at Catherine.

You never did give me the information I requested, but that's okay.

That's all right I'll tell you what we have not gotten to the weather forecast and they do want to you know, just Give you an idea of what is going to happen today before we talk to Brittany below a little bit later after seven o'clock Currently around 58 degrees.

It feels like 56 and boy, you know

You certainly want to dress for that.

High today around 73.

Oh, you know, the thing is, I really, I should have looked up the humidity because I think it's going to start affecting how we feel that heat is.

And it's

going to

be a low of 46 supposedly tonight.

And there's a chance of showers this morning still.

There is a band of showers moving kind of our way.

You never know where it's going to move.

And, but it is nearby.

and there's a chance, a very slight chance of showers this afternoon.

You got inside it all yesterday?

Yesterday afternoon when it was really nice?

I

did, yes.

I slept again for like three hours yesterday afternoon and I woke up to head back to the station because I produced Peach Waba last night and it was warm enough that I had to like just go down to my t-shirt.

I've been wearing long sleeves for forever now, all winter long and it was finally warm enough.

Yeah, it's crazy.

I'm going to have to start walking again.

You don't walk anywhere?

Well, yeah, shopping.

Through Costco.

The

long miles through Costco.

But I like to make a round around Middleton.

I like to do a lap.

It's about one mile exactly.

So it's kind of fun to do and it gets you out there.

You notice things you didn't notice before.

You've been living at your house for like 30 years, John.

What else is there to notice?

Well, you never know.

You know, the neighbors might put a new bush in.

They might paint their house.

They might put a new garage door.

You know, somebody might be selling their house.

Somebody you didn't expect to sell their house.

Stuff like that.

And we've got the brewery nearby.

You see some of the drunks, you know, spread out on the park benches

out there.

I was gonna say, dear God, I hope my life never gets this mundane.

But the last bit's up.

Well, you're just taking

a walk.

That's all you're doing.

It's not a tour.

Yeah.

But that's why people, they used to have people walking through malls.

Now that seems like a really boring situation, right?

Yeah, when Sophia's parents were here for her birthday and for Easter this past weekend, they decided to go for a walk, but it was raining out.

So they said, let's just go for a walk at the mall.

And I was like.

What?

Yeah

It used to be a thing way

back when

yeah when we had all those malls and now they're just a door malls I believe just like Hilldale, which is gorgeous Anyway, let's let's get into the history books now that we know a little bit about the weather and taking walks

Time to it's so dusty.

Do I have to dust it off?

Well, I guess so this time, you know

One of

these days, you're just going to have to start wearing the mask when you do this.

It could be dangerous.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

But you're not going to get

any help from RFK

Jr.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

RFK doesn't care.

No, he doesn't.

What happened today?

Have you ever been to the Library of Congress?

No.

Today in 1800, the Library of Congress was, what's the word?

Like, created, I guess.

Yeah, that's the word.

With funding.

Yeah, Congress approved funding for the Library of Congress for the first time.

Yeah,

that's pretty nice.

Yeah, they went a whole nine, ten years without having it, though, on the 1700s, which was a little surprising to me.

It's now the biggest library in the world, if I'm not mistaken.

I'm surprised there and banning a whole bunch of books in that library Here's the thing and I thought of this the other day and we went to DC and took the tour and actually we walked We walked a lot

of miles

But what's what's it like now?

You know now the doge has been

in there, right?

Yeah,

what's there to see a lot of closed buildings no one around

Yeah, it's just an abandoned city.

It is an abandoned city at

this point So

I don't know

DC not maybe not the place to go anymore.

I

gotta ask my roommates a bunch of them are from DC.

Yeah

Today in 1898 Spain declared war on the United States the Spanish-American War Was well US had kind of blockaded

Spain's colonies in the US Cuba and a couple other places a couple days before They never declared war though Spain was the first to actually Get things going.

All

right.

Well, it's a big day the Hubble telescope was launched on this day in 1990 Have you have you seen like comparisons between the James Webb telescope and the Hubble telescope?

I Know I have not well.

I'm Harrison's Hubble's what 35 years old now.

Yeah James Webb is probably

And they did five or ten it replaced the

lens in the hobble

Yeah, like when I learned about that when I was in school.

I was so surprised like it was just funny.

How could they let something like that

happen?

I Just think they would have looked at it or checked it twice three times.

Yeah before they did

anything like

that.

It's just like that.

I think it was

some space probe to an asteroid where there was a unit conversion error.

Somebody did their units for the measurements in U.S.

units and everything else was in metric, obviously, caused the spacecraft to land and crash.

As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point, a dumbing down, until humanity was incapable of solving even its most basic problems.

This is grade A weapons grade stupidity.

Just doing my civic duties.

We can duck and cover.

There's a fall each other right there.

There's no way to survive this, you idiot!

Idiocracy.

For the smartest guy in the world, you're pretty dumb sometimes.

Stupid all the time.

John and Gordy in the morning Gordy's out We have Sam the producer helping us out here in the morning and we've got some really dumb things to get to and you Probably won't believe some of it, but it's real We don't make this stuff up and that's why we play the actual cuts the actual comments from the individuals were guilty of being stupid

But before we dumb ourselves down in idiocracy

I

got to say that this show is brought to you by Verlo mattress of Madison a one thing that

remains the same and remains constant about Verlo mattress since their founding in 1958 is that they're still direct to consumer and provide superior products at unbeatable prices.

You can find Verlo mattresses on two locations and on Madison's east side and west side or online at verlo.com.

All right, let's talk about healthcare here.

This is kind of a big deal.

I've been emphasizing that an awful lot here on the show.

We should have universal health care.

It takes care of everything.

We don't have to worry about Medicare Medicaid All the problems that go with that fraud abuse None of that we just go to the doctor room.

We need to and that's it.

It's done You know the government pays the bill for the insurance.

That's that's so simple, isn't it?

Well, anyway, there are a few opinions out there and

The killing of the health care CEO still in the news, people are still talking about it, handed he is still beating that horse.

Anyway, it put a spotlight on the US health industry.

And an emergency room doctor and associate professor at Columbia University is frustrated with the whole situation.

So let's listen to his comment.

Cut number number 95.

as you write in the New York times that really then manifests with you as the doctor.

You write, it is critical for me as a physician to build trust with my patients by giving them clear answers.

But the conversations we're seeing now about health care remind me that insurance unknowns don't just compromise the care I can deliver my patients.

They also undermine the fragile doctor patient trust.

It's an unsustainable dynamic.

Just tell me how that shows up for you as you are trying to

minister care.

Yeah.

So I'm part of the health care system.

I see patients in emergency room.

Oftentimes they are extremely sick by death situations.

And the last thing they should be worrying about is if they could pay for their care.

And recently I had a man he was very sick his heart rate was very slow.

I needed to admit him to the hospital.

And he beckons me closer and I thought he was going to ask am I going to be OK am I going to live.

But instead he asked me.

Is my insurance going to pay for all of my care if I get admitted to the hospital?

And I didn't know the answer to that.

I didn't even know what his health plan was.

Yeah, so a lot of questions asked at that time.

And I've never understood why we allow.

This kind of torture to take place in society You know when you're when you're sick or or you feel sick or you feel like you need to see a doctor You we always think well, how are you gonna pay for it?

What a strange thing to have to think about when you're not feeling good or you have a problem or you get injured you just Shouldn't have to think like that

You know, it certainly, I think it adds to the trauma of the whole situation anyway.

But anyway, that's a concern that would be no longer a concern with universal health care.

Now, the Megas have told us over and over, they just don't connect that one line, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with health care.

They just don't, it doesn't occur to them.

And the Republicans at this point are so dug in that

they will not admit that we deserve healthcare.

It's a human right.

It's something we all should have.

All the industrialized countries in the world have universal healthcare for them.

Some form.

There are a lot of different ways of providing universal healthcare in each and every one of these countries.

I remember Japan went toward that.

They did an investigation for 10 years.

They looked at all the different styles of healthcare in

all the other countries that provide it, and they took the best of the best.

And of course, even then, even when you do that, and you piece all this stuff together, it may not work out.

They'll find some problems, and they'll want to get rid of some of the things that didn't work, or maybe make a few adjustments.

Unlike Obamacare, which, you know, what was put together, and we expected to make changes as we found some things didn't work, and something else would work better.

Republicans...

dug in and they wouldn't allow Obamacare to be changed in any way, shape, or form to make it better.

Fortunately, of course, we increase the tax subsidy.

It's a tax credit.

We increase that during COVID and that's about to expire at the end of this year.

And I think the administration has indicated that they will not extend it.

So that's going to raise everybody's premiums per month by two to $300, which means a whole bunch of people won't be able to afford health care anymore.

And we're right at square one again.

But anyway, Ron Johnson has the belief that it's a privilege.

And he's not the only one.

I hear this a lot from a lot of the Republicans out there.

And this was a moment here in Wisconsin.

He was actually in front of a group of college students.

And one college student asked him a question, why don't we listen to this give and take?

And this is jaw-dropping stuff where he actually is telling them that it is a privilege and the reasons why.

And it is mind-bending.

Let's listen.

Do you personally consider healthcare as a privilege or a right?

I think it's probably more of a privilege.

Do you consider food a right?

Do you consider clothing a right?

Do you consider shelter a right?

What we have is rights, is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Pass that point.

We have the right to freedom.

Pass that point, everything else is a limited resource.

that we have to use our opportunities given to us so that we can afford those things.

So the minute you consider healthcare a right, well, who's gonna satisfy that right?

And those people that have the skill to satisfy that right, what does that make them if they're forced to provide you with that rightful product or service?

So I think it's obviously a privilege to have food and shelter.

Yeah.

It's a privilege.

Okay, Mr. Silver Spoon.

Isn't that incredible?

Yeah, I know.

He definitely did not earn

his millions.

We don't even

have the words right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in any like law binding document.

It's not in the Constitution.

It's in the

Declaration

of

Independence, Ron.

So the whole thing here is that this is kind of how the country was started.

This was the idea.

the general idea of the United States, putting this thing together.

And we should have this right.

And I believe that the Constitution, the preamble, is something that, from what I remember reading, is never used as an argument in any Supreme Court decision.

They don't use the preamble.

Maybe not as an argument, but as a moral guiding light.

That's what the

point of the Constitution is supposed

to be.

So anyway that that is shocking stuff and again, it we're isolated the United States has that kind of attitude No other country has that kind of attitude that it's a privilege that we have health care Just shocking stuff or food or

exactly if you want to promote the general welfare You got to have your citizens fed clothed and healthy, right?

Otherwise you're not well

And we've talked about the universal basic income, which is taking place across the country.

They're testing this thing out and it's always tested positively.

It hasn't shown anybody who's taken advantage of getting $500 a month and just laying back on their couch watching TV or playing games.

It's not like that.

People get that taste of money and they want to get more and buy more and it feeds on itself.

Anyway, we've got a phone call here.

Let's go to Mark on the line right now.

Mark, what do you got for us?

But it's not just in the preamble of the general welfare.

It's also in the body, the Constitution Article 1, Section 8, I believe.

You know, promote the general welfare.

Oh, yes, there it

is.

I mean, I

think promoting the general welfare is actually having a healthy population.

And Ron Johnson should be remembered that we all are paying for Ron Johnson's health care.

You know, that he is a multimillionaire, but we still pay for his health care.

as part of his renumeration as being a senator.

That's right.

So, Ron Johnson can fuck her up and

hit a May.

I know, and it's crazy because they're holding health care away from the public.

We're paying for theirs.

They don't seem to get the connection at all, you know, right?

Yeah, they don't give a rip.

Yeah, they don't.

All right, Mark, thanks guys.

Thanks a lot for clarifying that.

All right, and remember Mitt Romney also had a comment that he made in front of a whole bunch of millionaires.

You remember that comment?

I have it here.

Romney said of Obama voters back in 2012, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has the responsibility to care for them.

who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, you name it.

Just the grocery list of things they need.

These are people who pay no income tax.

Believe it or not, that's what he said.

Of course, you know, the poor pay taxes, more taxes than the wealthy eventually pay.

So this actually lost him the election.

Yeah, it's like what Mike McCabe was saying yesterday.

I loved his analogy with, it's not like we're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

It's like we're throwing paying passengers overboard in order to build larger first class cabins.

That's right.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

This was a story I believe yesterday where a court decided that...

Voice of America had to come back.

They had to restaff it and put it back on because it was an important element of what this country does worldwide and the president didn't have any power to do away with Voice of America and all the other broadcast systems that the US sponsors around the world.

And this is something that we're talking about.

I have a whole feature in this on NPR defunding.

They want to defund NPR again.

And I just want to play this cut.

153, I believe it's in that same folder.

Is this Marger Taylor Green?

No?

Is it?

No.

All right.

Well, anyway,

they want to dig

in deep here.

Yeah.

They want to definitely defund NPR and they don't like Sesame Street and we'll be getting to a special feature on that a little bit later on.

I've been kind of chomping at the bit to put this thing together.

We've got a great day coming up in those slight chance of showers here and there.

I don't believe them.

I never did.

58 degrees currently higher on 73 today, low tonight about 46.

John and Gordy in the morning.

We'll be back with more.

Okay, yeah, we got about a minute left.

Where are you on the road to?

I am, I'm actually doing an AI presentation in Philadelphia.

Ooh, all

right, here we go.

I came across something I know you guys were talking about AI.

And going at it again, you guys, boy, oh boy, we have to get somebody in there to referee.

Have you heard of Conmigo?

Conmigo.

Conmigo, yeah.

Yeah.

And that's in new work.

I wanted to just bring that up and maybe if you could fill in a few blanks on that.

I also have a cut, by the way.

10 seconds.

I have an executive order on discipline and classrooms.

You want to hear that one?

Yeah, bring them.

Man, take this crazy pad.

Man, it's a mad pad.

WMDX John and Gordy in the morning, John Peterson with producer Sam.

And we have been able to connect with Tim Slecker this time from Busted Pencils on the road.

He's on the road to find out.

And it's good to have you here this morning.

Thanks, John.

We've got a...

Yeah, we've got a few things to talk about.

You know, you do have your podcasts.

And in one of them, you and Johnny go at it again about AI.

Yeah.

Is there any hope that we're going to ever agree on AI?

Or maybe if we at least find a direction for AI in the classroom, it's going to be a big help, I think at this point.

But you're familiar with Camigo.

It comes from Salcon and the Khan Academy, which was a place for students to go and get help, for math help that Salcon created.

Now, KhanMigo is a personalized

AI tool that actually has been loaded.

And in fact, we interviewed one of the distributors way back.

Jason, I cannot remember his name, but we actually did a whole show on ConMigo.

how it is actually being used in lots of classrooms from this idea of it's a personalized learning tool that students can access and teachers can can use to kind of help create

customizable lessons for students based on the level they're at and to help students with any types of remediation.

And it's from the standpoint of saying, you know, if we can do this, we can help students that need skills gaps closed, students that need to progress faster are able to progress faster using this.

And so it's an interesting concept and we've been hearing about this whole idea of what's called personalized learning and does AI have an ability to create that situation in real time?

ConMigo is a commercial product trying to demonstrate that, yes, you can have personalized AI tutoring.

Now, the question I have is, uh, obviously you have coursework, but then with ConMigo, it can speed up the process for those fast learners, correct?

Right.

And now if that happens, then they finish earlier.

What happens?

How does everybody else catch up?

you know and this is one of those things when you start talking about okay speeding up some type of situation for students.

And I think this is where we're going to go in the future.

And this makes sense because we do finally have the tool within AI to allow not just the students who need to speed up, but us also to then go back and help the students catch up the ones that aren't there.

What that does, though, is that points out the reality that the kind of age and grade system that we use for schooling

really doesn't make a whole lot of sense

because

when you're in fourth grade and you're nine years old and you're a fourth grade teacher and you're teaching 25 students the academic ability of those 25 students can be anywhere from you know first grade reading level up to a ninth grade reading level and some of that has nothing to do with quote kids being behind or kids being ahead it's the reality that we all come to these places

differently.

And

so the age and grade thing, when we think about this, really doesn't make a whole lot of sense other than if you go back to the Industrial Revolution, it's a great way to sort, mechanize kids and get them ready to go out and work in the factories.

Yeah, that's true.

Not great.

And I understand some of the answers there.

They're a little concerned with some of the answer that Comingo provides, maybe a little more like giving the answer.

Well,

and I, you know, I think that is, it's always, you know, the case of, you know, whether, you know, if, if you were doing a term papers or reading, you know, big books in the 80s, when you were getting the cliff notes, right?

Teachers worried that we weren't really reading.

Well,

Part of that was kind of true.

I wasn't really reading because the cliff notes were better.

And I really didn't understand what Shakespeare was talking about when I had to read it.

But it really puts the onus on teachers and schools to really step up and say, here's the new tool.

How do we help students use it to maximize their learning?

Because actually, yeah, the potential is that it could be a shortcut and potentially even hijack learning.

But I think that's always the case.

And this is why we're saying great teachers will always make a difference.

Here's a new tool.

This was an executive order signed yesterday by Trump.

Discipline in the classroom.

Let's go to cut 238 here, OK?

That's 238.

All right, let's listen to it quickly

executive order on school discipline policies Under I believe it was the Biden administration first Obama and then Biden the Department of Justice issued guidance that made it almost impossible for schools to enforce adequate discipline disciplinary policies this created issues in the classroom for teachers and students alike Basically, they focused on CRT and sort of diversity ideology instead of actually just enforcing

the rules in classrooms to ensure a safe learning environment.

This executive order revokes that prior guidance and puts us back in a place where hopefully the Department of Education can

It's the John and Gordy show.

Do you know what this means?

Wouldn't you like to know weather, boy?

You're pretty high on fire, aren't you?

What kind of kick are you on, son?

You're no good bastard.

Your show sucks.

What made me think this was a good day to stop drinking?

What if you want coffee?

Coffee.

Coffee.

Black coffee.

Coffee.

Coffee.

They warned us about people like you!

What a load of crap.

Thank you, sir.

May I have another?

We'll do it live!

And that's the way

it is.

On 92.7 FM WMDX.

Take it away boys.

John and Gordy in the morning.

John and Sam with you this time around.

And it's a beautiful gorgeous morning.

Still 58 degrees we're going to go up to 73 hot muggy day again just like yesterday.

Just really uncomfortable and now I've got to put an air conditioning unit into my kid's apartment above us.

He's renting our unit in the house.

It's always nice to have that.

close by, I like that.

Low to night, about 46 chance of showers throughout the day.

But in the afternoon, very slim chance of showers.

And I just want to welcome in our guests this morning from the Madison Hearing Aid Center.

This is Jim and Sarah Lippold.

Welcome to the program.

Hey, thanks, John.

Thanks much.

All right.

You know, I've always been interested in hearing aid technology, you know, where it's all going.

Because a lot of people

when they think they may need a hearing aid, they're afraid to get it.

They're afraid to look into it.

And I think with technology, the way things have gone now, it's a lot easier and it's less scary at this point.

So tell us about that.

Tell us your experience with at least breaking that barrier of having a hearing aid,

Jim.

I'm going to step back a little

step back.

Give us a little bit of background on on your business

and

how you got into it.

OK, so I'm going to start from kind of a long time ago.

So I come from a family who has been doing this for many, many, many, many years.

My dad actually is a doctor of audiology for a while.

He was a professor at UW Eau Claire and we owned a family hearing aid practice in Central Wisconsin.

And so I followed in his footsteps in a hybrid way where I'm a hearing instrument specialist but had to take his classes to understand what I'm doing from a completely different standpoint.

So I've worked in ENT clinics and I've worked in our family practice, really understanding things from a very different standpoint as far as when to look for...

what to look for when a person comes into our office.

But I remember when I was four years old kind of being a test subject for people, for students at various clinics.

So I've seen the progression of hearing aids from basic screw adjustment hearing aids where you just put them in your ear and volume changes up and down with a screwdriver too.

going into the mid-2000s where all of a sudden we had hearing aids that could separate speech from noise, but you were still suppressing the noise.

Now we're at the point where it's really fun technology where the hearing aids are very, very smart.

I can send you into the Cole Center and the hearing aid will know that you're trying to listen to that person over there.

It's suppressing the loud crowd noise and he can sit down and have a comfortable conversation.

with a really smart hearing aids so in the past people were really afraid to get hearing aids because they heard the horror stories that you know these aren't working um my grandpa got hearing aids and all they did was whistle or they're sitting there going i i i they don't work for me now people come and go wow these are fantastic so people instead of waiting that seven years that stigma is

We're seeing younger and younger and younger people coming into our office on a weekly basis, where in the past it was people in their 60s and 70s.

Now, people want, the hearing is because they're fun tech devices and they're in their 30s and 40s not waiting long into life to get help.

Sir, is there like an interview process to determine what kind of hearing aid is more likely to fit that individual?

Yeah, definitely.

It goes by your lifestyle and what your needs are.

So we actually have, obviously you ask people, there's a questionnaire that we ask when people come in, but it goes deeper than that.

Jim is very good at being a very good consultant.

So he's more of an advisor and consultant when people come in.

So it's a bit of a process, but it's painless and it's worth it.

Yeah, I know with the new technologies and everything it really makes it so much easier You know we are we are so tied to our phones now and tied to our television sets and there is something called Bluetooth now Yeah, that has made this whole thing so much easier Let's talk about the hearing aids

that are available on the market today.

I know that there's testing that you do and you go through that process.

But as far as the hearing aids concerned, people have quite a few options this time around, don't they?

Each one of the men.

So I'm not tied to any one of the manufacturers.

Yes.

When a person comes into me, we have a conversation about like what Sarah said, what are your goals?

What is being a family clinic, we can.

do it our way.

So I don't have anybody above me saying this is what you've got to do.

This is what you've got to fit.

So

that's a big issue.

You know, I'm being a family

clinic, you know, instead of just one of these organizations that just send mailers out and get you to come in and exactly

exactly and try

to sell you

something.

Sarah and I, um, when, when somebody calls us on the phone, we are the two people that are going to answer the phone call.

When somebody comes in for the test, you're going to see me and then

That's when our relationship starts for the life of the hearing aid.

It's not just, you know, we're gonna have that conversation and look at the audiogram and say, yeah, you need some help or, you know what, your hearing is okay.

Come back and see me again in three years to have your hearing tested.

And then from that point, it's, we're gonna talk about what I would recommend and have that conversation as far as

the style of hearing aid, maybe nobody fits one mold into one make or model of hearing aid.

So it's having that conversation as to what the patient is comfortable with.

Maybe they have dexterity problems.

Maybe they live in a really busy, noisy environment, or maybe it's just a soft environment, but it's having that conversation, making it individualized, and really creating it for that particular patient.

Yeah, something just occurred to me, maybe recreational hearing aid of some sort.

Yeah, help people go to a concert or make it easier for them to.

Well, the concert people, it's interesting.

I make a lot of your impressions for I make a lot of your protection for people that go to concerts to protect.

Yeah, yeah.

But going back to going back to your original question, the Bluetooth, OK, you had asked about Bluetooth.

Yes.

We're able to connect each each one of the different manufacturers has an app on their phones Some are easy some are a little bit more challenging Some of the hearing aid manufacturers allow the person to really become the artist with their hearing aids So they can have endless amounts of of settings that they want to put for each environment that they go into They can also geo take it.

So the hearing aid remembers, you know, I stepped into this restaurant and I liked it

I like my hearing aid maybe a little less.

Really?

A little less with the background noise or a little bit less than the high frequencies.

They can tell the hearing aid what to do and the hearing aid remembers it when they go back into that spot.

But you can take the phone calls for most hearing aids.

A lot of them have where if you were to lose the hearing aid, it's going to tell you where the where the phone last talked to the hearing aid, those sort of things.

Well, the concern I had, you know, I'm older.

And I was worried about the idea that they say that because you start losing the ability to hear certain frequencies, that it also is a precursor to maybe dementia or Alzheimer's.

So tell us a little bit about that correlation.

OK, so there was a study done a few years ago over many, many years about

the correlation between untreated hearing loss and dementia.

And they found that the brain actually does your hearing for you.

So your auditory cortex, the ear collects the sound, the auditory cortex in your brain does the hearing.

And what started happening that they found was the brain actually starts to shut down the area of hearing that it's not using.

And this actually started leading to higher rates of dementia.

And the sooner that you get tested for, for hearing loss and get treated for the hearing loss, the, it cuts your chances of developing or slows that chance of developing dementia way down.

So yeah, I've often, I've often seen people where, you know, the husband and wife, they come in and she's like, he can't remember anything.

And I remember this going back probably 15 years ago.

for different patients.

I'd fit a hearing aid on somebody and all of a sudden they'd be like, you gave him his life back.

He's remembering things.

He's on top of things.

He wants to go do things again.

And it was that bridge between that person had a really severe hearing loss and now they're out living

their

life again.

And that's one of the most beautiful things that I'm able to do for people.

Yeah, that's kind of an interesting story because you know people suddenly their life opens up a little bit more they can hear things it doesn't seem like it's it's such a And it makes things Less effort and more effortless it makes it more effortless, but you know some of the newer devices that are out there are You know they go inside your ear, you know, and they have a little post

that comes out so you grab that in order to take it out of your ear.

And it has all of this technology inside.

It has the Bluetooth, right?

Some of the ones inside have the Bluetooth depending on the manufacturer.

But all of them that go up behind the ear.

So you've got to remember each one of the manufacturers are at different parts of the game.

Not all hearing aids are created equal.

That's why I kind of have that conversation with people.

What do you want?

Some of them that go down in the area, you can talk back to your phone and take the phone calls.

Others, we can't because there's just so much packed into that

little

device that there's only so much room.

But it really depends, again, on the size of the hearing aid.

Do you think

more people are going to the inner ear?

type of device.

And these are, these are kind of disposable, you know, once they run out of power after about three months,

you get a different one, right?

Some of those are others, we take an ear impression of the ear, we can go real deep down into the ear and you can have that hearing aid for five, six years, if not longer, the little ones that go back behind the ear.

Some of the manufacturers are making them where the the

The hearing aids are really, really made durable.

So you can, I often joke about this, but with some of them, you can throw them into a couple feet of water, come back in a week and they're going to work.

But the hearing aids that go back up behind the ear, those are made, those are made to last a lot longer than the little ones that go down in the ear, but there are disposable.

Yeah, oh, yeah, that's nice.

That is nice You know, I've always lost I was gonna be there.

Yeah Yeah, well, I see that I you know, I have my jerseys.

I I got a love jersey, so

Yeah

But I have a I have a white one that is a I believe it's a Don Mikowski jersey

Yeah, yeah Man, I do have a farb jersey, but I don't know, you know Wearing that in public.

I'm not quite sure that works.

Yeah.

Yes They have a lot of those You know go into Dick sports, you know, and they have like

clearance

they have like Brett farb jerseys way up on the roof, you know, just you know, kind of away from everybody

That's hoping that no one looks up.

I suppose

10 seconds

WMDX 92.7, John and Gordy

in the morning, John and Sam with this morning.

And let's go to the WMDX meteorologist, Brittany Merleau with the latest in the weather.

What's up?

What is going on out there?

Oh, good morning.

Good morning.

I feel like Olive Walsall is just headed to the Fox Valley right now.

Oh, yes, you've got your Green Bay Packard jersey on.

It's gorgeous.

It's really nice.

Thank you.

I love the white ones, you know.

Yeah.

But if you're snacking, you got to be careful with the white jerseys, right?

That's true

very true.

I've been lucky so far Yeah,

you know with the weather and everything yet it occurred to me yesterday that it was so hot and muggy We're gonna have to start reporting on the humidity and the dew points and you know, I love the dew points

I love that you love it though.

It's important.

It's really important.

It really is.

Yes.

Yes So what what's going on today?

Well

you know, we're still going to get pretty warm today.

Temperatures are still going to flirt with 70 degrees in Madison.

It'll be partly cloudy, more clouds in the morning, a little bit more spots of sunshine later on this afternoon.

And of course, temperatures right now right about 55 degrees.

So we're going to rise a little bit.

We've got some scattered showers and some thunderstorms that want to hold off and move in probably overnight tonight, after midnight or so.

And then it kind of lingers into our morning tomorrow with some scattered rain there, probably ending around 11 o'clock or so.

picking up about a quarter inch of rainfall that clears on out of here and crisp and cool air does move in so the dry air humidity tomorrow but it's going to be breezy winds pulling out of the north at about 30 miles per hour keeping us down to temperatures in the mid to upper fifties and it's going to be mostly cloudy so

Kind of dreary tomorrow, but the sunshine makes its way back for the weekend.

A high pressure stays here for Saturday and Sunday.

So it'll be a perfect spring day on Saturday, highs at about 60 degrees.

Then we get a little bit warmer on Sunday into the mid sixties before more of your humidity

goes

back on Monday.

Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be warm and humid with temperatures near.

80 to start off

next week.

Oh my god.

I had to give you a heads up because you brought it up specifically.

Yeah, exactly.

And we have an apartment above us in our house and my son is not renting that.

And he came to me yesterday and said, you know, we have to, it's always warmer in the upper, upper flights.

So we said, we got to put that air conditioner in.

And that's what I'm doing today.

But anyway, that sounds great.

You know, I like the warm weather.

You know, I, I've been

We're waiting for this all winter long.

I think we all have actually.

So this time we're finally into spring and grilling out and the packers and the draft.

So we'll be watching that as well.

Yeah.

Yes.

Oh

my gosh, I'm so excited.

We have a good day.

All right, you too.

Thank you, Brittany.

Thanks.

All right.

And right now we are special guests in the studio of Madison Hearing Aid Center, Jim and Sarah Leipold.

First initially had originally talked about who wears hearing aids and who wants to wear them.

And the interesting thing is now we all have ear attachments in some ways you perform, right?

Right.

Right.

And nobody, I mean, nobody truly wants to wear a hearing aid, right?

Right.

But, but you want to be able to hear and interact with other people and have those conversations and be a part of things and part of life.

But yeah, everybody these days does have something in their ear.

It's, there is no stigma there really anymore with that.

Exactly.

It's

just, it's a normal everyday thing.

So,

you know, I've been talking about like the inner ear.

I kind of like that technology, but it's not that I'm focusing really on that specifically.

It just miniaturizes even the behind the ear.

hearing aid as well and makes that even more presentable and less noticeable for a lot of people.

Even the behind the ear, the ricks, they disappear.

You don't see them.

Unless you tell somebody that, hey, I have a hearing aid.

nobody even knows it's there.

It just disappears into your hairline and behind your ear.

It's very, very invisible.

Either way you go, you can't go wrong with that because people just aren't noticing it.

Yeah, there are some over-the-ear earbud headphones that you can wear as well.

It doesn't even matter anymore, right?

No, it's kind of

funny.

And they're made to look cool.

Hearing

aids aren't ugly.

It's kind of funny when you say the little ones that go back up behind the ear There's been I think three incidents now where People have been to the barber or the beautician and they forget to take out the hearing aid and the person comes back to me and says Jim I need some help the barber cut my

cut my

hearing aid in

half.

So it

cut the wire because they couldn't

see it.

They

thought it

was a strand of hair.

That's wild.

But yeah, you're packing so much.

The circuits inside of these things

are so

small.

I've been following this for a while.

For a while, they didn't have Bluetooth for Android phones.

It was just for the iPhones.

In 2016,

the

first made for iPhone came came out and then a couple of years later, the chips were the chips came out and Bluetooth and

It's really opened up a world of possibility.

It really has.

People watch TV

now.

There's a new invention that's coming out.

So some of the manufacturers are on top of this thing called Oracast.

It's already out, actually.

Oracast

is

really fun.

So we've all heard of the loop before where you get looped churches or you loop like the overture center.

And you can, if you're hearing aid had this teak coil in it, you could pick up the broadcast from that.

Now,

This new invention called or a cast is it it basically is going to be put into made into the TVs streamed right into the hearing aids.

Or if you're at a sports bar and there's five different TVs up there, you don't want to watch that TV.

You go into your app, pull up that TV and you'll

get

that information into your ears or an airport gate or a place like the performing arts center where you can just go in, get it right into the hearing.

That is.

It's John

and

Gordy

in the morning.

to help out whenever he can.

In fact, most of the time, he's helping out.

I wouldn't be able to play some of these tracks.

You need a lot of

help,

don't you?

I

know.

I do need a lot of help.

I put this thing together.

Ever since the Trump administration took aim again at public television, public broadcasting,

I just, I don't understand the hatred they have for something like this.

There's so little money going to them, but still, you know, the Republicans, they don't want their money going there.

They much rather have it where?

Going where?

Come on, folks.

Anyway, since Doge appeared and is accusing everybody,

of fraud and abuse.

They're looking now, can you believe this?

The FCC, which is in the Republicans hands right now, are actually launching a probe into public broadcasting.

Well, I'm sure they'll find a lot there.

A lot of bias, a lot of woke stuff that they just can't believe they're doing.

Anyway, I put this little special together for you, and I hope you find it a little interesting.

Let's first go to Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's calling for dismantling everything about public broadcasting, the defunding especially.

So let's listen to this particular cut, cut one.

The kind of money that's being wasted and it's a very biased view.

Right-wing loathing for PBS was around long before Donald Trump was president.

Richard Nixon feared it would be a platform for the left, and PBS helped bring him down with gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings.

Liberal bias remains a key part of the argument fueled by moments of poor judgment, like this one by NPR CEO Catherine Maher.

Why did you call President Trump?

and a deranged racist sociopath in 2020.

I regret those tweets.

I would not tweet them again today.

But these days, there's a new twist to the attack on public broadcasting.

It is brainwashing the American people and more significantly American children with un-American, anti-family, pro-crime, fake news.

Madam Chair, if shame was still a thing,

This hearing would be shameful.

Its legacy of top-shelf kids programming and journalism far outweighs the occasional blunder, argued advocates like PBS CEO Paula Kerger.

There's nothing more American than PBS.

And the GOP pitch left them open to ridicule as well.

The American people want to know, is Elmo now or has he ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States?

Yes or no?