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And then from what Calvin, who by the way, Calvin is on the ones and twos.
Good morning, Calvin.
How are you today?
I'm doing well, Greg.
Good, good.
Calvin tells me that when we have our text to win contest that happen, you know, every quarter or so, you can be a part of that by giving, getting the Civic Media app on your phone.
But yeah, be a part of the conversation.
We'd love to hear from you, especially about this next topic.
We're going to be discussing something that, you know, I love reading these articles, but this is one that I classify as news to me.
And I'm sure that won't surprise our next guest, who is Dr. Connie Ciskowski, the founder of the
and founder and president of the Association of Caregiving Youth.
Dr. Saskowski, thank you so much for being here this morning.
How are you today?
Thank you so much.
I'm good.
Good, excellent.
Looking forward to this, um, helping to raise awareness about this otherwise hidden population of children.
Yes.
So let's start there.
Let's start first with the association of caregiving youth.
Tell me about yourself.
Tell me about this organization and the roots of it and what you seek to achieve with your work.
Wow, that's a big order.
Okay.
The genesis of this work was when I was in middle school and I cared for my grandfather.
And it was years and years ago at a time when trauma and children wasn't recognized.
And so what I experienced without support or recognition or value impacted my adult.
life until I was in counseling years later and it was pointed out to me that some of those challenges I felt personally, not really professionally, that that was the root of that.
So I went into healthcare ultimately in getting my PhD.
I went to
have a bigger voice for all family caregivers because that was the population I wound up working with and never expecting to be doing my research on a large group, really the first large group in our country of students.
I was able to accomplish that through a current survey that was being conducted by
middle and high school students in Palm Beach County in association with Palm Beach Atlantic University and it it revealed that more than one in three of those children who were not of the and there were more than 12,000 kids by the way were impacted
by someone in their home needing special medical care, their participation, and their inability to focus in school, to complete homework, to attend school, and some combination.
And Greg, it was at a time when students, when schools weren't looking at what's going on in the child's life beyond the school that was giving them challenges and struggles with their schoolwork.
And they still weren't ready to address that.
Yeah.
And that's what your group seeks to do.
You seek to bring a light to these young people who are essentially like, you know, it's, I, you know, I was a youth many years ago and I do not, you know, it was tough.
You're trying to find yourself.
You're trying to do school.
If you're doing school and the top of other activities, but you're just also trying to be a kid.
And when you have
essentially,
trying to be normal, trying to find out who you are.
But on top of this, you are essentially have a part or full-time job taking care of a loved one.
That impacts you heavily.
And that's what you seek to do is bring a light to these young people and give them the advocacy that they so need as you say.
Right.
And it's not only a light.
So a light helps them to shine.
Within Palm Beach County, we're able to provide direct services so that they can have some extra support and recognition so that they can achieve personally as well as academically.
So we have a formal agreement with the school district.
which is the 10th largest in our country.
And so we identify kids beginning in sixth grade.
And I think one of the important things is that it's not just during the school year and it's not just like, you know, you have a mind picture of a child who's hungry and you know that if you provide resources and feed that child, they're no longer hungry.
However, caregiving isn't during the school year and it doesn't
often start in sixth grade when we have our first participants enter and it's often not over by the time the kids graduate from high school.
So it's the opportunity to build a trusted relationship with them to do home visits to see what else can
um, help their families and reduce the family stress because then there's a spillover effect onto the child and then to give them an opportunity to meet other kids just like them so they can feel normal and have bonds, um, and have fun and just be a kid.
Yeah.
And I think that that's very important.
You said something earlier when you first started talking about this is that, you know, you're doing this thing.
that you just are expected to do.
If you have a parent who needs or a grandparent who needs care, you just do that because that's what you are expected.
And I imagine a lot of kids want to help because, you know, that's their good kids.
But that has effects into your adulthood because of what is expected of them.
And do those individuals come into those homes and work with those kids to recognize that those mental effects too that can that, you know, help mitigate that.
So down the road in their adulthood, they understand why that might be happening.
As you said, it didn't occur to you until later in life, but helping these youngsters realize, oh, this is what you're going through.
This is what you can expect.
But like through almost like a mentorship program as well, giving them the tools they need to deal with what's going on.
Well, exactly.
And we do have a mentoring program.
But, you know, by allaying and helping them manage the stress today, it's an investment in them and in their families so that when they do become adults, that those effects are mitigated.
So the investment is for today and tomorrow to help the children achieve academically
as well as personally.
And I would go one step further, Dr. Siskowski.
And by the way, if you're just joining us, we're speaking to Dr. Connie Siskowski, who is the president and founder of the Association of Caregiving Youth.
Their work is to work with those youngsters, young people who are giving care to loved ones, parents, grandparents.
And I would take it one step further.
I think it's for the children.
I think it's for the family.
And I think overall, too, it's for the community.
Because when you help take care of these problems at the root, then they can learn to function
I don't want to say normally, but like, you know, they are not going to be possibly dealing with, you know, these things can manifest in ways of addiction and other bad behaviors.
And if you can talk about it at the beginning, I think that it's not just about the family and the kids, but it's also for us as a community.
And I think that's wonderful, wonderful work.
I was reading Dr. Saskowski in a Johns Hopkins article, Johns Hopkins is one of your alma mater's I will add from where you got, where I believe you, you became a registered nurse from, correct?
Correct.
Correct.
It said in the article that I want to get this correct because it said an estimated 1.6 million youths, 15 to 18, and 2 million youth, youth adults, 19 to 22 are caregivers representing 9.2 and 12.2 of their respective age groups.
Is that true?
Because if I'm not, I feel like in my research, it also said that there might be more than that.
Is that feel like a
good number to
you?
Yeah, that number eliminates the children below a certain age.
And so the initial study looked at children ages 8 to 18.
The children that we begin with in sixth grade are about 10 to 11.
However, the day that they walk into sixth grade is often not the day that they began their caregiving.
So other studies have shown that there are at least
and more than 6 million children of all who are under the age of 18 who are providing this care, mirroring what adult family caregivers do.
And I would venture say, you know, I'm not an expert in this field, but I would also say that, you know, I would say the younger the child,
The more leeway I give with what would be a caregiver if a kid is 10 years old or eight years old waking up and organizing their parents pills And that's a that can be a simple job and then they go off to school.
That's still caregiving That's still them learning those responsibilities and over time they will okay today.
It's the pills next month It might be okay.
We got to get them to a doctor's appointment, you know, it's so they're almost They're training on a job that they didn't apply for
And often without education to support them.
Many when you do studies say that they learn through observation.
But you know that some of the children that are.
more impacted in a sense at least emotionally are those that are in single parent or single grandparent homes where always in the back of their mind is what's going to happen to me
and
particularly if that person has a terminal illness and often you know we see grandparents raising grandchildren
but then there's no support for when the grandchild, the grandparent gets sick.
And there's, I have to imagine there's maybe a familial or societal pressure say, you need to step up kiddo.
And the kid might be like, I'm 12.
Okay.
But there's no choice.
There's no, there's no other options.
So therefore there, as you said, they're thrusted into this with no training.
And they just, they have to, this is just another thing for them.
So yeah, I mean, it's,
We're going to talk more about on the other side of the break about the fact that this, you know, from, we're going to go from the home to really the nation.
And the fact that this is not a recognized, I don't want to say a situation.
I don't want to call it a problem because I don't want them, I don't want those kids to think that I think they're a problem.
But this, what they are in the middle of is not being recognized by the powers that be to get the kind of help they need.
It's organizations like the association of caregiving, caregiving youth that.
helps make a voice, but we're talking to Dr. Connie Ciskowski about this.
She is the founder and the president, and I would love to hear your questions, your comments on the matter.
Are you someone who gives care?
Are you someone who gave care as a young person?
How did that affect you?
Because, you know, I didn't even think about it.
I've never been that situation, doctor.
So I didn't even think about the long-term ramifications of doing that.
But I want to hear from everybody if you have experience in that.
But we're going to take a really quick break.
We're going to grab some snacks, grab some water.
And we're going to talk more about this wonderful topic with Dr. Connie Saskowski.
You're listening in mid-morning on Civic Media.
I'm your host, Greg Bach, coming live from Radio Park.
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More to come, including audio survey.
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Good, good day.
Good morning.
Not afternoon.
I'm with someone good afternoon.
You are listening to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host.
I'm your buddy, your pal.
We are very happy to have you with us today.
If you want to get in touch with us, you can always call or text the number is the same, 855-752-484-2855-75 civic.
Still lots of great program I had, including audio sorbet, kind of wrapping up, talking about everything from the show today and then hearing from you over you, someone who went to tech school, someone who
gave care to a loved one.
We'd love to hear your story and what you experienced.
You can also leave that comment on the live stream.
We are on Facebook, YouTube and the platform that we still call Twitter.
And then of course we're wrapping the show up with this shouldn't be a thing today.
It's the Crown Jewels edition.
So don't go anywhere.
We're going international flavor.
But right now we are talking to Dr. Connie Siskowski who is the founder and president of the Association of Caregiving Youth, discussing the not discussed topic of young people who are living
life giving care to grandparents, parents, loved ones, and essentially be caregivers, having a job as a caregiver and what they face in today's world.
And Dr. Saskowski, one of the things you said in the secret show on the live stream was.
The major thing they face is invisibility and the fact that they face discrimination, a sort of discrimination in their existence because no one really recognizes the work they do.
Therefore, it's not, there's no one out there really trying to do, at least on a, maybe on a governmental legislative level, do anything to help.
Well, that's so true.
And, you know, if you look at, you know, we're talking a little bit about solutions, right?
Not just phone dates.
Yes.
No, there's nothing in the curriculum of teachers, of nurses, of pediatricians, of legislators, or other community leaders to help them understand about this growing population.
And so, you know, should it be our expectation that they should know what they don't know?
I don't believe so.
So we're trying to work with
different universities and people to include issues about caregiving youth in the curriculum and also to develop policy on their behalf in our country.
So right now of the students we serve and
They may not be a representative population because we focused a lot on Title I school.
So many of our kids are from families that require financial assistance.
And so they have other additional needs, such as having to work.
to raise money so their family can pay the rent or provide so other things so you know we all have a limited time in our day.
And so students have a limited time to learn outside of school.
And so caregiving takes up some of that time, working takes up some of that time.
Another group of students may have to do babysitting, childcare for their youngest siblings.
With the increasing diversity of our population, many have to translate information from medical professionals
to their loved ones and sometimes there's not the same language, much less the understanding of the child and how to communicate that.
So this is not like a simple issue.
It's not a simple issue.
of feeding someone and they're no longer hungry.
It's a very complex issue regarding individual situations because no family is alike.
Yeah and I think you know when you talk about that the educational portion of those who are lawmakers and those who can bring
not just the, they can bring the light, but as you say, more than a band aid too.
It's also about just perception on the whole from society and mentioning that, that some people just will, they don't want to deal with it.
So let's say we'll put the kid in foster care or do this.
Like they don't have a real solution.
They just don't want it in front of them because they don't know what they're dealing with.
They move on.
And that also is a, is a matter of education for just regular folks in society, correct?
Absolutely.
And for people that have been family caregivers, there's more of an understanding of the stress and the challenges that go with it, particularly if you're an employed family caregiver.
So if you look at school as a workplace.
of employed family caregivers, they have the same effects where there may be absent from school, where they may be present, but their minds are elsewhere because they always worry about what's going on at home.
And with more constraints on the use of cell phones, unless the schools cooperate and provide a landline for them to check in and understand why the kids, you know, continue to have stress at school.
So there's lots of things that even schools can do that are no cost, such as that example that can help.
um, reduce the child's stress because I don't know about you.
I can't learn when I'm under stress.
No,
you know, neither, neither can we expect children to do that.
And let's remember that their brains as well as their bodies are still developing.
So they need to be taught what's safe for them, um, in terms of like assisting with somebody with mobility issues, you know, using a walker, using a wheelchair, getting someone out of bed, lifting someone so they themselves don't
get hurt.
Yeah.
I think these are all just, I mean, this, this part is for want people to listen to that.
I want people to understand that, you know, when they hear about a young person who's taking care of a parent or a grandparent, that this is real work.
It's not just, you know, they're being good kid.
They're helping.
No, they're actually doing a job, a job that needs to be done.
And then we need to approach that with a sensitivity and an understanding and, you know,
I don't want to tell people how to live their lives, but if you can step in and say, hey, is there anything I can do, please do that.
If it's a ride to the doctor, if it's a walk down the street with them, anything you can do, especially to alleviate the responsibility of these kids, because as you said, they're developing, they're trying to be normal kids living their lives and any help they can get is appreciated.
And I appreciate your time, Dr. Saskowski, today to talk about this.
And as I said earlier, I'm learning about this because I didn't know about it as well.
Yeah, go
ahead.
We pretty much scratched the
surface.
Yeah.
Well, we can keep on talking about it.
And we'll have you back another time.
But Dr. Connie Siskowski has been our guest.
She is the president and founder of the Association of Caregiving Youth.
And we really appreciate your time today, Dr. Really appreciate you.
And I hope you have a wonderful day.
Please come on back.
Let's keep talking about this topic.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much.
All right.
When we come back, some audio survey talking to you about
Did you go to tech school?
Did you care for a parent or a loved one?
I want to hear your stories, but don't go anywhere.
Still got lots of great show ahead of you.
Mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
Good, good.
Good day.
Good morning.
Good time of the day.
It's 1035 35 minutes after the hour.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your host.
It's mid mornings on civic media.
You are listening to us live either on the air or over the live stream or on the app.
But you can always get in touch with us by calling or texting 855-752-4842-855-75 civic.
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We are all over the map, baby.
And my hope is one day we will get a text message from someone on the International Space Station.
That would be absolutely wonderful.
And I really, really, really appreciate you spending your time with us today with me and Kelvin on the mid-morning show.
And yeah, we're gonna have a great time for the rest of the time.
And right now, we're gonna launch it into something that we hear.
I've always called Audio Sorbet, where we kind of just take a moment, step back.
Cleanse ourselves talk about things and we want to hear from you.
Have you been a part of Have you been a part of the technical college experience earlier in the show?
We talked to Miranda Dunlap from the Wisconsin watch about the Appleton
Technical Academy, also known as ATEC, have you been a part of the tech school experience?
Did you go to a tech school?
What did you learn?
How has it affected you?
And how do you advocate for that tech school learning experiences?
You know, for me, I tell people all the time that I feel that tech schools are an untapped potential for young people and older folks too who want to try something new.
because it's not just about, you know, ATEC is for youngsters, it's for high school kids, but, you know, you go to a technical college and you can be any age, you can try something new, try trade, try skill, get learning and maybe make a new start, but are you a part of that?
Are you in that world?
And also, have you been a caregiver to an adult, to a loved one, parent, grandparent, as a young person?
How did it affect you?
How did that...
you know, mold you into who you are today.
Are you still a young person doing that now?
We have Sue from Franklin listening on WAUK who texted in to say, I was the primary caregiver for my mom a couple years ago and desperately needed help.
As we were trying to keep her in her apartment, I was blessed to find two 17 year olds who were CNAs and provided amazing care for my mom.
I was so, I'm so encouraged by those young people.
I know so many adults mid to late 20s going into healthcare.
My daughter 27 is an occupational therapist.
My nephew is a physical therapist.
Excuse me.
And several of their friends are PAs and one is in medical school.
That's great to hear.
She goes on to say, and I had no medical training, but I learned as I went along, CNAs deserve so much more pay.
We were able to keep my mom in her apartment until she passed.
Just shy of 97 years young.
Oh my goodness.
Well, that's amazing.
I love that.
It took a village and that's really.
really, really true.
And Susan also brings up the fact that, or Susan, sorry, Sue from Franklin said that she's listening to WAUK.
Susan is listening and she said, there are also so many spouses taking care of their spouse.
It's not just kids taking care of grandparents.
And Susan, I totally understand that.
We're not trying to...
belittle or not say that they're, that those spouses are not a value of what they're doing.
But this conversation specifically was to talk about the youth who are taking care of loved ones and what sort of the challenges they face.
Everyone faces challenges.
You know, my mom, she took care.
I mean, if you ask me, I'm sure she would tell me, no, she's hopefully listening right now.
And she's going to text me saying, how dare you?
But I believe that she was the primary caregiver for my grandmother for many, many years.
And
At the age she was at, she was not a child.
She was an adult.
She was, I believe actually, almost a retired adult at that point.
It still had a great effect on her.
So my question to you would be is, if you know an adult who is giving care to a spouse, a parent, a loved one, imagine, and you see the toll it takes on them, the stress, you know, trying to find time to make everything work.
And just how it affects your, you know, your waking hours, take that information and then apply it to a child who is the primary caregiver for an adult and how the challenges they seek.
So again, Susan, I appreciate what you had to say.
I don't discount the spouses and I don't discount anything like that.
I just, we were talking about the, we were talking about the youngsters.
And also if you are someone who did give care,
to, as a child, to an adult, Dr. Saskowski brought up something very interesting at the very beginning of that conversation.
And by the way, if you're just joining us, kind of doing an overview of today's show, if you didn't get a chance to listen to us, you could always go back to civicmedia.us slash shows.
Look for, we're still posting under Matton there on air, but this is our mid-morning show now.
And you can download it, listen to it, but Dr. Saskowski brought up something almost from the beginning of the interview, which was that
Because of mental health care she sought, she found that the effects of that caregiving she did as a youngster affected who she became as an adult.
And is that what you find yourself?
Are there instances where you see behaviors or things that had to be addressed that go back to the fact that, you know, and maybe at a very young age, you had to become an adult?
And...
At 12 you were taking care of a loved one.
How did that affect you now?
I'd love to hear from you eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five Civic love to hear from you leave a comment on the live stream and I thought something come here Really quick from earlier this morning.
Good morning to you my friend Greg exclamation points to you and He asked the questions
How do January 6th and September 11th compare?
I mean, I think that's a whole of the conversation, a whole of the show.
I would say that in one instance, the government handled it with a swift sort of quote justice than what we're doing now.
But that again is for another conversation.
Today is the fifth year anniversary of the insurrection, the attack on Capitol Hill.
And we are slowly seeing the erasure of its history, its rewriting of its narrative.
And luckily NPR has put together a historical database that is based in all of the cases that they researched.
So we do not lose that history.
Because history is written by the winners.
But not anymore, not with this.
We want to make sure we are always remembering what happened on that day.
I remember where I was at.
I was at my job in a barbershop.
And I remember seeing it happening.
And I remember standing up and saying to my coworkers, this doesn't look right, but we can't forget that.
And we also want to acknowledge those who were injured and gave their lives protecting the capital, protecting the very people who are trying to erase that history, not hanging a simple plaque that says, here is where this event took place.
It's said in the NPR article, there is no real remembrance of what happened at the Capitol building.
It's been subtly and systematically erased.
But we don't forget, because it was only five years ago, that's why we gotta keep talking about this.
And that's why we appreciate you being on the air.
But Greg, I would say, how does January 6th compared to September 11th?
I will leave that question for someone who is far more researched and smart than I am.
But yeah, we appreciate that comment.
We appreciate you getting in touch with on the live stream.
And if you have had experience in technical schools, if you've had experience taking care of a loved one, Calvin, is that something that's touched your life as far as taking care of a grandparent or anything like that?
Do you have any experience like that?
I do not.
Yeah, no, I don't.
My grandmother, when she was reaching the end of her life,
she
went to an assisted living center that I cooked at.
OK.
That's not really care, caregiving.
And then after she passed away, my grandpa spent a lot of time at her house, but he didn't really need caregiving.
We just had dinner with him.
Just had dinner.
Okay.
Well, I mean, that's, don't discount the work you did.
I'm just saying that right there.
But, but yeah, I get that.
Um, I mean, when I was young, my grandpa lived with us, lived with us for a little while.
He was going through cancer treatment, but it really wasn't taken care of him.
He was living a life of was very, you know,
He was still very healthy at the point, except for, you know, of course having cancer, but he was, you know, he was operational.
He didn't need a lot of help other than being in his seventies, teaching our bird how to swear.
But that wasn't a fruitful measure on his part, but it was fun to watch.
But yeah, it's something that also has not touched my life.
And I didn't think about it until I read this information about Dr. Siskowski is that, you know, when we were young, you just do the thing cause you're told to do the thing and we do the thing cause it's, you know, be a good kid.
But the ramifications, especially for those who are in single parents, single grandparent homes, these are kids who are being forced to grow up very quickly.
And that's why I want to bring up the whole point of if you've gone through this and have recognized that that part of your life has affected who you've become, I'd love to know more about that because I think that through therapy, through consultation, through talking to people, we can find out more about ourselves.
And I'm a huge advocate for that because really when it comes down to it,
You know, we do the work we need to get done, but we also have to take care of ourselves as we see fit.
And if we can recognize those signals and recognize those signs, it's important to address them.
So yeah, we'd love, love, love to hear from you on that.
We got a lot of great show coming up for you for the rest of the week.
Very, very excited about everything going on here.
You know, we've had some questions about the show.
I mean, we are no longer Matt and Aaron here.
This is, you know, we're, we're just, we're the mid morning and we're doing mid mornings here from nine to 11 still carrying the mission of.
of Matt and air on air, which is great conversations, talking to people on the topics that affect us all as Wisconsinites as our friends in Michigan, who might be listening, our friends, our friends all over the country and all over the world, because the conversations like this is what we really want to bring to you.
That's what we did on Matt and air and air.
And that's what we're going to continue to do with Calvin and I. And of course, Tucker, our great senior producer.
We got Dietrich and Meg from Eau Claire.
Last time I talked to Dietrich and Meg.
was Thanksgiving, and they were making it really difficult not to get in my car and drive the necessary hours to be at their dinner table.
But we're talking about this topic here, and I'm wondering, Dietrich and Meg, what say you on this?
Good morning, Greg.
We have kind of a dovetailing of both subjects.
Yeah.
Meg grew up in Eau Claire and was living on the West Coast, and that's where we met.
and her mother fell ill with dementia.
And we moved back to be closer to her and eventually she moved in with us and passed away at her home.
Pat was an instructor at Chippewa Valley Technical College as well.
So she taught refrigerator math, technical math, like so.
really an important part of, you know, Meg's life.
And also the fact that, you know, this very intelligent person who is teaching complicated math, you know, falls, you know, falls ill to this horrible disease.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's a hard thing.
It's really a hard process.
And what you're saying, taking time for yourself and to take care of yourself.
That's, that's incredibly valuable.
I thank you, Dietrich and Meg.
I can hear Meg in the back.
Hi, Meg.
Good morning.
Good morning.
And I think that's important too, because yeah, I want, I want people to think about that because one thing that Dr. Saskowski discussed was the fact that we don't really think about what the kids go through.
We know our friends, we're adults.
We know our friends and what they go through.
Now apply that sort of situation on a child and what they may go through as well and build that sense of connection and that empathy.
And if you have the opportunity, reach out and try to help Dietrich, Meg, I really appreciate you calling in.
and sharing your story with us.
And yeah, that's what we're talking about here is building those discussions and with people here in the community.
We're going to take a quick moment to grab some snacks and grab some hydration.
When we come back, it's this shouldn't be a thing.
Crown jewels edition.
It's an international flavor today.
Don't go anywhere.
You're listening to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach coming to you live from radio park in Racine.
As always be part of the conversation eight five five seven five two four eight four two eight five five seven five civic.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
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.
Good day.
Good almost afternoon.
Good morning.
It's mid mornings on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host coming to you live from Radio Park here in Racine, along with my compatriot, my board's guy, the board lord, the man on the ones and twos, Mr. Calvin Butenhof.
We are here.
on Zivic Media here for you, having a great time, hoping you are having a great day, and I really appreciate you spending your time with us.
After we're done, it's not over, folks.
We're gonna keep going after the 11 o'clock news.
There's Tom Hartman from 11 to two.
There's John and Gordy in the afternoons from two to five, and then from five to six, or five to eight, it's Pete Schwabba with Nightlight, who, by the way, I gotta check my calendar here, Calvin, really quick here.
Just gonna let you check my social calendar.
It's important to keep up with everything going on here.
I will be on nightlight myself this Friday at five 35.
So don't miss it because when they have me on the show, as one person put it, I am definitely on the radio at that point.
So nightlight from five to eight here on civic media, but stay close.
We got a lot going on.
Calvin, did you have a comment?
Was there something you want to
say?
I was going to say.
Don't miss Greg.
Greg is going to be on Nightlight to discuss his favorite movie franchise, James Cameron's Avatar.
Absolutely.
I'm a fan of all three of the available films and I can only think about right now.
I mean, like right now, I know I'm talking to you right now, Calvin, but all I'm thinking about is what is part four going to do to further extend the story of these flying blue water creatures?
I just, I don't know.
And how will it also then make a billion dollars is beyond me.
But that's for me to find out with Pete Schwab about this Friday on Friday, 5 30 on nightlight.
But yeah, we got lots of great programming ahead and appreciate you sticking around, sharing your time, sharing your stories.
Thanks to everyone who called and texted really, really appreciated.
Tomorrow, it's Wednesday already.
We are halfway through the first full week of January.
I don't know why that's just how time works, but Mark Somerhauser from the Wisconsin.
Policy Forum is going to be here and we'll be talking about basically the state's budget and helping the listeners, myself and the viewers, how does that impact the state's budget impact the taxes?
Our taxes, the taxes we pay, the things that, you know, pay for the stuff, make the lights go on.
But yeah, Mark Sommerhauser from the Wisconsin Policy Forum will be here at 10 o'clock and we would love to have you part of the conversation.
So yeah, Calvin, 2026, our show,
What are you thinking so far?
You liking it?
Yeah, we're rocking and rolling.
We are rocking and rolling, and that means if it's, you know, it's 1055, it's the last, it's the last portion of the show.
We got a rock and roll right in the next segment called This Shouldn't Be a Thing.
If you ever have a thing that should not be you can send it on to Calvin and me and you can use actually the Jane says email Jane says at civic media dot us Jane says at civic media dot us send us your tis bad send us your guest idea send us your Topics we'd love to hear from you, but that is where you can find us for right now that email still works Jane says at civic media dot us today's article comes from the AFP
And then no byline today.
Just it's just that's it.
It's entitled wrong crown jewels.
Streaker bears all for Japan Emperor.
Now, before we get going, I'm not going to lie.
Sometimes I have to confess that I don't know certain things and I feel kind of like a dodo bird right now, Calvin.
I didn't know that Japan still had an emperor.
I thought that I thought that went away.
So
I also, I mean, I guess I didn't know that they
Like yeah, I didn't know that they didn't have an emperor like I guess I would assume it's kind of a Similar to the royal family and
yeah in which we also mean no disrespect to the Japanese emperor if he is listening to this show right now if he is an awesome Let us know your thoughts Civic media app, baby.
You can if you are you in Tokyo.
Where are you in Japan right now, sir?
Emperor.
I don't know how to I've never there's mr. President.
There's prime minister never referred to an emperor, but emperor
Narohito was finished giving his 2020 26 greeting from a balcony at the Imperial palace in Tokyo when a man in front of in the front row in the gardens removed his clothes and climbed over a barrier and but was immediately restrained the Tokyo police
took him away in a blanket and led him away.
The investigative sources told the broadcaster that the man in his twenties who was not named had announced on social media his intention to strip naked at the annual address.
The event includes brief remarks, no briefs from this man, he was naked.
And from the emperor and who he waves to the crowd with the rest of the imperial family from the balcony.
It sounds very, it sounds once again, like you said, Calvin, very much like the.
the king of England, like you make an address, wave a little and you go back inside, maybe have some tea.
It says, legend has it that the Royals are descendant from the sun goddess Amaterasu and can trace their lineage back thousands.
Now I just feel like they're just giving a history of the emperor because that was it.
The story is basically the guy announced to the world he was going to do it.
He did it.
And in much like just like what I equate to what can be Japanese efficiency, it happened.
They covered him and they took him away.
There's no, there is no,
No state there's no status on the person who did it.
It seems like it was dealt with the family The family of the emperor with the emperor is is is no political power under the post-war Constitution, but remains hugely symbolic.
So yeah, it's basically, you know
Basically like the king of England or the royal family.
So it's a nice little thing to do.
It's decorative, if you will.
Sorry, Mr. Narahito, Emperor Narahito.
But yeah, that seems like a very interesting story to me.
Just like, you're like, you know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna go streak the emperor.
And I did it.
And I got taken away.
And that's it.
And that leads us to the end of another edition of This Shouldn't Be a Thing.
As always, I want to thank Calvin.
I want to thank Tucker.
I want to think traffic.
I want to think engineering without those individuals.
I wouldn't be on the air right now.
I'd be talking into a non-operational microphone.
So without their help, I really appreciate them.
And I wouldn't have anything to talk about.
That's interesting.
So they're all making this show happen as they see fit.
It is wonderful.
And I appreciate them.
I appreciate the callers, textures, listeners.
Without you, there's no us.
You can always be part of the conversation.
And again, do not go anywhere.
After the, after the news break, we're going to have Tom Hartman from 11 or two and then great programming throughout the day.
And we hope you join us tomorrow for a great discussion with the Wisconsin policy forum on how the state budget will impact your taxes.
Other than that, have a great day.
Take care.
Have fun.
Be safe.
You're listening to the civic media radio network.
My name is Greg box.
Stay tuned.
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