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Welcome to Mornings with Pat Kreilow, Fats on Vacation.
I'm Matt Rothschild, subbing in as a co-host with Angela Lange.
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You know, we're going to continue the conversation on how to resist Trump.
And I'm delighted to have actually in studio with me our next guest who is a professor at the University of Wisconsin here in Madison.
Her name is Leah Horowitz.
She's the Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and American Indian and Indigenous Studies here in Madison.
Welcome to the program.
Thanks so much.
Great to be here.
Well, I saw your name in an article about the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison trying to stand up to Donald Trump and passing a resolution in the last two weeks or so to urge the university to join a compact with other Big Ten universities in saying
We're not going to be bullied by Donald Trump.
Tell us more about that and what that vote or what that meeting of the faculty was like.
Yeah, for sure.
Well, the motivation behind this resolution is the fact that, as you probably know, we're in an urgent situation where universities are under attack and in multiple ways all at once.
And I can talk more about that in a minute, but in terms of the resolution itself,
The idea behind that was just looking at the strategy of the current federal federal administration has been just to target a few universities at a time so that the rest will silence themselves.
So we've watched as universities have been targeted one after another and the rest have largely kept their heads down hoping that they wouldn't be noticed.
And some were caving,
like
Columbia.
Exactly, exactly.
So, you know, it's becoming increasingly clear that that isn't working.
You know, you mentioned Columbia University and they were under immense financial pressure and they actually exceeded to the administration's demands and then the administration made even more demands and froze even more funding.
So...
that clearly isn't working as a strategy.
But we have seen the executive branch back down and even reverse course when there's enough resistance.
We saw it with tariffs and then closer to home for us academics, we saw that happen with student visas.
And so universities are starting to stand up to these illegal attacks.
We don't, as UW Madison doesn't have the deep pockets that Harvard is using for its litigation, but as members of the Big Ten,
We have each other, and we can stand together.
It was important, the stance that Harvard made, though, even though they had that endowment with, you know, $40 billion or something ridiculous there in their pocket.
Absolutely.
But the amazing thing was the extent to which the Trump administration wanted to dictate what could be taught at Harvard.
Yeah, for sure.
No, that's...
That's truly a terrifying situation to be in when you're being told what you can and cannot say in the classroom, right?
That's obviously completely flies in the face of everything that we stand for as a nation in terms of free speech.
So, you know, that was, it was really great to see Harvard stand up.
And has that emboldened other university administrators to stiffen their spine?
Well, we're hoping so, right?
I mean, that was the idea behind this resolution, and particularly for this Big Ten academic.
Alliance, you know Rutgers took the lead on this and a couple of their faculty members wrote a resolution and their faculty Senate passed it So the full name of this resolution is or the compact that it's calling for is a mutual defense compact for the University is at the Big Ten Academic Alliance in defense of academic freedom institutional integrity and the research enterprise so big long name there and we were the 11th
of the 18 Big Ten to sign on.
And meanwhile, you got the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the State University of New York, and at least three City University of New York schools that have all passed an essentially identical resolution.
What was the vote like at the UW faculty?
Was it overwhelming?
Was it close?
It was absolutely overwhelmingly in support.
Yeah, I wish I could say it was unanimous.
I think there was one descent, but I believe that was on procedural issues rather than substantive.
But
one out of how many?
Oh, well into the two hundreds.
So it was.
truly overwhelming.
Absolutely and the senators had time to take that back to their departments and share that text of the resolution with their with their the faculty that they represent and I just got a lot of emails very much in support of this of this effort.
Very encouraging but but it's still for the university to come on board with it it has to the Chancellor's got to support it and the Regents have to support it right?
For sure for sure so you know that's that's our hope is that that's
the next step.
We've done what we could do as faculty members.
But we're all on the same page, I think, in terms of really wanting the university to succeed and go forth and be able to go ahead and keep doing the kind of research and teaching that we believe makes Wisconsin and the world a better place.
So the chancellor ultimately represents us as
faculty and so we're hopeful that you know she and the other big ten or maybe all public university chancellors and presidents will go ahead and spans together and to stand up together with the unified voice.
Professor Horowitz what has Chancellor Mnuchin's response been so far?
We heard anything substantive on this from
her?
We haven't heard anything back.
She did you know the rumor has it that she is in support of this.
compact.
So we're hoping to hear a response soon.
That's a hopeful rumor.
Absolutely.
And what would that mean if the if the chancellor came on board, that would be a big signal to the to the regions themselves.
And now Governor Evers has a majority of the Board of Regents, doesn't he?
Am I right about that?
Is there a majority of Board of Regents now have been appointed by Evers?
Oh, that's a good question.
I
Angela may know, do you know that
I
appointed a couple more, so.
And then for the whole system, assuming that your rumor is correct, that the chancellor supports this, and assuming that the regents go along with it, what kind of state would that make if the UW system stood up to Donald Trump?
Yeah, for sure.
So, I mean, I think it's part of...
all of the Big Ten coming together and just showing a united front, right?
And just saying that, you know, we're going to support each other.
So what the resolution actually does is it's very simple, but it does two things.
One is to commit to a shared or distributed defense fund.
So if any one of us is attacked, then everyone steps up to share resources.
So it would
be a legal defense fund.
Well, to a certain extent.
I mean, we would also, the second part of that is we would share relevant expertise in legal services.
Yeah.
So, you know, some monetary support and then some knowledge and resources, intellectual resource type of support.
For sure.
And you expect...
I mean, Trump, the whole way Trump operates is to continue to bully, though.
So chances are, you know, that's what he's done with Harvard.
He wants to take the tax exempt status away now.
So the repercussions could be serious.
I'm sure you and the other faculty members understand that, and I'm sure the chancellor understands that, and the regents do too, but regardless, it's important to stand up.
Otherwise, you know, the fascist feeds on fear.
and weakness and he will continue to roll over one university after another if people like you don't stand up and I commend you for your activism here.
It's great activism at the local level and it's the kind of activism we need across civil society.
So there'll be blowback though for sure and how do you think the university will respond to that or should respond to
that?
Well look like I was saying before he does back down under when he realizes that
There's a lot of pressure.
You mentioned
the student visas.
Talk about how we retreated on that.
Well, he changed that decision, right?
So that all of the visas that had been lost in this civis system have now been reinstated.
This was
international students
coming to UW.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
So, you know, I think he does.
I'm not a psychologist.
I don't know exactly how his mind operates.
He does seem to back down whether when there's enough pressure and public pressure would be really helpful in that regard.
So part of this effort I think is to send a message to the public as well to say, hey, you know, we're your state universities.
We're here for you.
And so please pay attention.
that we're under threat, the services that we provide the community are under threat.
And so I think if there's enough of a popular swelling of support for the universities and there's enough of a movement to support the universities of this nation, then that signal has to get through.
And so
go
ahead, Angela.
I was gonna say have you thought about um like local blowback because this is something i'm always concerned about whether it's the uw or whatever is something may get stopped on a federal level but trump has kind of signaled that that's his value and then it can have local implications so like
understanding our current political climate with our legislature and the budget process.
So while something may be stopped by the Trump administration, sometimes Robin Voss or local Republicans may take that as a cue to try and do something more state specific.
Have you all thought about that and or are you prepared for stuff like that too?
Yeah, for sure.
I know.
And there's a reason why Rutgers was the one taking the initiative on this, right?
And the University of Washington has been much more active than we have, frankly.
And universities based in Massachusetts have been able to stand up and be much more vocal.
So my understanding is, yeah, we're in a purple state, right?
So we're always a little bit anxious about...
being too vocal in an opposition to political, quote unquote, right?
So, you know, it's a fine line sometimes, but look, like we were talking about before, we're seeing that acquiescence doesn't work.
And if it's not working at the federal level, well, it's not going to work at the state level either.
So I think that our...
hopefully we can show our state legislators that we bring so much value to the state and you know in terms of research in terms of medical breakthroughs I mean warfarin was
was developed at UW Madison, right?
I mean, that's a huge breakthrough that wouldn't have happened without university-based research.
And not only that, but the economic benefits to the state of the research and all of the employment that it creates, not just scientists, but all the administrators and the lab technicians and all these people who work in these labs, generate so much employment, the National Institutes of Health.
for every dollar that you invest in the national institute that they invest in research, they get a $2.56 return in terms of economic benefits.
So why would we turn that away?
You mentioned Warfarin.
There's a new book out about Professor Link by Doug Moe about his discovery of Warfarin and how it helped solve some...
medical problems there and also the benefits that accrued here to the state of Wisconsin.
So just to salute to Doug Moe and the best writer, I think the best writer in Madison, and also to the Link family that have done a lot for peace and social justice here in the Madison area as well.
We're gonna, I'm gonna ask you just to stay after this quick break because I want you to tell us what we should do in support of your efforts and the efforts of the faculty here.
You're listening to Mornings with Pat Crightlow.
I'm not Pat Crightlow.
Hello, I'm Matt Rothschild.
I'm joined by Angela Lange as a co-host and by Professor Leah Horowitz, who's been leading the effort at the faculty UW-Madison.
And standing up to Donald Trump, it's a great thing.
And you can join the conversation, 855-752-4842.
We'll be right
back.
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.
and welcome to Mornings with Pat Critello.
I'm Matt Rothschild-Subbanian with Subbanian 4.
Pat, who's on vacation this week, and my co-host Angela Lange has joined me again today as she has yesterday.
And we're both going to be with you tomorrow and Thursday.
And we're enjoying the opportunity to talk with some great guests, like we have in studio right now, Professor Leah Horowitz, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and American Indian and Indigenous Studies.
here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
She's been one of the leaders in this effort to get the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to join with 10 other faculties in the Big Ten in passing a resolution saying that they're not gonna be bullied by Donald Trump.
How did this come together at the University of Wisconsin-Madison?
Did you take the lead or were there other people with
you?
Well, I heard about it from the associate dean of the Nelson Institute, who just sent me an email.
I think it was a newspaper article about this initiative.
And I just said, oh, wow, that sounds like a great idea and ran with it.
So there are professors around the university who are getting together and talking about these issues and trying to plot a way forward to what we can do from where we sit.
Well, thanks so much for taking the lead on it.
That's great activism at the faculty level.
And we need activism at every level here in this country.
And so I admire you greatly for that.
What do you want the listener here on civic media to do?
Or if the person's an alum of the University of Wisconsin, is there an effort to gather support among citizens of Wisconsin or alums of UW to back what the faculty just did?
Absolutely.
I believe the Alumni Association is making efforts to reach out to alumni of UW-Madison and try to help, you know, they have, I think they just had a lobby day in Washington DC actually.
So, you know, they're trying to reach out to them and get them active in speaking out on behalf of the university, which is really wonderful.
And in fact, if listeners want to help, there's a huge role for all the listeners out there who can call, you can call your congressional representatives and just say, you know, hey,
Congress actually appropriates the funding that gets spent by the federal government, right?
And normally, under normal circumstances, they are the ones who control the purse strings.
In fact, that's how our founding fathers envisioned how it should go.
That's written into the Constitution.
So you can say to your congressperson, hey, why are you giving up your power, right?
Don't you believe in the Constitution and the balance of powers and let Congress
control continue to control the purse strings and decide how the money should be allocated
the number to call is two zero two two two five three one two one two zero two two two five three one two one that's the switchboard at the Capitol all you got to do is call that number and say you want to talk to your senator or your representative and give them an earful about this tell Donald Trump to keep his
cry me hands off the University of Wisconsin and let there still be freedom of speech, freedom of research, scientific inquiry, academic freedom here in Wisconsin.
We can't give that up.
And Professor Leah Horowitz has been leading the battle here.
Where does it go from here?
Well, we just have to keep using our voices and standing up and raising awareness.
and having conversations too.
So one way is to contact, like I said, your representatives, and thank you so much for sharing that number.
That's really helpful.
Another way is just to have conversations, just to talk to your friends, your neighbors, have conversations at the barbecue that you might have, or a cookout, or your kid's baseball game, and just have those kinds of one-on-one conversations.
Research is shown are really, really helpful.
getting people to be aware of the issue and, in fact, in changing people's minds.
You know, the activist in me is thinking of ways to, you know, pass out leaflets at the Badger football games coming up or things like that, just to get people who, you know, may be less political, but, you know, they're there.
They're alums.
They're wearing their Badger red and, you know, they need to know what's going on.
They need to know the threat that Donald Trump poses to this great...
university system we have here in Wisconsin and a free inquiry at universities all across the country because this is a classic move by authoritarians to go after the universities, to go after the judiciary, to go after the press.
It's part and parcel of the assault on civil society and that's why it's so dangerous and that's why it's so commendable the work that you're doing.
Professor Leah Horowitz at the University of Wisconsin so thanks so much for being my guest today here.
Thanks so much for having me.
Yeah, terrific work you're doing.
And Angela, while you're an old organizer, you must appreciate this work.
So like knowing the Board of Regents and had to work with Faculty Senate and staff and all that.
I was a part of the student government many many years ago.
And I'm hoping also that there's like a huge good relationship between like the student movement and the Faculty Senate as well.
And that's one of the things that I kind of saw for the first time during like Act 10 of how like the student movement intersects with a lot of other movements as well.
So it it makes me think about
quite frankly, when Scott Walker was elected and all of those protests that happened subsequently at the Capitol and how labor and students were able to kind of come together too.
And yeah, I think all of our listeners should call their representatives and find ways to make sure that we're supporting faculty in this because we also know, as you all mentioned, that there could be targets on professors backs.
And we've seen that with them supporting students in the past.
So we got to show up for the faculty to thank you for your work.
And I do want to urge all alum who may be listening to this show or all students who are at the University of Wisconsin or all citizens of Wisconsin to contact the Board of Regents and urge them to endorse what the faculty has done and back the Chancellor if she does come out as the rumor is in backing the faculty here.
This is a crucial stand by the University of Wisconsin system by courageous faculty members like Professor Leo Horowitz.
So thanks again, Leah.
Thank you so much.
And we'll be right back here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
We got Dan Schaefer coming up after the bump, 855-752-4842.
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Mornings with Pat Crichtlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.
If you've been listening to the Pat Crichtlow show, you know I'm not Pat Crichtlow, I'm Matt Rothschild.
I'm co-hosting the show today with Angela Lang.
We'll be co-hosting again tomorrow and Thursday and it's an honor to be with you all across the Civic Media Radio Network.
You can join the conversation 855-752-4842.
And we have Dan Schaefer on the line.
Dan is the founder of the Reconbobulation Area.
He's also the political editor right here at Civic Media.
He's also a prize winner, as Angelo Lang is.
Dan Schaefer in the Reconbobulation Area brought home a hall of, I think it was six prizes at the Milwaukee Press Club event in the last few days.
So congratulations, Dan.
Thank you.
Congratulations to Angela.
Angela won gold.
We won six at the Reconvibulation Area.
But the one gold went to none other than Angela Lang.
So congrats to Angela for that one.
So excited.
Thank you.
I heard she beat you out in that category.
That's right.
We had a little wager going on that one, too.
And we had a little fun with it.
But yeah, very excited that.
that Angela won that one.
Well, congratulations to you both and to all the other winners from Civic Media, which has just brought in one award after another.
It's a tremendous recognition of all the great work that's being done around here.
So way to go.
Dan, I wanted to get your sense of joint finance.
Taking out 600 items from Evers is a budget.
A lot of them are popular items And I don't like to call it joint finance because it really isn't joint.
It's dominated by Republicans They railroad through stuff.
What's your reaction to what they just did last week?
You know, it's interesting because we're now in the second budget of Tony Evers second term and it seems like Republicans still have not adjusted to the reality
of divided government.
They still are approaching this like it's their first, like it's the first go around and they just want to, you know, obstruct the new Democratic governor or whatever it might be.
But Evers was reelected.
He had another budget.
Like we're going to go through this same cycle where, you know, Republicans move everything, remove everything, and then we go through the budget process and they rebuild the budget.
And then they get mad when Tony Evers uses his partial veto powers at the end of it.
What I think should be the approach from the Republicans in the legislature instead is just to debate the budget proposal on its merits.
There's plenty of good stuff in there that both parties could get behind.
And plenty I'm sure that they disagree with, but that's why we have this process.
That's why you have, you know, the governor proposes a budget.
The legislature debates the budget.
It shouldn't be this way where they just get rid of.
basically gut the entire budget as soon as it hits the committee desk and joint finance.
And it just really shouldn't be this way.
It doesn't have to be this way.
It's just the way things have been run under Robin Voss's leadership and under the leadership of the current crop of legislative Republicans.
And it's crazy they're taking things out that there's...
you know, vast support for, I mean, childcare, we talked about that earlier with a childcare provider.
You know, they're cutting $480 million from the childcare industry that is barely able to survive right now, barely able to take care of our kids here in the state of Wisconsin.
They're cutting funding for special needs out of the public education budget.
I mean, every family in Wisconsin has someone or knows someone who's got special needs and could certainly benefit from a little bit more support.
And yet, you know, they're just indifferent to that.
It doesn't seem to make any difference.
And that inability to listen to the needs of their constituents is what is so shocking, I suppose, to me.
How do you make sense of it,
Dan?
I think it's just they're doing things the way that they have been doing things, right?
And I think they, you know, this inability to adjust.
And I saw Robin Voss on...
on Twitter yesterday talking about the governor's refusal to negotiate on the debate.
Well, we have the process.
You can negotiate it in the legislature, in public view, so that the people of Wisconsin know what their lawmakers are up to.
Voss likes to do a lot of this stuff behind closed doors.
And as if he thinks that you know, they need to negotiate I think they should just do that in public so that people of Wisconsin can see what they're doing But I also think there's another element this year, you know, there's we had the first election on new maps last fall
And now that not only matters in the election results calculations of it all, but it matters in governing too, because I think if you have certain state legislators who are in more vulnerable districts where the voters could vote them out,
I think that makes it incumbent upon those legislators to try to find a solution, to try to, you know, work together to find answers.
And so I think you have, you know, a number of people, even on the Joint Finance Committee, Howard Markline, who is the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, is in, he is in the state Senate.
His district has not yet been on the ballot.
And so he will be up next year as you know, if people are asking about what certain state elected officials are doing next year stands to reason they should be asking Mark line that question as well about what he's going to do because his is he you know as the face of the joint finance committee in many ways as the Senate's co-chair You know, he's he's in a district that Kamala Harris won last year So I think you know, it is going to be he's he is on that list of state senators that could be vulnerable to
Democrats flipping the state Senate once they finally get rid of the full gerrymander and have fair elections on the new maps in both chambers for all members of the state Senate.
Only half was up.
last fall and then the other half will be up next year.
I mean I would think he'd be more sensitive to the interests and concerns and the expressed concerns of his own constituents Howard Markline.
I mean we had the child care provider from Mugleris who invited him to a public meeting yesterday on this question of why are they cutting $480 million out of the child care budget and he didn't show up.
And I would just think from a political standpoint, leaving aside the moral and urgent needs of the people of Wisconsin, that just to protect his own political hide, that he would, number one, show up for public meetings.
Number two, listen to those constituents.
And number three, maybe vote against Robin Voss if he thinks his political career depends on it.
But yet, we don't have that kind of reaction.
That's true.
And you know, Republicans are hosting their state party convention in central Wisconsin this weekend.
And I think they're going to be, you know, as much as I think Republicans are very excited that they helped elect Trump last fall.
They continue to lose these Wisconsin Supreme Court races.
And overall, they have not done especially well in basically any election where Trump is not on the ballot.
Ron Johnson being the exception there.
So if it's not Trump or Ron Johnson, you know, themselves, they have not really done especially well in these statewide races.
And I think they have to at some point ask themselves what type of role.
these actions in the legislature are are playing whether it's gutting the Evers entire budget proposal whether it's the gavel in gavel outs that we've seen with the special session like I think people are really tired of this type of
tactic, these obstructionist tactics that just only play to, you know, kind of, you know, the far right fringe of the state of Wisconsin.
And, you know, there may be a lot of people out there who like that and help elect Trump and whatever it might be.
But it's not reflecting of the majority of Wisconsinites in many of these races.
And I think it
some of these tactics that we see from Robin Voss in the legislature, I think are really hurting Republicans and statewide races too.
You mentioned the Republican State Convention coming up this weekend.
What is going to go on there?
Is there any surprise?
Is there any big issue that they're going to be debating?
I don't think it's like the Democratic State Party Convention this year is going to have a big race for party chair.
I don't think they're going to have that this year with the Republicans, with Brian Shimming looking to stay in that role.
But I do think there has been this...
reports of kind of this grassroots battle between some people who've been with the party, some people with some of these like conservative activist groups like Turning Point, and who really controls, you know, some of what's going on at the grassroots level, why they keep losing these states of Supreme Court races, what that might mean, you know, for the midterms where, you know, turn out as high, but not as high as a presidential year, you know, that seems to have been in recent races kind of.
the Democratic sweet spot in Wisconsin for turnout and all of that.
So I think they have a lot of questions to be asking and, you know, whether certain members of Congress are going to be vulnerable, state senators, state legislators are going to be vulnerable looking ahead to next year.
I think those are, you know, the type of questions that I think they need to be asking themselves in this type of moment.
And as far as the Democratic state convention that's coming up a little bit later, you mentioned the race for chair.
How is that race playing out right now?
You know, I think it's a quiet part of that race at the moment.
We're just a little bit over a month away.
So I think, you know, I know Joseph Pecky and Devin Remacher and William Garcia, they will have, you know, I'll get some of the emails about a new round of endorsements or, you know, see some posts about...
going to state congressional district conventions or whatever it might be.
So I think now is just kind of the time to line some of the things up there.
One thing that is interesting to me about the Democratic State Party Convention and that race for chair is that it will be, the vote will happen using ranked choice voting for the first time.
which I think is really interesting that they're, you know, actually putting their money where their mouth is and implementing this strategy instead of actually just kind of like talking about it in committees or whatever it might be.
And I think the, it will be, you know, the fact that there are more than two candidates means that there will be some actual impact of that ranked choice voting model as well.
So it'll be really interesting to see how that
plays out where it's not just like, you know, mark your card for your one candidate.
It will be that ranked choice.
Do you want to explain how ranked choice voting works, Dan?
Well, you're the former head of the Wisconsin democracy campaign.
I feel like you probably have a little bit more insight on this one than I do.
Well, I am a proponent at rank choice voting
and
I have a chapter on
it in my book.
Here's a plug.
12 ways to save democracy in Wisconsin.
But yeah, so, you know, if there's a lot of candidates, rather than just vote for one, you vote for your top three candidates.
And if your candidate who's your number one candidate isn't in the top three when all the votes are decided, then your second choice becomes your first choice and it just bumps up and
until one candidate has a majority of the voting.
And to my mind, it is a more democratic way to select someone.
And there are bills in the legislature for ranked choice voting.
Actually, there's some bipartisan support here in the state of Wisconsin for ranked choice voting.
So I think it's one of the democratic reforms, small D, that we need in the state, as well as banning gerrymandering and getting a handle on campaign finance reform.
Those are some of the biggies.
Yeah, we got a little work to do on the democracy front in Wisconsin.
I do like that, you mentioned that there's been some support for rank choice voting in the legislature.
The legislator from what I recalled with this is that they wanted rank choice voting, but they were just like, well, let's start with the not in the legislature.
We'll do it for members of Congress.
I think it was what they were proposing.
But I do like that if the State Democratic Party is going to get behind some of these democracy reforms like rank choice voting.
actually doing it in the vote for their state party chair.
Good way to actually, you know, stand by it and stand by that type of system for voting.
And it may sound novel, but some states are doing it already, Alaska and Maine.
So if it works there, it can work here.
There's no reason that we can't try it and, you know, hats off to the Democratic state party for implementing it right here.
And so people can see up front and personal how it works.
So Dan Schaefer, thanks so much for being our guest today on
We're going to be back in a minute with Jane McNair and also a bird song, one of the migrating birds that's coming through, an indigo bunting, the blue fence.
You can hear its voice in a minute.
And then I've got a little poem by W.S.
Merwin.
So we'll be right back.
You're not going to want to miss that.
Thanks, Dan.
Thanks, everyone.
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.
Hey, welcome back.
Mornings with Pat Cridlow on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Matt Rothschild, coming in for Pat.
much of this week with my co-host Angela Lang.
It's been a great morning and it's been a pleasure to be with you.
I always at the end of a program want to bring a bird song to you because I'm a crazy bird watcher like all bird watchers and the migrating birds right now are tremendous all across the state of Wisconsin.
Yesterday we heard the voice of the Baltimore Oriole.
Today I give you the Indigo Bunting, the Blue Finch.
which is an amazing bird to see.
Sam, can you play it?
There it is, the enigo bunting.
You can sometimes see them on your goldfinch feeders because they eat the same kind of seed, the Niger thistle seed.
The other thing I like to do at the end of a program is read a poem.
And this is a poem by W. S. Merwin, Pulitzer Prize winning poet.
He's no longer with us, but is a great poet and I have his book next to my bed.
Here's one about May.
It's called black cherries.
Late in May as the light lengthens towards summer, the young goldfinches flutter down through the day for the first time to find themselves among fallen petals, cradling their day's colors in the day's shadows of the garden beside the old house after a cold spring with no rain.
Not a sound comes from the empty village as I stand eating the black cherries from the loaded branches above me, saying to myself,
Remember this.
I love that.
I love the ending of it.
You know, the admonition to poets and writers everywhere to remember specific great moments of astonishment.
We got to still be alive to astonishment, no matter how old we are.
And I'm 66.
So I'm still trying to be astonished.
I'm astonished by an indigo bunting or scarlet tanager or a beautiful poem.
So anyway, I give you W. S. Merwin.
Now I'm thrilled to be joined by.
the next show that's coming up on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Matt Nair on air with Jane Matt Nair and Greg Bach.
Hi, Jane.
Good morning, Matt.
Good morning, Angela.
Hello, Greg.
Hi.
When you played that sound clip of the bird, I was pulling out my Merlin app because Merlin is this free app that you can use that actually identifies birds.
You can just turn it so cool.
I hope I identified it as an indigo bunting.
Otherwise, there's a problem.
Yeah, right.
No, it did.
Matt, I don't know if you know how much Jane loves birds.
Like she loves birds.
Like talk about birds.
lights up like a Christmas tree.
I get very excited.
that.
if a guest ever cancels Jane and you need someone to come up to fill time, get me on.
We'll talk birds for the rest of the segment.
I would love that.
That would be fantastic.
Well, I'm out of here, guys.
We'll see you later.
Greg's head is filled.
Listen, I've got to blame you too for me having to finally download the Civic Media app, because once I couldn't listen to you in Madison anymore, I was devastated.
It was the only reason that got me over the hump.
I'm an old, anti-clumsy technology guy.
I need to listen to you in the morning.
And so the app, and it's super easy.
If I can download the app, anyone listening now can download the app and listen to Jane and Greg here in Madison, or you can live stream a two on your computer.
And I've done that too.
So there's no reason to miss Matt Nair on air.
What do you got in store for us today?
Well, today I think we're going to start off with more from the the dog ate my homework administration because nothing is ever their fault.
So it's either Billy did it or Frankie did it or my dog ate my homework.
Sean Duffy, our head of the Department of Transportation, of course.
talking about some of the problems we're having with the FAA and the lack of air traffic controllers.
And he made a little comment about, you know, when would have been a really good time to start fixing things with our air transportation during COVID?
Don't tell me now, don't tell me who was in office when we got hit by COVID.
I think, Angela, it was, was it Joe Biden?
And I don't, I don't think.
No, it wasn't Joe
Biden.
No, no, I think
there was.
Barack
Obama.
Yeah.
No, it thinks Obama.
It was the Trump administration was the one in control when COVID hit.
And yeah, there would have been months and months and months when things really slowed down.
That might have been a good time to start looking at an overhaul of the FAA.
But no, they didn't do that.
So we're going to start off with Wisconsin's own Duffster.
Former reality star former reality star and then speaking of planes.
I understand there's an offer of a free plane That's really not going over well with some of Donald Trump supporters.
I I'm really I agree with Laura Loomer
Now I have to throw myself off the tower in the back of the building.
I mean, this is, I was stunned, but yes, I agree with Laura Loomer on this whole, let's take a free jet from the government of Cutter.
What could go wrong?
And what do you got in store for this shouldn't be a thing, which is one of my favorite segments on your program.
Oh, today Calvin found this one.
It's a kitty gets a grill.
Well, there you go.
So for people,
it's a
grill
edition.
For people unfamiliar, do you want to tell them what you do at the end of your show?
at the end of the show for the last half an hour of the show, we really try to get away from news a little bit and take a breath.
So at 1035, we call it audio sorbet.
So it's kind of a cleansing for your palate.
And today we're going to talk about the most popular names in the country and then what you wish you had been named because I think we all I don't like my name.
I never liked my name.
I wanted something with a lot more pizzazz and I got Jane, which is great because it rhymes with.
pain and insane and all those great things.
But anyway, we're going to talk about things you wish you had been named, what you wish your name was.
And then this shouldn't be a thing is just essentially a silly story that it makes you go, yeah, that, no, that, no, that shouldn't be a thing.
And we try to stay
away.
We try to stay up.
We really try to stay away from politics because if we did a political tis bet, as we call it, that's all we do every day.
Yeah, we all need a break.
So, thanks so much, Jane, Matt and Aaron, Greg Bach.
They're coming up next with Matt and Aaron on air.
I want to thank Greg and Sam for helping produce the show.
I want to thank all our guests who are on it.
With callers and textures, I thank you too, and I especially thank Angela Lange, my great co-host.
We'll be back tomorrow with more mornings with Pat Tritlow, even though Pat's not going to be here.
Bye.
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