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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Craiglow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Craiglow.
Hey, good morning.
It is 806.
Nice to have you here up north on this Friday morning, May 2nd, 2025.
And we've got a great hour ahead for you.
I'll tell you all about it in just a bit.
But first, a little bit of housekeeping.
And that, of course, is a reminder that at Up North News, we'd love to have you subscribe to our daily newsletter.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
A little story in today's issue about mental health awareness and the little things that you can do that, for all you know, may save a life or at least brighten someone's day.
Then of course, there's our new weekend edition comes out on Sunday mornings with an emphasis on Wisconsin politics.
It will include a story we've already talked about earlier about the first official candidate in the race for Wisconsin governor for
next year.
It's a Washington County executive, Josh Schoeman, who is no stranger to getting attention for spouting the usual conservative talking points.
Let's put it that way.
And so we'll be having that story in our newsletter and certainly talking all about it in the weeks and months to come.
because we've got a long way to go before the 2026 election is over.
It feels like we just we just finished one or two of them.
We'll probably get into that but I mean we've got a state budget that is being debated right now by the state legislature.
That's the business at hand and there are some important issues that the legislature could be working on that would be great for moms, would be great for women and so I mean what
What an hour we've got ahead here.
We've got Dr. Kristen Lyrely joining us as she often will on Fridays in the eight o'clock hour.
Emily Cephos is back with us to talk more about these issues as well.
And meteorologist Brittany Merleau is here too to talk all about the weather heading into this weekend.
And Brittany, I know you have already been chastised by Dr. Lyrely for the rain that fell on her mulch pile, but
Um, we don't hold you personally responsible for that.
What we do, we do give you all the credit though that next week when all that stuff she's putting the mulch on everything is growing.
So lush and green.
It'll be because there's a delightful warm up, not too much farther away.
There is.
Oh my gosh, everybody get excited.
I am so excited to feel some 70 degree temperatures and they are going to take over our week next week.
In fact, some of us are going to be feeling the mid 70s as soon as Sunday, but we've got to get there first, right?
We've still got a low pressure system working its way through the state right now, and it's creating a little bit of problems up north, far northwest along Lake Superior.
Temperatures are in those mid 30s right now.
That's pretty crisp for this time of year and it could be mixing in a few flurries or maybe even freezing rain right now along highway two.
So be careful out there this morning if you are driving around otherwise temperatures throughout the state are pretty much in the forties.
We are seeing some fifties far south and of course the slow pressure continuing to bring some scattered light rain through the state today.
Mostly staying north this morning, working its way south throughout the afternoon, lingering southeast throughout the evening and it could spin a few more scattered showers through
through tomorrow morning, far southeast, but the rest of the state drying up, clearing out, crashing cold tonight to a frost or a freeze far north and then south.
Your chances move in on Saturday night where you're going to be dropping cold as well.
So protect those plants if you got them in the ground or if you've got them outside, bring them in.
And of course, we are looking at a ton of sunshine for tomorrow as a high pressure system builds in.
It is going to be fantastic.
So highs today in the upper thirties far north to the mid fifties down south, we're going to warm things up tomorrow to sixties west forties east.
Sorry, you're going to have a little bit of a lake breeze off of Lake Michigan, but otherwise on Sunday, seventies for the northwest areas of the state and fifties southeast.
It's going to feel nice.
Have you got time to stick around for one good news story?
Of course.
That deals with the NFL Draft, which was in Kristen's backyard over here, where the Brown County Tavern League is earning praise for keeping the roads safe.
Their shuttles helped more than 9,000 people get to their destinations through the Safe Ride program.
627 rides were given to 9,013 riders free of charge.
They operated some 40 shuttle vans and 91 drivers who put in 2,000 hours on the road.
I've seen some of these shuttles certainly here in the Chippewa Valley and in other communities as well.
And I just, I want to continue to heap praise on that to normalize taking these shuttles.
It's so tempting to go, oh, I'll just drive.
I'll be just fine.
But if it, I don't care if you call it a party bus, whatever you want to call it.
If you get a chance to do something that keeps the roads a little safer, you should go for it.
And so I just want to tip my cap to the folks who helped make that happen in the Green Bay area for the draft.
100%.
That is such a good option.
Those numbers are outrageous.
So I'm happy to hear that they're actually using it.
Yes.
And that they're sharing it.
It's really neat to hear it.
Otherwise, I mean, this is happening, but unless they're talking about it, we don't know.
So hats off to the Tavern League for sharing that information.
And as you said, Pat.
normalizing it.
It's good to do this.
Look what a this was really a group event.
Quicktrip supplied gas cards and donated $5,000.
There was basically an assembly line that got together to put up removable decals for the for the stops and then get them removed by Sunday morning so that they didn't stick around.
Nielsen Communications helped provide radio transmission
The City of Green Bay had $15,000 through an American Rescue Plan grant to improve some of the safety in the area.
The Brown County Sheriff's Department, Village of Howard, on and on it went.
Everybody really came together to make all of this happen.
So again, thanks for the safe ride for everybody.
Hey, Brittany, have a wonderful weekend.
We'll talk to you Monday morning with the really nice weather on the way.
Thanks, you too.
All right.
So Kristen Lyrely's with us, Emily Cephos here as well.
And Emily, have we talked since Election Day when you were running for seat in the legislature?
Because some people did and then, you know, we never heard from them again.
And then
there's
heroes like you who have, you're out there.
And you're putting yourself out there on social media, continuing the messaging that needs to be done in this day and time.
We talked about this a little earlier in the program that it's these demonstrations and it's the news conferences and it's the social media posts that get people's attention.
They may not know about some of the things that Republicans are doing in the White House and in Congress and the legislature without your efforts.
So I got to ask Emily, why?
You don't have to do this.
You're right.
None of
us do, right?
I think that we have a unique responsibility, though.
And I ran last year in a really difficult district, but I met a lot of incredible people.
And what was made very apparent is that a lot of us are operating with
you know, we're not connecting those dots and we're voting, you know, trusting sound bites and news clips and I really want to bring it home like the hurt and the pain that you're feeling.
That is a policy choice and whether it's coming from Washington or Madison, these people are not doing you any favors and I'm here just to kind of sound the alarm and remind you that we don't have to live, you know, struggling to pay our bills when it comes to healthcare.
We don't need like none of these problems need to exist.
We just have to get better people in office and I'm finding a lot of joy in it.
Like we really created some authentic connections up here.
And I'm really just enjoying like getting out there and making sure people are aware of it.
Boy, everything that you said, I remember somebody else saying that a couple of years ago after she ran for the legislature fell a little short.
Next thing you knew, she was running for Congress.
Now she's got her
own
weekend show up here in Green Bay.
Kristen, I don't think you have any regrets about the path you've chosen.
Yeah, I don't and I just want to correct one thing that you said.
You said Emily didn't have to do this and she actually does have to do it because it is so internal for her.
So this is a drive and it's not a have to get attention.
It's a have to.
get out and make a difference.
So what you don't see, you see here on social media, you see those actions, but you don't see the organizing she's doing behind the scenes, how she's running the out of game county Dems, and they are a robust group of folks who just need somebody to help them point, help to point them in the right direction.
She is helping to give people a voice who otherwise don't know what to do or what to say.
And when you see these demonstrations that are happening up here, people out in the streets who are having conversation,
who are figuring out how to make a difference, a lot of that is coordinated by Emily Cephos.
So Emily, I just wanted to make sure that people understood it is not just you on TikTok, you are doing all of the work all over the place.
Tony writes on YouTube, Emily had a show too, OG Rational Revolution.
Yeah, the OG with Chris Elfheim over there, yep.
That's right,
who
is
serving in the state Senate now.
Back to the draft for a second, just because Cassandra wanted to thank folks.
fraud programs kept traumas out of our unit she says
and
so thank you Tony writing not all heroes wear capes and again Kristen it's really about just everybody doing a part and not just sitting like a lump watch and TV there's a difference you can make either in community volunteering like on that safe ride program we just talked about or something that's a bit more political or even partisan yesterday there were May Day demonstrations all over.
bunch of people gathered in Hayward to show support for Judge Monica Isham, who's been the subject of some very, you know, hateful comments since the arrest of Judge Hannah Dugan in Milwaukee one week ago.
But you had folks, of course, in Madison, Milwaukee, everywhere, you can look on social media and see that there's just, there's something, I'm sound like a Buffalo Springs field song.
There's something happening here.
But this is, this, it feels a lot like that.
that era in the late sixties when, you know, people just felt the need.
They felt the need that they can't just stay home and watch all this injustice and unfairness, Kristen.
It's true.
It's peaceful.
These are not paid protesters.
These are people who are concerned and they're looking for a place to plug in and make a difference.
My son Abe was in Racine the other day just driving down the street and there were people outside the social security office making sure that their voices were heard and people understood that social security is important to them.
So there is a place for you no matter who you are or where you live to get out there and let the world know that things are not working for us right now here.
in Wisconsin and across the country.
And frankly, we're just not going to stand for it.
No.
And Emily, I mentioned yesterday, I shared some of the instructions that were given to people who wanted to come up to Hayward March yesterday.
And it was a long list of ways to make sure that things stay peaceful, not violent, positive, even saying don't block businesses.
A lot of these businesses are going to be hurt by tariffs, you know, that
are
coming in and
I, it's such a contrast to the, you know, the January 6th type of whatever you want to call that is these are folks who just want to be seen and heard with a message.
And you can do that in a way that, that does not disrupt, you know, day to day lives, but still gets your point across, I think.
Right.
And I think some of, I mean, these are meant to be disruptive, right?
They're meant to be something that gets people's attention and causes them to pause.
Like, but I will say that at least down in the Ableton area, and it sounds like in Hayward as well, it's really heartening to see, you know, these are community members that care about their community.
And so they're saying, yes, we have to be disruptive, but we're going to do it safely.
We're going to do it nonviolently.
And we're going to like bring that joy is an active resistance as well.
So to see that being incorporated into all of these actions is really like incredible.
And I don't, I don't see it stopping anytime soon with everything that's going on.
I think it's
something that's going to continue in that grounds while we'll keep growing.
Oh,
it's growing.
It's growing this weekend in Sturgeon Bay and in Kiwani.
It's going to be all it continues to be all over the place.
And I love that you said joy because that really is what people are bringing.
They're saying we don't want you to come.
I mean, people feel angry, but we don't want you to come expressing anger.
We want you to come expressing support and having conversations with each other and letting us know what those things are that you're frustrated about, but doing it in a positive community building way.
We're talking to Dr. Kristen Lierly and to Emily Sefos, chair of the Out of Game County Democratic Party.
And we will be continuing that conversation on the program here yet this morning.
And we'll also give you a little update on the Brewers getting set to play the Cubs for weekend series at American Family Field.
Updates next on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Boy, the things we do for Dr. Lierly
here.
Dip back into the music library of old and bring up Leslie Gore who was born 79 years ago today and Whose song there you don't own me is an anthem of sorts for dr. Lyrely Get her to stop singing along with it just long enough to give us that affirmation You are Leslie Gore fan going way way
back
I can't help it.
You're
going to get us in trouble with the licensing people again.
And you said, I mean, going back to single digit age, you were bebop into this song.
Before computers, we had record players and my mom had this incredible record collection and she would let my sister and I play her records, which I'm sure was painful for her because I'm sure she knew we were destroying them.
We did our best.
I mean, you know, they scratch so easy.
But that was one of those songs.
That was one of those albums that I just remember from being a little kid.
And it's neat that it's been reintroduced generations later.
And it's just such a great song produced by Quincy Jones.
Yes.
Yeah, that's right.
That's right.
I was going to say something about the the the music here.
No, it came and went.
So let me instead turn over to the
to YouTube where Rob is commenting saying thank you Kristen and Emily for all the wonderful things that you do fighting for us.
Always stay engaged.
Right back at you brother.
Yep.
Appreciate that very much.
This weekend, boy you've talked about marches and demonstrations and all kinds of other events and asking you to during the commercial break.
Some things are more mundane.
Look, we talk big on the radio.
We have a lot of busy things to do during the work week, but that mulch ain't gonna spread itself, Kristen.
No, it's not.
So grab your wheelbarrow.
I've got a pitchfork.
Let's go.
Emily, you've got something similar ahead of you, but you've got family matters too.
Yeah we got it's soccer season so we are in the thick of raising children right now and so we're going to Wausau tonight.
We want to have a nice little weekend.
Oh my goodness.
Can I also put in a plug for senior ball at Depeer High School which is also an event that is happening in my family and it's going to be really fun to take pictures on Saturday night.
senior ball,
senior ball.
It's their thing where they dress up and they, you know, kind of like prom for seniors.
Well, that's, I wasn't sure if this was a high school senior thing or a senior citizen thing.
This
is an elder frame of reference there.
Yes.
Well, when you said
senior, but I'm like, is that the new name for prom?
No, it's actually something for grandmas and grandpas and
things like that.
No, this is for seniors in high school.
Now I'm confused.
Okay.
This is for seniors in high school who are going to, it's a school dance.
But it's not prom
but it's not prom.
It's the seniors version of prom The seniors in high school version of are you having a senior moment right now?
No
promise for seniors you would juniors were never allowed at prom Are you telling me prom is now just more for like sophomores and juniors?
No juniors have their own prom junior prom and then seniors have seen your ball Okay
Let's see.
Also,
Rob tells us in
Tigerton tomorrow is a volunteer to Clean Day.
So we're cleaning up Tigerton tomorrow.
Nice.
Yes.
So, all right.
You've also, Kristin, got another thing that you're starting or what?
Kickstarting?
Women in medicine?
Oh, yeah.
We have this wonderful group of women physicians in Northeast Wisconsin and medical students because, you know, we've got a medical school here in Green Bay.
So we pull all of those folks together and we get...
pizza once a month, maybe have a couple beers or the beverage of your choice and just support each other, mentor each other.
They're really, really exciting to see these young people connecting with established people, the mentorship, the support.
figuring out what the next steps are and a lot of them end up coming back to the area and establishing their practices here, which was the initial intent of putting a medical school in Green Bay and the medical school that's in Wausau and the other branches that are all across the state.
We've got a rural health care crisis.
We don't have enough providers in rural areas and the medical schools are trying to solve this problem.
But unfortunately, our government is trying to make it worse by cutting, threatening to cut.
Medicaid funds, which will disproportionately affect people who live in rural communities, unfortunately.
And Emily, I'm sure that was something you talked about in your campaign as well, is just getting, getting enough healthcare providers in an area first,
along with
the affordable coverage and then equitable coverage that we're going to talk about in our next segment.
But it's again, these are the things that resonate with people more than, you know, Trump wanting to annex Greenland or something like that.
I really sense much more of a focus on the issues that matter to people.
at their kitchen tables rather than whatever shiny object is being waived by the national media.
Yeah and I think that's the thing right is that you're we have a party in a side that is sort of like focusing on the things that are going to affect like five ten people but not dealing with like the meat and potatoes problems that we're all dealing with and it's something that we want to keep driving home as like Democrats and as local people local leaders in our community is like these problems right outside your door like we actually want to fix them and not
deal with all of the other shiny objects.
Which makes sense because so often in polling, you get that from folks like, oh, nobody's talking about the things that matter to me.
They're important to me.
But I feel like finally folks are listening and saying, we don't have to just be the outrage machine all the time.
We can say, we know what this problem is.
Here is a proposed solution.
And here are the people who are blocking the solution.
So much more productive.
Tony writes in on YouTube, Pat silently judging kids these days.
I think it goes both ways, Tony.
And it wasn't so silent either.
It wasn't so silent.
Again, it's prom, kids.
Why do we have to give it a different name?
I will say, I might have mentioned this the other day, but I have one national podcast that I've listened to going back 25 years when it was a radio show.
And they read one of my letters a couple of weeks back because they were talking about prom horror stories.
And I talked about the one where our prom entertainment was Florence Henderson and Tennessee Ernie Ford.
at the old Carlton Celebrity Dinner Theater in the Twin Cities with a girlfriend who'd broken up with me a week earlier, but we decided we'd already paid for the tux in the dress.
So we may as well go.
We saw Florence Henderson sing and then I never saw her again.
I feel all this trauma has really affected how I look
at the senior ball here.
Yes, we'll do more psychoanalysis of your host coming up next from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
If you've been with the program since the beginning at six o'clock this morning, you know that Greg Bach and I had a little discussion about how the folks at Courier Newsroom in talking about the new name for the radio show and now the new name for the weekend newsletter, Mornings with Pat Crichtlow and now Sunday Mornings with Pat Crichtlow, the press release said this helps grow the Pat Crichtlow universe.
I
thought it was, I thought we
were growing the up North news franchise, but they chose to call it the pack quite low universe.
And Greg first said, Oh, that's, that's very cool.
And then after, after a little bitter or so, I said, uh, don't worry.
I, I got Kristen and Emily coming in.
They will humble me real quick.
I will not.
And it's been nothing but that during the breaks, folks.
Dr. Kristen Lyrely is here.
Emily Cephos is here.
And we've been talking about.
policy, public policy, health care, mulch, you name
it.
School
dances, whether they're for the high schoolers or for the seniors, I don't know, Pat's a little confused.
And then there's also regional accents.
Kristen thinks there's some folks that might have an accent in Minnesota to which Laura Lee puts up on YouTube.
Oh, for cute.
Oh, for cute.
Yeah, you betcha.
You betcha.
So let's let's turn to a couple of policy areas and one we've talked about a lot and that's postpartum Medicaid coverage.
But there's another one that we haven't talked about nearly as much but again is a bipartisan matter in the Wisconsin legislature and yet it has had no luck in getting passed.
So let's start with that one.
It's about diagnostic mammograms.
the Affordable Care Act covers one kind, but then there's these diagnostic type that aren't covered.
So, Kristen, can you set up a bit more of the background of what we're talking about before we get into what the bill would cover?
Allow me to explain.
Thank you.
So, the Affordable Care Act ensures that women can get their routine preventive care, which includes
Memography, breast cancer screening, that's a screening test for people who are of average risk and they are just being screened to see if they have any evidence of breast cancer.
If they find something on that screening test, a suspicious finding, we recommend additional imaging.
Sometimes it's another x-ray, sometimes it's an ultrasound, sometimes it's an MRI, but those are diagnostic tests to actually diagnose whether there's a problem there.
The problem for us as patients is that your insurance company often doesn't cover that additional testing, which means that it comes out of your pocket.
And for many of us, we can't afford it.
And as a result, you know, care is delayed and as a result there, there can be some, some terrible and tragic outcomes.
And so you now have a bill introduced that would see the cost of preventative screenings eliminated.
But this is the third time that this has been tried, even though it's got a Republican sponsor, Representative Amanda Nedueski of Pleasant Prairie.
And Emily, it seems.
Odd to say this, but when you've got, you know, that kind of co-sponsorship, this, like we said, this is the third time they're trying to get this passed.
And hopefully it does pass, but I think it's like that, you know, it's the inside baseball stuff.
So we don't know, like if it was a Democratic bill and they said we're never going to get it heard because of the way things work in Madison.
So I'm hopeful that they've strategized the right way.
We know there's the bipartisan support.
And I will say, like, I am, I've been transparent.
Like I, there was a, I found a lump last year.
So I was getting my regular preventative care.
I had to go through all of the diagnostic testing and things.
I'm in my upper 30s, but I received all those bills.
we were fortunately were able to handle the entire like everything we needed to do to take care of myself but there are so many people that are facing would face financial ruin and so they just avoided which means that they are further down you know whatever disease path they are on if they've got something going on there and it's really sad so hopefully they're strategizing the right way and we're going to see that be passed this legislative session.
Yeah, it seems like one of the key elements here is, you know, that again, this is a, this would be a mandate that if you want to cover people in Wisconsin, you have to have this kind of coverage.
And Kristen, I mean, I don't know where you go if you don't have certain mandates for covering care, because otherwise, we're no different than we were before the Affordable Care Act where insurance companies could reject you, drop you at the drop of a hat.
It's unbelievable to me that
We have to legislate a mandate that insurance companies don't just do this because this is actually healthcare.
I mean, you have an abnormal finding.
Your insurance should just pay for that.
You know, that's just common sense, but that is not the case.
And in situations where people
are of high risk.
Maybe they have a genetic predisposition or a family history of breast cancer and they need additional screening and additional testing.
Their insurance doesn't pay for that either.
And breast cancer is not uncommon.
One in eight women in this country will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.
So this is a bill that has the potential to impact someone you know or love.
This is really important.
And again, people know that from a bipartisan standpoint.
Again, Representative Nadewski says, I think of the women out there who get that letter and how many of them are following up with secondary screening and how many are blowing it off because they don't have an extra $1,000 for an MRI right now.
And then they have a diagnosis two years down the line where they're already in stage three, where if they'd gone for that ultrasound early on, maybe they could have caught it early enough and could have avoided having to go through chemotherapy or radiation.
or treatment.
I mean, she's gonna say that, I'm sure, in remarks on the floor again, and there are still gonna be assembly Republicans who vote no on a bill like that.
By the way, that assumes Speaker Robin Voss even lets the bill come up, which takes us to the Medicaid postpartum extension from 60 days to one year, where again, it's just us in Arkansas, that's it.
And Emily, again, we know, we've spoken at length,
It is singularly Robin Voss in his crusade to prove the unprovable that Medicaid is welfare and therefore all welfare must be cut.
What is the, what's the best advice for people?
Is it just contact your own legislator?
Is it contact, you know, Speaker Voss directly even if you're not a constituent?
Is it what, I mean, what, what do we think we have to do here?
Solid question.
Um, well, I mean, again, this has passed the Senate 32 to one.
So.
It flew through there, and it's at the point where it can be brought to the floor.
It doesn't have to go through committee, but we need Robin Boss to take it upon himself to do the right thing to listen to his caucus because we have 70 members in the assembly that have expressed support for this.
And so as far as what we can do is we can call our legislators, especially our Republican legislators that are signing on to this to say, what are you going to do to pressure Robin Boss to bring it to the floor and bother them every single day and say, what was said?
Has he talked to the caucus?
How is it going?
And really just be the thorn in their side.
so that they can pressure boss.
So that's what our first suggestion is.
Always feel free to call, but he usually sluffs those calls off as you're not my constituent, so I don't need to listen to you.
Here's the
thing, if you're Speaker of the Assembly, all of Wisconsin is your constituency.
Right.
Because you have this kind of power.
Kristen, I talked to Senator Kelderoy's to start off the week and
I really thought it was intriguing.
The angle that she took is that the Republicans on joint finance, they're all in support of this.
So why not just put it into the budget bill?
Because then Robin Foss can't do anything about it.
You know, he's not going to stop the whole budget bill from coming up to a vote.
Or who knows with him?
Maybe he would.
I don't
know.
I know.
It's so confusing.
And there are so many potential pathways.
So I don't know what the answer is here.
What I do know is
people need health care and women in the postpartum period, it gets your body a year to recover from a pregnancy.
And in that year, a lot of things can go wrong and you need to be able to see your health care provider to solve those problems.
You've got a young baby at home.
You likely have other children at home.
So.
people need access to health care.
It would be so easy to do this.
If this is a bipartisan, bicameral issue, we've just got to keep the pressure on.
That's
all we can do
right now.
And maybe we do a Mother's Day campaign kind of thing to Robin Voss to be like, you know what?
Moms across the state, this is what we want and need for them.
Make some cards, show up.
and get a little loud for the next couple of weeks and see if we can bring it up.
Why not?
Anything that could maybe get this through.
Laura Lee says, how do we boycott his popcorn?
Picket his car wash and rental properties.
Well, again, that may work.
It may not.
But anything that brings visibility to this, because let's come at it this way.
It's now a competition with Arkansas.
OK?
Hey,
wait a minute.
But like, Arkansas's done stuff.
They actually, they haven't.
Here's the
update on Arkansas.
It, in their case, same thing.
It passed their house overwhelmingly, but three weeks ago now in a, it went to a Senate committee and it died in the Senate committee.
So they too have bipartisan support in that legislature, but too many Republicans in the Senate in this case in Arkansas don't want it.
So currently that bill is stalled just as the Wisconsin bill is stalled.
So I'm telling you guys, we can do this.
Arkansas has done stuff.
They can't pass postpartum Medicaid extension for a full year, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders did sign some additional provisions into law to ensure that people had better access to postpartum care.
So it's not what they wanted, but it's better than what Wisconsinites have.
We are the losers here, and it's because of one person.
Emily, how impressed are you that Kristen and I are so competitive?
We will nerd out over who knows more about the current status of the Arkansas legislature.
I
mean,
I'm very impressed.
I admire the knowledge and the dedication.
No, this is really...
We can't deprogram these things.
We're both lost.
We just, we're just lost souls.
And fortunately, the nice folks at Civic Media each give us shows where we can, you know, kind of bring this knowledge someplace, which is my transition to the Dr. Kristen Lyrely show, which will be heard again tomorrow.
What time?
3pm.
Tomorrow
and Sunday.
Yes, replayed on Sunday.
What's coming up this weekend?
It's bring your child to work day.
I invited my oldest son Abe, who is a public school teacher.
He teaches middle school music and he shares his perspective as a Gen Z guy on what's happening in the world and as his mom who talks to him a lot.
I was really surprised by some of the thoughts that he shared and the lack of enthusiasm for the future, the recognition that there weren't a lot of opportunities and that there's a lot of work we need to do to pull Gen Z in and to help them.
Oh my gosh, I really wanted to go off on a happier topic here.
But when you said that, I
just think of
it is, it is so real.
The, the, the reduced number of weddings, the reduced number of, you know,
people having couples deciding to have children or expand their family.
If anything, almost so many families are now stopping it too.
You're not seeing nearly as many, except Sean Duffy and then a few other exceptions, but that's about it.
And yeah, I almost feel like we need some kind of a positivity campaign that says, look, yeah, the world has serious issues, but there's still room for love, marriage, relationships, kids, all those things.
Yeah.
I was
going to say, and also we can't like disregard, you know, like, I mean, it reminds me of the $5,000 check that Trump offered to like
have
a baby.
Like you need to pass policies that support families raising, you know, people in this world.
Like you need to support, you know, like actual safety nets and things like that.
So we can raise our kids and we do feel confident.
And I think that's a huge part of it that we need to like acknowledge it's not happening.
Um,
yeah.
And these people aren't dumb.
They know that when you dangle $5,000 in front of them, that it's a joke.
So that's why they're not getting, that's why the federal government is not getting the kind of response that they expected from that, or the metals, the motherhood metals.
Yeah, you know, these people are like, no, actually created a society that works for us.
It's $5,000.
You're like, OK, well, that paid for my epidural if I had wondering.
Like,
yes.
Would it?
I don't know.
That's the thing.
Would it?
Exactly.
We're talking to Emily Sefos and Dr. Kristen Lyrely.
And I just want to remind you as well, folks, that on Monday we'll have Nick Ramos from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and we'll have Laura Benjamin, who is a candidate in the Third Congressional District in Western Wisconsin.
There are now three candidates in that race to unseat Derek Van Orden.
I'm Pat Crichtlow reminding you it's always about liberty.
and justice for all.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
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
Wow, we're just, we're discovering all kinds of things in the production library over here.
Switch the show around, expand to three hours, get some new music.
Uh, Sam's on the board, Greg Buck will be back in mere minutes for Matt and Air On Air from 9 to 11 here across the Civic Media Radio Network.
We're talking to Emily Sefos and Dr. Kristen Lierly.
Emily, I, it started this all off by saying how great it was that you were staying involved and you were staying active on social media.
And I loved what you were doing on social media, making videos during the campaign, but I really didn't get into what are you doing now?
Are you on any kind of like a regular cadence or routine where can people find you and what is it that you want and like to do?
Yeah, I'm everywhere all at once.
I'm like a whirling dervish.
I'm still on social media and I'm trying to be active like about like, again, the real world, local impact.
of what's happening from Washington to Madison.
I'm also trying to do a lot of community organizing like here in the district that I ran in and in Nottingham County to make sure that we are supporting folks as things fall away.
So we were out at the Tyson plant in New London the other week calling to attention the termination of a
a humanitarian parole program for workers there.
I was at the UAW group that's striking in Oshkosh yesterday, talking about right-to-work laws and how that deals with the Supreme Court here in Wisconsin.
We talked about Medicaid and what's going to happen to rural communities when Medicaid goes away if they're making those cuts.
I'm everywhere, but follow me on social media for sure.
We're going to keep doing that work and I'm always looking to get more people
involved.
Now we get to get into the spelling of your name, which does throw people off occasionally, but if people want to find you on social media, tell the radio audience how to do that.
Sure.
So I'm just Emily Sefos in Wisconsin.
It's a Greek last name, one from a nice German Daniels to Sefos when I got married.
So it's T-S-E-F-F-O-S.
And then I'm on Instagram, just Emily Sefos-W-I.
I've got a website that is in the works of being updated to be more of a community aid kind of resource.
But that's for now, I'm just on the socials.
I'm also on TikTok.
So
yeah.
The thing that I really like about the videos that you make and Kristen as well.
is how many of them are just direct to camera they could be over a cup of coffee saying look here's something that's happening that you should know about and there was it was so needed and I I know that Kate Duffy's been doing the same thing in motherhood for good there's just more of these
as we see each other in person less and less and people are looking at their phone screens more and more.
It's not that you're taking the place of a three-dimensional person, but you're definitely feeling a role that they're not getting if folks are watching screens more than getting out and talking in their community, Kristen.
Yeah, absolutely.
And what Emily is doing now is the same stuff she was doing during her campaign.
She wasn't campaigning with bright lights and shiny things.
She was talking to people and knocking doors and having conversations.
That's the community building that people really want.
And that's what we're doing all across Northeast Wisconsin.
So we're not campaigning.
We're trying to help each other.
You see our elected representatives, the Republicans doing photo ops, but then they leave.
Emily's bringing supplies to the striking workers at UAW to make sure that they're well taken care of.
That's community building, and that's what we're going to continue to do, because that's what people need.
And it's real.
And Emily, I don't say this out of embarrassment, but I mean, I've seen you get emotional making these videos and talking about things because you're talking about real life
and the
people you're meeting and their struggles.
Yeah and I think like that digital you know existing in a digital sense it is where everybody gets their information they spend a lot of time on their phones and those conversations and those relationships even in a digital world are real to people and so like that's something that I'm trying to instill upon like county parties candidates going forward like invest in your digital you know.
Persona as it is because like I've walked up to plenty of doors or like I saw you talking about this issue and it like gives you you're further down the road with that conversation and that relationship and so showing up in real life like obviously not doing the photo op thing where I'm taking a picture and smiling and then actively working against the group that I'm Standing with like showing up in real life and digitally is so important and being consistent in that and that's what we're gonna keep doing because those stories are worthwhile and these people's lives Matter and they don't they don't get heard
And so we got to just raise that alarm.
We
do.
Last thing would be in your your role as active Democrats, Emily as chair of the out of gaming county Democratic Party.
Kristen's been very active in Brown County as well.
Democrats will be picking a new state chair at their convention in June.
I'm not putting you on the spot about that, but just about whatever kind of a buzz is out there.
Obviously, people are going to miss Ben Wickler, but they've got
three good options to choose from out there do you feel like the party membership there is is engaged and ready to hear from all these candidates or are they feeling anxious or worried that Ben is leaving Emily what what sense do you get now to gamey county
i think we're obviously like you know fundraising is a big big thing um because Ben was able to pull in you know
a lot of cash that was utilized while in here in Wisconsin.
But I think those of us on the ground are also like really anxious to see strategy.
Like what does that look like to employ and to utilize the infrastructure that exists across the state in a way that is effective no matter where we are, whether we're in Dunn County or out of gamey or Racine.
And so I'm really anxious to just continue to learn more about the candidates, about what their vision for employing and utilizing us on the ground and how to like collaborate with them.
And
I would just add that the Democratic Party lives outside of Madison and Milwaukee.
I think we think about those big city strongholds, but we've got a really strong group of Dems in out of gamey in Brown, unbelievably in Kiwani.
But these are places where it's harder to be a Democrat.
So what we need outside of the big cities is a leader, a party that recognizes that we're here and the support to help us do the things that we know the people across the state in these rural areas.
They want our help.
They want to be able to express these democratic values that we're pushing forward.
So that's what I am looking for, and that's what I know a lot of my colleagues in Northeast Wisconsin are looking for, someone who recognizes that there are Democrats outside of the big cities.
Dr. Kristen Lyle, her show's on tomorrow, three o'clock up in the Green Bay Area.
Look on the Civic Media app, Emily Cephos.
Thank you both.
It's so great to visit with you.
Thanks for staying for the hour.
Thank you.
Have fun with those mulch piles.
Happy weekend.
We'll see y'all later.
My thanks to Emily and to Kristen, also to all of our guests today, Kia Vakil, Colin Booth from the Granite Post in New Hampshire, Kyle Kaminski from the Gander in Michigan, Jim Santel, Jennifer Scholesi, Mark Jacob, Dan Schumacher, and to you.
Have a wonderful weekend.
We'll see you Monday morning at six.
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