Transcript
Line Dancing, Lizard People, and the Quest for a New Car Battery (Hour 1)
John & Gordy · Fri Dec 12, 2025
You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Please stand by for the John and Gordy Morning Show.
Phone lines are open right now.
Call or text 608-879-8255 or use the free Civic Media app.
And now, live from the Civic Media headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, here are John and Gordy.
We're truly sorry.
It's been a while.
Did you do something different with your hair?
No, I let it grow out.
I'm not wearing a beanie.
Oh yeah, we never see his hair.
That's the phrase.
Also, I didn't even tell you guys over the week, since I didn't see you, I went line dancing again.
I did end up going line dancing, so we're bringing that back.
So the guy told me, just go around the corner.
Interstate battery company is right there.
You can get it.
I said, I can, I can get through you guys, you know, for a hundred dollars less.
Oh, no, we don't have that battery.
No, we don't have toilet of batteries here.
So he kind of snickered and sneered at me.
So you
I know I don't want to create a letter.
Trouble because they'll probably kick me out or move me into an aisle I don't like.
You didn't want to cause a scene.
Better than all, you know.
So anyway, I ordered it, I got it in the mail.
You can mail these batteries because they're a dry battery.
They have sheets of absorbent, whatever in the middle.
So there's no water sloshing around and they don't leak when you ship them.
And it is a cool battery.
In fact, I suggest everybody in town go out and get this kind of battery.
I can't remember what it is, a GMD or something.
It doesn't matter.
Some initials like that.
But they tell you in the description that it works better in cold weather.
It works better with cars that use a lot of electronics.
And they retain their charge much longer and better, especially in cars that have a little bit of drainage.
you know trickle draining you know some of the electronics in the car when you park the car yeah it's off it uses electronics so it keeps things going and this you know this battery prevents that trickle drain on your battery nice kind of warranty
Morning, guys.
I missed you during my coffee these last few days, so welcome back.
you.
So I've been thinking this for a while, but this Trump
2.0 this cast of deplorables for the worst reality show ever invented.
These people are deplorable.
They're somewhat inhuman.
I don't understand their behavior.
They wear makeup.
They have plasticine faces.
They just don't look right.
There's something off.
And you were talking about UFOs yesterday.
And I was watching from ancient aliens and I think
figured it out.
They're lizard people.
reptilian
think there's going to be a White House presser where Trump's face just falls off and we see the reptilian skin underneath.
Yeah, this is unreal.
OK.
I'm with you on that.
I want to ask you something, man.
You know about male delivery.
I think we had an I think we had a news story where they're requesting that everybody shovel in front of their mailboxes.
Oh, okay.
Yeah Preventing mail trucks from getting stuck.
Yeah, what do you know about that?
Yeah, what do you know about that man?
Well the problem is when it because the city comes through right may plow and that pushes additional snow in this big mound in front of people's boxes
and when we're delivering from the truck, that means we have to get out, we can't reach
And that's an additional opportunity to fall or somebody slides behind us and hits us or whatever else.
But yeah, ice is a difficult problem for us.
plow or do whatever they can snow blow in front of the mailboxes, which I used to do last year and the year before and the year before that.
But this year, I just gave up.
You know, this snow was just insane.
I think I'm going to get out there and do my part and clear out the damn mailboxes for my meal.
Yeah.
Man, I got
another... Yeah, it basically just means you might have to wait a little longer for your mail if we skip
house.
I honestly think that's a Louis DeJoy problem.
changed where it's processed.
So all of our mail in Wisconsin is processed in Milwaukee,
here in Middleton at the station I work at, we are trying to keep certain things in Middleton, like flip your...
If you ship something independently from Middleton to Middleton, we try to keep it there.
So
to change some of that.
But yeah, I think these change of address things are getting wonky because I've heard that several times.
Tell me about it.
morning guys.
Yeah, I think Matt is on to something.
I'm just waiting for them to remember the old the old show V for visitors were oh, yes
woman not unhinged your jaw and swallowed the swallowed the rat I'm fully prepared to see Kristi Noem do that
any of the Trump administration ones, you know, and Elon Musk with his
Is you know worth more than all humanity you know that all humanity could right could fade and could could disappear and Be better that happened then Elon Musk leave this Mortal coil.
It is just us it is just sad that these guys are just You know Russian operatives that are you know infiltrated through other government now that apparently you know Russia is our ally.
I mean it just
You know, like I said before, we must be able to see a good old Ronald Reagan's corpse beneath his grave because he's been spinning so fast.
Turned everything about him into glass.
see him just spinning away because, you know, that Russia is no longer the evil empire, but is our good friend.
I mean, and I'm just tired of hearing this.
old russia the russia hoax well russia is donald trump's ally and apparently the entire republican party was terrified of standing up to donald trump and saying that russia is not our you know and saying russia is still our enemy or our adversary as it were not our not our good friend because
he wants to rework everything i
So, let's see.
A little bit later on, either this morning or this afternoon, I'm not sure if we'll fit this in, but it's the Daily Show, Jon Stewart had a comparison between Venezuela and Iraq.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Because we're getting the same language, the same reasons to go to war.
Yeah.
It's interesting stuff.
Just make something up.
So either we'll get to it this morning or this
We'll see what happens.
Okay.
Coming up, we've got Pam Yankee with the Midwest Food and Farm Report.
We're going to talk with her.
Also, Savannah Tome Olsen.
And it's the last day for our grown-up gift list multi-state contest, the text-to-win contest.
You'll have chances to win $200 today, and then we'll draw for the grand prizes later on this evening.
My goal in life Is to spread love around To sprinkle it
gently
We
like wreaker crick.
rivers.
Two rivers.
Come on.
heard it chime in.
I've had my coffee this morning.
Well, we follow that story every year.
It's just kind of intriguing to me this year because the tree came from my home county, O'Connell County up in northeast Wisconsin.
And actually the family that is that provided the trees just down the road from my home farm, Whispering Pines.
So
it's kind of cool to be able to talk a little bit about that.
And what people don't notice when they go by, I mean, now it's beautiful.
You should have been there when they were trying to put it up.
Darren Smith, who Stephanie Hoff talked with, he is the superintendent of the building grounds at the Capitol.
He's really the guy that literally does the heavy lifting.
He has to canvas the state of Wisconsin to try to find the tree.
Now, one of the interesting tidbits that you may be hearing on one of our Midwest farm report breaks is they always.
Always have balsam furs always at the at stake capital because there's such big trees But what you may not realize is balsam furs only basically grow north of highway eight So you're talking the hint you're talking
up there unless it was purposely planted someplace so but he says and he was telling Stephanie that literally it's probably a two-day event for him where he and his crew get in people submit their trees
where they are, all that kind of stuff.
And then he's got to go out and basically evaluate the tree.
Is it going to fit?
Is it the right dimensions?
It's a proportion.
And he said the story behind the tree is just as important as the tree itself.
Obviously, you want a beautiful tree, but he said if there's a story to it, you know, a generational story or something like that, he said that's really cool too.
And he said the other thing is you got to remember the best trees may not be right next to the road.
He may end up snowshoeing in a little bit to try to see this grandiose tree that
maybe somebody's been snowmobile and passed for most of their lives.
So that's a big part of it.
And then they go up and they have to use tree harvesting equipment.
So it's not, I want to make sure people don't have this in their head of a couple guys with a chainsaw.
This is a massive undertaking to get a tree this size.
What'd you say that it was, John?
How big is it supposed to be, Ennio?
Right.
you're not just fooling around with something that you can strap on the hood of the car.
It's a walker.
So they've got to get all the equipment there and coordinate it and bring it in.
So like I said, when you get a chance, hopefully you do get a chance to enjoy the Christmas tree in the Rotunda at the State Capitol.
And Stephanie found out, Darren told her that this year the tree that Wisconsin has is ranked number seven on USA Today's 10 Best Readers
Choice
Award for.
best public holiday lights display.
So if you get a chance to take a look at it, it's a beauty.
And Wisconsin always is quote in the running for not only our state tree, but we have provided multiple trees to the White House.
Now I warn you guys don't drag me on the White House this year because I didn't pay attention.
It wasn't from Wisconsin.
But our Wisconsin Christmas tree association is very, very active.
And quite often, our dragon trees out to Washington DC for the whole fan
of pulling up in front of the White House and then the ultimate lighting.
So it's noteworthy.
It's kind of something that you might want to say to somebody else when you're standing around the tree in the Capitol, did you know these only grow north of Highway 8
No, I don't think so.
not so much prices.
A lot of it has to do with living space.
there are, you know, let's think about it.
If you're a renter in a complex, your facility may not allow for real trees because of a fire hazard.
So a lot of people may be reduced kind of
that.
And then there's allergies and things like that.
But Christmas trees as a whole, real Christmas trees as a whole have seen a surge since the pandemic that has not gone away.
Because if you think about it, that was about the only thing you could do during the pandemic as a family was go out and try to
harvest your tree or find your tree.
that reignited a lot of that family tradition kind of stuff.
So that is still sticking with us as a remnant.
got rained here this weekend.
You know one of our guys has got raindead this weekend Ben Jarvis just did a story on trying to feed reindeer Wow, what?
Nutritional see that's where we go You want to scratch and we want to feed them And
So we can talk about that on Monday.
Oh
Farmers are hard to buy through it for.
Monday, I'll give you a list of things to consider if you've got a farmer on your
Yeah.
I remember seeing the guy who actually is in charge of decorating the tree at the Capitol.
I saw him on a newscast.
Okay.
And he, you know, I was gonna, I would suggest that maybe they don't cover the tree and blanket it with ornaments and all that.
Sometimes you can't even see the tree at the Capitol.
Well, yeah, a lot of decorations.
You know, a lot of decorations.
Remember in the old days, we used to put
Oh God.
I wonder if they put tinsel on this tree.
I don't think so, but you know, we should walk down there and take a look.
Okay, I'll bring along some tinsel.
Okay.
All right, good enough.
We've got the Midwest Food and Farm Report next.
And then, hey, we're going to check in with idiocracy and much more.
On John and Gordy for a Friday morning after this.
In the history of radio, since the days of Marconi, listeners have called radio stations and have had conversations with a so-called screener who instructs prospective callers on the proper etiquette when calling a radio station.
No foul language, no ethnic slurs, but most importantly do not ever, ever say the following as I was telling your screener.
The radio host already knows that the so-called screener has been engaged in a conversation with the prospective caller.
It is assumed that the listener has, quote, told the screener something.
That something being the information to be relayed to the radio host on the air.
It is assumed that the listener would have the common sense to assume that the host is aware that the screener has had a conversation with the listener, presumably about what the listener was about to convey to the host, and that the whole thing has been a huge waste of time, and that you can't spell
without ass and furthermore I hate you and your ass face.
Alzheimer's a couple of years
So anyway.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We're back.
It's John and Gordy in the morning again here on a Friday.
And coming up, we've got our text to win contest last day for it, the grown up giftless text to win contest.
And we'll have that next keyword at seven AM.
to me.
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.
The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma.
What what's going on around here?
Idiocracy the smartest guy in the world.
You're pretty dumb sometimes
There will always be a shortage of teachers the way the Republicans treat teachers.
It's not appreciated.
So anyway, there's a test program that puts interested high school students in classrooms to recruit new teachers.
Wait, what?
I don't know.
It sounds kind of confusing and ridiculous, but I don't know.
Maybe it's a good program.
So let's listen.
There's an extra student in this Pittsburgh elementary school class.
Good job!
High school student Avery Wazo and her friend Erin Null are part of the aspiring educators program, growing the next generation of teachers.
It's a preparatory college program for people that want to be educators and to get a taste of education inside the classroom.
I'm supporting them.
I'm keeping them going.
In return, these high schoolers get college credits to a local university and relieve some of the heavy workloads of business
elementary
school teachers find the students that are in high school that have an interest where they might be interested in it but if they're not given the hands-on role classroom experiences they're never going to ignite their passion.
Nationally schools have been
struggling to keep teachers in the profession.
According to an analysis by the Learning Policy Institute there are over 411,000 empty teacher positions in the U.S.
And the Trump administration has made some significant budget cuts, including millions of dollars in education grants and teacher training, as well as proposing multi-billion dollar cuts to the Department of Education.
The aspiring educators program doesn't rely on these funds, but is trying to fix the national issue on a local level.
How bad is the teacher shortage right now?
It's a problem.
It's an ever-growing problem.
And the teacher shortage problem is just getting worse.
Last year in Pennsylvania alone,
We lost 9,000 of our teachers.
And last year, we prepared only 5,000 new teachers.
So you can see in just one year a gap.
Why do you think not a lot of young people consider a career as a teacher these days?
If I'm being
completely honest, it's because this job isn't for the pay.
I wouldn't say that you go into education looking to make a million dollars.
You go into education looking
to build relationships and change people's lives.
Once we all had the chance to walk into a classroom and see it, the pay didn't matter
anymore.
Planting the seeds of curious minds to help nurture the learners of tomorrow.
We are your future, so it's time to invest in the future.
Maya Eaglin, NBC News.
it's not
It's a cafeteria.
And it has gone bankrupt.
And they have locations all over the south.
And that's it.
It's done.
Doors locked.
Employees locked out.
Really?
All that food.
And I'm bringing this up because it's a cafeteria style restaurant.
So they have these long buffets that you go through and they have people serving you.
Right.
And I'm thinking...
Honestly, I've never heard of anything like that currently being around today, this day and age.
Right.
In the old days.
In the 50s.
They had a lot of those things, right?
Yeah, they
You can't think of it.
But apparently there are a whole bunch of them and they're surviving.
The other ones are surviving.
This one didn't necessarily survive and make the kind of cuts and, you know, food service.
uh, uh, service that they wanted to provide to everybody.
And I mean, I'm looking at pictures of it and it's, it's kind of gorgeous.
It's a lot of food, a lot of salad.
Maybe people are cutting back on salads.
You know, they want to get nice and heavy and, and plump.
I just
It's affecting everybody down in the South because it affects the food distributors, the delivery drivers, maintenance providers, and farmers who produce the produce for this.
So, yeah, this is a big deal down there.
The ripple effect is going to have a major effect in North Carolina and Virginia.
Yeah.
what
So get curious.
Ask yourself, what's this anger trying to shield me from?
That's the U-turn.
That's the move that's taking leadership inside your own mind.
Because now you're not swimming in the anger, you're watching it.
And the second you get curious, the broadcast you're sending out into the quantum field changes.
Suddenly you're broadcasting self-awareness, not attack, self-inquiry, not blame.
And the quantum field responds to that shift.
It always does.
And it brings you more of the same in return.
That's how law of attraction works.
So instead of broadcasting anger and getting back more things to be angry about,
your broadcasting curiosity and self-awareness.
And the quantum field returns to you more reasons to be curious and self-aware.
Here's the big takeaway.
People who stay pissed off have lost control of what they think, say, and feel.
They react.
They blame.
They loop.
And the law of attraction doesn't care about your good intentions.
It cares about your frequency.
And powerful people, they control their mind, their mouth, and their mood.
They get curious, and curiosity opens the door to creativity, and creativity opens the door to solutions.
And the signal that they end up broadcasting?
Clarity, power, forward motion.
So get out of the anger loop and regain control of your life instead of your life controlling you.
See?
Well,
We've got our text-to-win contest.
Last day for it, the grown-up gift list multi-state text-to-win will reveal the key word in about 15 minutes.
Also, we'll check in with Savannah Tomay Olson from WMDX News.
Rocker is out today, but we've got some special music.
some highlights of some things to do around the area.
Coming
up on John and
Gordy.
All right.
We're back.
Let's get to more idiocracy here.
Boy, oh boy, I tell you those libs on TikTok.
Whoa.
They really found a story this time, uh, repressing the white man.
Diversity must be avoided.
Yes.
And this is it.
Um, this is, uh, the Libs on TikTok achieved a new low.
Uh, they, uh, they are very angry about Netflix and they're telling people to cancel Netflix because, well, they have diversity at Netflix.
Yes.
Holy s-word it says from them Netflix appears to openly boast about discriminating against white people in their inclusion of diversity report they celebrate
The percentage of racially underrepresented directors and lead characters have been growing significantly over the past few years on Netflix.
Why doesn't Netflix hire based on qualifications instead of skin color?
I don't know, maybe the stuff they're producing, you know.
I don't know.
Anyway, Netflix had released a little graph of what they have been able to accomplish.
The percentage of Netflix series with an underrepresented lead or co-lead in 2018, it was 23%.
If you spin all the way up to 2023, it's 71% from 25% to 71%.
Hey, good morning guys.
I keep telling you it's all about the white man's grievance that segment The ones that like to do push-ups and pull-ups in the airport looking stupid But hey, I was calling because you know we can we can we can always leave it to our great senator Whack over on Johnson to put Wisconsin on the map.
Oh, yeah, so I saw this last night.
He's pushing a book
by some discredited doctor on a chemical that claims to treat everything from autism to cancer.
And it's called chlorine dioxide, which is disinfectant and a deodorizer.
What is wrong
this guy?
What is it?
Chlorine dioxide.
dioxide.
And it's a disinfectant and a deodorizer.
And this discredited doctor claims that it treats everything from autism to cancer.
And surely enough, Ron Johnson is out there pushing it.
Bleach.
Bleach and some kind of disinfectant into our bodies, shine a light inside our bodies somehow.
Oh my gosh, well thanks for letting us know about that.
I'll have to pick up that book.
Yeah, Ron Johnson's all over it, so check into it.
Mark remembers the old days of smorgasbord.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Have you
And the other thing is it may have had good food, but you had to present it in a good way.
And so you had to have people designing what you put on the plate, how it looks, and then put it on display behind these glass doors.
And I can't see this as ever making it.
Well, it didn't.
It didn't seem like
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.