Those Hit Hardest (Hour 2)

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air and our specially curated pre-recorded Labor Day program.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Kellen Butenoff.

I'll come and you live from our home here at Radio Park in Racine.

Again, happy Labor Day.

Happy

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Hope you are enjoying your day off.

We are as well.

That's why we have put together a specially curated pre-recorded show.

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Fresh content.

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interviews.

Some of our favorite segments.

Yes.

We're going to come back with just a couple of those.

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We love our listeners and we're happy that you're here listening today and we hope you're enjoying your Labor Day, being safe and being fun.

Absolutely.

We did want to take this opportunity.

to dig a little deeper into some things that have been, we have a sheet every day that we all put ideas on and articles on

and

things to talk about and things to get around to.

And sometimes those things get moved pretty far down on the list, depending upon what is going on from day to day.

So we are gonna take this time to look at a couple of stories that are out there that I think deserve a little bit more attention.

And this includes tariffs.

Yep, gotta keep talking about this one.

Wiz politics says the the tariffs are hitting Wisconsin families where it hurts the most in their wallets and at the worst possible time Kids are back now in school or going back to school.

Yes Yeah back to school time tariffs have boosted the prices on some key back-to-school items Shoes which have always been a big thing, right?

Yeah, you get a new pair of school shoes.

Yeah, gotta have a new maybe two pairs of shoes

wait

And you got to have the cool shoes like the kids have your classmates.

I mean, I grew up, I think, in the first wave culture of more designers.

Yeah.

Yeah.

When I was a youngster, wow, that's the oldest thing I've ever said in my life.

But it was the introduction of things like Air Jordans, which were, if I'm not mistaken, the first mass available $100 sneaker.

You know

that your parents buy you hundred dollars sneakers.

You want to hear a really fun story about Greg buck?

I wouldn't so I didn't get Jordans I played basketball and I wanted a pair of Reebok pumps and that's a very 80s reference that were you Yeah, you gave yourself good ankle support, but my parents

didn't want to just blow $100 on even though they would have been used for basketball.

These weren't even like for show, for fashion.

But what they did was, and at the time I was a paper boy, they put together a budget.

And they said, if you want them, you have to pay for them, but you can't just blow $100.

Now, what you'll do is you'll save for it.

And honestly, I'm not kidding you, Jane.

One day my mom just said, hey, Greg, I'm like, yeah, she goes, you can buy the shoes.

I'm like, I'd forgotten.

And then we went to the store and bought the shoes, and I bought the shoes with my money.

Did it

mean more to you?

Or were you reset?

It's like, you know, you guys could have bought this for me.

It had been a whole lot easier.

Well, first of all, I didn't want to have the taste smacked out of my face by saying that.

But no, that's kidding.

My parents would never do that.

At the time I didn't, they just said it.

That's what we're going to do.

It made sense.

We were, I lived in a very frugal home.

It was, I was spoiled with love and with opportunity.

But you had to earn it.

But my parents said no to a lot of things.

And I appreciate that for as long as I live.

And looking back now at that specific event, that was a big thing for me.

And we could actually talk about this on another show about financial literacy, especially in children, but I derailed it really quick.

But yeah, I mean, and when I was a young kid,

It became a thing.

$100 shoes.

Well, Tim has $100 shoes.

Well, Matt has $100.

I want

$100.

All the cool kids have them.

And they're not getting cheaper.

No.

Well, and again, thanks to Tariff, the price of shoes had went up 1.4% in July alone.

And the cost of apparel also on the rise.

This is not, of course, the Tariff pain, not just limited to consumers, Wisconsin small businesses.

Also struggling with tariffs.

Some have been forced to absorb the costs, threatening their success.

Others are now passing on the increased prices to their customers because they don't have a lot of choices.

And

again, because the importers are not the ones paying the tariffs.

This is an important point.

There were some Trump administration officials

could have been the president himself, who claimed that other companies pay the tariffs, they don't.

Other countries.

Other countries

pay the

tariffs, they don't.

No, they do not.

Importers, the people on our side of the ocean, bring these items in, they pay the tariffs, and then pass that on to the consumer.

which is nothing new.

This isn't a new thing, tariffs have been around for a very, very long time.

And it's an agreement, you know, if you want something from overseas, you have to pay for it.

And good on some of these companies who are able to absorb it.

But that's, but that, that what you just said, that statement, risking their own success at a certain point, you have to say, well, I can't do this anymore.

If I want to make a living for my me and my family and my employees, then the people have to pay.

And

Just now just now some of these Trump supporters and some of these Trump administration members are starting to say well Yeah, people are gonna have to pay it and then they wrap it in but that's what you just have to do right now Well, we were told there

would be two years of pain remember Elon Musk Yes, the co-president.

I don't know where he's at.

He's I guess

he loves space two years of pain two years of pain that's

what we were promised.

We were promised two years of pain, we were told two years of pain and then unlimited winning.

Right.

But the problem, and I really feel like we should have our own little, maybe we should create our own little music bed for this one where it just says like no long-term planning, this gets filed into it.

Two years of pain, then what?

Then what?

And why?

Because of then what?

What is going to bring us all of the winning?

Because as we cannot afford things,

Here's here's the problem and I've mentioned this before as we can't afford things You can't not buy your kids school stuff, right?

So what you're gonna do is you're going to put it on a credit card

or not pay other things

correct.

Oh,

yes Or both I mean that too.

We're I mean let's let's put on more credit card debt with the gutting with the gutting of a social safety net We've heard from people who say they have to make decisions between paying their rent and buying food or paying the mortgage or buying their kids clothing or medicine but

When there's a credit card available, Jane, all that goes away with only a 20 to 30 percent interest rate per month.

And once again, talking about this administration's lack of foresight and lack of planning, this from NPR, some Florida farmers are now reducing their crops as deportation fears drive their workers away.

Trump promised they held up

Signs at rallies mass deportations now mass deportations now well, we're they're happening and Now our fields are empty.

Yes, and we're leaving crops to rot because shockingly there's not a long line of Americans Lining up to pick strawberries for eight hours ten hours a day

Well, Jane, I have a solution for you today.

What would that be?

I brought you all in the day for the specially curated Labor Day edition to tell you that I believe in what the the Trump administration has talked about and my her name is escaping me right now But she said we can take all those able-bodied people defrauding Medicaid.

Yeah secretary Rawlins, right right right take those individuals those Terrible individuals who are able-bodied on Medicaid just bilking the system for

dozens of dollars, apparently, and put them in the fields and get them working, Jane, because that's what you need to do to be a great American.

It comes with your own bootstraps.

Yeah, in this NPR article, which we will include in our show notes so

you can

take a look after if you would like to look at this a little bit further, they interview a farmer in Florida who is a strawberry farmer.

He's been farming at the same land since the 1980s, but he says things changed almost overnight.

Trump's immigration policies, including mass deportations and detentions, have dealt him a crippling blow, quote, the government is killing farming.

This is going to end us, unquote.

It won't kill farming for big farmers.

Right.

Corporate farms are going to do just that.

Just.

Fine.

That piddly competition they got there throughout Wisconsin, thousands of farms.

Don't worry about that.

We'll have three farms in this, in this state.

And, uh, yes, because I'm thinking, I'm thinking of our conversation with William Sue, who does, he does.

And it's not just a matter of the immigration too.

It's a matter of, of when they put these tariffs on us.

We can't afford to make these orders because people are buying it so if we're buying if we're buying less ginseng from someone like William He produces less well those countries that are producing their ginseng or buying it from William need to find it somewhere So all of it work like the tariffs are gonna hurt are hurting the farmers the immigration policies are hurting the farmers and then That business from other countries doesn't come back because they find better and cheaper

Alternatives for their imports for the things that we used to give them.

But because of this big, bold, beautiful winning plan, now we have farmland that's empty, farmers who can't afford to do the things crops that are rotting crops that are rotting.

But yet, my God, America, so great.

Economists have warned that Trump's ongoing deportation campaign will hurt the U.S.

economy, especially sectors that rely on migrant labor just in the last four months.

Agriculture employment has fallen by over 150,000 workers, the biggest decline in almost a decade.

So again, feel free to jump in line.

There's all kinds of jobs waiting for you in America's fields,

apparently.

We are not live today, but I'll say this.

Jane says at civicmedia.us if you've got

If you've got facts that we're not seeing, if you've got suggestions that are rooted in research and data that we're not looking at, send them to us.

Because I would love to find a way to not only fix this problem, but help farmers flourish and thrive.

We talk to Darren Von Ruden every month.

Pat talks to Hans Breitenmusser.

This is a network that cares deeply about farmers.

And we are seeing our government who honestly,

we're not going to lie, have been raked over the coals by both parties for decades.

Our

farmers?

Yes.

But this is a, in my opinion, a calculated and premeditated path to destroying our farming.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in July, the president has been unequivocal.

There will be no amnesty.

Ultimately, the answer to this is automation.

Yes.

And then when you think about it, there are 34 million able-bodied adults in our Medicaid program.

There are plenty of workers in America.

Farmers spoken to by NPR say this is ludicrous.

Many are already paying well above the minimum wage, and they have gotten few American-born job applicants.

One farmer says the interest and the willingness to work on farms

has not been there, it hasn't been there for a long time.

And maybe one of the reasons is because while we rely on our farmers so heavily and so deeply for the things they provide, we are not a country that instills the need for farming as far as occupations.

We don't say, hey kids, do you want to work on a farm?

It's something you do because your parents did it.

or you have the money to start one.

It's a whole other conversation, but her statement is ridiculous.

It's Labor Day.

We are with you in a specially pre-recorded program.

We will be right back.

Stay close.

This is Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning and welcome to Matt and Air on Air.

Jane Matt and Air, Greg Bach, Dr. Slide on the board coming to you from our home here at Radio Park in Racine.

It is Labor Day.

Happy Labor Day everybody.

You are listening to a specially pre-recorded episode of Matt and Air on Air as you have the day off.

We're all also taking the day off as well.

In the second hour, we're going to be hearing from an interview we did with Robert Pilat, who is

such a great conversation.

The host of native roots radio here on civic media talking about the impacts of the closure, the cuts to public broadcasting, which led to the closure of the corporation for public broadcasting, discussing the knock on effects.

of what this will do to tribal stations around the country, especially the one we have here in the state.

So in the second hour, Robert Pilots, stick around.

Also one of the best voices in radio ever.

By far.

Robert's got great pipes.

He really does.

He sounds great.

A lot of things that we don't always get to we keep in a running sheet of topics we would like to cover and sometimes News is breaking so fast nowadays it seems to happen from hour to hour hour and so this gave us an opportunity to kind of look over some things that we wanted to get to that had maybe we haven't spent too terribly much time on but this is important Epstein accuser Virginia gruff Roy Giffroy

Giffray.

Giffray.

I apologize if I ruin her name.

Her memoir is going to be posthumously published called Nobody's Girl.

She completed this before her suicide in April.

They're going to release this on October 21st of Virginia Giffray, one of the most prominent and outspoken accusers of Jeffrey Epstein.

She has described how as a minor while she was working at Mar-a-Lago.

She was recruited by Epstein's girlfriend, Jelaine Maxwell, and then ultimately got, as she said, passed around like a plate of fruit among his friends.

Jelaine Maxwell, there were some releases about her one-on-one interview with Trump's personal attorney, Todd Blanche.

What a shock.

The woman whose freedom rests in the hands of one man, he was not in that.

The Epstein files.

Trump was never mentioned.

In a courthouse interview with the deputy attorney general again, Todd Blanche, Jelaine Maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking, maintained that President Trump and other famous figures were not involved.

doesn't never know there was no specific client list, no credible evidence that Epstein never blackmailed anybody.

They were just all it was all peachy keen good.

If you'd like a really good breakdown in the context of this, you want to go to August 23rd episode of amicus a law review.

Jim spent almost the entire episode talking about this and something that came up during the discussion with a guest.

Jeannie from Eau Claire said that that this interview with Todd Blanche done by himself and only the two of them only the two of them a room and the releasing of this these notes this past the past week This is an attempt to reframe the crimes so that people can reconsider the whole situation because let's let's face it there are gonna be people out there who say well

She said he wasn't there and that's official.

I guess we're fine.

Who are the Democrats on the list?

I don't care who's on the list.

I mean, I do care.

I don't care what party they belong to.

I don't care if they're my favorite bands, but this is all just another and there'll be people who say, oh, well, that's good enough for me.

Right.

Even though these are individuals who have been flying the flag for years, that this is important to know about and they wouldn't believe anything.

But the moment that she says he wasn't there, they these supporters will go.

Well, that's enough for

me.

But what's tough is she also said that she never saw Bill Clinton do anything either.

Now, that's kind of a weird disconnect.

I mean, because they were promised.

Mm hmm.

Trump supporters were promised.

Yeah.

This was going to lead to the downfall of Bill and Hillary Clinton and all these Democrats.

Everybody's on the Epstein list.

And now Jelaine Maxwell says, yeah, no, nobody was on the there is no list.

And.

As a reminder, if you don't already know, she is sitting in minimal security prison in Texas after, and it will be a matter, I mean, Jane, I know you said, I don't know if you said on there or off there.

Her sentence will probably be commuted.

She will be out.

She will be pardoned.

She will be out.

Actually, yeah, she won't be pardoned.

She'll be commuted.

They'll drop the charges.

Absolutely.

And they're just going to let her skate.

And then this will become just another topic on the ash pile.

of things we don't have time to talk about because there's so much happening, but we cannot forget this.

We

cannot.

Again, it will be interesting.

I don't know that there are new revelations that will be coming out in this book by, again, Virginia Gouffray, who was one of the most prominent victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Jelaine Maxwell and that whole thing.

But the book is coming out on October 21st.

So we'll see whether or not there's any fallout from that.

Again, of course, anybody who might look bad, they're just gonna discredit this poor woman.

Now, she's gone.

She can't defend herself

anymore.

She's a liar.

And it's really funny.

But Jelaine

Maxwell isn't.

Totally trustworthy.

I mean, I would leave my kids behind.

She

would never, ever lie in order to secure freedom.

Nobody ever does that.

I just keep on going.

I actually think about this way too much, but the group of people who have used this topic to push, you know, a hatred of pedophilia and child trafficking.

And granted, I'm not defending any of those things, but it seems like they never seem to listen and believe the survivors and or victims.

It is give us the heads of the criminals.

Well, this person said these things.

She's wrong.

That doesn't fit my narrative.

That's not what I was told.

So I'm gonna be both, I'm gonna be probably sickened by the response from the public of what they say about this woman who left us too soon.

We have news coming up next.

You are listening to a specially curated pre-recorded program.

You are listening to Matt Nair on air.

Stay close on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Good morning and welcome back to Matt and air on air.

It's our Labor Day special edition.

It is all prerecorded.

It's all here for you and we are happy you are joining us today on this wonderful and important day, especially in the history of Wisconsin.

As I just said, this is a prerecorded episode, so you can't get in touch with us, but you can download the civic media app and listen to these shows.

any time anywhere you want.

You can listen live on your phone, on your tablet, on your device of your choice.

You can also find us by going to civicmedia.us slash shows and downloading episodes from the past.

Go to Matt and Aaron air and you can find episodes going back months and you can listen to them anywhere, anytime.

Go to civicmedia.us slash shows.

Now, I want to get to our guest.

I want to welcome her to the stage because she is not only an organizing director for WEAC, she is not only a comedian who was very, very funny, but she's also my friend, Kristen Leidy.

Thank you so much for being with us today.

Hey, thanks for having me.

I'm thrilled to be on.

So you work for WEAC.

You are the organizing director.

Tell us what does WEAC mean and what does WEAC do?

Yeah, so we act is the Wisconsin Education Association Council and we are the Educators Union.

We work with teachers, paras, secretarial staff, bus drivers, all the people working to make sure public education happens.

So I am one of

five organizing directors around the state.

And essentially, I help these local unions figure out what goals they want to achieve, what problems they want to overcome, and create the strategy behind getting it done.

And you also talked to me about the fact that you teach people how to organize and build their own unions.

That seems like a lot.

That's a big process.

Tell us about the baseline idea of teaching people how to create their own democratic union.

Yeah, it's work that I absolutely love.

And you know, the history of unionism is suppressed in this country.

So a lot of people have very different ideas of how their union should run and work.

And oftentimes we conflate personal relationships with public relationships and don't understand how we build power to influence decision makers in a way that is not

so much a personal relationship.

Like you can be friendly and friends with your boss even, but organizing is about building power within the work site so that we can influence the bosses and show them these other things workers want.

These are what the educators in this school want, and that's what we're going to fight for.

So essentially, I teach people how to hold meetings, build consensus.

move an agenda, create a demand, create a series of escalating actions that push for that demand, and how to track things and hold people accountable along the way to make sure that their team is functioning as best it can.

And on social media, I mean, we're on the social media, I see a lot of videos, and one of the threads that I follow are some people who will read

Text messages back and forth emails with bosses or management who try to use the we're buddies We're friends to get something out of them like I'm sick today Well, can you get on that call anyways?

And I feel like that's something you said just now about you can be friendly with your boss But there has to be a line that's shown where respect starts and respect ends and it's not okay to demand

performance beyond a certain degree because we can't be everywhere all the time.

It's about saying, all right, you have a work-life balance.

Here's what I expect of you.

Here's what you must deliver.

But you can't be like, hey, buddy, can you come in on your day off?

I mean, it would really, really help.

Oh, absolutely.

We see weaponized guilt used in the workforce all the time just to get you to do a little more, to make it work, and hey, don't you want to do that for the students, you know?

And it's hard to push back and say no and hold personal boundaries to maintain work-life balance, but that's what unions are all about.

So we are about centering ourselves in a way where we can show up fully, emotionally ready.

to work with students and be our best for them.

So that's really what we're about.

And maybe that's something I should have kicked off, too, is the fact that Wisconsin, I mean, our union history, as you said, is suppressed.

But our union history is strong and very rich and inspirational to other states.

Unfortunately, with Act 10 that came down the pike, it changed everything, specifically with teachers.

It changed the narrative.

And over the years, how have you seen that narrative be rebuilt in a positive light?

whether it be through legislation, protesting, or through the newly appointed Supreme Court.

Oh it sure does.

We worked really hard to turn out the vote for that April election to get Crawford in that seat because we know she's someone who understands the value of public education and public sector workers as a whole.

I'm still riding high from winning that, by the way.

When it came in, that was 10 points.

That was great.

So what we see now is a large support for public education.

Most referendums throughout the state, whether they be operational or building facility referendums, are passing.

So that tells us people really support public education.

They support teachers.

They want these things for their community.

But yet, the right wing is always out there trying to spin it as greedy teachers.

which is just not what voters are aligning themselves with.

And that's great to see.

If you're just joining us, I'm Matt Nara Nara.

I'm talking to Kristen Lighty.

She is an organizing director at WEAC and we are talking unions because it is Labor Day and we want you to know about the history and the progress of the movement.

And I was talking about this on the show last week regarding the fact that in a WPR article, it said that the voters will most likely have to go back to the polls to vote on more increases on their own taxes because Madison won't step up and actually give the proper funding the school system.

need and I feel that narrative has been very deeply ingrained into the general public of our schools are failing our teachers are bad let's do it a different way but really it's the schools were underfunded not giving the resources not spent on the students and therefore they're not living up to their expectations but because our legislators aren't coming up with the funding it's the fault of the teachers and the kids somehow.

Absolutely.

And our Wisconsin legislature was sitting on 7 billion when they denied our request.

And part of it is about fairness.

Like, this state Wisconsin reimburses special ed programs for private schools at 90%.

Guess how much they reimbursed public ed schools for special ed programs?

I think it was 30%.

There's

less than that.

Yeah, it's like, yeah.

Yeah.

So and

private schools can turn away any students they want.

Public schools have to accept everyone who applies because it's federal law.

So we take in a lot more high needs population because they're welcome there.

And the other thing too we talk about as well is you know when people say well there's not enough money it's because we're taking public school funding and funding a voucher program with that and that's coming directly out of your tax money.

So in essence Wisconsin

as well as

other states fund two school systems.

Two of them.

Another thing you do at WEAC as well as setting up unions for different groups is also talking about things like pay equity and staffing issues and how they affect the classroom.

Can you speak more on that?

Absolutely.

And that's one of the issues we're seeing with this lack of funding is, you know, we are not realizing what school really is, right?

We build these block buildings with no windows that look like prisons and just treat teachers like they're babysitters.

We're cutting arts.

We're cutting music.

We're cutting all these creative outlets.

We're like mental health funding.

I think the standard for counselors is one counselor to 250 students.

That's not a meaningful relationship.

We're not putting the funding in to create these spaces to really help our communities.

We're creating facilities that meet the bare minimum.

And that, I think, is honestly reflected in the national epidemic of violence we're seeing in our schools.

Absolutely.

And I want to talk more about that in a moment.

But really, when it comes to the work that WEAC does, in those situations, what do you do to help combat that, to fight for better pay for these, or more counselors, or just increasing the services or the programs available in schooling through the work of WEAC?

Yeah, we absolutely support referendums to get more people hired.

I mean, school funding is something I could go on for hours in itself.

But right now, the Band-Aid solution is to go to referendums.

So like up here in Ashwabanan, they had a referendum a few years back that secured positions that were specifically for mental health in the district.

And we worked knocking doors, putting out yard signs and giving funds to that referendum to make sure it got passed.

So we also, you know, I like to organize on building issues.

So, you know, I'll meet with folks and talk about how is understaffing affecting?

What kind of positions do we need to get in here?

We had a caseload conversation in Pulaski that resulted in getting 13 new staff hired to help with issues there.

So really it's about going in at the building level.

and talking with people about what they really need, what they really want in their school, and then figuring out how we influence those administrators to make it happen.

Because really, those administrators understand it is what's best for students as well.

I can't even imagine what it's like to be an administrator in today's school.

I mean, being a teacher.

is very very difficult but you're like it's that direct relationship with the students whereas an administrator has to deal with a lot of times it's the students it's the teachers it's the parents it's the higher ups it's the superintendent the the the problems with the the department of education it's all that added pressure when really as you said earlier you're not getting into this to be a millionaire or a billionaire you got into this because you want to affect the lives of our kids because when they get a good education

Good things happen for the community.

I mentioned this last week.

I voted yes for the referendum in Kenosha.

It failed, but I voted yes.

I don't have children.

I do not have investment directly into the schools, but kids in my neighborhood, kids in my community getting a good education creates a direct benefit for me and for my neighborhood and for my community.

So if I have to, I'll go to the polls and say yes, but eventually I need Madison to step up.

And that's the thing.

I think the status quo of this country has really leaned so hard into this idea of you're an individual and make it work for yourself.

But some things need to exist for the common good.

You know, we need schools, we need healthcare, we need affordable housing.

Like those are the bare minimums we need to function as a society.

Absolutely.

And I think that concept that

aggressive individuality is wonderful in the abstract or in a vacuum or on social media.

But when it comes down to like, they're your neighbor, I, I feel a lot of people who might like, say, ah, not our schools will be like, I can help my neighbor.

Okay, you've got basic qualities of human decency.

Let's expand that and let's help create and share that with our with at least your, your municipality.

Let's start there.

Let's just, if you can vote to

help

the schools, that's great.

That's what I love about my work so much is like I teach people how to build community within their workplace to be there for one another to stand up for one another And to have a shared vision and it's really cool

And we're gonna talk more about that on the other side after we take a moment to get hydrated to grab a snack And I want to talk to you about one of the things you do as a union organizer in our schools that some may not attribute to your job description

It's a very interesting discussion that we're going to be having with my friend Kristen Lighty, who is the organizing director at Weak up in Green Bay.

She is also a fantastic comedian.

She's also a fantastic person.

I'm very lucky.

And we're very happy to have her today on our Labor Day episode of Matt and air on air.

So don't go anywhere.

Stay close.

Stay awesome.

You are listening to Matt and air on air on the civic media radio network will be right

back.

Good, good morning and welcome back to Matt and air on air.

My name is Greg box sitting in for Jane, Matt and air sitting in for everyone because it's Labor Day.

We're off, but we're here with our Labor Day special edition and I am here with my friend organizing director at Weak comedian extraordinaire, fantastic human being, Kristen Lighty, and we're talking about the work they do at Weak organizing, setting up unions, getting the workers set right.

and making sure that we endure with respect and power as we move forward in a country that sometimes feels like they're trying to take it away from us.

But that's for another conversation.

Kristen, before we went to get ourselves a snack and get hydrated, we were kind of getting an overview of what you do at WEAC.

the common what what the direct goal is there and one of the things you mentioned to me when we did our pre interview was talking about the management of violent behavior in students and when I think of that I don't think of unions I think of other things I think of like other you know a lot of times people will think of a police officer inside the school they'll think of other manners of taking care of that but what do you at WEAC and what does the union do

to help with that situation.

So ideally the union is the mechanism that makes the solution happen in these schools.

What we try to do is sit down with the educators that are affected and talk through what is happening that's triggering the student.

What do we need to make this a safe classroom for students and for staff?

And essentially, we try to move those demands to a principal, to a dean of students, to some administrator that sees the value in what we are trying to bring into the classroom and works with us to make those accommodations happen.

Sometimes people think the answer is more police presence in a school, but that can exasperate the school to prison pipeline.

So we want to be thoughtful and intentional about the solutions that we are advocating for to ensure that they create safety for staff and for students.

It makes me really happy to know that not only are you as a union organizer doing what I think people traditionally think a union does, but you're getting into these.

discussions, you're getting into these conversations and these situations and trying to use your ability to broker results together.

Absolutely.

You know, unions are all about working conditions and that can go as deep as its members want it to.

And with Labor Day, it's September.

I can't believe it's September already.

I

know.

I know time march is on I've been trying but it just doesn't work it doesn't stop for anyone specifically me but it's back to school which means you must be working a lot things are busy what are the what are what's on your things to do list at we act when we're talking about back to school

Yeah, so over the summer I work with seven teams in like Northeast Wisconsin and those are members who are using their summer break to talk to new hires and people who haven't joined the union yet about all the awesome work they're doing and ask them to join the union.

So we've had a lot of new recruits come on board and now we are going into the phase of

Okay, we have the school year start.

We have everybody teach for a while.

And then we pull folks together generally around October, November to talk about, okay, what is the work of the union this year?

What are our goals going to be?

And what is the plan to achieve those goals going to be?

So it is is a very exciting time of year.

Now, when you sit people down for those conversations, I have to imagine that you have

people who are teaching who might come to you and say, Well, why do I need the union?

I don't want the union.

I'm fine by my own.

I don't, you know, they'll come to you with a lot of rhetoric or misinformation about unions.

What do you do to just have that talk to say, I get you, I understand where you're coming from.

A lot of things going on in the world.

You're being told a lot.

Let's break down what we do and how we can help you.

Oh, absolutely.

And I would say that is for every workforce, not just teachers that, you know, people have that thought, especially in this country of like, I can do it myself.

But, you know, what the union provides is that sense of security and community.

And it's a place where you can speak openly and honestly about your profession and then plan to make those changes that you want to see happen.

And of course, there is the security piece in that if something happens to you in the workforce, someone has your back, you know?

Well, that's all excellent.

And that's, and Kristen, I love talking to you about this stuff.

But another way, in fact, the first way I got to know you, the first way we met is through comedy.

You are a comedian, a stand-up comic.

You travel all over the country.

I mean, it's kind of a, how does she do it all type of situation?

I'm

so tired.

And there you have it, folks.

There's the answer.

How does one do it all?

They're just tired.

Tell us about you.

Tell me about you as a stand-up.

Not how you make it work, because you are smart enough to make it work, but more about just you're on the road doing shows, but you're also working to organize.

Yeah, I've had great conversations with folks after shows about how they can organize unions in their workplace, which is always very exciting to me.

And yeah, I just use all my vacation time to do comedy.

And it does kind of fuel me because no one calls the union rep because they're having a great day.

So like, I marinate in that all day every day.

And, you know, of course, we help strategize, we help create plans, and there are victories.

But, you know, sometimes you need that creative outlet to help your soul bounce back.

Well, I love the fact that you use your creative outlet so, so well.

You are so very funny.

Do you have a website that people can go to to check out to see where you're doing shows?

I do.

It's christenlite.com and October 30th, I'm actually doing a fundraiser in Appleton for the Harbor House with Jackie Cation,

which I

am so excited about.

The Pride of South Milwaukee Jackie Cation.

Absolutely.

Awesome.

We'll go to christenlite.com for more information.

And Kristen, thank you so much for being here today.

I really, really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and sharing what you know and fighting the amazing fight.

Thank you, and happy Labor Day.

Organized Labor is the only thing that's going to fight fascism.

Stick around because coming up after the commercial, we are going to be talking to Robert Pilat, who is the host of Native Roots Radio here on Civic Media Monday through Friday, 8 to 9 PM, talking about the effects of the closure of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting on tribal stations across the country.

Don't go anywhere.

Stay close.

Stay safe.

You're listening to Matt Nair on air on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Happy Labor Day!

Good morning and welcome.

Welcome to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach and Calvin Butenoff coming to you live from our studio here at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text.

The number is the same eight.

five five seven five two four eight four two that's eight five five seven five civic or you can leave a comment if you're watching on the live stream on facebook youtube and what used to be twitter lots coming up this hour last half hour of the show we will lighten it up as we always do with audio sorbet chance to get away from the news clean our brains a little bit

audio sorbet we cleared you we clean

your ears with fun there you go uh today's

groundbreaking discussion will be sweet pickles versus dill pickles.

I started a war yesterday.

I didn't realize this was such a hot topic, but sweet versus dill pickles.

That's audio sorbet after 10 30.

Well, wrap up the shows we always do with this shouldn't be a thing.

Today it is the sleeping beauty edition.

Stay tuned for that right now.

We are delighted to be joined by Robert pilot.

He is the host of native roots radio and has one of the best voices on the planet.

In fact, I'm going to be sending you my refrigerator manual, Robert.

you can record it.

And then I can play it at night when I'm trying to fall asleep.

Robert Piley to see your good morning, Robert.

Easy, easy.

Thanks for having me on.

That was awesome.

I'm really glad to be here and talk about some things.

And I just got to give a quick shout out to Civic Media.

for really amplifying native roots radio all over Wisconsin too.

So just want to give a shout out to Civic Media right away before I forget because I have a good memory, but it's short.

Hey, I'm with you on that.

By the way, native roots radio airs across the network from eight to nine weeknights here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Fantastic show.

Robert is the host again, native roots radio here across the network weeknights from eight to nine on Civic Media.

Robert, one of the reasons why we wanted to talk to you

was about the recent decision to cut the corporation for public broadcasting.

That helps pay for PBS and PR, 1500 local radio and TV stations, of course, programs like Sesame Street and so many more.

And public radio has really been critically important for our native populations for a long time, correct?

Oh, absolutely.

And, you know, we do, Native Arts Radio does the best of on WOJB in Hayward, and 45% of their budget has been cut.

And that's 100,000 watt station that covers three different states.

And so that's significant, you know, and, you know, just in Wisconsin, other than tribal stations, there's been, you know,

40 stations will be affected in Wisconsin and over two dozen in Minnesota and I know specifically for me I do a show I'm on five days a week and I do a show once a month called Little Moments Count and we bring in experts about

you know, how to raise your kids and talk to your kids from, you know, age zero to seven years old.

And that's funded by NPR here.

They pay for that when they come on native Ritz radio.

And so it affects me to a degree, but it's also it's frightening to see our partners out there and people speaking the truth be cut like this.

And it's just

You know half the game plan or I think I heard three quarters of the game plan of 2020 2025 is completed now so we are definitely China right now and we're heading towards Russia so

We need to be careful and the one thing I always like to talk about a native roots radio to is not only solutions and how we're taking care of ourselves and Caught you know calls to action, but also that Native Americans are used to this.

This is nothing new to us and Not that surprising but also, you know when we try to

You know my tribe specifically Ho-Chunk Nation.

I was a legislator for four years for Ho-Chunk Nation and the week after Trump took over We lost something like eight million dollars and we had to lay off 80 people in the healthcare system And so it affects everything even though we want to say it doesn't but it does

well, and that's something Robert that

for me, I kind of put it out there into the world on social media.

And I know first mistake is to say justify this for me.

Tell me why cutting this funding is fiscally responsible slash making America great again, if you will.

And someone came back at me to say, Well, it's because of their model, they weren't making money and they didn't they didn't adopt platforms like online and all these fiscal excuses.

But when I looked it up myself,

Donald Trump has flatly come out and said that PBS, you know, where Mr. Rogers lives and NPR are liberal woke bastions of indoctrination.

So this isn't about a business model or about finance.

This is about, as you just mentioned, messages that can be perceived as a threat to power and to a threat to quote their version of America.

So I don't think it's about finance.

It's about about silencing voices.

Well, that's true.

They wouldn't be sending troops to Washington or LA They'd be sending them to Tennessee into these places where crime has gone up So it's all about attacking the blue states and and people that don't Feel the same the way that president does so it's just a it's an attack one of the things Jane and Greg I'd like to ask you as an interviewer.

I I you know

I was a big Bernie guy, you know, and I wonder how he's getting all these things done where our Democratic relatives couldn't seem to get anything done.

So how is he getting all this done?

And so that makes me pause too.

And again, you know, there's an old saying with the Native Americans is, you know, the left wing and the right wing are from the same bird.

And so that's what we've been dealing with for 500 years here as Native Americans.

But we cannot run now on one issue.

I mean, vote.

We cannot vote on one issue.

And I think that's what happened the last time around is that people were talking about Gaza and things like that where, look what's happening right now.

you know the first presidency uh that trump had he was recorded i think 65 000 lies in in four years yeah he was busy let's

just recognize the talent okay of lying at that kind of velocity

really

quite something yeah

but

Well, it's it's amazing too because all his followers now uh appear to be doing that too

and

I remember there was a hat that came out when he was first elected that said uh make racists afraid again well they're not they're they're uh with the mainstream media and um you know they're they're getting the thumbs up to do whatever they want and that's the really most disappointing thing for me and that's why shows like yours

ours and being on civic media is so so important is because.

As we spit out the, you know, there's five companies that own 95% of the errors in us.

We know who owns civic media and we know who owns AM 950.

You're talking to the people that that do that.

And so it's frightening times, but it's important that Jane and Greg and Robert do not give up.

We got to keep talking about it.

I mean, it is about making sure that the accurate information is out there.

And I want, for my estimation, Democrats ceded a lot of territory for a really long time.

And at least in the case of AM Radio, allowed the right wing to dominate AM Radio for decades.

decades and decades and so for many areas especially in rural communities that became the only source for information and civic media's goal is to provide accurate information for people who might not be getting it otherwise.

And I think PBS was the same thing.

They reported facts.

Facts don't care about your feelings.

Who did we hear that from so many times?

Over and over and over again.

By the way, if you're just joining us, Robert Pilat is our guest.

He's the host of Native Roots Radio, which airs across the network Monday through Friday from 8 to 9

p.m.

Robert, what you're saying now is so interesting because we just spoke to Andrew Watkins on the topic of white Christian national nationalism, making its way into the mainstream of our government, our halls of power, whether it's TV, radio, government, all those things and everything you are talking about connects to the conversation there.

You talk about the fact that native folks have been getting this sort of treatment for so long and now

people who you know people who would agree with the the uplift of native folks tribes the issues that you face on a daily basis are now saying you're going how can they do that to us well now native folks saying yeah they've been doing to it for a long time where were you this whole time and also the question of Democrats versus Republicans that is such a huge question to ask and I think for me the immediate answer not not an answer but something that provides

maybe some context of the conversation is I feel like Democrats underestimated so many things for so long.

And I think with regard to what you said, Jane, as for decades, AM radio was the place for this information.

We counted that as the fringe.

We counted that those individuals as well, they're saying crazy things.

That's too crazy.

That's not America.

Not fringe.

And as Andrew said in the previous hour, this is not fringe.

This is mainstream.

That's

who is in charge now, because they were listening to these people for five decades.

I don't know how I could do this.

I, you know, I'm 64 years old.

So I my South Park era was, you know, 20 years ago.

But now, how are they the only media out there?

That's taking care of really what we need to talk about.

It's crazy.

CBS bow down.

Uh, you know, and again, mainstream media is, is normalized all this and, and it's saying it's okay to be racist again.

Well, and.

The reckoning is going to be coming again.

It's this, well, they're not going to touch me.

I did what he asked.

We did what the president wanted.

We did the thing, whatever the thing was.

So therefore we're going to be safe.

That's not how it works.

Right.

That's not how it

works.

I don't know any billionaires and We

hang out with the wrong

people Robert.

We're not hanging out with the

right people Everybody's fair game now.

So they don't know that, you know You know, it's just crazy.

I have a sister-in-law who's a teacher in New York and guess who she voted for, you know, I mean in New York City where it's melt

out of people, you're voting against your own interests, your own, your own students.

It's, it's just an amazing thing that's happened.

What is, what is, what is her justification, Robert?

What does she

say?

Oh, let me tell you this.

This is what drives my wife crazy because she's a New Yorker too.

And about her sister and hopefully her sister's not listening, but probably not.

She's listening to Fox is she wanted to

How did she put that she she wanted to?

You know support her husband Her husband's a raving Republican.

So

it's like he

does Yeah, hello 1950 55

What were we just talking about last hour?

I'm not kidding you Robert your conversation the the discussion we were having right now is like a part two to what we were talking about with Andrew Watkins this this idea of

the woman's vote reflects her husband because well he's my husband and that when you say that line says he's the head of the house and he's the he is the one in charge and he knows better

we're going to continue our conversation with Robert Pilots on the other side he's the host of native roots radio keep it right here you're listening to the civic media radio network who will be right back

and welcome back to Matt Nair on air.

Jane Matt Nair, Greg Bach Doctor, slide on the board coming to you from our studio at Radio Park in Racine.

You can always join us, call or text at 855-752-4842.

Leave a comment.

If you're watching on the live stream, hello live stream.

On Facebook, YouTube, and what used to be Twitter, we are joined by the host of Native Roots Radio that you can catch across civic media weeknights from 8 to 9 p.m.

Robert Pilot.

is here.

We were talking about the recent cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and what that is going to mean, particularly for our native populations, which get a lot of their information from NPR.

And we had a text come in from Troy from Mount Horrib.

Greg, when Robert said

about your sister, we both sighed audibly.

Yeah, yeah, there was, oh, I don't even know what to do with that.

And before we went to the commercial, you wanted to say something, Robert, I wanted to give you the opportunity to continue that thought.

Yeah, thanks a lot.

I just remembered what she said to my wife,

and

that was, I want to honor my husband.

And I'm going, what year is this?

1951 and

Yeah, it's just a mind-blowing situation and I just don't know how to respond We don't talk any politics when I'm in New York because I do a lot of my show from New York Long Island and I Just saw them the last time I was there and we didn't talk any and but I did talk to her husband and just say I Did say speak my opinion he asked me how are things going and I told him

and what did he

say?

He somewhat agreed, which kind of really surprised me.

So if that's any indication of what's happening and I believe it is an indication that people are waking up to it and that's why the gerrymandering is going to be happening in Texas.

They're worried about 2026 and they should be, but we also have to keep talking about.

keep talking about issues and that's the thing that Native Ritz radio in a native perspective it keeps talking about the issues and and it's hard because people like I'm sure Greg and Eugene have gotten really worn out by all this going on every day every day there's something you know I again you know there's things like

He wanted the Washington team to bring back the racist name, you

know,

all these things.

And I try to, when I post on social media, which I'm on Blue Sky too, and trying to really combat the ex experience with Blue Sky.

But every time I post something that's political, it's like he's on the list is what I end it with.

Well, and that's, I mean, it's one of the reasons why we've started doing audio sorbet towards the end of the show is because if we were to talk about this stuff two hours a day, five days a week, there comes a point of burnout.

So that little bit of time where we can all come together, have a little bit of laugh, have a little bit of brevity and a little or levity, then that's the important thing.

And, and.

going back to what you just said about your brother-in-law or your sister-in-law's husband, we also spoke to Andrew about that and people are starting to wake up and say, I didn't vote for this.

This is not what I wanted, but in fact, you did.

He didn't really hide a whole lot of what he was going to do.

He made it very clear what he wanted to accomplish.

But he lied about a lot of stuff too.

Well, because that's what he does.

Yes.

And the fact that they don't know by now that he is a pathological terminal liar, that's something that they have to justify with themselves.

But also that notion of what you said your sister-in-law, her reason for voting for Trump was to honor her husband.

And I wonder, was she the type of person 10 years ago who would have said those words specifically, I want to honor my husband?

Or is it because of this administration and this movement?

people are feeling that they need to do these things, they're feeling an obligation to honor the family, therefore honor the husband who is the head of the household and he is in charge.

Well, and if you're listening to the rhetoric that's going on, you know, we have somebody that's in the administration that wants to get rid of women's right to vote.

Oh, yeah, we were just talking about that.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's where we are right now.

But again, hopefully people are waking up.

And I mean, when I march to the Capitol here in St.

Paul,

you know, after the murders of an assassination of our, of our leaders here, Hortman and her husband, you know, they wanted to call it off, but there was 80,000 people at the Capitol that same day.

So people want to be engaged and do things.

I just want our politicians to snap out of it and more AOC, more Bernie, more governor, they're from California, the governor,

the

governor of Illinois.

More of that is what we need.

And call, call a, you know, call the kettle black.

Yeah.

This playing nice.

This, this try to play nice to get along, go along to get along is, is not the way to go forward.

That is not the answer to the mess that we're in.

And they're not playing by the rules.

Right.

Exactly.

Exactly.

And I will say this, whatever is happening to Marjorie Taylor green right now, I don't know what's happening.

It could all change tomorrow, but it's the.

Watching someone's eyes open in real time to what is going on in the world because of the things she has helped put.

That is what we're going to see from more people in the news saying, I didn't vote for this.

I didn't want this.

Well, it's what you got.

Robert Pilot is the host of Native Roots Radio, which you can catch across the network weeknights from eight to nine.

And by the way, Robert Ardeth on the live stream says, I agree with Jane about Robert Pilot's glorious voice.

It is the most soothing sound on radio.

I'll be sending you my kitchen mat, my whirlpool washer kitchen manual so you can read it for me and then I can play it when I try to fall asleep.

I'd appreciate that.

Well, a big Peenie Ghee.

Thank you so much for having me on and keep up the good work and keep fighting really.

Appreciate it.

Robert, thank you so very much.

Good morning and welcome, welcome back to Matt and Air on Air, our specially pre-recorded

Labor Day show.

Thank you so very much for joining us, whatever you're doing today.

We really appreciate you joining us for a little audio survey on this Monday, Labor Day.

Of course, Labor Day, the history of Labor Day.

The first Monday of September, Lady Bird Department recognizes the social and economic achievements of American workers, which began in the late

19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, watch the Gilded Age on HBO.

That's a pretty good indicator of the changes that came after that time.

Someone might say we're kind of back there.

Okay.

I always say you like you like Labor Day off.

Thank you union worker.

Amen to that and the five day work week and vacations and paid time off and the weekend and the weekend.

That's right.

Thank you unions.

Exactly.

And our labor workers.

Exactly.

So we're going to talk a little bit about Labor Day memories.

Official end of summer.

Yeah.

Labor Day.

Wisconsin has two official ends like.

the beginning of the end, not to sound morbid, but it's, I feel like when we talk about state fair, and every year, Jane, are you like this where you say the following sentence, wait, state fair is next week?

Yes, already.

Even though we know it's coming, the calendar is right there, and we've witnessed state fair for myself, quite a few decades.

Yeah, couple.

But we still say, I can't believe state fair is here already.

Labor Day is the same way, because usually,

I mean, some schools beforehand, but Labor Day is kind of that kickoff to school, too.

Back to school time.

Back to school time.

The one thing that we always did, we had a little cottage outside of my hometown.

My father was a mortician, which I've talked about a lot.

And we never took family vacations because he was a mortician in a small town.

And a lot of people will make pre-arrangements.

And so when that person passes, the family expects you to be there.

Yeah.

So we had a little cottage outside of Hartford so dad could go back into town in case something happened.

And the one thing we always did on Labor Day was when you took in the pier.

Yeah.

That was the tradition.

I went in on Memorial Day when it was freezing.

Yeah.

And then we took it out on Labor Day, which was usually always freezing.

It's sort of like a municipal pool in that sense.

Yes.

Yes.

And so a couple of things is I don't, I don't, I don't know the cabin life.

I've been in cabins, but they belong to other people.

Uh, first of all, did your dad ever get the call?

Oh yeah.

Oh really?

Oh sure.

Sometimes he'd have, we'd be out on the boat and he'd be taking us around on the, we call the surfboard that you would drag behind it and just bounce around like crazy.

Uh, yeah.

And he'd have to, he'd get, we'd get a call.

and have to go into town and take care of things.

A call, folks, on a landline.

Yes, on a

landline.

And now I'm just interested in this.

Did someone have to, honestly, did someone have to stay behind and be kind of the phone

monitor?

Oh, yeah.

We took turns, baby, sitting the phone.

That's

what it

was called.

That is a specific and very interesting memory to have about, you know, the...

It's a vacation.

You took time off, but it wasn't that getting the car and we're going to Yellowstone.

No.

Yeah.

No.

And yeah, that was a thing.

I mean, if our parents went out to dinner, one of the kids had to stay home to babysit the phone.

Wow.

And then if you got a call when they were out at dinner, then you called the restaurant and he left the restaurant.

My goodness.

Oh

yeah.

So you, okay.

So you had, you had a whole summer of, of cabin availability.

I mean, what was it?

Was it just, was it just relaxing?

Was it,

it was a lot of

work, but it was

laboring, but you'd go out on weekends and then you have to model on and hand trimming.

I remember the hand trimmer where it was a shears, it was a hand shears.

And that, that was before you had the great things with the spools, with the little wires on them.

You mean a lawnmower?

No, I mean like a weed-wecker.

This is pre-weed-wecker days.

I was like, I know, I mean,

I know there were a difference in age, but... You would hand trim everything.

That hurts my hand thinking about that.

Oh my goodness.

Oh, we had a ball.

We had a ball.

But the pier that we had was about 60 feet long because it was a really shallow lake until you got to a certain point and then there was a big drop off.

But it was a long pier.

Was it in different pieces?

That we were in about six foot sections.

Okay.

So you'd have to float it out there and walk it out there.

And then my brothers would put it.

Oh yeah, it was a thing.

Oh my goodness.

That was, and it went on for, we did that for decades.

Yeah.

Even after, as we graduated from high school and people started moving away, everybody came back for this.

You had to.

For the opening and closing?

For the opening and closing, because you had to get the beer

and

then take the beer

out.

Because that's one specific memory I only have for

My conversations with other people regarding their cabins is is what are you doing this weekend?

I've got to go up north and close down the cabin and I always think to myself what What does that entail that requires a whole weekend?

Yeah, I I think for me as much as I would love to own a second piece of property up north.

I feel like I'm In that one generation now where it's still it was possible simply because we grew up with that But I also feel like oh, that's never happening

Well, and now, I mean, if you talk to folks who have a second property, you go there and you work.

Yeah.

Because maintenance, there's always maintenance.

There's always stuff that has to get done.

There's shoveling, there's mowing, there's you name it.

I'm going to treat.

It's better to be vacation property adjacent.

That's what I

was going to say.

Be

friends with somebody

who

has a cabin versus having a cabin itself.

It's a world that I do not understand, but I'm always fascinated by because I would love to have a little second piece of property or go in with friends on a second piece of property.

While I'm saying that, I'm thinking to myself, that will end horribly.

And you will lose your friends.

That will end friendships.

That's

a whole

other discussion, actually.

That'd be a good discussion.

Calvin, do you have any specific Labor Day memories that come to mind when you think about the holiday?

Well, I mean, just one, this is not the most Sorbet-esque, but my first summer working for Civic, or my first Labor Day working for Civic Media, I...

Produced out of the walkshaw station a little Labor Day special where Earl Ingram went down to laborfest and interviewed Union workers.

Oh, yeah, I remember that but then just a little more on kind of in Jane's vein We had an above ground swimming pool when I was growing up.

Yeah, so we always was Closing down the swimming pool for the year.

You had to drain it down just enough and then put stuff inside it was it's not

It's a process.

Owning a pool is kind of like owning a boat.

Well, it's a lot more fun than it's or it's not as much fun as it sounds.

It's a lot more work than you think.

I would say that maybe owning a above ground pool and any pool really is kind of like owning a pet too.

You think it's going to be amazing.

Then you realize, oh, I've got to do all this stuff too.

And then you you're driving.

I drive a lot on county roads in the back country roads around here and you see people.

on their properties, you say, you can say to yourself, oh, you really didn't think about owning a pool, did you?

Because this is not pool ownership.

What's happened?

This is, eh, it's fine.

It'll be fine.

And

then a year later, like, oh, wow, the sides are black.

If you are just joining us, thank you for tuning in and joining us on this Labor Day, our special pre-recorded.

Episode of Matt Nair on air for a little audio sorbet today.

We're just talking about Labor Day memories.

What about you?

Did you guys do anything?

My family, so my media family, my mom, my dad, my sister, we didn't really do, no, we didn't.

We didn't have a Labor Day.

goings on, but when I got married, a tradition that we still do this every year is we go to Indiana for Labor Day and we visit with my wife's cousin and her family as well as other people.

She'll like her uncle and aunt show up and it's a night.

It's a mini family reunion

every year,

just in very compact, not, not, not crazy.

We go to their house.

They cook lots of great food.

I watch.

as much of the US open as humanly possible.

Oh,

that's right.

Yeah.

And I mean, and what's funny is is.

I've been a part of this celebration since 2012 now.

And, and unfortunately this year we can't go because of some family issues, but it's fine.

We'll, we'll find another time to do this.

But watching my nieces grow up because when I'm thinking about it, you know, my little niece, Livy, she was like a baby when I first met her there.

And now she's a teenager.

Isn't that crazy?

And my other niece, Sophie is driving.

So I'm thinking about like the growings up of like,

All the, all the passage of time,

the

passage of time, the, the, the out of nowhere plays that happened in the middle of the living room, the dance parties, the pictures we took.

Those are some of my greatest memories.

And I love going to that celebration.

That's a great time going to the pool and swimming, having great grilled out food conversations, maybe having an, an alcohol or two, you know, it's a, it's a weekend.

But

it's, that's like one of my fondest memories.

And it's.

one, I want to continue making because it's just a great way to stay in touch with family and have a good time.

So yeah, that's that for me, Labor Day is always Indiana and it's always

family.

Yeah, exactly.

So it's all about family.

So that's nice.

I mean, it's a, and it's also important as we were saying before to celebrate why we have that day off as well.

Easy to forget

easy.