Racing, Remembrance, and AI Revelations (Hour 3)

Transcript

Racing, Remembrance, and AI Revelations (Hour 3)

Maino and the Mayor · Mon Jun 23, 2025

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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Coming to Northeast Wisconsin live from the Civic Media Studios, this is Mino and the Mayor.

And here are your hosts, John Minow and Jim Schmidt.

John Maino

Hey, thank you very much.

Welcome back.

Good-bye to the mayor here and a good-looking Monday morning.

We'll get a little bit nasty according to Brittany Merleau later today.

High in the high 80s.

and potential heavy rain, heavy hail, all those kinds of things.

We're being joined by a man that is just fascinating, Dave Deppre, who works for NASCAR on a regular basis, but also a veteran yourself, your uncle was killed in New Guinea.

A horrible place.

New Guinea was as bad as anywhere our troops have ever fought with the 32nd Division, which right now is being deployed to the Middle East.

But but but either way, just a great legacy.

But Dave, let's talk a little bit about something else you're very passionate about as far as honoring our fallen military personnel,

please.

Yeah, just acknowledging them.

And if it wasn't for them, we wouldn't be talking today or saying what we want to say today.

So, you know, I hear horror stories.

of everybody else who's gotten wounded, lost their lives.

And with racing, I mean, they, the military guys every day that are there every weekend, there's flyovers.

People wonder why we wasted money doing that.

I caught the sound of freedom and like we had a C 17 to our flyover

Kathryn Lake

set on

Saturday.

It was awesome.

Came right down, right down pit road.

And so I mean,

Shake hands with the veterans.

We have veterans.

We have truck drivers that I had a guy that pits next to us every week that he was blown up Well, I guess he's the only one to survive in a vehicle.

He's a truck driver for the teams now and You know, I want to shake his hand.

I want to give him a hug.

Yeah, but I salute guys and it's really really neat how racing Embraces the military.

John Maino

Let's talk a little bit about your programming out here.

Yeah, I was lucky enough last year to

The Gold Star, Gold Star families, you've lost somebody in battle or even peacetime, they were standing behind me at the race.

And like I said, if it wasn't for DGM racing, Mario Goslin, Michelle Goslin, I wouldn't have been there to meet these people.

So I think everything happens for a reason.

They were there and I saw the Gold Star and I asked what's about and will we bring this family?

They lost a child to a sniper and another one in an accident and it's just like,

John Maino

in Afghanistan.

Yeah.

And I said, I couldn't talk.

I get teared up.

It's like, oh my God, I'm so sorry.

I don't thank you and their parents are my age.

And it's like, huh, so what is this all about?

Well, they tell me it's honor and remember they have a flag now, which went through Congress and being displayed.

It's called the honor and remember and there's different stages of the flag, the colors, what they mean.

And they make sure that you're not forgotten because a lot of people get forgotten and

So it all started then.

They gave me a card.

I called them.

I said, I want to donate money to it.

And they said, well, we don't we do this.

You don't have to give money.

So I want to give you some money and did that.

And then they went out of their way to come and present a flag to my father at the right place last last fall.

And they spent the night.

They came in, did it, read the whole battle.

of how my uncle was killed during that time.

And it was just, you could hear a pin drop and it was for my dad.

So it's called the name

John Maino

of this, the program.

It's called the honor and remember.

Honor and remember fallen heroes.

It's text the flag.

It's www.honorandremember.org.

And you talk about the four

pillars of your mission.

And so the mission then is you're going to honor people like

like your grandfather, uncle, uncle.

Yeah, they do that.

And then Sargento cheese from Wisconsin is spearheading the Wisconsin portion of it.

They pay for the flag and they do these things and have people come and present it to them.

John Maino

So we've got, I've got several very close friends who lost someone in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Could they be presented with one of these flags?

They can.

Yeah, they can.

John Maino

How would we go about that?

They can contact that on or remember that.

And they can direct you for that.

I don't know.

I'm not close.

W W

John Maino

W dot honor and remember dot org.

Correct.

John Maino

So they just contact them and get the ball rolling, so to speak.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But you're what that organization does.

And these four pillars, I think are really important is that they establish that it's like they educate, they present and they comfort.

I mean, yeah,

it's pretty cool.

What they did was that was amazing.

I mean, for.

the next step in our lives before closures.

And it was like saying, my dad was being the last living member of his family.

So when we had, I think like 50 cousins, we have a big family.

How many

John Maino

kids did you say you had in your family?

My dad had 13.

Yeah.

And well, they originally 15, they lost two during throughout.

And, but every, every boy served.

And there was others that were injured.

And yeah, I have cousins, a young lady, she lives down by Madison.

She drove a big truck.

Gulf War.

She was a, you know, truck hauler, dangerous, dangerous stuff.

John Maino

Those roads

were lethal.

Yeah.

Pretty cool that you can do this in that.

So we just got, we'll remind people of that too, but honorremember.org.

Yeah.

And I'm not affiliated with them at all.

I try to share.

Big advocate for them.

Oh, what

they did.

I mean, it's amazing.

And then they're, they're associated with NASCAR too.

They had a flag, like you, you see the American flag on the football fields for national anthem when you got a hundred people, they had one out there, at least that big.

doing that before one of the races this year.

And it's like, wow, not enough people know about know about it and they need to.

So

that industry you're in is pretty patriotic, pretty.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They do a lot.

They do a lot.

Support the troops.

Yeah.

And that's it.

You can watch the social media people busting it down.

Askers dying.

This is that.

Everything stinks.

Athletes stink.

You know, they're no good.

But there's a lot of good stuff that really does come out of everything.

Just the generosity.

from the big teams, the Joe Gibbs owns a team, you know, the, right.

The Hendrick Motorsports to our team.

It's David versus Goliath every week.

But how's Michael Jordan doing with his team?

We see him occasionally and then.

When we have, when our, like our schedules combined, cause I'm on the Xfinity series.

So they have the big fancier garages.

We're down in the old garages, but you see, am I passing enough?

Yeah, you'll see them there.

If I stayed for race day, a lot of days I'm home on Sundays to watch the cup race on my couch if I can.

So you'll see them.

You'll see my passing.

There's a lot of, there's a lot of royalty that you do see and people are like, Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.

So like Dale Hart Jr.

or the other guy was on pit road right next to us and he was crew chief in his car.

So

There's a thousand cameras.

I

John Maino

met him.

He came to Greenbelt, man.

It's got to be 15 years ago.

I want to say to a stadium view, just some kind of a Budweiser promotion.

Sure.

And you know what?

He was just he's like the most normal guy.

It's like, Mr. Earnhardt, Mr. Man, you're talking to me.

He was like most down to earth person.

Sure.

Was he was he doing the promotional at WIR that night, too?

Yes.

Because I was there.

I was working there.

OK.

And.

You know his PR people they got to be places and he's driving a car and you know, there's that road that goes right along the track I turned three four and by turn four and there's fans chasing him and he couldn't stop to sign it and people MF dumb and I'm like

John Maino

Look

you can't say this

John Maino

and I don't mean to sound like weird old guy creepy guy his girlfriend was so hot it was mind-boggling

You know, yeah, I don't consider it, but I mean, he's he's a

John Maino

supermodel Venus swimwear

or something.

Yeah, I've seen pictures.

Yeah.

John Maino

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

John Maino

But you know, another guy who I'll tell you another sad story, because I used to follow racing a bunch.

I used to cover it a lot when I was in TV.

Remember when Bobby Allison came to town to WIR again, did a thing.

And his I think it was a week later, his son was killed in that helicopter accident.

And another one was

uh, Earnhardt's grandson who raced at WIR and was killed a couple weeks later.

Do you remember that?

Oh, that was no, petty.

Petty.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

Adam Petty.

Yeah.

Adam Petty.

And we were close to that deal and we had him racing with ASA and whatnot.

Yeah.

Remember at

John Maino

WIR,

we did a young kid.

He was like 18, 19.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was gonna, he was good.

Yeah.

Um, it's, it's unfortunate that that does happen, but, and when the Allison deal happened, we were racing in Madison.

John Maino

Okay.

And they had, uh, like the Wisconsin challenge here as well.

Right.

Michael Walter was down there and, and Dale Jarrett was down there.

And that happened down there.

And that was pretty humbling.

Cause those guys are so close.

John Maino

Absolutely.

And, you know, it's, it stinks.

But, but we brought,

John Maino

I mean, we brought up some big tie people to Northeast Wisconsin race

wise.

One gentleman that's from up in your port neck of the woods.

Greg eyes.

John Maino

Oh, yeah.

Absolutely.

And when I mentioned about the Hendrick motorsports in the garage 56, right?

They went to Le Mans.

Yeah.

Greg eyes was a huge part of that.

John Maino

Well, you know, it's funny though, too.

You think of NASCAR of the, you know, guys just at the gas station, working the grids.

I mean, like they were like, they got mechanical engineering degrees from the Michigan

techs of

John Maino

the world.

That's

right.

Like I've had opportunities.

I was encouraged to take a next step up to go help a team.

And I'm like, what do I have to offer?

He goes, you hustle.

you outrun the big guys and put in an application, go do it.

You can make some real money.

I'm like, I'm retired.

I don't know if I want it, but then I have to be there all the time and it's tough.

John Maino

And it's gotten so scientific

or whatever

John Maino

you want to call it, isn't

it crazy?

Oh yeah, those guys come in, there's four guys on, there's an engineer for each corner of the car on the cup side and they come in and they got computers plugged in right away.

You make a good point because some of us have been through that same thought process, but when you retire,

And there's another big time job with the pressure, with accountability.

It's like, really?

Do I want to do this?

I mean, if you don't need, need the money.

I mean, you know, everybody likes money.

I need money.

But like, you're almost better off on us, almost on a side hustle where the pressure is not there.

You could walk away if you want to.

Like you said, there you're punching, not punching the clock, but you got to be there, you got to be there, you got to be there.

And I went through that.

And I don't know, maybe I went.

too far the other way, ending up here with John, but I just... Wait, wait too far.

Well, we've got a lawnmower for you.

I work part time for leisure lawn care too.

Oh, we love John, he's been on here.

So, okay, I would have just go back to, I don't know if we're wrapping up or not, but I'm gonna go back to your flag thing.

That is to me, there's two things I like about your industry.

One is, I think owning a race team is kind of akin to owning a sports franchise.

Yeah, oh

yeah.

You know, they don't have the money.

I mean, these guys don't have the money to buy an NFL team.

But is that you see more and more of that where like movie stars are like, you talked about Michael Jordan, Joe Gibson.

He's been in it for a while.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Well, he's he's the that's the mecca there.

Yeah.

Right.

But so people do buy the teams.

Yep.

You

there's teams coming that building up.

There's a Derek Cope.

I don't remember that.

Well, he has a team now in the XVD series, very professionally run and they build up.

And, but what's the saying Joe said?

You know, how do you make a million in a race and start with four?

I don't know how they do it.

I really don't.

Oh, but you have to have sponsorship, sponsorship money.

Drivers bring money.

So there's

John Maino

a reason that they will have their cap on and holding a Coke or holding whatever.

Right.

John Maino

That

is so important.

There's some, there's some good.

Good kids out there coming up that are talented.

There's a lot of talent that's not going to be able to do it because of that, though.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, there's some good, good drivers out there.

John Maino

You know what I want to be?

Here's the person I want to be.

try to find me this job.

When somebody wins the race, they always have that handler that hands them the cap

that they have to

John Maino

put on

for the thing.

You want to be the bearded guy.

John Maino

I want to be that

person.

He drove like a Camaro to every race.

He drove to every race.

John Maino

There are guys that do that, aren't there?

Well, yeah.

And then teams have their PR.

NASCAR has their PR people.

Actually, they come around before we even go through tech inspections to make sure your stickers are in the right spot.

Really?

Or ones missing.

Yeah, they have to prove everything.

Even if you have a sticker in the back of your car, we had that a couple weeks ago.

It was a quarter inch too low over the body frame.

Come on.

Yeah.

So fix it for next week.

OK, we will.

But yeah.

John Maino

Can you hook me up?

Sure, you gotta volunteer.

John Maino

This has been so much fun.

This has just

John Maino

been awesome.

You've led an interesting life.

I'm gonna try to keep doing it.

Please do.

I'm gonna win the game.

I hope.

I think you're winning.

I think you're winning.

Your disposition is great on life.

And

John Maino

we're gonna take a picture of that flag.

We're

gonna put that on our Facebook.

That's cool.

I could do what I do without the generosity of a lot of people.

But if you're a turd, you're not gonna come along.

Okay, be

John Maino

honest with me.

One word.

Would I be a good prison guard?

Yes or no?

We go round town.

I don't know.

Wow, okay.

Thanks for being here, buddy.

Thank you.

Back after

this.

Kathryn Lake

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Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.

John Maino

in action tonight at home 6 40 p.m.

You know is there anything you don't want two things that people used to be at you about that have turned out so good one is the Rush Center here in Green Bay and the other one is getting rid of County Stadium and building the the new although I still call it Miller Park

that was a tough thing did oh wasn't it I mean it's like candlestick it just it just was yeah

John Maino

But now

when you

John Maino

look at like the Cubs game the other night, rained out.

The stadium's awesome.

Yeah.

Crazy about the name, but yeah.

I

John Maino

don't even know what the name is these days.

American

Family Field.

John Maino

Is it?

I thought it was something else now.

I don't know.

I don't think so.

John Maino

All right.

What is it, Convoy?

It's American Family

John Maino

Field.

OK.

Don't just refer to his Miller Park kind of.

I do.

I mean, that was perfect, wasn't

it?

And for us as a state, that was spot on.

But even our congressman got involved in that because.

People didn't like that.

No, that's what I mean.

Yeah, I know.

But, you know, I don't know what happened behind all that.

It is what it is, but you're right.

We can still call what we want, right?

John Maino

But what a beautiful facility.

No rent

John Maino

out.

I remember being at opening days where it was like 36 degrees and unbelievably cold and nasty.

And it's 72 degrees every

game now.

Some stuff has just got to go.

John Maino

Yes.

Like them all.

So.

John Maino

Oh my God.

Don't even.

Can we do it?

Okay, how much time?

I wanted to beat that.

You see, oh my god, John, you don't have a chance.

I do too.

You wanna doggle, double or nothing on that money, you owe me.

Okay,

John Maino

if the mall was still here,

right

John Maino

across the street,

you know what I'd be doing?

As

John Maino

soon as the show was over,

I

John Maino

would go over to the mall, I'd get an orange Julius, I would go to the bookstore, you had a cool little bookstore

there,

John Maino

and then for lunch, I'd be there's a little pizza-type

place there,

John Maino

I'd be there for pizza,

and

John Maino

then, you know what, I'd go buy a sport

coat.

Okay, so probably buy a cheap sport coat, let's say I spend 150 bucks.

For a sport coat?

No, no, for your day.

The book, the horse juice, okay, a hundred bucks.

Yeah, you and maybe 18 people would do that.

John, it just, it just wasn't there.

It was a gathering place, that big flop.

It was a gathering place for?

Yeah, I'll tell you what it was a gathering place for.

No, they weren't spending money.

John Maino

Okay, you gotta, you gotta call in some of your contacts and something else.

Okay.

John Maino

Okay, you know what I want?

I want the sign from the old Packer City Motel.

It's busted somebody threw rock, but I could fix it.

I want that sign.

I think that's a cool piece of memorabilia Over on Main Street.

I

John Maino

Don't

don't motel is God.

I noticed that was a prison, right?

It was a not a prison, but a um, oh, I don't know, you know Hubert thing.

Oh, okay.

I don't know Hey, there's something we're gonna do.

You know you

Something you're high about is the whole ship.

I've been high in a lot of years.

It's the shipyard district.

John Maino

Yes.

And I was in Antigo, love Antigo.

They have a park there and it's sign park.

It's what?

It's sign.

It's just got all the signs from different, like, I'm going to show you a picture at the break.

It's very cool.

And that would be fitting with the shipyards because you want, shipyards got to have something different.

It can't be completely

John Maino

different, unique, cool.

This park

well, I still

John Maino

hope to own I told you what I went around with because I'm still researching I'm I'm I'm making I made you know what I made last night I Made a blueberry peanut butter shake with Greek yogurt that was mind-boggling You know they hand the other night that was mind-boggling I'm gonna I almost hate to say this because people are still my ideas So as Greek yogurt it was frozen bananas frozen strawberries or excuse me frozen raspberries 100% natural

um peanut butter heated up so it was like a hot fudge peanut butter sundae mind boggling and it was so healthy it's unbelievable i feel healthier as a human being from eating that which you would normally think was was was bad for you like eating a banana split i feel so much healthier just eating that and was so delicious it's unbelievable so i want to get one of those storage containers and open up a place in the shipyard district

that could work

John Maino

yep

That's cool.

That's really

cool pictures put these pictures.

I love that.

I

John Maino

love old advertising signs, you

know So

John Maino

that's awesome,

and it's just called sign park

John Maino

love it

I'm gonna say that you but this you could

John Maino

that

my

John Maino

motif in my place all right Think

about it

John Maino

that

I can't believe you're still eating Greek yogurt after you threw up twice on it I

John Maino

gave it another chance

Wow, no

It'd take once, and I would never go near it again.

Like, Grape Shell, I don't know, it was nine, ten.

Well,

John Maino

I threw off the one that was spoiled.

I evidently was spoiled.

But like I said, you don't know Greek, you're okay, you're spoiled, because it pretty much takes spoiled even when it's not.

Okay, so I went to Costco to get, I drink at home.

Wait, Donna makes the frothing thing, you know, in the morning?

Milk froth?

Yeah, for the coffee.

Yeah, and I just put cream in my coffee.

Anyway,

John Maino

you know, they okay, I just got straight right.

Okay, right here where we live, right?

Okay.

They got this little coffee place in the in the apartment complex that nobody goes to but it's got this great machine and it's got milk froth.

Yeah, man.

That is awesome.

It is she makes anyway, my point is is that

So we're going through a little too much cream and I ran out of cream.

It's like I got to go to the I live in the hood.

So I just go down to this gas station.

That's open 24 hours where we get gas.

Yeah.

John Maino

Yeah.

Yeah.

And

I have to get some milk or something where

John Maino

the pumps never quite work.

But the

guy's

John Maino

always on the phone.

He is always on the phone.

Oh my God.

I got to I got to I want to repeat something a comedian said, but I don't know if I'd get in trouble for it because your son in law is Indian, right?

Yes.

And there was

this comedian, he's

John Maino

Indian comedian, talking about how they can never rob banks because nobody will take them seriously.

Those guys are funny.

Oh my God, is he funny?

Those guys are funny.

John Maino

I want you to give all the money.

Okay, what's your account?

I don't have no account.

So then he goes to the car and says, how did it go?

They wouldn't give me the money.

He goes, why do you have a computer?

He goes, they gave it to me.

They thought it was technical support.

So funny, we guys had a break back at

this.

John Maino

And of course, the Civic Media app, your Milwaukee Brewers will be on at 6.40 tonight, taking on Pittsburgh.

Hi, today.

Man, that forecast was 90s, she said, right?

Convoy.

No, no, that's

the good thing I just say.

I think she said 90s.

No, no.

Did this guy say up to 100?

I just heard when we were on break.

Oh, really?

Today could be 100?

Oh, wow.

There's a heat index.

Yeah, with the heat index.

OK, I was.

in the other room, but I was like, wow, that's hot.

Got a

John Maino

texture from Michael, our man, Michael Friedman.

I have a milk frother I do not use.

I will bring it in for you.

Thank you.

Yeah,

we'll keep it here.

Yeah, we'll keep that one in in the studio.

John Maino

That'll be awesome.

Yeah, that.

But I think I don't know what's all in there.

Just put cream in there and then try it.

It's

John Maino

like, I almost don't want to know.

It's just really good.

So I just want to.

Oh, hey, hi.

You know, I just want to say something.

I don't I don't mean to rip.

Communities but the town of champion people are always late from champion

champion.

Yeah Yeah, I

John Maino

know

So

John Maino

did I tell you yeah your mom

is my mom is good memory

John Maino

and your dad

My dad's from ish for me.

John Maino

Oh ish for me.

Okay.

I thought he was okay

Yeah, it's those champion people.

You're right.

John Maino

Okay.

What year did your mom graduate from high school?

My god.

She died at 85 two years ago,

John Maino

okay

I can't do that.

I can't

John Maino

why would you throw that don't I'm the last human being in the world?

But

anyway, here's

John Maino

what I found.

Okay.

I found I think I mentioned this to you want to I found a film Old film a reel of film with that 60 millimeter bill

the canister like the

John Maino

yeah, yeah, yep Nagani st.

Paul's versus champion 1965.

Oh my god.

John Maino

So I'm gonna bring that I don't know if camera corner still does camera corner to that

Do what?

Dub that or transfer that?

I think they would sure they got that.

I

don't know who has

John Maino

a projector anymore.

No, they've

John Maino

got

it.

John Maino

I do.

Do you?

I do.

Do you?

I do.

I will give it to you to get transferred.

Oh, sorry.

What do you think?

Yeah.

Wouldn't that be, I mean, it might be your uncles or your dad or, or not your dad,

but I mean- But my mom?

John Maino

Yeah.

And we have a family reunion coming up in a couple weeks and it's the relative strum champion.

Oh my gosh.

So that'd be cool.

John Maino

I'm gonna give this to

you.

Okay.

Okay.

Your mom may have graduated like in 6061.

Okay.

That's

my brother would have played

John Maino

against St.

Paul's against champion would have played basketball against she

was

John Maino

probably a cheerleader against my brothers.

Oh, my mom was a cheerleader.

There

John Maino

you go.

Yeah.

Oh, that's so fun.

OK, Eddie.

Hey, Laura, why don't you introduce yourself?

Tell everybody who you are.

I am Laura Wiegert, a proud Yuper from Ishperming, Michigan.

John Maino

Yeah, Westwood, all right.

But no, no,

no, I'm a hematite.

OK, all

right.

But you've upgraded your life.

And what are you doing now?

I love the Fox City.

Well, just sitting here is an upgrade in my life, guys.

But I also work at the Fox City's Chamber,

John Maino

which is awesome with the top was the top chamber in the country

in the

nation.

The

National

Chamber of the Year.

They just do what it is.

It's so cool.

It's right here in our community.

And the reason you got that award one is you deserved it, but.

I'm trying to pay my parking passport and the app isn't working.

John Maino

Convoy, yeah.

Isn't something weird going on with the parking meters?

Did the guy tell you that the other day?

Yeah, so it's not the usual numbers, how it used to be.

Oh.

Yeah, so they changed all these numbers on Washington.

Okay.

And City Deck Court.

John Maino

Do you have quarters here?

I could give you

John Maino

the number.

Do

you have any

John Maino

quarters?

Con, I just don't want her to get a ticket real quick here.

Your quotasics.

Well.

I just took the number off the post.

Is that the right one?

Yeah, the one, two, six.

Yeah.

And I noticed that was different.

It's like, what the heck is this?

Yeah.

And you can go longer than two hours now.

Oh,

really?

Yeah, you can go up to like 10, I think now.

But you're

kidding.

It goes up.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

They increase the prices it looks like.

John Maino

Well, you don't want people coming to downtown Green

Bay causing

John Maino

problems.

That riff-raff.

That's

right.

Jim's got a quarter.

I'm good.

Thank you.

Sorry.

I'm digging out some quarters for you, because I want to just... I got a jump back.

Oh, you guys?

Yep.

Went through?

I

just got it.

I went through.

I appreciate that, though.

John Maino

Awesome.

How are you?

I'm doing good.

But you know what?

We're talking about that, too.

What you guys do so well is the synergy, for lack of better words, your entire community, how it comes together.

and you guys work together.

Oh, thank you.

Which other communities could use.

And a good example of that is the AI business of it that I wanted to mention

John Maino

today.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Khan tried to explain what you want to do here today and I was lost.

So you take it.

Jim and I are two really old guys.

And when you're dealing with these new kind of things, you have to go slow.

So

go ahead.

John Maino

No,

this is what's relevant right now.

I know.

We're not relevant, Jim.

It is coming up, too.

And that's what, you know, at the chamber, it's the same thing.

It's like, you know, AI is everywhere.

as we like to convene and bring people and ideas together, we can't not do something about AI.

And that's where, so I'm championing that effort at the chamber.

And that's where our business summit came into play.

And we could talk about that, but I wanted to do a fun activity with

you.

I don't know if the producer shared or not, but I need, I'm gonna do mad libs.

So I used AI and I asked it to write a mad lib specific to Mino and the Mayor.

John Maino

Mad what is mad lib?

You never did mad lib as a kid as a kid Jim

no Convoy

well, yeah,

I did mad libs all the time.

I had those I had those little

books in the cars and I do them on road trips and stuff

We call

it something else

it was no it's been mad libs forever It's a little tablet and they all have stories in them with blanks and then like say my brother and I would do it and I say okay I need a noun an adjective a verb blah blah blah

And then when you're done, you fill it in, and it's a funny story.

OK.

I got to believe we did something like that.

I've been called Mad Libs.

Mad Libs, is that what you said?

I've never

John Maino

heard of it.

Negani did not have Mad Libs.

Oh, you always were a little behind the time sounds.

Yeah, you were.

All right.

So you had a question.

So you're going to ask us for one of those four.

Yep.

Just top of that.

I have a list of them.

Okay.

Just top of the head.

All right.

All right.

All right.

And then turns or whatever.

And a story is going to come out at the end.

About you guys.

Okay.

Cool.

All right.

All right.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So adjective.

Big.

Okay.

Another adjective.

Running.

Okay.

Is that an adjective?

A public runny you would have to be to be an adjective.

Yeah.

No.

Runny.

No, no, no, no, no.

An adjective running?

Runny.

I changed it to runny.

Already yeah, running.

Okay.

Okay.

It's gotta be like an action.

It's just doing a

description.

Yeah, right

public place

City Hall

Okay,

downtown mall

Think I just need one fine.

It's thank God.

I jumped an article of clothing you go first in socks,

okay a holiday or event

St.

John Maino

Patrick's Day,

okay a verb action word

Is running

running yeah, okay another verb

sneezing

Okay, a food item

tacos

animal

What dog dog or a horse you can put a horse horse snake a

llama Okay, just a couple more a plural noun a plural noun

Keep

it clean, John.

God, boy.

What's the plural?

No, no.

Just a noun.

A personal place or thing.

Oh, yeah.

Plural though.

It's got to be plural.

So it's got to be like Green Bay's.

Like houses, dogs, cats, trophies, packers.

We'll do trophies.

OK.

An exclamation.

Just anything like, wow.

Bleep.

Bleep?

Yeah.

Do that.

He just does that all the time.

Just a random object?

Yeah.

A random object.

A random object.

A boomerang.

Okay.

An adjective.

John Maino

Okay, back to the adjectives.

I never knew how to diagram a sentence.

A description.

A word description.

Like funny, stupid, smart, cute, sexy.

Did we said funny, right?

Yep.

I want sexy.

I feel sexy today.

OK, last one.

One more noun, person, place, or thing.

White House.

OK, now I read you a story.

OK, OK, OK.

I'm here with the legendary duo, Minor and the Mayor.

John Maino

Minor.

OK.

Minor.

I just said it wrong.

OK, that makes sense, though, because he was up.

Did your

John Maino

family work in the mines?

No.

Broadcasting live from the big headquarters of WGBW radio.

Now, if you've ever wondered what Mino and the mayor are like off the air, I've got the runny inside scoop for you.

I recently saw them at City Hall and let me tell you, they were both wearing socks and running like it was St.

Patrick's Day.

Mino was sneezing.

Funny.

Mino was busy sneezing a taco while the mayor was passionately arguing with a llama about the best type of trophies there are.

That happened.

I

know, I know, I know.

When I asked them for a selfie, they shouted in unison, bleep, then handed me a boomerang instead.

It's moments like these that remind us no matter how sexy the world gets.

We can onies count on Mino and the mayor to bring the White House.

Wow,

that's funny.

So Convoy, you

John Maino

did this when you were a kid?

Yeah, yeah, they'd have booklets of full stories.

John Maino

I'm gonna find them for you guys.

Somebody just put in a great verb would be closing a street,

which

John Maino

Jim did here one time.

That's awesome.

I love that.

So tell me about downtown Appleton.

We had the people on the other day talking about the mile of music.

That's not us.

John Maino

No, I'm just saying.

OK, but you guys always have great events in that area.

Appleton does.

Yes, we got a lot going on.

You do.

John Maino

I mean, you guys are passionate about that, aren't you?

Yes.

OK.

I mean, we've got a great, you know, the chamber focuses on B2B.

Yeah.

But we partner with the downtown Appleton, ADI, downtown Nina, Future Nina, et cetera, and the Visitors and Convention Bureau.

And those those groups just are amazing, just amazing.

How far.

So this this.

the chamber, this business, the business that you focus on, do you consider like the United Way, the Boys and Girls Club businesses, the social side of your community?

Absolutely.

Non-profits, you need to operate as a business when you're a non-profit.

I think

you both know that, right?

That is the most, and I teach that.

If there's one- The

John Maino

phrase non-profit doesn't mean you're not trying to make a profit.

Exactly.

And I tell you, this is one of the worst labeling things that we've done.

Ever.

We just tell you can't invest in a nonprofit.

I mean there's reasons there's things you can and cannot do in a nonprofit But they don't pay taxes, you know, I mean that's the big thing

It is it is but we need them.

I work I work at home a shelter I mean we're a nonprofit, but right and

imagine if you had to pay taxes They're there go your profits that you need to reinvest back into the company and the organization,

right?

Yeah, so it makes sense.

John Maino

Do you get okay when you guys?

We talk about this we think

this area could use a little bit more teamwork amongst the different entities.

So what kind of programs do you have that you think won you the award?

So you won this award.

I mean, you have you have no membership for new businesses, which I think is to small

businesses who qualify.

Yes.

Okay.

Small businesses who qualify, right?

Which in and of itself, it gives them exposure to people who

have been around the block.

And that's so important.

Yeah, there's

mentoring, networking, learning, all kinds of opportunities.

But I want to talk about some other reasons.

Why do you think you won this award?

I know it's because you got great leadership and all that, but why do you think you won?

What was?

John Maino

We're going to hold that thought.

We've got one

John Maino

minute till break.

That's a very insightful

question.

And I think I know the answer.

I just want to hear it from you.

OK.

All right.

To be continued.

Do you make pasties?

Never tried it.

Really?

You make them, right?

Bring me in one.

John Maino

Man, I thought you'd make... I thought... Aren't you part Finn?

No!

No!

English!

John Maino

Norwegian!

Norwegian!

Alright, we gotta send our break back after

this.

If you uh...

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

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

John Maino

cities, chamber of commerce.

What have you got going on?

Well, we're talking about why the chamber is nice to say why your chambers, the number one chamber in the United States.

And rightfully so, you do some things for small new businesses, but you also put on relevant seminars

and program it.

You're right.

So first of all, to answer your question, when we applied for the award, you had to spotlight two of your key programs.

And that was our connect free membership for free membership for small businesses and our October fest event, which

I know

you guys.

Love

that,

too.

The third factor, I think, is the fact that myself and our CEO are both from the UP.

John Maino

Escanaba.

She's the only

John Maino

person I know that went to High School in Iron Mountain and Escanaba.

I know.

Why?

John Maino

Two big cities.

But we always like to be proactive.

and stay on top of what's new.

And that's why I wanted to mention our AI Business Summit coming up on.

It's November 5th.

It's a day-long summit.

We've got amazing speakers.

We have a keynote and a closer.

And then in between we have breakouts.

So our breakouts are three different sessions you can choose from.

We have three of them.

So we have 11 speakers throughout the day.

It's just amazing.

And that's gonna be great, but there's so much to learn I always have a tough time picking which seminar I'm gonna go to you know when they have them and Sometimes rather just sit there, but you don't want a large group either because you want to get up and move around and network in these smaller groups But yeah, so and that but that's not the least expensive program you've ever offered either.

I mean, right

I mean, the price of that's, what, $2.45 or something?

No, $1.75.

$1.75.

I mean, that's fine.

It's worth it.

AI is so, and you have 12 different speaker programs.

It's a

high caliber program.

It is.

It includes breakfast and lunch and reception afterwards.

So.

I think it's great.

I just, you know, it's not, we talked about free, free, free, but this isn't, and this is going to be worth every penny.

Because we're a non-profit too, by the way.

And we still have to make money.

Who are some of the speakers that are coming in?

Well, first of all, Rebecca Ryan is our our opener keynote.

She is a nationally known futurist and she'll talk about AI and the trends in the future.

So she's our keynote and then the rest are Wisconsin based speakers.

We have several case studies like Plexus.

Jewelers Mutual, Galloway are talking about how they're using AI in their businesses.

And then we have other, we have some marketing topics like AI in social media, AI in your sales funnel.

We have some lawyers coming on to talk about the legal implications of AI.

John Maino

I mean, this is here to stay.

I remember when they first talked about this,

it's

John Maino

like, oh, wow.

It's like, whoa.

That's good doing Google.

I mean, it's just, it's huge.

And everybody, the people that use it,

I'm gonna talk because it's free, but it's not really free because there's people who will you subscribe right Johnny 14 bucks a month or something my brother is on there for $20 a month and

yeah, it's 20 bucks a month now I put on my meta AI glasses That's why I put my sunglasses on so all I have to do is push this button.

I Just took a picture of you both or I could say hey meta take a picture Holy crap.

Yep, or I could say hey meta.

Who are these two gentlemen sitting in front of me?

And it'll, you won't hear it, but in my ear, it will give me the answers.

From those sunglasses.

That's amazing.

You're gonna be in a radio studio.

What the bleep?

Yeah.

So, I mean, again, to show you what AI, these are amazing.

They're Meta AI glasses.

John Maino

Where'd you get those

from?

These are Ray-Bans.

I got them from actually the Meta site.

They can translate.

If you're talking to someone in another language, they will translate it for you.

You could say, hey, Meta, what's, who is, what car is that?

Where am I?

What's the temperature?

That's right.

What

those are

sure

don't

break them.

They're

very expensive.

I saw asking about that.

There was already

John Maino

lost $40 today.

He did to me.

I got kind of a wide head.

Maybe I should know.

Never mind.

I'm afraid of the snap.

Um, are those prescription?

No, you can

get a

prescription.

These are sunglasses.

You can get them clear.

Whatever.

These are prescription ribbons.

How much were they?

They had a sale.

These were $360.

$360.

And that.

Okay.

Will they is it battery heart?

How does it stay relevant?

There's a case.

It's all short chargeable.

It's rechargeable.

Yeah, yeah, and then we're gonna there's a seminar

But I just want to give you an example of look what AI can do like you guys don't know a lot about it.

So this we don't

John Maino

know we know nothing

about anything.

It writes our resumes.

But why would we be doing a resume?

I don't know.

I just heard that.

Wow, that's

incredible.

Convoy, get a

John Maino

pair of

these so I can borrow them.

I got them at a VR headset at home.

What's that?

Is that the thing on the side?

Virtual reality.

Oh, OK.

John Maino

Watch this.

What are

John Maino

you doing?

Oh, does he?

John Maino

Oh, my God.

I think you get expenses, by the way.

Todd said it's OK.

John Maino

Wow.

That's unbelievable.

Give you your organization

a

John Maino

plug once again.

You guys are fantastic.

And we love having you come

in here.

It is chamber of commerce.

We're on the cutting edge.

We give you what you need.

OK.

This seminar, people got to go to that.

Yeah.

But people gotta go to the seminar.

You guys gotta go.

It's

going to be so great.

It's November 2nd.

Where's it at?

November 5th.

November 5th,

I'm sorry.

At the Paper Valley.

Right.

Downtown, we have a block of rooms reserved if you want to stay overnight.

Early Bird ends September 1st, so sign up now.

Oh, and if you sign up for Early Bird, you are eligible to win prizes.

Like, you can win the creation of a free AI avatar.

You probably don't know what that is

either.

Yeah, we do.

Of course we do.

I got one.

But we're running out of time.

John Maino

I'm looking

at the clock what else is going out the chamber you want your plug anything you got a minute or two

oh gosh yeah um I

John Maino

mean you plug that you wrap it up I'm gonna run upstairs and grab that roll of film to give you oh

thank you for your parents yeah wonderful we're both dead but I can still share with my brother and sister

Jim, what else do you want to know?

I mean, we

just go, go,

go all the

time.

Membership is growing.

Membership is growing.

Our leadership training programs continue to expand.

We just offered a new one.

Our newest one is called Immersion Fox Cities.

And that is where, if you're new to the community, we will take two half days and show you around.

It's an organized program with your spouses, so it's wonderful.

All kinds of... And

you've got some new businesses.

I talked to your VP, the young, nobody's not your VP, but I was there.

Amy?

No, no, the guy.

Eric?

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

You know, just to go around and learn more about your community, I think is very healthy.

Thank you for

coming down,

by the way.

Yeah, it was great.

Jim

came down.

We turned him around.

He's

getting to know the Fox City.

When are you broadcasting from the Fox Cities?

Todd's decision, but we want to definitely do that because we go to Oshkosh once in a while.

We got to go to your place and thanks for offering your room.

That was really nice.

All right.

Hey, we love you guys.

Fox City's Chamber.

Kathryn Lake

Laura,

you bet, Laura.

And we'll promote that AI because people need to learn about that.

They can't

Kathryn Lake

be afraid of it.

There's a lot of cool stuff going

on.

All right.

That's mine on the mayor.

Johnny and I will be back tomorrow morning.

Kathryn Lake

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