Smuggling Cattle?! (Hour 1)

Transcript

Smuggling Cattle?! (Hour 1)

Mornings with Pat Kreitlow · Mon Nov 17, 2025

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

You can tune into any of our live shows on any radio station across the state with the Civic Media app.

Find us in your phone's app store and listen anytime, anywhere.

Across Wisconsin on Civic Media, you're listening to Mornings with Pat Critello, powered by Up North News.

Now, from our Lake Wissota studio, here's the founding editor of Up North News, Pat Critello.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, hey there, Wisconsin.

Good morning.

It is 6.06 on this Monday morning, November 17th.

Another beautiful morning to have you here up north, live from Lake Wissota.

From wherever you're spending your mornings listening across the Civic Media Radio Network.

or listening to the podcast or online or through the app, watching us on social media.

It's great to have you here to get the day started.

I got a question for you.

Can we talk about your friends?

Because we have a Sunday morning newsletter with a question of the week.

And the question that I asked was just based on a national survey.

I think we might have even talked about it on the program here Friday.

I ran it yesterday and I mean the responses just came flooding in.

The story that we talked about was a national survey on how many Republicans have a close friend who's a Democrat.

How many Democrats have a close friend who's a Republican?

Close friend.

Now we all have casual acquaintances of all stripes.

A good good friend, but you are political opposites.

And that's how I asked it in the newsletter, not Democrat or Republican.

I just said, do you have a friend who is politically the opposite of you, a close friend?

And if not, why not?

Is that by choice, by circumstance?

If so, how do you make it work?

and I was really surprised at how many responses came in so quickly and so many not just yes or no but I mean really wanting to explain their situation that they just cannot make room in their lives for somebody that they have to fight with all the time or I really love this person and so we try not to talk about things.

and by the way it wasn't just close friends it was uh you know it was kids like adult kids or parents uh co-workers things like that so what we're gonna do is at 735 we're gonna open up the phone lines and we're just gonna ask people to come you know share their their stories that uh you know without giving away too much we don't need names or anything but just talk about

how they make a friendship work or maybe how they lost a friendship and You know what we do about that in these divisive times There are people that say well there there's no more important time than ever To have close close friends even if you are politically opposed other people would say this is no time to turn a blind eye and you have to confront somebody

if they're embracing an extreme view.

So we're going to get into that in in the 735 half hour.

So I want you to stick around for that.

And if you can't, I want your comments, put them in the comment section, and I'll get over to Facebook or YouTube and put them in there.

Or if you're listening on the radio, get that civic media app on your phone, go to the text message or the the voice note.

We'd love to get a few voice notes from people saying, yep, I got a friend this or I got a friend that.

And we'd like to find out.

Let's see.

Tony up in Ashland, jumping in right away in the comments section on YouTube.

Not really I would, but I moved from Ohio, so we aren't near each other.

My dad is pro-Trump, so we don't talk much about it.

We are both non-confrontational people.

See, and that's the thing.

We're Midwesterners.

We try not to be too confrontational about these things.

Again, in the times we're in, I don't know that this isn't like disagreeing on health insurance premiums, okay?

This is like disagreeing on secret police kidnapping people off the streets and leaving two-year-olds alone or things like that.

I mean, somebody's gonna tell you, somebody you really trust and love is gonna say to you, well, you know, that's just the way it's gotta be.

And you know, you have to somehow agree to disagree on that.

So we'll get into that, but again, you can use the voice note feature to tell us your point of view on that.

You can text us.

You can get in the comment sections.

Let's talk about your friends and politics.

855-75 Civic is how you reach us by phone anytime throughout the show.

855-75 Civic, or you can text us at that number.

And of course go to the comment sections and we do we do we don't talk about it very much But we do have an email address because we don't want to get spammed or anything, but you can email us your thoughts radio at

UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Don't forget the WI radio at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

So that's part of what lies ahead here.

Coming up in our newsletter, I see it just went out from UpNorth News.

You can sign up over at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

Click subscribe up in the top banner.

And there's the story that we talked about last week about Washington County Executive Josh Showman, a candidate for Wisconsin governor.

Republican and his new election quote-unquote reform ideas which involve things like removing absentee ballot drop boxes.

But also in the newsletter we'll tell you about a Wisconsin city where an annual book drive has a goal of acquiring 2,000 books for distribution to children and raising funds to buy many more.

So find that in our newsletter up North News WI.

dot com uh let's see right now it is six eleven it is time to head down to madison studio a two where parker olson is standing by i thought maybe he'd be in his green and gold so happy yet a a long overdue packer victory but i'm actually glad he's he's not because it just means a packers one life returns to normal we we can we don't have to live and die by the by the team although there were times in the first half i wanted to die yeah olson good morning

Good morning, Pat.

There were times during that first half that I wanted to die.

I will also be honest with you, I'm not wearing green and gold today because, frankly, laundry.

No.

There you have it, folks.

Pat Kreitlow

Does at your age, and where you are in life, is your laundry dictated by like it's an every Wednesday kind of thing, or is it done by the size of the pile?

of dirty clothes.

And when it, when it reaches a certain height, you go, all right, I guess it's time.

Might be the size of the

pile.

Pat Kreitlow

Okay.

All right.

Because I'm a home too

now.

So I have more clothes than when I was in Whitewater.

I only had like some of my stuff.

Sure.

So, you know,

Pat Kreitlow

I was with the pile.

Great.

Well,

Pat Kreitlow

yeah.

So the, the game, Jordan Love went out with an injury at one point and I thought, well, that's it.

There we go.

You know.

Okay, especially when I thought it was a concussion that was gonna take him out then turned out it was the shoulder But Parker has thoughts on this.

I do have thoughts on this.

I actually this is not a great thing to say, but I'm gonna say it Malik Willis, I'm fine with him.

I think he's great I would have been perfectly okay with having to play Malik Willis for the rest of that game to be honest with you Okay, that doesn't sound

Pat Kreitlow

too controversial.

Yeah, you know Jordan

Pat Kreitlow

love

people

Pat Kreitlow

Well, it's not like the kicker thing where we've been saying for a couple of weeks now bring the substitute kicker back and then he misses an extra point.

Then he makes an extra point that he misses another extra point.

I'm like, we're going to lose this game on extra points with the substitute kicker that we thought should be the permanent kicker.

That one.

Why

can't we catch a break?

That one is someone who was in the camp that he should have been kicking the entire time.

That one really hurt me a little.

I'll bet

Pat Kreitlow

it

did.

Looking at

Pat Kreitlow

it going a break cannot be caught.

No,

no, not for the not for the

Pat Kreitlow

way But thankfully the the Giants they also Missed one of their extra points the Packers got a two-point conversion So if all the extra points have been made we'd be talking about just a regular final score of 28 21 the Packers winning by a touchdown but because of all the other things the final score was 27 to 20 as the Packers and they're losing skid

There were some Jordan Love heroics on the go ahead drive in the fourth quarter.

He connected with rookie Savion Williams on a 32 yard gain under pressure on third and 10 and he found Christian Watson in the end zone with 402 left to take the lead and I got to say again I think the first two maybe it wasn't the first two times that he threw the Christian Watson, but you know close enough that You know Watson didn't make the catch or it was overthrown or whatever and I was really starting to think

This is the beginning of the end for our hopes that Jordan loved a Christian Watson was gonna be a worthy combo, but I was wrong.

You know, okay, those those connections did come later on.

Yeah,

Pat Kreitlow

so

Watson was awesome.

Pat Kreitlow

You had a yeah, like I said after the first couple he had some really some really good catches and I was was happy by and large with what I saw though.

I have to admit I didn't see

much of the game.

I heard a lot of it from Wayne and Larry on the radio because yesterday the sun was out.

It was 50 when we first woke up and we're like, okay, we've been putting this off long enough.

So put the game on the radio, washing the windows before

winter.

What

Pat Kreitlow

a fun

task.

Pat Kreitlow

Up on the ladder, yep, going all around the house, getting all the windows.

We don't have a second floor, so you can do everything with a reasonable ladder.

And it's all fine, except when you get to the side of the house where now the wind is blowing.

And

Pat Kreitlow

there's a little bit of a wind chill on there, but we got it done, which is great.

Back to the game.

Tony says if they didn't drop four potential interceptions, it would have been a blowout.

Yeah, that one was really frustrating.

That sucked.

Yeah.

Not not going to lie.

I was having a hard time.

Tony also says Malik Willis is a good regular season QB in the playoffs.

When you need some big passing plays, you need love.

Yeah.

Pat Kreitlow

I think

that's true.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

Okay.

And let's see, Tony says, I miss laundry when I was single with a wife and three kids.

It's a daily requirement.

Oh, yeah.

I, it was pretty much daily for us when our daughters were in their teen years.

And by that, I mean, they all did it.

I had a job that I had a job that kept me away.

Oh, yeah, I'm now doing more of that than doing more laundry and things than ever before.

But thank

Thank goodness the rest of the family was able to pitch in here.

Back to our question of the day, Alicia writes in, I went no contact with my mom because she is so mega and ma-ha.

It wasn't healthy for me or my kids.

She is okay with everything this administration is doing.

So we've got that input from Alicia.

And let's see, it looks like we also have a voice note from somebody who is listening to our station up in the Wausau area.

So we'll

play a little bit of that in the next break.

And like I said, at 735, welcome your phone calls as well.

So anyway, the Vikings come to town next.

They come to Lambeau Field on Sunday at noon.

And then there's going to be a quick turnaround.

The Packers have the Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit.

Thanksgiving at noon.

So we're going to plan our meals accordingly, I guess.

That's tough for the Olson family.

I'm going to be honest with you.

Oh, are they like very much like

130.

Everything's giving

no matter what.

We're about noon.

We do a we do a big lunch.

So yeah, that's that's prime football time, which

Pat Kreitlow

is it

is quite convenient.

However,

Pat Kreitlow

there's always a

way.

Pat Kreitlow

We'll a few TVs in.

which now that's a generational phrase.

I can say, oh, you just wheel the TV and nobody can wheel a TV and anymore with a 72 inch screen.

But we used to have everything was on a TV cart and you could wheel the TV from one room or the other.

Was that something you didn't believe

me?

Wait, no, I believe that because I did it in school.

Was that something that you did in home?

Of course.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh, I have it out in my shed.

I saw it because I was cleaning out the shed, getting that all.

Fixed up and putting you know, putting the bicycles up on racks and things like that.

Sure.

And our old TV cart is still there.

You know, it looks like fake, you know, the fake wood thing and your TV you go on there and then down below you could put your VCR or, you know, yeah, whatever.

Yeah.

And yeah, you could wheel it around the corner if you needed to put it in the dining room to watch the Packers or whatever it was going on.

Oh yeah.

Lots of places still have, you know, the old TV sets on a TV cart.

Huh.

Well, I don't know if they have that.

They might still have the cart, maybe not the TV

Kathryn Lake

so much,

Pat Kreitlow

but yeah, you really, you really can't do that.

But you can bring the TV with you, you know, on your screen.

That's the thing.

You've got either the 72 inch screen that you can't wheel that puppy, but you can also just people sitting all around the Thanksgiving table, you know, watching their screens and mom going, put your phones down, put your phones down.

On Saturday, we were in a bar in Oshkosh and they didn't have.

one of the games on the TV in front of us.

Instead,

Pat Kreitlow

it had

Die Hard, the movie, which was interesting.

So we pulled up the game on our phone and put it on a beer glass and called it good.

All right.

Wow.

Pat Kreitlow

All right.

Hey, coming up after the break, you're never going to believe why beef prices are so crazy these days.

According to Trump's Treasury Secretary, we are facing an invasion on the southern border, an invasion of cattle.

Live from the heart of America's Up North on Lake Wissota, I'm Pat Crightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

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.

Pat Kreitlow

It's a Monday morning.

It is just about 6 23.

I'm packed right low up here in Chippewa Falls, Parker Olsen down in Madison.

Nice to have you here on the Civic Media Radio Network.

You can follow me throughout the course of the day with my team at UpNorthNews at UpNorthNewsWI.com.

And of course, we also have on the website, you can look right at the front page there and see what we're up to.

But if you want just to focus on the morning show here, go to upnorthnewswi.com slash mornings, upnorthnewswi.com slash mornings.

You can sign up for our Sunday morning newsletter.

You can see the website articles that I'm working on.

You can get links to follow the show as a podcast on Spotify or watch us on YouTube, all at upnorthnewswi.com slash mornings.

Tomorrow on the program, we will have Hans Brighton Moser.

He's a dairy farmer from up near Merrill.

We'll have Camp Stevenson from Courier Newsroom reporting live from the nation's capital and Dan Schaefer from the Recombobulation Area will join us to talk a little Wisconsin politics as well As I mentioned in our Sunday newsletter our question of the day is do you have a close friend who is your political opposite?

We're going to take a bunch of phone calls on that, I hope, around 7.35.

So I want to give you ample room right now.

And in fact, I think some folks are already leaving voice notes on this.

So let's give a listen to one that was that has already come in off the Civic Media app.

After the disastrous Zalonski meeting this spring, I confronted my mom and I confronted my uncle, who are both big Trumpers.

My mom was more willing to have a conversation.

My uncle who's basically like an adapt by the end of the conversation said well I can tell this is really upsetting for you, but At the end of the day most of the things that happen at the federal level They're not going to affect you that much So I wouldn't stress about it too much

Pat Kreitlow

That raises a very interesting point and thank you.

I appreciate that you called in and left a voice note and I encourage everybody else to use that civic media app to do so and it

It's a tough thing because on the one hand, yes, so much of what happens at the federal level does not impact us right away.

But it can, and it also sets the tone for our values.

Blowing up boats in the Caribbean isn't going to change anything that happens in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin today.

But is that really what we want from a president and from a military?

that can do things like, again, have masked secret police on the streets, can cut off, you know, benefits to struggling families and yet import beef from Argentina and give Argentina $40 billion.

All these things happen on the federal level.

They don't affect us right away, but they're still important enough

the question becomes, what does that do to your discussions with your friends?

And that's part of our question of the day here today that we're talking about.

Speaking of beef from Argentina.

You know, when we talk about caravans, when we hear Trump and others talk about caravans coming from Mexico, the caravans are coming from Central America, the caravans are coming to the border.

Did you know that in those caravans are

cows because that's what Donald Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said in an interview over the weekend.

Let's give a listen.

The beef market is a very specialized market.

It goes in long cycles and that this is the perfect storm.

Again, something we inherited and there's also because of the mass immigration a disease that had been

We've been rid of in North America, made its way up through South America as these migrants, they have brought some of their cattle with them.

Pat Kreitlow

Parker, did you know that along as they're scaling the wall that the cows are able to jump over the wall?

Or they're going through the tunnel?

I mean, sometimes you might think, am I hearing something and you're hearing your.

Never occurred to you that it might be coming from underground.

I'm envisioning the mighty Python in the Holy Grail when they're charging the castle and throwing cows and chickens and Geese out the over the wall.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh a money Python reference out of you.

That's fabulous Cassandra OMG Besson's face palm.

Yeah, I I don't know what else to tell you on that except that it just sometimes it feels like

the folks in the in in Moga world are playing a game with us.

I feel like we're being punked that they sit around and they try to see how far they can go.

to make some Americans believe their wild excuses and their accusations to justify all the things they do and the latest one has got to be uh as as Eith put it you know the cow jumped over the moon she puts that on facebook hey if it can jump over the moon they can jump over a border fence it's a southern invasion of cattle you know

Uh, yeah, I know, Tony, I was just a surprise to see Money Python reference from Parker, but yeah, there it is.

Believe it or not.

All right.

Well, now that we've got you up to speed on what is happening with the American beef market in the here and now, and then we'll hear more in the Midwest Farm Report coming up less than two minutes away.

But we already told you about the Packers beating the Giants 27 to 20.

They'll host the Vikings next Sunday at noon.

The Badgers football team did not look terrible.

at first.

Parker thinks I might have couched that little bit too much.

I mean, the first quarter.

Yeah, you're right.

And then Indiana was like, oh, wait, we should get started, shouldn't we?

And they ended up just spanking Wisconsin 31 to 7.

The Badgers are now 3 and 7 overall, 1 and 6 in the Big 10.

They lost to a ranked team for the fifth time this season.

They have still not beaten a top 10 team on the road since 2019.

They will next be in action at Camp Randall hosting Illinois.

That's a Saturday night game coming up, last I saw.

Badger men's basketball.

They're hosting Southern Illinois University Edwardsville tonight in the final matchup of a four game home stand to start the 2025-2026 season.

The Badger women's basketball team defeated UW Green Bay on Sunday afternoon.

Men's hockey split with Ohio State.

Badger women's hockey swept St.

Cloud State and the Bucks they lost Friday and Saturday.

Today's history lesson and Dr. Kristen Lahrle, all on the way.

I'm Pat Critello.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Again for today's history lesson on mornings with Pat

Critello.

Welcome to this happy place.

Welcome.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Beatles.

That's one small step for man.

Well, I'm not a

crook.

You believe in miracles yet?

You know, this depression is gonna be so great.

We'll be the ones eating the cats and the dogs.

That's gonna be fun.

Once again, it is time to take another revealing peek back into history.

Pat Kreitlow

We're gonna start today's history lesson with some John Lennon and Elton John.

So Elton John was, he wasn't an unknown, but he was still like an up and comer way back then, 51 years ago.

Elton John played piano on the track and he made a bet with John Lennon.

Elton John was sure the song was gonna hit number one.

John Lennon said no.

John Lennon lost the bet and as the bet's loser, Lennon had to join Elton on stage at one of his concerts.

He picked Madison Square Garden and got a manic ovation, all from a song that hit number one this day in 1974.

Welcome to today's history lesson where we are joined by Dr. Kristin Lierly, who had a...

did not go to New York to watch the game like like the Pittsburgh thing.

I

Pat Kreitlow

know she just stayed on her couch.

It does happen and enjoyed it.

Kristin Lyerly

How

Pat Kreitlow

are

Kristin Lyerly

you?

I'm good.

John Lennon, my favorite beetle.

Pat Kreitlow

I love

Kristin Lyerly

all the collabs.

Pat Kreitlow

Right.

Rightly so.

Yep.

Let's see.

On this day, one year earlier, 1973 in Orlando, you heard the reference in there.

President Nixon telling reporters, I am not a crook.

I am not a crook.

Kristin Lyerly

Yeah,

Pat Kreitlow

that was a good accent.

Yeah, that's that's a

Kristin Lyerly

thing.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

On this day in 1996, the Spice Girls hit number one on the album chart with their self-titled debut album.

Kristin Lyerly

This is the Spice Girls song you picked.

Pat Kreitlow

This is my favorite Spice Girls song.

Kristin Lyerly

Oh my gosh.

I'll tell you what I want, Pat.

What I really, really want

Pat Kreitlow

is a different Spice

Kristin Lyerly

Girls song.

Pat Kreitlow

Actually, the other one I like is also on the album, To Become One.

Both were part of that debut self-titled album.

They hit number one this day in 1996.

Kristin Lyerly

Wouldn't that be a fun civic media Halloween costume for us and Mike Clemens and who else, who else?

Joseph

Pat Kreitlow

Pecky?

Where are you going with this?

The Spice

Kristin Lyerly

Girls?

The Spice Girls!

Okay.

I think that's ice spice.

Kristin Lyerly

Ice spice is not a spice girl, but could be.

We could do whatever we want with it.

It's our

Pat Kreitlow

costume.

We have enough people.

We definitely have plenty of time to plan.

Kristin Lyerly

Put a reminder in your calendar,

Pat Kreitlow

I will.

Or to forget that we ever talked about this.

On this day in 1993, the all new Mickey Mouse Club made its debut.

Among the Mouse Cateers on this day in 1993, Britney Spears.

Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling, and Carrie Russell.

They were all Mousketeers this day in 1993, and they all did pretty well after that.

Being a Mousketeer was a stepping stone.

Kristin Lyerly

Well, it's like a cohort of people who are vetted.

It makes perfect sense when you really think about it.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

I mean,

Kristin Lyerly

think about Annette Funicello and that cohort.

Pat Kreitlow

Let's go way back.

It worked for Annette, which again, you know,

Two thirds of the audience was like, look it up.

The Four Seasons had the number one hit on this day in 1962.

All right, let's see.

We got the birthdays today.

Hey, Danny DeVito is 81 years old today.

RuPaul is a senior citizen now 65 years old today Rachel McAdams is 47 and Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun 42 years old today

How do you

Pat Kreitlow

feel about Ryan Braun?

Because of the

scandal?

Yeah, no, but either one.

This is a question for the group

Kristin Lyerly

Okay He's a human

He was a great brewer.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, okay.

We'll just leave her at that.

All right.

Did you hear us on Friday mocking Gordon Lightfoot?

Because today is the anniversary of his birth.

He was born this day in 1938, passed away a couple years ago.

But that prior to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, he'd written a different song about his shipwreck?

Kristin Lyerly

No.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh.

Well, then, Kristen, you, like so many other people, can head over and subscribe to the show as a podcast.

Listen to Friday's first hour, where we talk about a shipwreck, play a song that was made about the shipwreck, and tell you that that's Gordon Lightfoot.

Apparently, he has a type.

He likes the shipwreck songs.

Kristin Lyerly

Well, I mean, people like shipwrecks.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

Anyway, he had other songs, like Carefree.

Carefree Highway, which I meant to queue up today, but he was born this day in 1938.

On this day in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California, which sounds, you know, like second nature now.

But again, I want to take you back to Election Night 2003.

Arnold, oh, there's Gordon Lightfoot now.

Arnold Schwarzenegger elected Governor of California in 2003.

It was kind of like when Jesse Ventura got elected Governor of Minnesota.

It was just like.

What what is happening here?

What?

Kristin Lyerly

Oh, I remember that though.

Pat Kreitlow

I

Kristin Lyerly

remember being in college

Pat Kreitlow

election 1998 Yeah, anything

Kristin Lyerly

can happen

Pat Kreitlow

there.

There were only there only a couple of times where I was truly speechless on air delivering That was one of them the other was one of our reporters picking up a downed power line, but I'll save that story for another time Yeah, yeah comes back to me on camera, and I'm like, oh you would never want to do that folks

The

Kathryn Lake

other one was trying to

Pat Kreitlow

explain to people that Jesse Ventura had just been elected Minnesota Governor.

So there you go.

All right, on this day in 2007 was the first episode of Live from Daryl's House, Daryl Hall of Hall & Oats, performing from his home in Millerton, New York.

I really liked that show.

I bet you did.

I haven't seen a ton of episodes, but I mean, what a nice premise for a show.

You know, get some of your music friends or make new music friends and jam together and do some recipes and tell some stories.

I really

Kristin Lyerly

like it.

For Daryl Hall Superfans.

Pat Kreitlow

I know, exactly.

Do you

Kristin Lyerly

know any?

Pat Kreitlow

Daryl Hall

Kristin Lyerly

Superfans?

Pat Kreitlow

I don't know any.

No, none.

There's no mirrors in this house.

On this day in 2007, the Eagles were at number one on the album chart with Long Road out of E.

Long road out of Eden.

I almost said Eagan.

People are fleeing the suburbs.

Singles like this one.

Oh boy.

Kristin Lyerly

When the Vikings moved there, everything went to hell.

Pat Kreitlow

That was it, see?

It was shortly after we left Egan for Chippewa Falls.

That must have been it.

We just knew the neighborhood was going to hell.

Kristin Lyerly

Going to

Pat Kreitlow

hell.

Just so the long road out of Eden was the number one album this day in 2007.

Let's see, on this day in 2019, the first COVID-19 case was traced to a 55-year-old man who'd visited a market in Wuhan, China.

And then finally, because I wanted to end on a more upbeat note than that, the number one hit this day in 1984 was by Wham.

Kristin Lyerly

This song was life-changing for me.

Pat Kreitlow

Life-changing?

Mm-hmm.

Really?

Tell me more.

Kristin Lyerly

Oh, we all bought fingerless gloves.

There were new t-shirts, dancing, glowy things.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

It did change.

Yeah.

It changed the look for a lot of folks.

Yes.

So there you go.

Kristin Lyerly

And spirit.

And it made us cheerful.

Pat Kreitlow

It was the 80s.

We needed to

Kristin Lyerly

share.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, see, that's just it.

It was all about going out dancing in 1984.

I mean, that's all Sherry and I were doing.

We were going out dancing every Friday of Saturday night, sometimes Thursday nights, sometimes Sunday.

I mean, there was a lot of dancing going on in college.

You

Kristin Lyerly

can still dance.

You can still, like, you know, you can bring that back.

It's polka-ing now.

Pat Kreitlow

But it's still dancing.

A little more of a sway.

A little more of a waltz.

Yeah, at this point.

Yeah.

But no, dancing is still allowed.

Absolutely.

What's on the national day calendar for today?

This week is a hunger and a homeless awareness

week.

We have

Pat Kreitlow

got

International Students Day.

Pat Kreitlow

International Students Day.

Have you had international

Kristin Lyerly

students hosted any, Kristen?

We have not.

I have my house is too full of national students.

Pat Kreitlow

To have any international students.

We hosted, you know, our third daughter from Russia back in 2004.

And you know, there's always been a part of the family ever since then.

We went to Russia for her wedding back in 2011, I believe it was, yeah.

And yeah, I would encourage anybody to host international students.

We also hosted an international student for like a weekend.

Do you remember the old Up with People?

Kristin Lyerly

Oh my gosh, yes, I know it well.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, we hosted an up-with-people person back in the day.

But I guess that's gone now.

Kristin Lyerly

It's gone now.

They are very full of joy and cheer and music.

Pat Kreitlow

They really are.

And entertainment.

Yes.

And jazz

Kristin Lyerly

hands.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, when they left, they were like, what just happened?

Woo, I need an app.

White tornado cheerfulness just went through.

Wow.

All right, what else we got on the calendar today?

We've got national hiking day, which seems oddly late in the year for that

Kristin Lyerly

Well,

Pat Kreitlow

you know the Ice Age trail is still there still beckons one of these days.

Kristin Lyerly

Yeah,

it's a long time famous.

Yeah.

Yep.

What else?

It is also national homemade bread day.

I'm a big bread guy.

I was very excited about I love fresh

I haven't

Pat Kreitlow

made homemade bread in forever.

Remember the bread machine craze?

Kristin Lyerly

Oh, I made homemade bread in my bread machine yesterday.

Pat Kreitlow

You still have your bread machine.

Wow.

Kristin Lyerly

Family favorite.

I made baguettes for Julian's birthday.

Pat Kreitlow

I think ours is still down in the basement someplace buried but like we had a couple of times when it didn't quite work and we thought well maybe there's something off with with the heating element or whatever and we just never

I brought it back upstairs, but it's somewhere we should make homemade bread again.

I

Kristin Lyerly

just make the dough and then I do the rest of it by hand.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

So there you go.

Homemade bread.

And then one more in the calendar for today,

Parker.

It is National Unfriended Day.

Like on social media, if you got that somebody, I don't know, maybe a congressman.

You can unfriend them.

Just a guess.

Pat Kreitlow

You hear that, George?

You're on notice.

I've got a special friend on Facebook.

Man, maybe today's the day we unfriend.

And yet, that gets us back into our question of the day, Kristen, and that is, do you have a close friend who is your political opposite?

And again, at 735, we'll open up the phone lines and we'll get people to tell their stories.

I've collected so many stories already from people.

This really struck, I want to say it struck a nerve isn't right, but struck a chord with people.

So many emails have come in explaining why they do or don't have a close friend who's their

political opposite.

So Kristen, I'll throw that right at you out of the get go.

Because you get along with everybody.

But when it comes to close friends, not acquaintances, but a close friend, you have one who's like politically opposite.

If so, how do you make it work?

If not, why?

Kristin Lyerly

Opposite to me means that

it's like a diet, like you are here and they are there.

And that's not how I see the world.

I see the world as like a continuum.

So I would say that I have friends who have very different, a very different perspective, but we find common ground.

And the thing is respect, we respect each other, even if we don't agree.

So yeah, I do.

And it evolves and we learn from each other.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, and I think

I think respect, when you talk about that, I think that word is getting a tougher workout than ever these days.

Because of some of the things you're being asked to respect in terms of a difference of opinion.

And you're going to hear that in some of the responses that we're going to be reading a little bit later on.

But I mean, we've already seen in some of the comments today, I mean, you know, Alicia mentioned earlier, no contact with her mom.

Because of Megan never never mind friends.

We're talking parents and adult children and things like that This has been a it's not like there haven't been other trying times in American history But this is one of them right now, isn't

Kristin Lyerly

it?

And sometimes the best thing you can do is what Alicia did sometimes you just have to say no

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, so you got to know, is this a time for just setting things aside or is it time for letting go?

So we'll be talking about that more in our seven o'clock hour and State Senator Jody Habers-Sinneken at 830 talking about saving the Wisconsin stewardship program.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

You're listening to Civic Media.

Find the latest news, information and archives of all your favorite shows on the Civic Media website,

Pat Kreitlow

civicmedia.us.

Good, lots of outside stuff done, you know?

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah.

You were the same way, outdoor stuff.

Kristin Lyerly

I can't not in these nice days when the sun is out and it just feels good and that like 15 minutes when we have sun this time of year, you just got to get out there and embrace it.

Yeah.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, that's what it's like.

Oh, yep.

Some people doing Christmas lights.

Some people still moving leaves.

We were washing windows yesterday.

Parker, you were going to go to Oshkosh to watch the whitewater football game.

Yeah, we did.

It was really nice.

It was a really good day.

Many tailgate kind of weren't there long, but, you know, it

Pat Kreitlow

was good for it.

Still, if you can squeeze in another tailgate, you know, you do it.

Well, we're in the playoffs, Pat.

We've got more tailgate.

Oh, well, we are.

OK.

We are.

Yes.

Pat Kreitlow

We have a bye and then we're in.

Go whitewater or water drops or whatever.

Selena is going to be telling us later about, well, let's just talk about it briefly, Selena, because you've got a report that's running on Up North News and we're going to play some snippets after the seven o'clock news where, you know, a farmer was nice enough to say, well, I'll talk to you about stuff, but you're going to have to sit in the combine because I got to harvest these soybeans.

So how was that?

Yeah, it was great.

He was nice as Phil.

like we hung out a good part of the day and he just he was so lovely we just I climbed up into the combine with him and we went combining and I was telling him so before this I was like well you know we had Oliver's and we were just chatting on the phone beforehand so we're just you know kind of reminiscing and everything and he's been farming for 45 years in Pierce County so we talked a lot about that and then we just I mean we talked about so many

things while we were combining soybeans but I had never been in the combine combining soybeans before only corn so but we grew soybeans, hay, and corn on when I grew up so that was that was really fun for me.

Pat Kreitlow

Now people might go wait a minute didn't Selena cover the combine demolition derbies were you ever in were you ever in one of those combines?

No, but all my friends are like, you have to do it.

You have to do it.

Like, oh gosh, that's no, I have not.

And especially,

Pat Kreitlow

I

should have brought that up to Phil.

Pat Kreitlow

Oh, yeah, you should have.

Phil needs

Kristin Lyerly

his combine for the crops.

Pat Kreitlow

Yes, yeah.

These aren't the brand sparkly new ones that they're using for the demolition derby.

No, but I'll never forget the first time Selena told me she wanted to do a story about the...

combine demolition derbies that happened in her hometown.

Okay, this should be fun.

And it was.

So

all

Pat Kreitlow

right, so more about Selena's story coming up after the news.

Dr. Lirely had the Dr. Kristen Lirely show on this past weekend, as always.

And I can say this without any hesitation, that I was one of the first members of the Kristen Brie fan club, because I got to know her shortly after she moved back to Wisconsin from many years in California.

And you know, just she was doing a little

bit of work for Up North News and a little bit of work for Civic Media.

And you just knew, you just knew like she's going places and now she's got a great show on a big time radio station, but hasn't forgotten the little people like Kristen Lyrely who wanted to have her on as a guest.

Kristin Lyerly

I tempted her with the thought of a glass of wine and a fire and a longer conversation later

Pat Kreitlow

on.

Kristin Lyerly

So yeah, she shares her whole story.

I mean, she's had a really fascinating journey.

And now the work that she's doing in Milwaukee with a competing radio station is really visionary for a woman of her age in this political environment.

So we talk about everything, including the latest New York Times op-ed about whether women ruined the workplace.

That got a little.

So great conversation, so much fun, so grateful to her.

Pat Kreitlow

Okay, I don't want you to give the show away, of course, but I feel like I've got to hear a little bit more, but what was the setup to this?

Kristin Lyerly

Oh, so the New York Times published an opinion piece called, Did Women Ruin the Workplace?

And it got so much blowback that they actually ended up changing the title to say, Did Liberal Feminism Ruin

Kathryn Lake

the Workplace?

Kristin Lyerly

And can conservative feminism save it?

And it needless to say, we don't think so.

And we had some thoughts.

Pat Kreitlow

I have thoughts on the phrase conservative

Kristin Lyerly

feminism.

Kathryn Lake

That is

Kristin Lyerly

also discussed.

Ultimately, we feel like this is kind of some click-baity stuff that The New

Pat Kreitlow

York

Kristin Lyerly

Times is doing recently.

And it's destructive and it's sad.

But that's where we're at with media.

Everybody's just trying to get a little piece of your attention.

Pat Kreitlow

Yeah, they are.

But the thing about Kristen Brie and

Kristen Lyrely, neither was trained in journalism or media.

And but yet I could tell right away that Kristen Brie like she paid enough attention to the news and had a sense of curiosity.

She's a first class networker getting to meet people.

And it was clear she was without the journalism training, she was still going to excel at it.

Then there's people like Selena and me who

took all these journalism courses to get to where we are.

And you want to be jealous, but you can't be because you just have to admire folks like that.

But I mean, I wouldn't take anything away, Selena, from the training that we had.

It's a couple of different things covering your city council versus talking about the big issues of the day.

Oh, gosh, well, and we were taught by the Henry Lepold.

The Henry

Lepold.

The Henry Lepold.

He's pretty well known in the journalism world here in Wisconsin.

And it's like, you go to the city council, you have to have a curious mind because you have to tell everybody, you know, what's going on, what affects them, every city council.

I have been to so many

Pat Kreitlow

meetings.

So many county board meetings and and town boards and my very first beat that he gave me, I still wanted one of the coveted ones like Eau Claire City Council, Eau Claire School Board.

And

It was the Eau Claire County Board Committee on Solid Waste.

And I was, I was crest falling.

He's like, Oh, no, no, Mr. Crichtlow, that is where the money is.

The money is in

trash.

Pat Kreitlow

And I learned that he was absolutely right.

That was, that was like the big debate at the time was what to do with the county landfill.

And you learned all about how it leeches out.

You learned, oh, you learned so much.

But

Kristin Lyerly

that's journalism versus opinion.

You are recording news and facts.

We are talking about things and share.

our ideas.

Pat Kreitlow

Right, but in both cases, the folks who are pretty good at it kind of make it look easier than it really is.

The things that you do and that Kristen Bride do, you know, yeah, anybody can have an opinion, but to do it in a way that connects with people and can be funny at the same time, I mean, that's something we really admire to both of you.

Oh,

Kristin Lyerly

thanks.

Well, maybe when we come back from the break, I can tell you who my guest is going to be next week.

Pat Kreitlow

Well, if you want to hang around, yeah.

How about that for a tease?

That'd be pretty cool.

So much teasing.

So much teasing.

She knows how to tease.

It's like job one in broadcasting.

All right, that and so much more after the news.

I'm Pat Krightlow.

This is the Civic Media Radio Network.

Kathryn Lake

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