Michael Johnson’s Inspiring Journey (Hour 2)

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Good morning.

I'm Matt Rothschild.

Welcome to the John and Gordy in the morning show.

The guys are off this morning, but they're back this afternoon from two to five

again.

All across the Civic Media Radio Network.

Those guys have been doing double duty, and I don't know how they're able to do it.

I congratulate them on their valiant service, though.

Seriously, I mean, it really is valiant.

They got to get an award for that, at least a company watch or something.

I think in January, if we haven't figured this whole thing out yet, I think they're going to be doing Just Afternoons for a while because it's a lot.

It's a lot of John and Gordy.

That'll be a break for them.

That voice you hear is the voice of Catherine Lake.

She's the station manager here at WMDX 92.7, and she'll be copilotting with me for the next couple hours.

We got a nice show.

for everybody who's listening today.

We've got Tim Slecker at 6.36.

Busted pencils.

Yeah.

Here on his podcast is on the Civic Media Radio Network and his show airs on the weekends here.

I'm looking forward to speaking to him.

And then after the seven o'clock break, we've got Michael Johnson.

one of the leaders of our community here in Madison.

He's the CEO and president of Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

And then, of course, in the last half hour, we're going to go do some bird talk, as I love to do.

You're such

a dork.

I am.

And I'm right behind you, but you are a dork.

Been a bird watcher since I was a kid.

And speaking of kids, Dom has a little something in his hand.

Yes, you gave him a gift.

Yeah, it was about around 5.40 today.

And I was just...

Finding clips and it turns out that you had an extra Sibley Birds fall Sibley Birds East book

For me, it was like an early Christmas gift, and I appreciate that so much.

Matt, thank you.

Well, Dom, I said I was going to get you that.

I have piqued Dom's interest in birdwatching.

One out of three people in Wisconsin is a birdwatcher.

Come on.

A real

defined, we're counting, we're carrying.

According to Google AI, that is.

You're just trying to build a club.

I get

it.

It's fine.

Roger Torrey Peterson bird book as a guide when I was a kid and now the Sibley's bird book is the Bible for another generation of bird watchers and it's just a good introduction.

My wife Jean and I were out shopping yesterday, and we saw a bookstore, and we ran in there, and sure enough, there was a copy of that.

Just for Don.

I know who wants that

stuff.

I mean, one of these is called a chimney swift.

I've never heard of that in my life, but it's so cool.

Oh,

you

don't know about chimney swift?

I have a chimney swift story.

Go

ahead, perfect.

My friend Dory is a murderer.

And she told me about these when I came back to Madison two years ago, August.

And she said, you gotta hear this thing called chimney swifts.

They gather over a chimney when they're in the middle of either coming or going in the commute, you know, south.

And they just sort of know.

This is the chimney for today in Madison, and they gather over the chimney, and they start swarming it, and they call it Swift Nado.

Yeah, they funnel down into the chimney at night.

They funnel down.

You'll see them.

I saw them from my apartment my first year here.

I had a glass walled apartment on Lake Mendota over on the other side of the U.S.

And I looked out my window.

I'm like, look at those birds.

They're all sort of like, what?

That's a swift needle.

Oh my God, I got to watch it.

And then one by one, they don't just funnel, they drop.

Every once in a while, you just see one, you just go poof.

And they cling to the side of the chimney.

And they just hang there like bats.

Until the morning.

Yeah, it's crazy.

So a chimney swift is like a tiny swallow.

And so they're in the Swallow family and they eat a lot of mosquitoes and other insects.

Oh, we love that.

At night, right before migration, as Katharine's talking about, they gather huge numbers and nest at night, anyway, in people's chimneys.

Madison East has one across the isthmus in the church.

I think they went when I was watching them.

It's fascinating.

You're going

to love this book.

I really will.

I mean, I don't know half the names, but I'm really excited to...

hear all of these different birds, because I didn't know there was such a variety.

I had no idea.

Oh yeah, right,

right, and still alive.

Yeah, so if you're listening now and you're wondering what present to give a friend or a loved one who has a vague interest in birds and just getting into it, yeah, get them a bird book.

The Sibley's Guide is great, but the old Brogiatore Peterson is perfect too, so some of the names have changed by now.

Has he updated or is he not with us anymore?

Peterson is not with us anymore.

He was a leading ornithologist in...

the late the mid to late 20th century

or renthal or not.

What is it called again?

Ornithologist

or not.

Thank

you.

Ornithologist.

I was going to have thought about majoring in ornithology at one point going to Cornell, but I didn't do that.

Why?

Why do you love the birds?

What is it with

you?

Well, you know, every one of us birdwatchers has a bird that

opened the door to us and for me it was the ring neck pheasant.

Why's that?

Because my folks, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a rural part of Highland Park and Deerfield right on the border there and we had one winter there was like 10 pheasants in the backyard and I was a three or four year old and seeing a pheasant, a male pheasant is just a spectacular bird and the female pheasants pretty cool looking too.

So I just got hooked right then and there.

Sandhill cranes back on the docket to start hunting them.

Did you hear that I read it yesterday

that didn't pass

didn't pass

good.

Okay.

No, no, there's I'm sure evers will veto there that there's a bill in the state legislature to allow hunting of sandhill cranes and

Gordy has two in his backyard.

I have video I'm gonna post it on Facebook of Gordy and his cranes

You know, the crane population in Dane County is just proliferated.

It's great.

You can see sandal cranes all over the place.

I've never seen a sandal crane before I came here 43 years ago.

They're

everywhere.

They

sound great too.

I love when you play the sounds of the trumpet of the swan.

Yeah.

So, yeah, it's, uh, it's been a lifelong hobby.

So we will hear from Brenna Marcicek.

She is the director of outreach for the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, which used to be called the, uh, Audubon Society of.

of Dane County, and she'll be here in the last half hour talking about the Christmas bird count.

That's what's going on all over the state, all over the country actually.

They call

it the Christmas

bird count.

The Christmas bird count.

It's a citizen census of bird populations.

It's been going on for decades now, and so it's going to be fascinating to talk to her and to tell people how they can get involved in the Christmas bird count.

this season, just in the next few days.

I bet

Dory's going to do that.

Dory, tell me you're going to do that.

I

know you are.

Yeah, I hope she is.

I'm doing it.

I do it occasionally reporting.

I'm a lazy bird watcher now in my advanced years, so I will just... Fair enough.

Somebody has to do it.

Just report from my bird feeders what we have.

We've got a call from Matt from Middleton.

Already?

Yeah.

How

do you like that?

Hey, Matt.

Good morning.

Morning, guys.

Thanks for filling in.

We must preserve and take care of our birds.

We all love our birds.

I had a question though, I was hoping you could ask Mr. Flecker and the busted pencil guys.

I recently found out that my niece, age 12, had a really discolored time during the pandemic, being isolated and too much tick talking and her reading suffered greatly from it.

She wasn't doing well in school, so she was put on ADHD medicine and being a Gen Xer, I have trouble with that.

Me too, Matt.

I'm right

with you.

She is doing better grade-wise now a little bit, but my question for the busted pencil guys and I see a lot of this on YouTube where teachers are talking about the illiteracy and the problem with critical thinking.

They can't put together basic even like a

like a sentence, much less a paragraph, like real problems.

And I don't know if it's no student left behind, you know, the funding being attached to passing kids.

I don't know what the problems are, but I know the phone and the attention span problem of the short clip.

addiction.

There is nothing to compare.

Yeah, for

us and Gen X. I was wondering if maybe you could ask them what is the real story there and is there any progress being made on helping our young people with this illiteracy, this basic fundamental problem-solving ability that they're going to need in life.

You bet.

Where are we on that and how accurate are these

teachers I'm seeing online talking about, you know, eight out of 10 kids having trouble.

I mean, the numbers are just really frightening.

And that's a good question.

That's the best question, I think, is how accurate are those numbers?

Yeah, and we'll ask Tim Slucker after the break at 6 36.

Thanks, Matt.

Yeah, Matt from Middleton with another good question.

So

Anyway, I wasted part of my night last night.

You

didn't.

You didn't.

I did.

You watched it.

I watched so you didn't have to watch.

And so the listeners didn't have to watch.

We're talking, of course, about Trump's speech last night.

If you can call it a speech, it was more like a rant.

And if I was on his staff and watching him prepare for it and rehearse for it, I'd say, boss, you got to slow that down.

Bring it down a little bit.

Slow

it

down, which is unusual criticism of him that he's too fast.

He was rapid talk.

I mean, it was such a bizarre talk full of hyperbole.

I mean, he really puts the bull in hyperbole.

His obsession with Biden, I mean, he mentioned Biden seven times in 18 or 19 minutes.

That's once every two and a half minutes.

That may be blow for him for all I know.

But anyway, he has that Biden who, and he pronounces it Biden, like it's two syllables in the first part and one syllable at the end.

He's such a bully.

He's such a bully.

It was all, it was that he was, my wife was listening and she said, that guy's a maniac.

I mean, he sounded like a maniac.

He sounded like a.

a nutty, angry salesman who just lost the sale and is screaming at his prospective buyer for walking out of the, out of the car.

Yeah.

Car lot, you

know.

Well, he's, he's, he's feeling it probably.

I got the numbers from the navigator research and they are talking about there's a massive 42 point disconnect between Americans.

priorities and perceived government focus, 14% of voters now say they regret their vote for him.

Yeah, he's bleeding, he's bleeding badly especially, and I didn't see that big breakdown, but I bet it's almost entirely independence.

30 minus 38 among independence minus 13 points underwater in general.

Yep.

Yeah, I mean, the independence are just fleeing.

uh, from Trump, like a sinking ship and the ship is taken on water.

I mean, he just said some outrageous things.

Uh, it was just a, a composite of his kind of not greatest hits, but worst hits, you know, immigrant bashing, Biden bashing, Democrat party bashing as though the party's name was the Democrat party.

And, and he had.

statement here where he on health care said that it was the Democrats who wanted your premiums to go up.

Do we have that clip, Dom?

That crazy Democrat clip?

Yes we do.

Let's just take one quick and then we won't make you suffer any

longer.

Thank you.

The current Unaffordable Care Act was created to make insurance companies rich.

It was bad health care at much to higher cost and you see that now in the steep increase in premiums being demanded by the Democrats and they are demanding those increases and it's their fault.

It is not the Republicans fault.

It's the Democrats fault.

It's the Unaffordable Care Act and everybody knew it.

That is just such a blatant lie because the Democrats aren't demanding the premiums going up.

They've been fighting for the last many months to prevent the premiums from going up.

And so I don't know.

It's like he

lives in opposite day

every day.

I mean, it is just it is just crazy.

Yeah.

So that was Donald.

Trump last night, we'd love to hear from you.

If you had to suffer through it too, tell us what you thought about the president's speech, the number to call, of course, 608-879-8255.

That's 879-8255 here in Madison.

And we'll be right back on the John and Gordy show in the morning.

92.7 WMDX.

YouTube.

If you're watching at home, we will not be interrupting your regular programming tonight.

We get interrupted by Trump enough as it is.

I don't know, you probably don't know this, because you're here, but at home, we had a surprise primetime episode of the worst wink tonight on every channel.

Yesterday, the president announced he'd be giving an impromptu lyricide chat tonight in the middle of the season finales of Survivor and the Floor.

He interrupted.

It's weird to think that a couple of states just gone the other way.

He'd be hosting one of those shows.

That's funny.

That

made me laugh when I heard it, too.

Liar side, Chad.

Worst wing.

Yeah.

92.7 WMDX.

Matt Rothschild is filling in for John and Gordy.

I'm just sitting here.

I'm Catherine.

I'm the station manager, and I'm just here just to help out if I can.

But I don't like these hours.

I really don't.

I'm done over it.

Tanya wrote in to us on the text line, 608-879-82.

by five eight seven nine talk, by the way.

Tonya writes in that speech was bonkers, literally shouting at the American people.

I know this is serious, but the only way I made it to the speech was by laughing at him.

He is so ridiculous word Tonya.

Yeah, he was just a caricature of himself last night.

And we'd love to hear from you what you think of the speech last night.

And thanks Tonya for Madison for that call.

The number again, 608-879-8255.

Yeah, it was just a

really bizarre speech with all sorts of bizarre claims.

One of them...

He was bragging about his tax cuts in the big ugly bill.

And this stuck out to me.

He said, some families are saving between $11,000 and $20,000 because of these tax cuts.

Well, I'm sure no one listening to this show is going to save between $11,000 and $20,000.

You've got to be making tens of millions of dollars.

There it is.

So those families are the families that go down to Mar-a-Lago.

Those people.

Oh, it's absurd.

We also got a couple of texts this morning when we were first talking about birds.

Larry from Deerfield wants to know, is your Sibley guide for the Eastern United States?

Yes, the book I gave Dom is for the Eastern United States.

I have a Sibley's guide of North America that is both Eastern and Western, so it's the whole country.

But I grew up on a guide to the Eastern birds.

The Peterson, the old green little Peterson book was to the East.

And so I think if you're just in...

Madison or just in Wisconsin and you're not traveling anywhere.

The guide to the eastern birds is what you need.

Oh, so

there's no east, west, Midwest.

There's east, west.

They divide the country.

Yeah, a lot of birds.

You can't find in Wisconsin that you can find out west.

For instance, hummingbirds.

There are a lot of different hummingbirds in California and Arizona and Oregon and Washington.

We only get the ruby-throated hummingbird,

which is a beautiful bird, but only that one.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but is there a world bird book?

Yeah, there he is, but it's a giant book and I don't, you can't, you can't put that in your pocket.

It's

not a

pocket

guy, it doesn't exist.

We also heard from Mark from Prairie to Sack who said, regarding our question from Matt in Middleton who asked earlier about his 12 year old niece and he wants to talk to us, wants to talk, us to talk, just him slecker on his behalf, who was of course our busted pencils host.

And he said that his niece has been prescribed ADHD meds after the pandemic because of all the

gaps in her learning and I have the same questions about my daughter.

So we'll talk with Matt, talk with Tim Slecker about that.

And Mark said, read to your kids, start young.

My mother read to us every night.

Me too.

And I read to my kid and it didn't necessarily translate after the pandemic.

That was a gap of untold devastation.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to hearing what Tim Slecker has to say about that because

The consequence of the pandemic, we haven't sorted out yet.

You haven't sorted out yet?

It's only been

five

years?

Yeah.

And also, the consequences of the tech world that we're living in right now, we haven't sorted out yet.

So we're all kind of guinea pigs, or our kids, or grandkids are guinea pigs.

So that's kind of unfortunate.

And I don't know what teachers do.

I mean, I know some teachers in their classroom are having...

taking the phones away, cell phones away.

Next year,

like you said, in Madison,

they're

doing that.

Yeah.

And also, I don't know how you do a take home test anymore when, you know, you can just go on AI and get all the answers.

You know, taking the phone from your child, I found feels like a, like you're asking to hold their diary for a little bit.

You know, when she was, my child was just in the pandemic and we had, I guess, a tutor.

And while my child was working with the tutor, I said, may I see your phone?

And it was new to them at that time.

So when I put it in my hand, Mikey started to almost shake with fear.

Because it's an invasion.

It's an invasion.

Right.

Like their bedroom is there.

They're sanctuary.

I'm finding I have to allow them to be in that room and heal themselves from the day's wounds.

Just like I find myself in my own house doing that.

I don't need the bedroom to do that.

But Mikey does, of course.

And how old is Mikey?

15 going on 16 this month.

So yeah, it's an interesting time.

But taking the phone away, boy, it is at a no fly

zone.

Yeah, and certainly, you know.

perusing the phone or looking at person's texts.

I mean, that is a real invasion.

But yeah, from a teaching standpoint, I mean, if I were in the classroom right now teaching, I would just I would have people write papers in front of me in a blue book by hand.

Really?

Yeah.

Just just to see if they can can can compose a coherent essay, think logically.

Yeah.

Defend their assertions.

I gotta say, when I was in college, it was very hard to not look at AI to do a paper.

You know, you can control yourself, but the fact that it's just there... It's the

first thing on the list when you Google, right?

It's up

there.

Yep, exactly.

Can

we stop that?

I don't know.

And then, but to not do it, maybe you're gonna make a huge error.

I mean, it's like doctors and lawyers now.

If they're not using AI, they're setting themselves up for a lawsuit probably in this day and age.

That's crazy talk.

I know.

So we'll be back with Tim Slecker right after the break here on the John and Gordy show.

I'm Matt Rothschild.

I'm subbing in as Catherine Lake is.

She's the station manager here over at WMDX 92.7.

We look forward to more of your calls and texts, which will be airing 608-879-8255.

Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future

We're going to elect a president, don't we?

He's going to do what the people want, don't we?

We're going to run things our way.

Nobody's going to tell us what to do.

Rockin' in a rolling position and a slashin' over the horizon.

What can it be?

Looks like it's going to be a

free country.

Hope it's a free country still.

Matt Rothschild here, I'm subbing in for John and Gordy, along with Catherine Lake, station manager here at WMDX, and you're invited to join the conversation at 608-879.

8255, that's 879, 8255.

Gordy's writing to us, you know.

We're subbing in for John and Gordy.

He's like, the weather, guys.

Like, dude, do the weather.

Sorry, we didn't.

It's 40 degrees.

It was drizzling when I got out at 5.30 in the morning.

Me too, yeah.

It's going to

get to 45 today, we think.

It's supposed to be a lot of rain between 8 and 1.

Yep.

Down to 9 degrees tonight.

Tomorrow, 20 degrees and clear.

I know

a little warmer and sunnier after that.

Yes.

It's going to be above freezing for Christmas, it looks like.

So I think the worst is over, at least for the time being.

And the best is right here with us right now because we have Tim Slecker back in the show.

Tim is the co-host of the podcast, Busted Pencils, fully leaded at civicmedia.us.

And his show also runs on the weekends on the Civic Media Radio Network here.

Hey, Tim.

Wow.

Good morning.

We were talking a moment ago off the air, and I thought we were on the air.

I am so dizzy this morning.

I literally was talking with you and thinking we're on the air and was going to present, and I'm an idiot.

So let's

do

that whole thing again.

Take two.

Geez, Louise.

Take two.

What is wrong with me?

I don't

like these hours anymore.

Thank you

for being here, first of all.

We got a call.

We got a call from Matt.

You know Matt from Middleton.

You've heard from him

a couple of times probably.

He has a 12-year-old niece who, during the pandemic, like we all did,

just fell behind in her reading, her literacy, her critical thinking.

And

it's his

niece, right?

So he doesn't have any control over what happens with this person.

And they put her on ADHD medicine.

And he's wondering about that kind of reaction, I think.

And I don't want to put words in Matt's mind, but...

I'm asking that because my kid also suffered during the pandemic terribly.

And we gave her a flipping phone, not a flip phone, a flipping phone.

And so she, because I was in Chicago and I didn't want her walking around Chicago without something that I could track her with.

So I gave her a smartphone, but then we couldn't take it out of her hands and then blah, blah, blah and pandemic.

Help us, Tim.

What's the answer?

Oh, how accurate are the numbers that literacy has?

plummeted.

Well, again, it's what do we mean?

There's boy, there's a lot in that.

ADHD, first of all, professionally has to be diagnosed.

Understand that I think what happens is is we throw and I don't know this case specifically, but frustration

um sometimes particularly in uh society today gives us a real quick ability to diagnose something as some type of pathology right um when maybe maybe it's an environmental and or social situation that is what we're seeing a type of behavior as a reaction to that and

So, you know, the quickest thing then to say is, but I want it to stop right now.

Give it a give it a label and and give it a pill, right?

And all will be well.

And for those cases of diagnosed ADHD with the right professionals, making those decisions, it can be transformative.

For that child for that family So put that out there first however If if there's this type of self diagnosis, you know YouTube.

Oh my god.

I see those traits.

Oh my god.

Yes,

exactly.

Oh God.

Yes.

Oh my god.

They do that all the time You know and you say okay

You know, I'd be careful with that because I think that that's more of a frustration reaction because we want, you know, some form of a behavior to stop.

Right.

Right.

And now wrap that into the pandemic of, you know, this incredible isolation that for everybody,

Was was not healthy, but particularly for kids, you know that isolation was hot You know regardless of and this is not a statement that the that the the infection and the virus and all that wasn't real But it is to be honest and say You know isolation for kids it wasn't

It wasn't good for them

is part of that that they didn't get to compare themselves to one another Oh, look Stacy's doing better than I am I can do as well as Stacy I'm gonna or I work with Stacy or I asked my friend Tim How do I do better on this?

Is that part of it?

I think it's part of it put this into also then the context of Where these kids were pre-pandemic

Right?

And we saw this occurring with the pre-pandemic.

Again, the social media, the phone, the Facebook, the in one way already...

isolating because the technology was creating that sense of, you know, it's me and my phone and my dialogue and what appeared as social behavior were likes and comments and bullying and threats.

And that was horrendously bad for kids.

And then somebody said, Hey, you know what, let's make it worse.

Let's not allow people to go outside or be with other people for the next year and a half, but let's allow social media to continue to be fully available.

Yeah.

And, um, and, and so we're seeing the, the effects of that.

Man, Rothschild here, just from a teacher's perspective, then, uh, how hard is it for teachers in the classroom to deal with

of these, the technological issue, but also the attention deficit issue.

How hard is it?

It's incredibly hard, right?

And one of the things that makes it really hard is actually an imposed problem that we have inserted because of we got to get back to normal.

We got to get back to normal and Johnny and I have always said it's like well the normal before the pandemic wasn't great because what we say in now I'm going back to schooling is going you know we're always assessing comparing making measurements and things like that and saying here's where kids should be here's where kids should be here's where kids should be here's where kids should be

Well, okay, now after the pandemic, everybody was like, we got to get back to normal right away.

Here's where kids should be.

Here's

what

they should

make it so.

No.

And what needed to happen, because Matt, you pointed this out, is that all of this distraction, it's where kids are right now.

That's it.

It's not about where they should be.

it's they you know where they should be right where they are right now

yeah and then the question is how do you deal with them where they are right now and the johnny you mentioned for those who just tuned in as johnny lupinacci who is tim sleckers co-host on busted pencils here on civic media

yeah well i i mean that's a hard actually easy but hard question is is that i think people would

Want to or potentially say that right now where we are but the the system says you're not allowed to deal with things as they are You need to fix things to be where they should be

Yeah,

and that creates this you know environment that is just going to continue to reveal itself as

Oh my god, these kids are a mess.

You know, it's hard not to look back in time, of course.

Pardon me, at our own history, we got a text from Mark who says, I remember in sixth grade, there was a self-guided reading exercise program where you'd read a few paragraphs, take a little quiz and what you read.

I don't remember what the program was called, but I do remember that they really encouraged reading, teaching us the Dewey Decimal System.

My kid doesn't know what that is.

And the Scholastic Book Club, do you remember that?

Oh, I loved getting those.

And, you know, he was in a rural school.

He remembers going to Superior with his parents and going to the Carnegie Library there.

I brought my kid to the library all the time when she was little.

Well, try to bring back to Matt's question.

How do teachers deal with this?

Well, one of the things we know is they don't, they quit.

that's not a

great

answer everybody said why do we have a teacher shortage well you know why because the expectations are unrealistic and the tools and the resources aren't there and everybody's pushing against instead of actually as i said you know where things are

lean

in

And

also there's the problem of, especially in K through 12 of teaching to the test, you've got, you know, these kids have these forced tests on them every week of the year.

That's what's really inside of what I'm saying is, is that, you know, this.

That system existed pre-pandemic and that system was bad then.

It was creating stress.

It was creating disengagement.

It was creating inappropriate or just not realistic situations.

And we got away from them.

And so Matt's text about those memories.

those those memories were wiped out um look i'm gonna tell you they started to be wiped out in 83 with a nation at risk and not doing school that way but when you put into no child left behind raised to the top and all of that stuff we erased

that type of schooling, that type of experience of field trips, of self-guidedness, of discovery, of school being a big social event, as opposed to now an academic boiler maker.

Well, now that because we have pandemics on our earth that are different than the flu in 29, we now have something that's probably going to happen again and again.

In my

life, I'm

afraid.

So I don't know how to really answer Matt's question because I think, you know, well, here's one of the things though.

Okay, simple thing.

You know what?

Yes, do ban flipping smartphones in schools and classrooms.

Absolutely.

No need for the six hours that they're in school, that they need to have access to that digital technology.

And even to this point, I would say too, and if they're using technology in schools, make sure that they can't go out and get on to social media.

We don't need that.

And I'm going to go backwards and even say, I would like to see even less time.

on quote computers because kids really need to have this ability to sit in front of each other with without the ability to go I don't feel like talking I'm going to dive into this so that I'm not you know engaging it's uncomfortable we have to engage you know so

But remember what I'm talking about would totally disrupt the linear force.

We got to get back to where normal was.

Yeah, well, we need to disrupt that.

I'm sorry to disrupt you right now, Tim Slecker.

But we're going to be right back.

And I'm going to throw a Donald Trump question at you right after the break.

I'm Matt Rothschild, seven in for John and Gordy.

And I got Catherine Lake right here with me.

You're listening to 927 WMDX.

We'll be right back.

you

Good morning Matt Rothschild back with you here on the John and Gordy in the morning show.

The guys are off this morning.

They'll be back this afternoon and they will be on tomorrow morning.

I'm here with Catherine Lake, the station manager over at WMDX right here in Madison downtown Madison on State Street.

Right on state.

And we looks like we still got a little drizzle coming down

a little bit.

Yeah, it's about 40 degrees right now.

It will do that most of the day.

It looks like also tonight Gordy tells me that visibility could be an issue with heavy snow squalls and gusty winds for a brief time.

Still no snowman building though.

Yeah, no snowman.

I know.

And also, I can't believe Gordy is up right now.

Go

to sleep we also heard from let's see what I want to tell you about we heard from somebody on the chat on the live chat from

about Donald Trump.

Unfortunately, he has the loudest microphone in the US.

And if you tell a lie enough, eventually some people start to believe it.

It's been Trump's and Fox News playbook for a long time.

Word, Mr. Blue's Wolf.

You got it right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks for that.

And you can text or call at 608-879-8255-608-879-8255.

And we're here with Tim Slecker of Busted Pencils, a podcast on the Civic Media Radio Network and a show that airs on the network on the weekends.

I wanted to ask you about something Donald Trump said last night.

Let's hear the clip and then I'll go to you, Tim.

We have broken the grip of sinister woke radicals in our schools and control over those schools is back now in the hands of our great and loving states.

he did stumble there on that speech but wow what a

weird

preference it was like he'd never rehearsed the speech before anyway it was there he is what do you make of the i think he was he was talking to you calling you a woke rat a sinister woke radical tim's

record yeah i know i

too

well

He they definitely have I I would on on that one, you know, typically people do the fact checks of his speeches and they're like, well, that's not true.

That's not true Now there this administration it's very interesting though too because I like how he ends with and we've given it back to the states Really

Because all of the breaking and dismembering and dismantling Seems to be coming out of the White House.

Oh, yeah Which the last I checked was not the states So it's an it's a it's a very interesting paradox state control with no control

Um, you know, but but but yeah, I

don't know

funds, right?

Well, no, but but but I mean think about what he's saying is is that, you know, a woke or, um, you know Real history, um, you know, we're not teaching real history anymore.

Well, we're not You know what if you want to call that sinister and woke to teach, um

reality to teach the fact that, you know, history, it's as a discipline, requires evidence.

Well, the fact we have slavery here in the United States.

You

can't say that.

I

mean, you can't teach origins, people's history in the United States.

If you're listening

to Trump.

Yeah.

And so, but understand that that effort.

didn't come from the states.

That came truly from this administration.

I mean, back in his first term, he did the 1776 project.

And Matt, as you pointed out, right then, too, he was like, you know, we will end the reign of Howard Zinn in our class, you know, and you sit there and go, well, you know, what, what is this about?

So there's a whole mess there.

To say that we've given power back to the states, no, because the threats come out of the White House.

And the fear now that has gripped classrooms and teachers and faculty across campuses is now that.

the what he calls woke leftist ideology it's not being taught or if there is any teaching of it it's very cautiously and guarded and I know somebody listening to me is so you're saying you want woke leftist ideology back in the classroom that's not what I said

what I said

what I said was that

when it comes to teaching contents like that that there is something that we say the evidence and we teach kids to wrestle with evidence and we teach kids to understand that actually what we call history sometimes in the hands of the powerful is not necessarily history as much as it is a statement of control and narrative of a story that

the power once in play, that used to be good education to empower kids to understand it, to watch out for propaganda.

Tim, the thing that you said that disturbs me the most is that teachers are now reluctant because of the climate from the White House to teach history as it really happened and to talk about history in a complex way rather than just in a nationalistic way.

And so this is a new McCarthyism in

the

classroom that's coming from the White House and also coming from the MAGA movement at the school board level.

Yeah.

It's empowered to the point of saying that, you know, this is the only thing that we need to teach.

And actually, you know, this nationalistic narrative that is all the rage, I always taught that, but I always...

taught that as a nationalistic narrative that serves a purpose.

And then we look at that nationalistic narrative and we see is there evidence to support that narrative?

And then when there's evidence that kind of takes that narrative and breaks it apart, we look at that evidence too.

So, you know, but the whole idea of

And you kind of hear in here, I'm trying to give kids a critical objective look to say, you have the responsibility

to dig deep.

Yeah,

we need to keep digging deep and you do it so well.

Tim Slecker of Busted Pencils on the Civic Media Radio Network will be right back right after the break here on WMDX 92.7.

Thanks,

Tim.

Drugs store to get a soda pop Throw a nickel in the jukebox and we start to rock

At this morning...

Matt

Rothschild here, a co-hosting that's Katherine Lake with a pretty voice.

You don't want me singing.

It is 7 0 6.

I can't believe it's already in the second hour.

45 degrees expected for a high today.

Steady rain this morning, showers continuing this afternoon.

Morning highs, like I said, about 45 degrees with temps falling to near freezing tonight.

Chance of rain, 100%.

You're going to get your 100% today.

Sorry.

Yeah, about 40 degrees right now.

Yeah, it's a little like November weather in December.

We had a lot of December weather in November, so it's working out.

I wonder if the rain will make the snow makeable into a snowman.

Maybe that will help.

I hope so.

I always want to make a snowman.

I haven't been able to yet.

Yes.

The only decor I have in my front yard is the possibility of a snowman.

You gotta do some work out there.

Somebody's

gotta do it.

It was great to hear from Tim Slucker.

Wasn't that fun?

Yeah, he's so smart.

I love talking with Tim.

I have something I want to tell you.

Unless you got something else you got to do right now.

I just want to mention, we just acquired another radio station, Civic Media.

And I think this is really cool.

And the Milwaukee Courier as well.

We just picked up WNOV860, which is also Simulcast 106.5 FM.

WNOV.

Starting January 1st, we're taking them over and the publication of the Milwaukee Courier.

I'm so excited.

Milwaukee Courier, one of the leading black newspapers in Wisconsin.

Really?

As part of the transition, current NOV owner, Mary Ellen Jones, will serve as consultant, while Jarell Jones will assist with a newspaper's transition.

Civic Media also announced that Dr. get this, Robert Biko Baker, I love he's got the name Biko, will join the company as operations manager for both the radio station and newspaper.

Very exciting.

Civic Media continues to grow.

Yeah, Biko after Steve Biko, the great anti-apartheid actress who was murdered by the apartheid regime.

Listen, we've got a great guest right now.

Yeah, Michael Johnson.

Michael Johnson is a good morning.

Michael Johnson is a tremendous leader here in the Madison community.

He's the president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

He's also an author, by the way.

He had a book come out last fall called The Audacity to Lead from the Projects to the C-suite, which would

make

a great Christmas present

if

you haven't got a Christmas present for folks yet.

Michael Johnson, welcome to the show.

Hey, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

How are things going for you

over at the Boys and

Girls Clubs?

It's good.

It's busy.

You know, this is, you know, my favorite time of the year, you know, out in the community, being a blessing to, you know, people in our region.

And so I'm very blessed and thankful for the work that we do every day.

And one of the things you do at this time of year is the Pay It Forward campaign.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, so you know when I was a kid growing up in the projects I struggled you know with Christmas because you know I grew up in a single-family household where my mother she had schizophrenia and she loved me but she just didn't have you know the resources to provide so as a kid I always didn't feel really good about Christmas because I would see all my neighbors and

friends, getting all these great toys and stuff over the holidays.

So 16 years ago, you know, I proposed to my board of directors that we create a paid four care pay, but we would go out and raise money on social media in real time and be a blessing to those in need.

So over the last 16 years, we raised over $1.5 million that we've put back into the community.

We have purchased homes for people.

We have renovated people's houses.

Just yesterday, we gave a car away to a single mother of three.

We've given out hundreds of thousands of dollars in toys, and it's about utilizing our lives to make a difference in somebody else's life.

That's tremendous.

So that project is called the pay it forward campaign I had mentioned the book that you wrote last year the audacity audacity to lead we got a text right away From Monica who said that book is beyond fabulous.

So,

yeah Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah something that you know I've been working on for a long time and I was hesitant to You know release it because it talks about like the adversity that went through

you know, growing up in the projects, how I couldn't read, how I couldn't write to 15 years later, you know, running a multimillion dollar nonprofit organization and going from, you know, pretty much being functionally illiterate to graduating with an MBA and going to Harvard Business School.

Now, why

would you hesitate to tell that story?

Why would

you hesitate?

You know, that's what we do at Boys and Girls Club just about educating young people and

making sure that they can read, they can write, that it can thrive, and that it can work.

You know, and I'm a testimony of that.

I live.

You know, the subtitle to your book, The Audacity to Lead from the Projects to the Sea Suite, is seven mindset lessons on love, family, and turning adversity into impact.

Do you want to just give us one of those mindset lessons that you think is super important?

I'm going to first say part of it.

Seven Mindsets is all about how you lead, whether it's at work and your business with your family.

I talk a lot about love in my book and a lot about family.

Now, when we do this work, our first ministry is to our family, to our spouses, to our kids.

And if you don't have that balance in your life, it's really hard to pour into the work that you do.

So I hear people sometimes say that when you run a business, it's hard to have that balance.

Well, I don't want to go through my career and make a difference in the lives of other people that come home and be miserable and not have a family that loved me or kids who grow up and not respect me because I was not with them.

Another part of the book talks about diversity.

It talks about how the page can turn if you surround yourself around the right people.

And what I've learned, you know, in 25 years of doing this work from Philadelphia to Chicago to Indianapolis to Madison to raising money all over this country, I've learned when you surround yourself around smart people, people who are smarter than you in their particular fields, you could thrive, you can grow and do amazing things for your community.

You can start punching up.

You know,

I've known people who got elevated to

higher positions who were scared to have smarter people than them around.

And you know, they wanted to make sure that they were the smartest person in the room.

And it's interesting that you make the point that you shouldn't be afraid to be around other folks with other talents.

And there's all sorts of different kinds of smarts too.

There's book smarts, there's street smarts, there's technological smarts.

Emotional smarts.

Emotional smarts for sure.

But I think that's an interesting point that you make there, Michael Johnson.

Yeah, I always tell people, you know, some of my best friends are people who are people who live in poverty, people who, somebody asked me why did I hang out with this guy that dressed like a pimp, but I also have friends who are millionaires, billionaires, people with GEDs and PhDs, people that live in the projects, people that live in hot net worth, you know, households, and I gain value from being connected to all of them.

It keeps me grounded, but it also keeps me connected.

And when you bring those two worlds or three worlds or four worlds together, you're able to open up the doors for so many different things that you try to bring back to the community.

And sometimes I get criticized for navigating between those worlds.

But when you leave, leadership does not come without criticism.

And I've just learned to embrace it and keep it moving.

Are you glad you're you returned to Madison because you had a short stint in Cleveland and then you came back here.

What was it about Madison that drew you back?

Yeah, so I've been here now for 16 years.

I've now been back, you know, eight and I would say kind of just kind of by faith, right?

So I went to Cincinnati to run one of the largest United Way organizations in the country and it was actually a really good organization.

but I'm used to being an entrepreneurial leader.

And sometimes some nonprofits are organized very differently.

And so when I got there, I just knew it wasn't the right fit for me.

And so as I was looking to make my transition back to Madison, I actually was offered a job with American Family Insurance with the city of Chicago.

When a bunch of different groups saw this in the newspaper, it was very,

It was very public.

And I was just surprised by the number of people that were offering jobs.

So boys and girls clubs had came back and said, hey, we hadn't failed your position.

And while we can't pay you what some of these other groups have offered you, we would love for you to come back.

And so I told our board chair at the time, I said, if the board votes within 48 hours,

If it's a unanimous vote, I'll come back and I did.

Oh, that is fascinating.

Working for boards is so hard and you wanted an unanimous vote.

That's brilliant.

And also, I mean, I gotta ask, I mean, a lot of people would take the money, would go to the place that was offering you the most money.

What is it about boys and girls clubs here in Dane County that lured you back when it wasn't paying you as much as the other places?

Yeah,

so let me first say, you know, my board does compensate me well for the work that we do in this community and I'm thankful for that.

Secondly, I would say I've always wanted to be able to get up every day and be excited about the work that I do.

My job at Boys and Girls Clubs really don't feel like a job.

It feels more like a ministry.

I feel like an orchestrator that's producing

beats and products and services in the community and it beyonds with you.

It's fun at times and I enjoy it.

And I just don't want to be in a job where I get up every day.

I'm miserable.

I don't want to go to work.

And I love what we do at Boys and Girls Scouts.

I got phenomenal colleagues.

We're helping young people become doctors, lawyers.

I've seen a generation of young people become developers, now become donors, and it's exciting to witness.

Must be gratifying, too.

It really is.

I mean, there's a young lady by the name of Dr. Matiba Bojang, who went through our program this summer.

She, um, she, um, invited me to her graduation.

And I remember when she went through our avatars program.

And she said, can you come to my graduate?

She emailed me.

I didn't read the whole thing.

I told my assistant if I was available, I would go.

Come to find out.

She's getting it empty.

And now she works at UW Madison.

Delivering babies.

She's been there for about four months.

She's already delivered over 100 babies.

And now she's one of my bosses.

She's now on our board of directors.

What a success story.

Yeah, that's just a great.

Great story.

We're speaking with Michael Johnson.

He's the CEO and president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County, a tremendous leader here in our community.

And we're going to be right back.

Can you stay after the break?

I've got a couple questions more for you.

We've got a great text from Monica who says, the humility that you embrace makes you just so terrific on so many levels.

So we're getting a lot of good positive feedback.

I'd love.

for you to stay with us, just another segment here on 92.7 WMDX, and we'll be right back.

Excellent.

Matt Rothschild with you here on 92.7 WMDX.

One of the leaders in Madtown is Michael Johnson.

He's the CEO of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

We've been talking with him, and he'll be with us for the next six or seven minutes.

You can join the conversation.

608-879-8255, Matt Rothschild.

You're at Catherine Lake.

We got a text, Catherine, for Larry and Deerfield.

I cannot recall a primetime presidential address that was as defensive and hyperpartisan as this one.

That was Jonathan Carl that Larry was quoting.

And Larry adds, I also think...

I also thank you for having Michael Johnson on the show.

These interviews are so informative and well done.

Well, thank you, Larry, and thanks for all you do in your community.

Larry's been a leader in his community in Deerfield, I know, and has become a friend, which I'm grateful for.

You know, Michael Johnson, Larry mentioned the speech last night.

I don't want to get your reaction to the speech.

I want to get your reaction to maybe the climate that Donald Trump has established, this kind of toxic immigrant bashing partisan ugliness, the kind of racism that he has been espousing his whole career.

And we were talking a little bit about that with Tim Slecker, our previous guest.

What effect does that kind of climate setting by Donald Trump have on you or on the work you do?

Yeah, I would just say, you know, it impact families all over our country.

You know, you think about, you know, playing around with people, snap benefits, and that that's even a debate is very unfortunate.

And just some of the misinformation that is being shared by leaders throughout this country is very unfortunate.

I was a SNAP recipient.

And there's people all over the country in both rural and urban areas that utilize those benefits.

We're also seeing nonprofit organizations funding being cut and unprecedented on levels.

and non-profits who are doing good work in this community that got award letters, spent the money, and then had those awards rescinded.

That makes no

sense.

So I

think, you know, we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars.

Wow.

We're talking tens of millions, Catherine.

Yeah.

You know, here in Dane County, that impact all of us, you know, here in this community.

I hate the divisiveness that I see.

between both the republican and the democratic party and some of the race relations that we see in this country is very dangerous, it's toxic, and we gotta be better.

How did that snap issue affect the work that you were doing?

You must have been hearing from a lot of families in need and not wondering what they could do in that circumstance.

Yeah, I would say, you know, thankful in Wisconsin didn't hit us hard because, you know, the governor was willing to, you know, stand up, you know, forward.

But, you know, there was concerns from people and families worried about not being able to eat.

And we saw, you know, we have a food pantry and a group, a local church that won a food pantry at our boys and girls clubs.

And we saw those numbers increase lines, hundreds and hundreds of people come into that food pantry seeking support.

And it just caused unnecessary headaches to people that just don't think was needed.

I get that our country has a lot of debt.

But I think there's ways you go about, you know, reducing your costs without hurting people.

Of course.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The idea that I'm there, the idea that they were going to intentionally hurt people who are hungry and kids who are hungry was just something that was kind of baffling to me.

I wouldn't want to

be a

leadership like you, Michael.

I wouldn't want to be in leadership.

I'm so afraid and I can't, I can't, I can't fathom it.

I can't fathom how.

Theoretically, a half the country, and I think it's far less than that, feels like we're just not going to be a club.

We're just not going to protect.

We have life, liberty, pursuit of happiness.

Nowhere in there does it say we're a club who takes care of one another.

Well, yeah, it does.

Yeah, it does.

People, you know what it is, no Catholic people.

afraid to be uncomfortable, right?

There's leaders in this country, whether the federal level, at the state level, but the local municipal level, who are afraid to shake the status quo, afraid to step out against things that may not be popular.

And I would tell you, leadership sometimes is tough, but as I've gotten older, I've gotten a lot braver.

It really don't give a damn about what people think about me.

And what I've learned is that if I feel passionate about an issue, I'm going to speak up on it.

And that's if I feel passionate, nobody's going to force me.

Nobody's going to tell me what my view should and shouldn't be.

And sometimes that get me in trouble.

There's a lot of people in this community, I believe, respect what I do.

But because of the

way

we do things, people sometimes get jealous, they get envy, they talk crazy about my leadership.

I just learned it comes with the territory and you've got to race it and keep it moving.

It's good trouble.

Yeah.

Michael Johnson.

I want to appreciate your bravery and your leadership here in Dane County.

Michael Johnson is the CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

How can people support the work over there?

Yeah, I would ask people, you know, if they want to come at www.BGCDC.org or just simply Google Boys and Girls Clubs at Dane County, Rosalynn will appear with a give of their time.

That's important.

They're talent, equally important.

And if you're fortunate, you're treasured.

There are a lot of kids in the family that can benefit from people that have the resources that could be a blessing upon them.

Well, thanks so much for being on and do support the Boys and Girls Clubs if you're listening.

And we'll be right back talking birds.

Oh, no.

Goodness gracious.

Thanks, Mike.

92.

Matt

Rothschild here.

I'm subbing for John and Gordy in the morning along with Catherine Lake who is the station manager here at WMDX.

I've been enjoying the program this morning.

It's fun being with

you.

I have too.

You are a really entertaining speaker.

41 degrees right now, up to 45.

It's going to be rainy.

It's going to be cloudy and kind of icky most of the day.

It looks like the drive time could be the worst this afternoon, not now.

So be aware of that.

Maybe get out a little early if you can.

Yeah, and you can join our conversation.

We just had a great conversation with Michael Johnson at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County.

We got a text from Monaco who said our leaders locally and nationally have been answering calls and so many of us have been working around the clock to reassure our fellow neighbors and comfort.