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You're listening to Mornings with Pat Kratlow powered by Up North News.
Now, for my Lake Minnesota studio, here is the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Kratlow.
Hey, good morning.
It's 8.06 on a Monday morning, July 21st, 2025.
Nice to have you here up north and statewide.
Parker Olson is our producer down in Madison Studio A2.
Meteorologist Brittany Merleau is standing by at the EAA Air Venture in Oshkosh.
Dr. Kristen Lierly is hanging around as co-host for this fine Monday morning.
And Parker, let's give the guys in Madison a proper introduction.
Civic media now proudly present,
proudly, proudly.
Seriously, that's a stretch.
How about, here they are, John and Gordy.
Let's go with that, shall we?
Yeah.
Let's go with it.
Who writes this
call?
That's Catherine Laker.
Yeah.
That would be Catherine.
Yeah.
Giving you just the giving it her all on an introduction.
So thanks for that Catherine.
Guys, how are you?
Well, pretty good.
Doing okay for a Monday.
Yeah.
How are you?
Yeah.
We're good here.
Well, we're, you know, we're, we're in Scottson our usual weekday morning home where as Brittany is out there in the elements, which makes sense because she's a meteorologist, but she's out in the elements of the EAA air venture in Oshkosh.
So rain or shine, she's one happy camper, quite literally, aren't you?
I really am camping out here all week long, like you said, through all the storms and anything that's coming my way this morning overnight.
It was pretty crisp.
It was chilly out there.
Temperatures right now 54 to 68 degrees across the state.
We're going to stay refreshed today.
Nice and comfortable.
Low 70s to low 80s statewide.
No big humidity or muggyness really pushing in, but the wildfire smoke is here.
So a hazy sunshine.
and also a few clouds scatter out there as well.
So little breezy this morning.
The heat will start to crank up a little bit tomorrow and we are looking at active weather this week too.
So chances for some showers and maybe a small thunderstorm far northwest in the state this afternoon.
Those could work their way towards central areas late tonight.
And then some more tomorrow morning, mainly down south, looking at storms rolling through tomorrow morning, gone by midday.
Heat starts to crank up and let me tell you more storms Tuesday night and into our Wednesday morning.
And after that, that's when it's going to be in the nineties, but the humidity right up there as well, feeling very, very impressive.
So you're going to see me dripping sweat out here because I don't have AC.
I don't have those luxuries.
So we're going to be really living it this week.
It sure sounds like it.
I mean, but, um,
You're prepared for this.
This is
nothing you haven't seen before.
No.
Not
at all.
I've got the tent waterproof, stake down.
I've got the tarp underneath.
I've got a solar fan.
I've even got solar charging devices too, so a lot of different things working with the sun here.
What would be the biggest treat for you at AirVenture to be invited to do?
Would it be to go up for a ride on the blimp, one of the military
jets?
Fighter jet.
For sure.
That would be crazy.
That is on my bucket list.
I've still never gotten to do that.
Sometimes they pick media to go.
I've never been the lucky duck yet, so fingers crossed.
Mine would be getting an all-you-can-eat arm wristband to wear to go
through all the
food booths.
That's because it's on the ground.
I can do all that.
Yeah.
While we got the guys here, John, Gordy, you got air venture enthusiasts or any requests to make of Brittany while she's out there?
Well, I would love to go to the EAA sometime.
I've never, never been there, but it sounds like a wonderful event.
And it goes on all week, right?
Right through Friday,
Saturday?
Yes, it does.
All week long.
And a really cool thing is if you can't get, well, if you want to avoid a lot of the people, you come during the week, right?
So Monday through Wednesday.
And then it kind of repeats.
I mean, there's definitely different things every single day, but they kind of try to repeat the show again.
So then Thursday through Saturday.
It's kind of a repeat of that but Wednesday and Saturday are my personal favorites because they have the night air show So
that is
fireworks on top of planes flying the planes are shooting off fireworks And then there's explosives on the ground and just wow you've never seen in the drone lights, too And it is a show.
Let me tell
you
Sounds like a war zone.
It does, doesn't it?
They actually act that out, too.
When they have a military, they'll do like a military.
This is what's happening.
People dropping from helicopters, little bombs going on.
Like a
reenactment.
Yes.
I've never seen anything like that, but here.
To what degree?
Because I didn't really look at it, but it also didn't stick out.
Are drones a part of this?
Is it pretty much just, you know, aircraft that you can fly and that people fly as opposed to things that are unmanned?
Oh, they'll definitely have drones here too.
So anything that has to do with off the ground, they've got it here.
So yeah, drones are a part of it.
They've even got like cool GPS things for airplanes too.
I mean, tech decide is really big plus aviation.
So anything defying gravity, which means the the cast of Wicked will be there as well for a big thing
along.
So
stick around for that.
Brittany, thank you so much for the weather update.
Have lots of fun.
Are you are you going to try to check in tomorrow?
Absolutely.
I'll talk to you guys tomorrow.
Thank you.
All right.
Have fun.
Great
to see
you.
Before we talk more with Kristen and John and Gordy, a reminder, you can sign up for our newsletter at UpNorth News.
Head over to UpNorthNewsWI.com.
Of course, we've got notes in there today about the EAA Air Venture in Oshkosh.
Learn more about how the community comes together and all of the volunteers who make things work.
Also, an article about American Family Field as the second half of the baseball season is underway now.
some of the best eats at Amfam Field this season.
Also, there is a link to my article from our website.
It's what's not in the state budget that is generating both anger and 2026 candidates and all that and more in our newsletter sign up for it over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.
So, gang, I've got
You know, when they say a service person will be there to work on your cable or your appliances or whatever.
And it said, you know, it'll be, they'll be there between eight AM and five.
Oh
yeah.
It's not even three
hour window now.
It's eight AM
to
five PM.
So, uh, Kristen probably knows that was kind of.
distracted over here as somebody was watching.
755, they're ready to go.
Going, okay, let's take a look at that dishwasher, see what the problem is here.
It's nice when you're the first on the list.
Well, it turns out he lives in Jehovah.
So yeah, I was expecting somebody from the Twin Cities who was going to get here at like 459 and say, oh no, that still counts.
So that's how my week is getting off to a good start.
Do you guys have a good weekend in Madison?
Kind of.
Yeah, I was kind of busy here.
We had a Coldplay concert,
Camp
Randall Stadium.
Did you guys go?
Were you guys cuddled up with each other before the jumbotron?
Oh,
that's so cute.
You can do this.
Oh, yes.
Yes, that's
what we did.
Now,
I
understand that Coldplay, I mean, I guess the concert was great because
the weather was wonderful
and everything went well, but they warned people.
Chris Martin warned everybody that, you know, the video is on, you know, we've got cameras here and just warning people, you know, they could be on camera.
So I guess that's part of their show now.
If you're with somebody you shouldn't be with, you know, on a camera.
Yeah.
It's part of everybody's show now.
The Philadelphia Phillies did a whole takeoff on it.
I mean, everybody's doing it.
A lot of sports
teams, yeah, over the weekend had a little bit of fun with the Kiss Cam.
Look, the Kiss Cam was always fraught with peril, OK?
There have been other instances.
There was a time recently when somebody was like ready, had the sign to hold up immediately to point at the woman next to him.
This is my sister, you know?
So he knew that the Kiss Cam was a possibility.
Yeah, that was funny.
And
I liked that.
That was good.
So, I mean, you
had an original video.
has been seen more than 40 million times, at least over the weekend.
That's the number I heard.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the the concert at Camp Randall was the first one in a long time.
Camp Randall seems like a natural place as a concert venue, but it does not have a long record as as one.
Have you been to any concerts earlier than that at Camp Randall or other special events?
I went
to
Pink Floyd.
I went to Pink Floyd.
Yeah,
that was more.
That was 30 years ago.
I think I had
a lot of concerts, I think, held there.
I saw the Rolling Stones there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I had
them
too.
Now,
before Coldplay was there on Saturday, Morgan Wallin, a country singer
was there.
He was
there two or three weeks ago for a Friday and Saturday night, a double, you know, double date.
That was
country and no one noticed.
A lot
of cowboy hats.
Yeah.
I don't know about that.
When did you see the Rolling Stones,
Kristen?
Must have been late 90s.
Yeah.
Okay.
All
right.
And it was a
good show.
Yeah, it was a great show.
Okay, all right.
I
saw the stones at county stadium in the 60s.
Wow, really?
At county stadium?
I think maybe early 70s.
Yeah, early 70s, that's when it was.
Okay, well.
I was living in St.
Paul 1976 and the Rolling Stones were performing at the St.
Paul Civic Center and we did not live too far from there and we were just driving one evening.
I don't know to go to go to grandma's house or something.
I don't know what because we were 12 years old at the time.
I just remember seeing that out in the streets like, you know, there was all this rowdy behavior going on.
Come to find out the next day.
They basically classified it as like a mini riot as all these stones fans came out of this.
It was the mid 70s.
It's
It's what you did.
You ride it after a concert, right?
I mean, well, it was in the rulebook.
Yeah, I guess so.
Yeah, we slept overnight in front of the county stadium doors.
Did you really get in?
Yes, believe it or not.
But I think something to do.
Didn't we find out that we both were at a Stones concert at Alpine Valley Alpine Valley in
around
1992
93
somewhere in there and steel wheels tour.
Yes.
And it
rained.
But it was great.
You know, yeah.
Well, here's
Alpine Valley.
Yeah, I get I get to share the Alpine Valley story that I don't think I've shared on air before.
Amazing.
All right.
This thumb is still attached as a result of it.
It was a Jimmy Buffett concert.
So margaritas may have been a factor.
But at one point after the concert, you know, it takes forever to get out of Alpine Valley.
Yes.
And we could see that.
We thought, well, you know what?
We're just going to keep tailgating here in the parking lot till traffic goes down a bit.
It'll be fine.
And somebody decided to get up on his family minivan and stand up there.
and take in the crowd and take in the music and all that.
And that was all fine.
No big deal.
Other people were doing that as well.
It was a fun night.
And I go to get off the top of the family minivan, which had one of those luggage racks.
And I ran my thumb along the luggage rack while doing what I thought was a perfect carry-struck dismount.
But it turned out that I had sliced my thumb rather severely.
And my wife, a doctor, says that's going to need
stitches.
And my response was, that doesn't need stitches.
It just needs another margarita.
And I dipped my cup
in the
bucket of margarita and imbibed.
And we finally got out of there.
You know, I kept pressure on it and everything.
And finally, just as we're coming toward Madison on our way back to Chippewa Falls, I say to my wife, rather groggily from the passenger seat, you know, if you want to stop at an ER, you know, if it'll make you feel better.
We can do
that.
So
she did.
And of course, the thoughtful of you.
Yes.
The the admitting clerk was like, you know, how did you do this?
And I, of course, like, well, I closed the car door on it, you know.
Yeah.
And the look that that she gave my wife and the wife gave her because one thing it did not
look like
was a crush injury at all.
But
that was my story and I was
sticking to it.
I remember how much it was, like six or something like that.
So, you know,
Sherry saw that the ligament hadn't been, I wasn't going to lose the thumb, but I was going to gain a scar and a reason to embarrass myself on statewide radio someday at the right moment.
And it's the right moment, thanks to you people and me about.
You're
kind of glossing over the fact that there is a lot of blood.
There was a lot.
I would assume that there was a lot of blood.
There was.
There was a lot of.
And thinking, oh, just enough pressure will do it.
And as the person here who went to medical school can attest, there's sometimes when putting pressure on is just not enough.
I'm just shaking my head up here in my Brady Bunch Corner, Pat.
Oh, yeah.
Kristen doesn't have any embarrassing stories at all that she's not willing to share.
Some of you are going to be taken off for a local update for the rest of you.
will be continuing this conversation while at John and Gordy get a word in edgewise.
And then when we're all back together in the next half hour, we're going to be talking a bit about toxic masculinity.
Nothing that infects this show or John and Gordy's by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a thing.
And it's being encouraged by, you know, the, the, the MAGA groomers, one could say, and the MAHA ones who are taking anti feminism to a new level with a new generation of vulnerable young women.
That's all coming up on these mornings powered by Up North News live from Lake Wissota on the Civic Media Radio Network.
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.
We've got baseball again tonight Milwaukee Brewers at Seattle to take on the Mariners pregame coverage begins at 805 on stations in Richland Center Oshkosh Racine Kenosha Park Falls and Hayward Brewers winners of 10 in a row after sweeping the Dodgers again this time in Chavez ravine
to be in a tie in first place now for the Cubs.
The Cubs technically have the tiebreaker, but we'll take care of that next week when the Cubs come to American Family Field one week from today for that series.
John and Gordy here from our Civic Media Station in Madison, Dr. Kristen Lairley, Parker Olson all here as well.
Guys in Madison.
Where it's all things badgers.
So when you get the Brewers that does a 10 game winning streak, right?
Get the town much more engaged and remind them that there's a major league baseball team down the road.
No
Actually, we're going to the game next Tuesday, week from tomorrow.
That's right.
Against the Cubs.
Oh,
yeah.
We're
taking a couple of listeners or meeting some listeners there.
It's
going to be a
late night for us.
It's going to be, yeah, it's a 640 game.
But yeah, I'm a big Cubs fan because I grew up near Chicago.
Oh, come
on.
And John's taking his wife and she's a Cubs fan.
So
yeah.
It's
such an affliction we have here.
It'll be fun.
But I understand in the newsletter, you have tips about the best food at the stadium.
Is that
running?
That's correct.
We're going to have to check that out because we're buying the food and the drinks.
Yeah.
No, there's a lot.
There's a lot there.
There's a lot that makes the game enjoyable.
And Kristen, you've been to the Fox City Stadium.
for games there, correct?
And
they also can
also testify to what a great experience baseball has become now compared to just sitting getting splinters from the old wooden bleachers, you know, when some of us were younger.
So get
out to a ball game.
It's fun.
Yes.
Much very much so.
Well, you're
talking about stadiums.
I mean, here we're talking, Trump is trying to, you know, take away the possibility of a new stadium
for the Washington football
team.
We kicked off the show with that, that I mean, look, there, sports is like the last escape we have here in this country right now.
And we were reminded that Donald Trump can even ruin our escape into sports, threatening
to
unleash his army of trolls on two sports teams, unless they restore the
racist nicknames that I thought we had finally sent to history's dumpster at least as far as the Washington football team and the Cleveland Guardians baseball team but you know again the man's always looking for a diversion from you know don't look at the fact of the matter that you know a pound of ground beef is now at a record high you know still hasn't come down let's talk about racist sports names instead it's
And it
is truly amazing that he would bring up these very divisive issues.
I mean, it's like they have a list.
Well, what diversion can we go to next?
It is really truly going back in time.
to the worst of the worst.
And
that
is going back to these racist names again.
It's hard to even imagine going back to something like this and bringing up it as a serious subject and then holding up a stadium deal because you want it to do that.
And isn't that some kind of coercive moment by the president?
This guy's micromanaging our country.
Yeah, it's
called
authoritarianism.
It's down to the stadiums.
But fellas, I can't take my eyes off his cankles.
Now let's get back to today's
medical minute with
Dr. Lirely,
who is going to
explain the medical diagnosis for cankles.
I have this gut feeling.
He's got swelling in both of his feet.
And I have nothing to back this up except for the fact that his White House physicians have consistently lied about his actual health.
I mean, we know this because we now are seeing this.
I bet.
that he is experiencing heart failure, which means that his heart, which is a pump, is having a hard time keeping up with the demands of his body.
So he's holding on to a bunch of extra water, and it is gathering in his ankles.
That's why we're seeing these swollen ankles.
My complaint is, they told us about his medical condition.
I'm just
throwing it back at him.
That's all.
It's always a projection from the mega party, isn't it?
Oh
yeah.
It's whatever they want us to see.
Yes, projection
is not a
version.
And it's not by the way, it's not all water down there in the ankles.
There's a lot of cheeseburgers down there.
Fast food, you know.
So yeah, we're going to be talking in the next segment here about the MAGA toxic masculinity movement and the MAHA make America healthy again, wink.
Can I just throw a bad
joke
in?
And so yes, if you go down to Trump's feet, you'll see the golden urges.
Thank
you,
Parker.
Where's this?
Thanks for the ski.
When does the joke part come in?
It was
the
late timing on the on the drum.
That was the joke.
You see, I
gotta tell you that I'm really bad at telling jokes.
So that's why we do not tell jokes.
Oh,
that's funny.
So we we're going to get into, you know, the the, uh,
Toxic masculinity and the trad wives trend with young women and how again I feel like you know You guys are saying Gen Z is while they're being targeted will hopefully a lot There's a lot of signs that they're riding to the rescue as well whether
That's
what I'm hoping now, Kristen, your sons, your four sons, are
they?
Oh, I thought Kristen herself as a Gen Z was going to be.
I am Gen X, baby.
Yes, you are.
I'm a survivor.
What are your sons on the road that you would like them to be on at this point?
My boys are, but I raised them.
So they are heavily influenced by me and the experiences that they've had growing up.
But a lot of their friends are in a different space.
And it's been fascinating to hear the stories that they tell.
And even for me to be able to have conversations with them and to question them, they're formative.
They're just learning how to live in the world right now.
So there is an opportunity for us to have conversations with them and to help pull them.
and to a community building.
My son's as
well.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's great.
John and Gordy, you can catch them six to eight AM weekdays on our Civic Media station down there.
That's WMDX, right guys?
That's right.
Don't know
my cue cards in front of me, which is why it says down below you, Civic Media's Madison Station.
So I'll read my notes a little bit better here.
Thank you for the visit, guys.
Appreciate it so much.
We appreciate
it.
Always
fun to be with you, Pat.
All right.
Have a great week.
Dr. Lirely is back here in just a bit when we talk more about what what it is that we should be telling our young men and women and what messages they're hearing instead.
I'm Pat Rightlow.
This is the Civic Media Radio Network.
8.35 in the morning on this Monday morning, July 21st, 2025, Pat Cripple here, Parker Olson producing in Madison, Dr. Kristen Lairley with us as well.
And let me start this segment talking about a couple of programs that come through Up North News's parent company Courier Newsroom.
We've talked a couple of times about the video series, How Is This Better with Akilah Hughes?
And I wanted to spend a little extra time on her last two episodes.
How is this better challenges the grifters out there the ones controlling our government and our attention and so much of our daily lives and this week Achille Hughes explores the dangerous online pipelines that lure men seeking harmless advice
into radical ideologies.
The episode delves into the manipulative tactics used by figures like Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan to push hyper-masculine agendas and highlights the detrimental effects of these ideologies on mental health, relationships, and societal norms.
Let's hear a little 90-second clip from Akila Hughes' program this week.
How is this better?
To be the alpha to be attracted the best thing you can do is to wear your Trump support on your sleeve Show that you are a real man
show that you women pretend what they want is the beta But what they actually want is the alpha?
There's this weird line that's blurred in the man-o-sphere space where you can't tell when somebody's
doing a bit or when somebody is being genuine.
And I have to tell you, it took a lot for me to write this episode.
The problems with men who've been sucked into these pipelines online are so vast and endless.
It's almost impossible to tell the story in full with adequate levels of pity, empathy and outrage at just how extreme all of this has become.
Still, if you've spent any time online in the past decade, you've seen the momentum growing in the man a sphere, telling men and vulnerable.
boys that they too can have it all, and their idea of it all means silent, baby-making wife-mommies and making more money than God by being more efficient than computers.
It's a fool's errand and total farce, but if you have the time, and in many cases money.
to become isolated and undesirable to everyone around you, you're the perfect mark in this ongoing con.
I'm Akilah Hughes and this week I'm looking at the dangerous online pipeline directed at men who were simply looking for health advice or gaming clips and how the smallest amount of curiosity can lead to frankly deadly results and asking, how is this better?
Now last week the shoe was on the other foot as Akilah highlighted a new flavor of conservative content targeting women.
online, the rise of the Tradwife aesthetic, the Maha Make America Healthy Again movement, and how a wellness pipeline is pulling women to the political right from TikTok videos to wellness themed women's conferences from Turning Point, perhaps America's best known far right supplier of extremism, and getting vulnerable women to embrace outdated anti-feminist tropes.
You can watch both of those episodes of the series, How Is This Better?
on YouTube.
You can also watch or listen on Spotify or you can listen on Apple.
You can also watch it right from the courier website.
Go to couriernewsroom.com to learn more.
And so, Kristen, we've talked previously on the show, but I wanted to spend a little bit of extra time on this whole notion of how the far right the people who love to scream about groomers the most
That really is a sense of projection when you look at who's doing the real grooming toward unhealthy lifestyles It's happening right there on the American far right
It is with some of the most vulnerable people in society and they don't even realize that it's happening because it's so insidious and it reinforces some of our greatest fears and the things that we are worried about for our futures, but
just because it's happening doesn't mean that we don't have the tools to combat it and those tools are the same thing that we use every day.
It's conversation, it's listening to each other, it's actually confronting some of these flawed assumptions and meeting it with reality and understanding and trust and frankly love.
And let's understand that a lot of this push toward
you know, traditionalism, you know, where the man is the alpha and the woman stays at home and has babies and all that.
Let's acknowledge that there is reason for that to catch on the frustrations of daily life, the failings of, you know, this stage of capitalism.
So there is fertile ground.
for the far right, you know, to to fertilize, if you will.
And it just makes it all the more important for those conversations is to acknowledge there's confusion, acknowledge there's angst, acknowledge people have questions about, you know, their health and their lifestyle.
And again, if we're not willing to have those conversations with these folks, somebody else will.
It's
true.
There is always some truth to these movements that is the base of it, but it's when you take that little grain of truth and then you funnel people into a place where you don't give them the full picture of what's happening, but just that isolated idea of what you want them to believe.
And for me as an OBGYN doctor who believes that people have the ability to make their own
healthcare decisions for themselves within the context of their own lives.
You need to know what all of your options are, not just the ones that a certain movement want you to have.
Yeah.
It certainly has occurred to me many times over the years is, you know, how does this get to be a thing?
Because again, I was raised by a single mom, you know, the oldest of four kids.
There was no room for toxic masculinity.
anywhere in there.
And so when you see it, and I of course have seen a lot of it over time, it's very tough sometimes to still feel like how does that stick?
How does talking down to women, for example, you know, how does that stick with folks?
But, you know, this is what they have been exposed to.
And you as an OBGYN, my wife Sherry is an OBGYN, you've seen some some dads to be come in there who are just the most wonderful guys.
and you see these other others come in and you don't have to acknowledge thinking this.
I'll tell you somebody else I know thinks it's like who had sex with you so that you could reproduce because you might be creating another you
and you're a slime ball.
Don't you think that so much of this stuff is stuff that we see in the predominant culture?
Like I think of when I was a kid and
that this was what my dad believed.
My mom had a job before she got married and decided to stay home and be a stay-at-home mom, but from my dad in the 70s, it was...
prestigious to have a wife who was home.
And that was important to him.
But it didn't actually work for them.
He wasn't able to make enough money.
She wasn't able to get all the things done.
You have to have, in a healthy relationship, give and take.
And that means that our gender roles aren't as clearly defined as the maha and the toxic masculinity movements would have us believe.
Right.
And so let's turn to the to the women for a moment here because again, it a lot of times takes two to tango.
And you have again, the the term nowadays is trad wife, you know, traditional wife.
And again, these videos that are pulling women saying, you know, look at how hard, you know, these women, they're just there.
Look, I would not want my daughters to be like, say the Kardashians, I wouldn't, but I also
The alternative to that isn't to, well, not have a job if you actually want a career, if you want to work.
You know, you should have those kinds of opportunities, but you can see for other women, they've been told that that's, you know, that's a wrong path.
That's a turnout.
And you too, like other docs, you've seen people come in who are a little too...
Docile, you know compliant whatever the case may be and you kind of want to say to him, you know blink twice if you're a hostage
Yeah, I mean being a stay-at-home mom being part of the maha movement like that is not I It's not inherently bad if that's something that you
want
and is
meaningful to you.
That's great.
Do it in an informed way, just like everything else in life.
Know what all of your options are so that you can make those appropriate choices for yourself.
But you know, Pat, we haven't talked about how things that are happening now in society are reinforcing that.
Like if you can't get childcare, which is happening all over Wisconsin and we know it's going to get much worse in the future, then you don't have an option.
Somebody has to stay home.
So that really takes away.
your ability to do something other than be part of what is that growing Maha type movement.
It comes back to I don't want to lose my train of thought here.
but of course there it went and it's always tough to have that happen on live radio but it was it was about oh here it is.
I saw you wandering as you were looking.
It came
right back and eventually it was just doing a it was in a holding pattern over Oshkosh some place and it it came back.
It was about the the child care and some of the comments that I was seeing online again coming from your you know your your troll area going you know well I don't know why we have to pay these people to be such babysitters and
Kareen Hendrickson, much to her credit, got right in there in the comment section and said, why don't you explain what you mean by babysitter?
Why don't you explain she listed all the expenses that she incurs to be, you know, a good professional childcare provider and say, which of those things would you cut out of your child's life?
And
I know that there's that talking point of, well, we didn't need organized daycare before.
Yeah,
she did.
You did just
Didn't get it and our society's grown to a point that had that embraces early childhood education so that you know our kids are informed citizens and not dollars and who have you know manners and literacy and all of that and You still people going well.
I was plopped in front of a TV and I turned out fine
That was when
we
had
PBS.
Yeah, at least you had PBS to be plopped in front of, although the answer is more like, no, you didn't.
If you were just plopped in front of a TV, you probably didn't turn out just fine.
Unless again, yeah, you had some more informative programming out there.
But I mean, this is just one aspect of it, the whole notion of affordable childcare.
But.
Also, there's something to be said about sex education.
And again,
empowerment for young people comes with knowledge rather than guessing or finding things on TikTok videos instead.
So you do need affordable education.
You do need affordable childcare.
You do need good healthcare so that you're not like just searching on the interwebs for anything that you can find.
All of these pieces come into place, and if you don't, if you fight against them in the name of, you know, gonna keep my taxes low, you know, you're gonna get what you pay for.
Can I just bring this back to health care like I always do?
It is so frustrating to me that people cannot afford health care.
So they look on TikTok because who can blame you?
You need answers.
Something is wrong with you.
You need to figure out how to fix it.
So you go to the place where you can access information.
But TikTok is...
Regular people just like sharing opinions as facts, or sometimes it's Secretary Kennedy sharing...
Disinformation that people believe and are basing their health care decisions on and sometimes those health care decisions end up costing them their lives or setting them on a path that determines the rest of their lives that they didn't want because they didn't know what all of their options are.
So if we had access to quality affordable health care if we could go see a health care practitioner to get our questions answered and to get the therapies and the treatments that we need for our physical and mental health.
We wouldn't be living in this dystopian society that we've created.
Yeah, but we do.
And we think if one of the lessons we would have learned from the pandemic was the heartbreaking tales of people who were dying right before dying of COVID were saying to the doctors and nurses, why won't you tell me what's really wrong with me?
Yes.
Because they on their deathbed would not believe that COVID was real because of the conspiracies that they were taught.
So.
folks, we can do this better.
And you can start by watching How Is This Better on YouTube or listening on Spotify or checking out the Courier Newsroom website couriernewsroom.com and catch How Is This Better with Akilah Hughes.
In my monitor out the corner of my eye, I see that Jane McNair is back, which is good because I didn't know on the road trip.
You know, they were doing butternut and hayward, and I didn't know if they'd ever come back from up north.
It's God's country up there, you know.
It is beautiful.
Yep, but they've made it back.
So we'll find out from Jane Mattener, which is coming up on her program, which follows this one here weekdays across 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.
Tomorrow morning at 6.30 a new feature is coming to this fine radio program below the Beltway with Cam Stevenson, Courier Newsroom's future Capitol Hill correspondent.
Cam Stevenson has joined us for the past couple of years from Arizona where he helped start the Copper Courier covering Arizona news
but he is making the move to DC to cover Congress and all of Washington for Courier Newsroom and he will join us this coming Tuesday and then again starting after Labor Day when Congress is back in session.
So, Cam Stevenson with Below the Beltway coming up tomorrow morning.
on these mornings powered by Up North News on the Civic Media Radio Network.
Well, yep, there's the happy news that Jane McNair has made it back from Up North.
She and Greg and Todd were all up in the Hayward area on Friday doing their show live.
How'd that all go?
How'd the trip back?
How was it?
How was the whole shebang?
The whole shebang was great.
We had more fun and just met the most lovely people.
We stopped last Wednesday in Oshkosh, and we got to see an atomic bomb being moved, which I didn't know was on my list of things I wanted to do, but I did.
So that was pretty cool.
Yeah, in the EAA Museum.
And then on Thursday, we broadcast from Butternut.
at a wonderful little art gallery in downtown.
Butternut Kelly Meredith is the owner there.
And then on Friday, we were in Hayward, right across from our sister station WBZH there in Hayward.
What a great little town.
Oh, yeah.
There was, yeah, there was so much going on, the powwow was going on, the lumberjack championships were going on.
That downtown was buzzing.
And then we headed home yesterday, or I'm sorry, Saturday, and saying the Book of Mormon all the way home.
So we took turns.
Yeah, I picked
first.
So on the way up, we listened to Wicked.
And then on the way from Oshkosh to Park Falls, Greg picked Jesus Christ Superstar.
And then, yes, on the way back, we listened to the Book of Mormon and Todd and I said, we all sang, we sang.
Oh, that's so fun.
And there was there was car dancing involved also.
Of course there is as one does, you
know, on a road trip like
that.
You have
to.
So what are you working on this week now that you're back in the cozy confines of an air conditioned studio?
Well, I really wanted to start off with Tony Weed.
Does something no one has asked him to do?
Yes.
I think someone has asked him to do it.
Oh, someone has asked.
I think with a bucket of
money to go along with
it
is my
guess.
That would be
an
organization.
Not so much anything his constituents have asked for, which Republicans really do seem to be really, really good at.
You haven't asked for this thing, but I'm going to give it to you anyway.
Aren't you lucky?
Tell me.
Thank you later.
So we'll talk.
We'll start off with that.
Tony Weeds.
new legislation that he has put forward.
Robin Vining is entering the race for a state office.
We'll talk about that.
And then after the 9 30 news, we're going to talk about deporting all the wrong people.
We are
we are.
completely deporting the wrong people when we need to be, you know, deporting, you know, bigots and sexists and things like that.
And
criminals.
I thought the whole thing was rape.
Oh, yeah.
I'm sorry.
Yes.
It was
supposed to be the criminals.
That's the criminals.
We're going to, yes.
And the, uh, the poll numbers for Donald Trump's immigration policy are not doing well.
And I would imagine that part of this is tied because we're deporting the wrong people.
Yes.
Maybe it's just me.
No,
it's
really not just you who look at this and go, huh, he said he's going after the criminals, but it's just Maria from housekeeping over at the Holiday Express.
Could this be a race based thing?
I don't
know.
You know,
it's from a guy
who is trying to blackmail an NFL team and going back to its racist nickname.
I
mean,
yeah, that's a squirrel.
That's another squirrel.
The whole baseball team thing is don't look at the Epstein report that we had promised you for years and years and years and years and talked about and promoted.
But there's nothing to see here.
Look over there.
We're going to talk
about that as well.
Yeah.
But if people missed it, by the way, this whole diversion thing with the Epstein files, it's worth noting that the thing that they're promising to do now is unseal the grand jury transcripts.
uh yeah that is that is that's there's nothing new there i
mean
now because when you try to get an um an indictment you you don't show all your cards you show just enough to get an indictment so
There's not going to be anything that that's new there.
The new stuff would be in what was unsealed, which Democrats forced to vote on last week and every Wisconsin Republican, Tony Weed, Derek Van Orden and the rest said, well, don't they talk a good game about transparency?
Oh, they sure
do.
Yeah, they love.
Yeah, they love to talk.
Oh, we're going to show everything.
And I guess what blows my mind the most is it is the Republicans who made the biggest deal about this and the people on the report and this cabal of pedophiles that are running trafficking out of pizza restaurants that have no basements.
They're the ones.
who promoted this for years and years and years.
And again, now it's like nothing to see here, look over there.
Oh, to look at all those old Dan Bongino clips and how hard he went on it.
And now he's like, silent.
It's all
good.
It's
all good.
It's all been
released.
Look over there, squirrel.
So it's worth noting that Republicans perhaps this week, well, they have to because the August recess is coming, but they're going to try to put up a vote on a resolution that basically
calls on the Justice Department to release more evidence.
In other words, a nothing burger.
This does nothing.
But they're going to pass that this week to say, see, we do want transparency.
No, the real transparency would have been in the actual legislation last week.
And no, they kind of took a pass on that.
I just don't think that this is going to go away for them as much as they hope and as many squirrels as they're going to keep throwing out there because they will.
I'm sorry, you fed your base this, you raised your base on this milk, and and they aren't going to
let it go.
Yeah.
Jane Mattener with that and so much more coming up next across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Jane, thank you.
Have a great week.
Thank you so much, my friends.
We'll see you later.
All right, we will see you.
And Kristen, thank you for co-hosting throughout the course of the morning.
I really appreciate that.
All the travels you do and everything, it was nice to catch you at home and get to just kick back with you for a couple hours.
So thank you for that.
I love coffee clutching with you,
Pat.
Coffee clutching is fun.
It's a great way
to start your week.
Yes, and the coffee mug's about empty, so I guess I have to wrap up here.
So if you have a wonderful day, we'll talk to you later in the week.
Sounds good.
All right, and thanks to all of you for being part of this as well on this Monday morning, getting our week going on these mornings powered by Up North News, part of Courier, a pro-democracy news network.
I'm Pat Krightlow in Chippewa Falls.
Have a great day.
We'll see you tomorrow morning here up north.
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