You're listening to Civic Media.
You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.
Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.
Welcome.
Welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your buddy, your pal, your coaxing spirit for all things good and in this weather of the war.
You are here wonderfully.
You're giving us your time.
We're very appreciative of that.
We're coming to you live from Radio Park here in Racine.
If you want to get in touch with us, the number is the same.
Whether you're calling or texting eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five civic leave a comment on the live stream.
We are currently live streaming on Facebook, YouTube and the platform in this house.
We still call Twitter coming up after the 10 30 news.
We have audio Sorbet today.
Just want to know how you're getting by, how you're doing in 2026.
What do you do to get away to relax, to shut down, shut off, get away from the screen, take a moment for yourself.
I'm not just asking you what you do.
I may be looking for some advice too, because, you know, it's a stressful world we live in.
So at 1035, we'll be talking about that.
You can call our text, let us know your thoughts on that.
And then this shouldn't be a thing today is the I will have fries with that addition.
So don't go anywhere.
And then following us, Tom Hartman from 11 to two, John and Gordy from two to five, and then.
I guess it's the best of with Pete Schwabba today.
It's the best of he's on vacation.
Good for him.
But that's from five to eight.
So entertainment news and fun for you.
Don't go anywhere.
We got lots of great programming still ahead.
But right now I want to turn it over to our first guest.
She is a distinguished professor of political science and a New York Times best-selling author, author of King of the North, Martin Luther King, Jr.'
's life of struggle outside the South.
Professor Gene Theoharis is here this morning.
Good morning, professor.
you today.
You told me you're in New York.
What's the weather like there?
It's cold.
Yeah.
Is it snowy there?
It's not really, it's just a little snow here, but it's very cold.
How about there?
We've had some light snowfall over the past few days.
Well, actually we've had like really, like it's those flurries where you think there should be 30 inches of snow and you're like, there's an inch and a half.
What is this?
But it's bone cracking cold right now.
It's two, it's two degrees, 14 below zero, something I bring up.
Professor, because you know this world because you grew up in Wisconsin.
You're Wisconsin
bone.
I grew up in Milwaukee.
There you go.
And you now live in New York, and you are an author and a professor of political science.
And I have another thing you and I have in common.
I have a degree in political science.
So I'm basically professor adjacent is what I am.
But we're talking
to you today about your book, King of the North, Martin Luther King Jr.'
's life of struggle outside of the South.
And really, I think this is very, very interesting because you put it very well, and I've heard other people say too, as we've Southernized Dr. King.
We exclusively relate him to the struggle of everything that happened in the South during the Civil Rights Movement.
But that's barely even the story when it comes to his whole history, correct?
Yeah, yeah.
And I think, as you're alluding to, by Southernizing Dr. King, we miss a great deal of his work, of what he stood for, and in many ways it makes it comfortable, because if we keep him in the South, in some ways he doesn't speak to us in Milwaukee, in New York, and we miss the ways that he
with steadfast about conditions.
And I'm going to use the word north in our conversation today the way he does.
And north means everything that's not the south.
Because everyone from Bostonians to Milwaukeeans to Detroiters to Angelenos to people living in San Francisco.
took pride in not being the South.
And so Dr. King used the North as sort of a blanket term to get at that positionality.
You know, being so proud and Dr. King will over and over sort of call out Northerners for even Northerners who are paying attention or supporting the movement in the South often sort of allowing, maintaining, supporting
segregation at home.
So we have a lot to talk about.
Yeah, and I think that something too is
I'm of a certain age.
I am 48 years old, raised with a certain amount of history.
And of course, Dr. King growing up in school was taught and he was taught as a saint that made everything better.
Racism solved because of Dr. King.
And when we think of him in context of the North, we think, well, when he came here, he must have been greeted with high fives and hugs and ticker tape parades, but that also was not the case.
He has, he had horrible experiences in the North.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And in many ways, he has this very kind of what we might call schizophrenic or jarring experience, because sometimes he would be, you know, people would want to take pictures with him, many northern mayors, for instance, right?
Mayor Wagner in New York, Mayor Jordi in LA, wanting to take a picture with him.
And at the same time, the second he starts to talk about their own cities, the second he's at a march in their own cities, he's an outside agitator, get out of here.
You don't belong here.
You don't know.
And so, you know, Dr. King would say, as long as I was safe from them in the South, right, many Northerners sort of might have, you know, embraced him.
And so there's this very jarring experience.
And he will talk, and we can talk about this more later, in Chicago,
the
kind of violence they see in Chicago being really worse and the mobs being bigger and scarier than anything.
they'd seen in the South.
Was there anything that came across to you in your research?
Cause this is not, I mean, if I'm not mistaken, is this your 13th book or 14th book?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, and you write, and you write specifically on civil rights.
This is your forte.
So was there anything in your research of this book specifically that stood out to you that surprised you?
Or have you very, I mean, at this point, Oh
no, this was stunning.
This
whole, I mean,
you know, I've been, as you just mentioned, I've been a civil rights scholar for a while.
I've read a lot on Dr. King.
And I
think one of the first things that was so surprising to me, and this this book begins, you know,
maybe 18 years ago.
I'm in LA.
I'm studying the civil rights movement in LA in the decade before Watts.
And as you probably know from what you learned in school, the basic story of Dr. King is right, Montgomery, you know, 1955.
And then there's Albany, Georgia and Birmingham, and St.
Augustine, Florida, and Selma.
And we build to the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.
And then a week later, Watts erupts.
And as that story goes, Dr. King is shocked.
And he realizes sort of the problem of Northern Black people.
And then he turns and bases a campaign in Chicago.
And then as that story goes, he fails because Northern Black people don't go for nonviolence.
Now, that story is deeply inaccurate.
And so this is me 18 years ago.
sitting in an archive going through LA's black newspapers from the 1960s.
The two big ones, LA Sentinel, California Eagle, and I keep finding Dr. King.
Here he is in 1962, calling out police brutality in the city.
Here he is in 1963, weeks before the march on Washington, marching against LA's segregated schools.
Here he is in 1964, over and over and over, calling out housing segregation.
And I realize that this story
that we we'd been told in so many books was deeply inaccurate.
And King will actually say, you know, if Mayor Yordi had listened and changed, there never would have been a Watts uprising, right?
Because there are movements in LA that King is supporting that are calling attention to the kind of deep job discrimination, the deep segregation in schools and housing, the pattern of police brutality, and largely
People in the city are dismissing them or demonizing activists.
And so that was really where the project began for me.
And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it.
And so you know those like, remember when we were little, you would have those kaleidoscopes.
Yes.
Where
you would turn it just a tiny bit and the whole picture would
change.
Yes.
Yep.
And that's a little bit what this book has been like for me in that and the research for this book is that once you turn it and you then all these things that we haven't really reckoned with come into view.
So I bet many of your listeners know, right, that Dr. King goes to BU, gets his PhD at BU.
He does his Divinity degree at Crozier, which is in Pennsylvania.
But most of the way that we've talked about that graduate work is who he's studying with.
What are you studying?
And those are important questions, but not where he is and what it's like being a 20 year old in Pennsylvania in Boston.
Because guess what?
When he gets to Boston, he's a young black man in Boston, 1951.
No one wants to rent to him.
Yeah.
Now, when I say that out loud, it's not surprising, but it has not been the way we've seen that part of King's life.
So he is always from a young adult on.
He is aware that segregation is not.
a Southern sickness, but a national cancer.
And he's also aware of the limits of Northern liberalism at home.
And I'm glad.
Okay.
So if you're just listening to us right now, if you're just tuning into mid mornings on civic media, we are speaking with Professor Jean Theoharis, who is the author of King of the North, Martin Luther King, Jr.'
's Life of Struggle Outside the South.
And I'm glad you said all that.
Topped it off with the word liberalism because in the zen education project regarding your book They say the following thing here.
They say crucially the book illuminates kings sharp critique of liberalism his frustration with those who claim to support civil rights while resisting structural change He saw how northern officials journalists and self-proclaimed allies were often more committed to order than to justice And I think that's and I want to use another term that you used in in an interview with democracy now to talk about
police, but we in this country have laundered his Legacy to fit various narratives whether you want to be a liberal about it or concern you can go to dr. Martin Luther King's and I'm and I say this term with satire and sarcasm you can look to the MLK brand and find what you need to fit your narrative and that's what we do in this country and we don't look at the whole picture and that's what this book seeks to to fix
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think, I mean, I think as you're, as you're saying, Greg, we, we've made him comfortable.
We've made him, we want him, I mean, some number of my friends and colleagues often talk about the Santa classification of Dr. King, right?
We want to have the holiday yesterday, but we don't want it to ask anything of us, right?
We want it just to give us a pat on the back, like, look.
We solved this.
And I think part of what seeing Dr. King outside the South, he's doing rent strikes.
He's doing tenant organizing.
He's supporting school boycotts.
He's disrupting traffic.
He's saying injustice is comfortable for too many people.
And part of what it's going to take to change it is to make people uncomfortable.
Yeah.
kind of stop business as usual, right?
He's a longtime supporter of labor.
And so I think we've, again, we've distanced ourselves from kind of King's non-violent direct action.
We make it seem like, oh, of course we would have marched with Dr. King
when
in fact that was much harder than I think we often reckon with today.
and also giving of our you know depending on you know I speak as myself what I am as I am a white male American giving of my platform my privilege my and and really of when it comes to my comfort of it all to stand and take whatever comes
while trying to fight for justice.
And we're going to talk more about that and the book, King of the North, Professor Gene Theoharis is our guest today.
And we are discussing the book.
We're talking about the legacy of Dr. King.
We're talking about the whole picture versus the 21st century version of it.
But more about that when we come back.
If you have any questions or comments, please give us a call 855-752-484-2855.
75 Civic is the number.
Leave a comment on that live.
But we're right here on Midmorning's on Civic Media.
You're here and we appreciate you.
Stay tuned, stay close.
You're listening to Civic Media.
Stay up to date on the latest news and information for your local community and Wisconsin by signing up for our free email newsletter.
Visit civicmedia.us slash email to get started.
Welcome, welcome back to Midmorning's on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I am your buddy, your pal, your co-conspirator, your fighter for everything that you're looking for to make you happy in the world.
And you are listening to us and you are giving us your time.
And we appreciate that.
If you want to be part of that conversation, call text the numbers the same, eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two, eight, five, five, seven, five, seven.
You can leave a comment on the live stream.
We're on Facebook, YouTube and the platform.
We still call Twitter still ahead after the 10 30 news we have got.
Audio Sorbet.
What are you doing to, uh, shake it off to relax for a moment, to get away and just relax your mind and get to the good and get back to the fight.
What do you do?
Let us know.
And then this shouldn't be a thing today.
It's the, I'll have fries with that edition, but don't go anywhere.
Still lots more coming ahead, including our discussion with professor Jean Theo Harris.
She is a professor of political science and a New York times bestselling artist author, bestselling author, artist.
You're an artist.
Writing is an art.
She's also the author of King of the North, Martin Luther King Jr.'
's Life of Struggle outside of the South, talking about the complete legacy, the complete story of Dr. King's life outside of what we have, as you put it, Southernized him.
And something you brought up during the Secret Show on the live stream is a discussion of Coretta Scott King.
to have a talk about MLK, we must speak about Coretta Scott King without a doubt.
What is she in this picture?
I mean, I asked the question like a naive person, but I know, but who is she and how important is she?
She is formidable, right?
And I think, I mean, she has been so distorted and kind of put into this like tiny box is this kind of,
Again, when she died in 2006, you know, this kind of beautiful, kind, gentle, helpmate, not a kind of the formidable freedom fighter that she was.
She's more of an activist than Dr. King when they meet.
She'd met Paul Robeson, Bayard Rustin before she meets Dr. King.
At their first date, he's completely smitten, right?
He's never met a woman like her.
And he says at the end, you know, you have everything that I want in life at the end of their first lunch date.
And she's like, you don't even know me.
So one of my favorite things about kind of learning about their kind of courtship is just how he's having to bring his A game.
And what they find in each other is really a shared vision of what needs to happen, of justice, of what it means to be a Christian in this world.
When they get married in June 1953 she refuses to wear white She wears a light blue not full-length dress tea length dress and she makes her very imposing father-in-law King senior take obey out of their vows Because it makes her feel like an indentured servant and this is 1953.
Yeah, right not 63 not 73 So in throughout their time together, right that
They are, you know, intellectual political partners.
I'll tell you one story from about two months into the Montgomery bus boycott, as many people may know, the King's house gets bombed.
She and their new baby, 10-week-old baby are home.
She thinks fast, she gets them out safely, so they're not hurt.
I'd like to remind us that Dr. King is 27 at this point.
She's 28.
You can imagine how scared her
their families are.
So both his dad and her dad come to Montgomery that night and are like, you have to get out of here.
And if you're not willing to get out of here, at least Coret and the baby have to get out of here.
And she's like, no, we're not going anywhere.
That's hardcore.
You have a 10 week old baby, you've gotten lucky once that the bomb is not strong enough to sort of, if that bomb had been stronger, they would have died.
And so,
I mean, I think to me that sort of shows what she's made of.
And I'll just say one more thing.
She from her college years on, she was supporting the Progressive Party.
If people know the Progressive Party in 1948, they're running a third party challenge for the US presidency on domestic issues of kind of racism and segregation and economic inequality and then militarism.
So she's bringing those triple evils that we often associate with kings last year.
She has those when they meet.
And she will be the family leader around issues of kind of global peace and global justice and anti-colonialism.
She is out years ahead of Dr. King publicly against the War of Vietnam.
She speaks at one of the first big anti-Vietnam rallies at Madison Square Garden in 65, at a big peace mobilization in DC, later in 65.
Their reporter later that day asks Dr. King, well, did you educate her?
And he's like, no, she educated me.
And just to remind
us,
so this is 65.
Dr. King, well, makes his very
beautiful historic speech against the war in 67.
So I think we can see, in certain areas, he's the leader.
In certain areas, she's leading him.
And so really understanding her as a formidable kind of partner, activist in her own right.
And in the few moments we have left here, and I'd love to have you back to keep talking about this book because honestly something that is important to discuss is
you know, the later years of King's life and how his attitudes have...
I believe progressed evolved change to and speak out very honestly at the world.
He sees that we don't talk about in this America in 2026, but the fact that Dr. King sat down at that first lunch date and didn't see her as a threat, but saw her as a partner also speaks volumes to the human he was and the team that they made together to do what they did.
But Professor Jean Theoharis has been our guest today.
She is the author of King of the North Martin Luther King, Jr.'
's life of struggle outside the South.
We didn't even get to the Chicago.
So you're coming back.
We're going to keep talking about it because yeah, this is a conversation needs to happen.
Thank you so much professor for sharing your time with us today.
We will have you back sooner than later and I will put.
links in the show notes to make sure people can look at where the book is at so they can get it in their lives too.
So thank
you again,
professor.
We'll talk to you very soon.
When we come back, audio survey, what do you do to get by, to survive, to relax and get away from the world for even but a moment?
Right here on Civic Media, mid mornings.
I'm Greg Bach.
Don't go anywhere.
Stay tuned, stay informed, stay close.
Welcome, welcome, welcome back.
to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your buddy.
I'm your pal.
I'm your friend in comfort and warmth.
I hope you are having a fantastic day.
I hope you're having a good morning.
If you are in Wisconsin or anywhere else that's exposed experiencing January like this, Calvin was very nice to me last Christmas and he bought me the official mid mornings on civic media weather balloon.
And it right now we're getting readings at saying it's still two degrees with feels like negative 14, which I think qualifies officially as a punishment because it shouldn't be this cold.
But then again, I've said it before and I'll say it again.
I continue to live here.
I continue to press agree on the terms of conditions of living in Wisconsin.
So there we are.
Good morning, Calvin.
Calvin is our man at the, at the ready.
He is our guy on the ones and two sweet Cal B.
the board lord l calvarino.
I just made that one up.
How are you this morning?
I'm doing pretty good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Dr. Dr. Professor Theo Harris was fantastic.
Uh, that was a good conversation.
I hope you, if you missed any of that, we talked to professor Jean Theo Harris, who's the author of king of the north, Martin Luther King, juniors life of struggle outside of the south.
We will have links in the show notes and we're going to have
her back to talk more about this book because we barely discussed a lot.
There's a ton in this book about that, that topic of his life outside of the South as he, as Dr. King put it, basically the, the, the North is anywhere that isn't the South.
So whether you live in the East coast, West coast or mid.
So thank you to Dr. Professor.
I don't know if she's a, she's a PhD.
So she is a doctor, Dr. Theo Harris, but I,
We are now moving our way into a portion of the show we call Audio Sorbet.
If I could get the cleansing tones of our harps, please.
Those are flown in live every morning from a small island in the south of France.
Thank you very much, Kelvin.
And I just want to know, what are you doing to get away, to relax?
I know it sounds very...
Very basic, but it's true because I woke up today on the wrong side of life I was very just all up in my feels and I and I and it may have felt like and I don't I Don't know but like I may have come in with some tone this morning.
So anyone who encountered me in the office, please I apologize.
I don't know if it's the cold I don't know if it's just whatever but yeah and
Made me think, and I want to thank Senior Producer Tucker for reading my mind apparently.
He said, what's the best place to get off your phone?
And I feel like that's too, like, when you're feeling that way, when you're feeling stressed out, whether it's because of the news you're seeing, whether it's because of work or maybe some family life, I hope that's not the case.
I hope your family is a place, a source of joy and support, but.
Not always.
Sometimes there's stress there.
What are you doing to de-stress?
What are you doing to relax and to get out there in the world?
Are you going to the basement to work on something?
Are you going to the garage?
Do you have a space that's allocated in your home that allows you to do what you need to do?
Do you go for a long drive?
Do you just maybe read a book, take a nap?
I'm also looking for suggestions cause I'm not good at relaxing, terrible at taking vacations, but you know, I'll start with the king of all advice right here in my very own studio, Calvin.
What about you?
Like, I know you love video games.
I know you love reading.
Is that your source of calm?
Is that what you do to get away?
Is that, you know, it's your everyday life.
So I mean, is there anything outside of that where you say like, I don't even feel like reading.
I just need to like lie down or go for a walk.
Yeah, I don't know what, um, idiosyncrasy causes this in myself, but I'm very single-minded, I guess, as far as what I'm into doing.
So, right now I'm really on a video game kick, so that's kind of really all I do.
But then I'll go on a book kick, and then I'll kind of really just only read.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
Reading and video games for the two big ones
last year you got it was I don't know if last year of it was the year before maybe but you got really into was it Warhammer I
Got into Collecting and painting the figures.
I never actually played the game and I'm still interested in that I just
I haven't felt really inspired
to.
Gotcha.
That's honestly, that's where, you know, I haven't talked about it in a long time, but something that I very, especially during the lockdown and that, you know, those first few months out in the world where it kind of felt quote unquote regular.
I don't know if that's the word I want to use, but where we kind of, it just felt like, all right, we have to get out in the world.
We have to do things is for me, it was Lego.
And it wasn't just a matter of, I'm going to build a set.
It was I had a space in the back, in the back of the house.
I had a table.
I had my setup.
I had, like I had to do certain things and I had to set goals for myself.
All right.
Today I'm working on this set.
This set has 11 bags.
I am only going to do bags one and two.
Cause if I do the whole thing, then I'm shot for the rest of the week.
And I would try to make them, at first I would sit and do them in one sitting.
And I don't know if you've ever built a Lego set in five to six hours, but your fingers hurt, your legs hurt.
And by the end you're like, I just want to get through this.
So I learned to stretch it out, to space it out.
And it became a real, and it wasn't even, it wasn't just the Lego building itself.
It was the whole art and process of it all.
It was getting up in the morning.
And this was during the lockdown when I still was home every day.
It was,
Get up in the morning.
Cause I don't know about you, Calvin, but there was some afternoon sleeping.
There were some days where it's just you're in bed all day long cause you have a TV in the bedroom.
You're like, why, why, what do I need to do anything for?
But it was get up in the morning, put on some pajamas or put on some clothes.
Like don't, don't walk around in your sleep clothes, get into something comfy, but you know, do something.
And I found that those processes and then go in the room, set up the light.
get my boxes together, get my bags together, do the bags I said it was going to do, then be done, then do something else.
And it introduced a process to my day that it was missing because of it, but it also, it brought a lot of calm.
I don't do Lego that much anymore.
There's not a lot of room in the house and just, I guess that interest has faded.
I mean, and I saw, I guess I know what you're talking about.
I was like, there's not a lot of inspiration on that side.
I still have a bunch of Lego sets that I could do, but I just don't feel
the rush to do them.
Is that how you feel as far as like with regard to, is that how you feel like with like with reading you're just like, all right, I'll do that later.
I'll be inspired to read later.
Well, yeah, it's so first on the more hammer thing.
I still have an itch to collect and build the figures, but putting them together is a lot less of a production.
and a mental effort than painting them.
So I
have tons of unpainted figures right now that I want to get to.
I just haven't took the time to get my light out, get my wet palette out, all the things.
As far as reading, it's like, yeah, I have a stack of probably 15 books that I, maybe more than that, honestly,
that I
want to get to.
And I will get to, but none of them are just really jumping to me.
I get that.
I mean, that's, and that's how I feel about certain projects too.
It's like, even though it's, even though it can be qualified as work, and this is, I don't know what this says about me.
Well, you know, it says, it says everything about me and I'm fine with it.
I own it.
Cause it's, I, the, the.
I bought a bunch of stuff for the bathroom in the main room.
We were very lucky to have a house that has a bathroom in our main bedroom and it was getting a little worse for wear.
It needed some cleaning, but it also needed some organizing.
So I went and I bought some stuff that helped organize and I was very excited for it.
And then it sat there for probably the better part of two months in the bathroom, like in my way.
And then I just felt this growing excitement like, I'm going to do it.
And finally I did it.
And I took like two and a half hours to clean the bathroom, reorganize the bathroom.
But when I was done, I felt so good and calm and relaxed because I wasn't looking at my phone.
I didn't have anything going on in the background.
I was really just focusing on that.
And it brought me both a sense of accomplishment, but a sense of calm.
But I know what you mean there is like, if it's not calling you, I can't do it.
Because I feel like I'm forcing myself when I want to do it then I do it really really well I get really really excited and then I literally bring my wife I'm like hey you want to come see what how I clean the bathroom like a functioning adult and I want I want credit and or a Cookie for that or maybe a Nobel Peace Prize.
Do I get one for that?
Calvin does that qualify for Nobel Peace Prize?
Is there a Nobel Prize for bathroom cleaning because if there is I should win it
I?
Will create one just for you.
Thank you very much, but don't let someone here
You
say that you got it.
I don't know what you're talking about.
I've heard nothing about any award for cleaning the bathroom or not starting eight wars.
Point is, we're talking about what you do to, to get away to, to relax.
How, what are you, do you have a process?
It's not, is it just going for a drive?
Is it putting the phone down?
I know that's very difficult to do.
It's very difficult to put that phone down.
It's an addictive tool.
And now, because it's all integrated, whether you're looking at a phone, a tablet, a laptop, a TV, it's all there for you anytime you want, also bringing all the stress of the world to you.
But, you know, do you take a spa day?
Do you spend a little money and go get your toes done?
Do you go for a soak?
Do you go for a massage?
I want to know from you.
Brett on the text line as always in Brown Deer listening on WAU Hay.
Well, not always because he says, I don't have a daily escape right now because I'm working so much.
However, in 12 days, I'll be back in Asia where the people are so nice and I can relax for an entire month and I'll celebrate my 63rd birthday in Bangkok.
It's my guiding light right now.
And I love that for you, Brett, so much.
I love that you recognize the need for that.
for that relaxation.
And I'm glad you do it.
I think personally, and I'd love to know your thoughts on this and Kelvin, tell me what your thoughts on this as well.
I don't know if it's an American thing or if it's a Wisconsin thing or a Midwestern thing is we, we tend to stuff down the need for self care and relaxation.
We bargain in a way, we excuse it away.
And we don't do anything about it until maybe it's too late.
As far as like, I gotta, I have to take a vacation or I need to do some, you know, but I love the fact that Brett, you're going there for, for a month and you're going to kick back, relax.
I hope you dip your feet in some aquariums that have fish that take the skin off your toes.
Cause you talked about, I didn't forget that.
I remember that picture and we want, you know, I want people to be okay with being a little stressed out, but then doing something good for yourself.
to take care of that.
And it doesn't have to be a trip to Bangkok.
If you can do it, great, do it.
Don't sit there and go, I should do that.
I'll do it later.
I'll do it someday.
Try to do it now.
What is there going to be a big plan for you in 2026?
Do you have a trip?
Do you have a goal?
I'm just asking another question.
We can do tomorrow's audio survey for this, but I just want people to recognize that we live in stressful times.
But on top of that, it's okay to not only be stressed, but it's also okay to say, I have to do something about this.
I need to feel good.
I deserve to make myself feel good.
Self-care is very important.
It's not a bad term.
It's not weakness.
It makes us better and stronger and makes us, I don't know about you, Calvin, but it makes me more tolerable to be around.
If you ask my wife, I'm sure she loves it when I take a moment for myself because I don't come in the house all like, man, man, man.
So, yeah.
That was more just therapy for the last segment for me Calvin I feel like because I walked in here today all like on my on my guard and I feel like I was Rude to some folks and I don't like doing that So I just want to know what people are doing to offset that matter in their life and take care of themself So appreciate everyone for sharing appreciate everyone for getting in touch.
We really appreciate you when we come back This shouldn't be a thing today.
It is the I'll have fries with that addition
And after us, lots of programming we'll talk about when we come back from the break, but don't you go anywhere.
You're listening to Mid Mornings on Civic Media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I hope you're taking care of yourself.
That's important to me.
I hope you stick around, grab a snack, stay hydrated, stay warm, stay tuned and 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.
Welcome, welcome, welcome back to mid mornings on civic media.
My name is Greg Bach.
I'm your host, your buddy, your pal, your friend in happiness.
I'm hoping you're having a good morning this morning.
I hope you're staying warm this morning.
I hope you're packing all the things you need to stay warm.
Hats, gloves, scarves, mittens, hand warmers, feet warmers, tush warmers if you need a tush warmer.
I'm sure those are available.
Or you just take all the handworms you taping together, and then you've got one big tush warmer.
Not calling your tush big, just saying enough square space to... I'm moving on now.
All right, we got a great show for you tomorrow.
I'm very much looking forward to all the guests.
We're having this week.
It's very, very good stuff.
We're going to be talking tomorrow in the ninth, in a nine o'clock hour after the, in the second half to Michelle Jackson, who's the director of career exploration centers at the office of academic and career success at the university.
I believe this is was a university of Wisconsin talking about career exploration.
We, you know, there's no doubt we've seen people
take different paths, new paths, find different places to go as far as, you know, whether it was the pandemic that influenced people to maybe try something new.
But we'll be talking about that, the fear of career exploration, how to put your foot in the door if you need that.
We're going to give you that push if you need that.
Michelle Jackson will be in the first hour.
And the second hour, it's going to be a conversation with philosophy.
a professor, actually a philosopher of games and the philosophy of data.
C T when we'll be here talking about the book, the score, how to stop playing somebody else's game.
That'll be in the second hour and the 10 o'clock hour.
I'm very much looking forward to that.
I've been reading that book and I'm looking forward to having.
a discussion about the gamification of life.
So if you want to learn more about that, stick around tomorrow.
And if you want to have more fun today, stick around because there's more after us.
John and Gordy from two to five, a best of nightlight with Pete Schwabba from five to eight, but following us directly is Tom Hartman from 11 to two right here.
Listen to us on the Civic Media app or on your favorite radio station like WAUK, but don't go anywhere.
We've got lots of fun stuff ahead for this afternoon and we're happy you're sharing your time with us.
Now it's almost 10 55.
It's officially 10 55.
So it's time for another installment of
This shouldn't be a thing Today it is the I'll have fries with that edition.
This is coming from CNN travel.
That's fun Our Machi Ori has the byline chips ahoy chips Chips ahoy English Beach covered in french fries and onions after cargo ship spill Get it Calvin chips.
That's what they call french fries over there.
Did you know that?
I've made you smarter.
Did you
know
that?
Yes, I did know that, Greg.
Rude.
All right.
A beach in England has disappeared under a blanket of uncooked french fries and onions after a container ship spilled its cargo earlier this month.
A cleanup operation began on Tuesday along the coastline of East Sussex in Southeast England after containers on two
cargo ships went overboard during the storm late last year and earlier this month, according to the local county council.
I kind of love that idea.
Well, okay.
I don't love the idea of food being wasted and this, this happening.
This should not definitely be a thing, but the idea that this story came out yesterday, but the container late last year went overboard.
And earlier this month, it finally washed up.
That's... I only imagined someone standing on the shores of East Sussex going, ploy me.
They're coming for us.
The chips and onions.
I did two different accents there.
Sorry.
I did like a very Southern and then it did a very Northern accent there.
My apologies for mixing it.
My character works all over the place today.
But Joel Bonicci, a resident of the resort town of Eastbourne told CNN on Monday that he believes the onions began to appear on the shore on Wednesday last week.
And some residents went to help collect up in plastic bags, which the onion, collect past base, but they were, they were
packaged in.
So it was not only that, Oh, wow.
It wasn't just like loose onions.
It was plastic bags.
So that's not good for the environment either.
So, uh, but Nietzsche told.
told the CNN that he and his partner, Trisha were hiking to see the seals at falling sands on Saturday.
Like everybody has been doing to help out.
We're picking up the last of the onion bags as we went out.
We did not expect to turn the corner and see a new scene of chips.
So the onions had arrived.
The chips are finally here.
So the appetizer is complete.
All I need is a basket and some vinegar.
And I am good to go.
Cause honestly, Calvin, tell me you don't read this story and think to yourself.
French fries with sauteed onions.
That sounds mighty delicious.
And honest, I'm not kidding you right now.
I'm looking at the, I'm looking at the story and what's popping up a Culver's ad for French fries.
I'm not even kidding you.
It's always listening to you from a distance.
You would think the beach was covered in yellow sand like you would on a tropical island.
Immediately we both decided to hike.
over what we spent, but we spent the next couple hours cleaning as many bags as we could until it got dark to continue.
Other families were doing the same.
This is a story of also community coming together.
There were thousands of bags and luckily the environmental group, Plastic Free Eastbourne put out a call for more that, for more volunteers on Sunday in the post on their Facebook page and people came out and helped out, but no word yet.
If anyone has saved any of them for a big party in East Sussex, cause if they are,
Calvin, I'm gonna get the Civic Media credit card and we're going to East Sussex to have some lovely chips and onions with some vinegar at the seaside because I think we deserve it because self-care is the right care.
Am I wrong?
Exactly right.
Thank you very much.
All right, that brings us to the conclusion of another installment of This shouldn't be a thing
I want to thank Calvin.
I want to thank Tucker.
I would love to thank our traffic department as well as our engineers, as I always say.
And as Jane always said, without you, none of this works.
I'm talking new microphone that doesn't do anything.
But also I want to thank everyone who called, who texted, who left comments on the live stream.
I want to thank our guest professor, Jean Theo Harris for coming in today.
I'm really hoping we can talk to her sooner than later, but
Don't go anywhere.
You are listening to Civic Media, the Civic Media Radio Network.
This has been mid mornings.
My name is Greg Bach.
I've been your host.
Don't go anywhere.
Tom Harman after this.
Stay tuned.
Stay close.
The national news cycle never stops, but it can be hard to find news about your local community.
Civic Media is dedicated to providing quality local and state news coverage across Wisconsin.
With the Civic Media app, you can get notifications about local stories that matter to you and your community.
Find the free Civic Media app in your phone's app store and choose notifications from the menu to tell us what kind of news you want to hear about.
