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Hey, good morning.
Welcome back.
It is 8.06.
Nice to have you here up north on a Monday morning.
It's November 24th.
Thanksgiving week.
What are you doing for the holidays?
Are you traveling?
If so, how far, or do you have guests?
How far are they coming in?
That's our question of the day.
It's just about the mileage today.
How far are you traveling for Thanksgiving or how far are your guests that are coming in?
We appreciate all the responses that have come in so far in the comment sections of YouTube and Facebook.
Also on the text line, 855-75-CIVIC.
And of course, you can leave us a voice note as well using the Civic Media app.
or call us or text us there.
Let's see what you've got going on for Thanksgiving and some of the distance that you're gonna cover.
On a Monday morning at 8.07, let's bring in our friends, John and Gordy.
You can hear them in Madison on Civics Media's 927 WMDX.
You can hear them roughly 17 hours a day.
I was there Friday.
I was trying to be very quiet, not to trip over them on their cots, but there they are.
And joining us from the studio there once again.
Guys, good morning.
How are you?
We're
here.
You guys keep insisting that's what it is, and Catherine and the others are telling you that's what that's for, but whatever keeps you comfortable, I guess.
And I clearly must have tripped over a cord or something when I was there, because there's no camera.
If people watch it on social media, you go, where are those handsome faces?
Technical difficulties, as they say.
Right.
Yeah.
You just have to trust you're there.
Or this is something about the aforementioned shower and you're just not allowed to be sure it was on the air.
I don't, I don't know.
Madison's a weird thing to do that
all the
died.
Okay, well, I don't know
So that's all right.
That's okay.
Well, let's pick up with what we are asking here today.
And that's Thanksgiving travels or either one of you traveling or having guests from afar.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, this same same here.
This is the the year that Sherry picks up a shift at the hospital.
And thankfully for me, my local watering hole here will be broadcast will be open on Thanksgiving because the packers are playing.
So while other people are having turkey drumsticks, I'll be having chicken wings, you know, as, as the pilgrims would have wanted,
know what?
That's, that is what I always say is, you know, when we talk about, oh, your, your ancestors, you know, look, your, your great, great grandmother who was churning butter, if she could have had a microwave, she would have said, hell yeah, I'll take that.
of course, they weren't like that because they wanted to be, that's why I didn't understand when.
folks want to go way back and live like a simpler life or whatever, your relatives would have killed for a life like this, you know?
Absolutely.
lot more of that, you know, botulism and things
food safety issues that
understand now.
Diseases weren't well.
well.
I make a lot of fun of turkey because it's, I mean, to me, it's just not, not nearly as good as, you know, chicken and other meats and things.
But
could also be because two different times I've been so spoiled by the turkey at Thanksgiving that everything else pales in comparison.
One was the one time that I had a cookie, a turkey that was cooked in the deep fryer.
I mean, that was the juiciest, tenderest thing I've really.
Oh yeah.
But it was a place I knew I was only visiting one time they've since moved out of state.
And then the other
most somebody who made it on the grill.
But again, this took hours and hours and hours of constant, you know, using your little injector, they just syringe
juice, again, to put juices into it because it is so, it is so tough pun intended otherwise to have a good moist turkey.
And I'm hearing all these people right now go, no, what's wrong with my turkey?
My turkey is just fine.
it's, you know, it's okay.
If you're making chicken on the grill, with the skin on, what you do is you take the skins off eventually, just before you finish cooking them, you put a little barbecue sauce on the skin, not on the skin, but on the chicken on the meat.
And you take that skin and you grill it some more until it's crispy.
And I'm telling you, it is a taste treat.
It tastes like bacon and it is so good.
Yeah, you really have to try it.
It's a great idea.
So if you get the, you know, chicken quarters, take the skin off and grill it until it's crispy and you will love every second of it.
It's a taste treat.
This must be something you've done regularly and have perfected.
Gordy, do you have a particular specialty for Thanksgiving?
Yeah, we have a pellet grill and the I thought they were just a trend and I wasn't gonna buy one but everybody started getting them and then and then you could buy the pellets Which I thought would you know grow out of style.
They wouldn't have the pellets anymore and yeah But that's not true.
It's everybody loves those pellet grills because they have such a great smoky flavor
Okay, okay, we're talking to John and Gordy.
You can hear him six to eight weekdays on 927 WMDX in Madison or on the civic media app.
So neither one of you are traveling this particular Thanksgiving.
Have there been Thanksgiving's where you've you've had to make the big trek when like everybody is at the airport at the same time or if you never had to endure the Thanksgiving, never peak of travel.
I've
really not that
We are much closer than I thought we would be.
And it's for one reason only.
One app and one person on the app.
The app is Snapchat.
and the person is my mom who just turned 80 years old.
years back when it was explained to her, not firmly, but you know, gently like, if you want to see what's happening with your grandkids and now your great grandkids, you know, you can send, so she'll all the time send photos of, you know, the flowers that are blooming or, you know, whatever.
craft project she's working on.
And in return, she gets to be connected with with her kids or grandkids.
Now
great grandkids.
And it's all because, you know, she was willing to be that lynchpin that I think we're all far more, we're far closer to our nieces and nephews and things than we otherwise would be.
So I feel very fortunate that,
know, that that happened.
Because otherwise, yeah, I'd be saying things like, Oh, gosh, I have nieces and nephews, I don't know if I've even ever met them.
And I'm glad that we don't have that particular instance.
So, Gordy, it's nothing that you said, then.
It's just distance.
No, no, it's nothing.
something.
Well,
about that.
Think
one.
Let's see, Alicia says, my grandma's turkey was so dry, we would cover it in cranberry sauce.
wow.
Yeah, that's where, well, and I would imagine you do it subtly when it's on the plate there, you know, so that they can't see.
I don't know if you want to make it an obvious thing.
But you know, people are doing all kinds of things now with with their Thanksgiving meals.
You see the ones now where they like take all the Thanksgiving ingredients, the stuffing, the turkey, the cranberries and like mash it all together and put it in like a waffle iron the next day or they just look for other ways to serve it.
You know, Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is getting weird now with people.
I know that I think about it.
I should actually try that now, not this year, because like I said, we're just flying solo this year, but I have two waffle irons because that was always the hit when our kids had sleepovers.
It was always, dad, will you make your waffles?
Make your waffles?
I ended up getting two waffle irons to, you know, to keep the crowd happy.
And now they just kind of sit, you know, now that I'm an empty nester, we don't, we don't make waffles.
for ourselves.
But now I've kind of intrigued myself with this whole, what else can you put in a waffle iron thing?
That's
I mean, you know, they have the potatoes and you mixed a lot of stuff up with the potatoes, you know, the shredded potatoes by package of those and then you mix your egg in it.
And you make all these interesting things you put in a tiny little waffle machine, not a big one, just a tiny one for a sandwich.
This guy really is, he does got kind of a chef over here, Gordy.
Why isn't he doing like a cooking segment on the show with you guys?
Well I could.
We'll have to work on that.
How nice did that look watching the Packers just be absolutely dominant on the Vikings?
That was great.
it wasn't even close.
we
that.
Between that and the Badgers beating up on Brett Bielema in Illinois.
That made people feel so good they rushed the field again down there.
No, no, they have they have not eight five five seven five civic eight five five seven five two four eight four two.
How far are you traveling for Thanksgiving and how far our guests traveling to get to your place if it if it works that way.
Is it for you guys then like a full on four day weekend?
Or is this like going to be a Black Friday thing?
Are you going to be Christmas prepping putting up decorations or is it just find a couch for a few days?
I think
Well, that I mean, well, that way she gets them exactly how she wants.
You know, and that's, and that's
you wanted it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'll, I'll, I'll take the heat for that
fine.
And we should say one more thing behind the scenes is because, you know, Thursday and Friday are, you know, depending on the show, some of them are best of shows, some of them are fresh, but prerecorded.
So we talk about holidays.
But trust me, all the people you're seeing on your social media screen right now, Pat and Parker and John and Gordy.
have been working.
There is no vacation in radio.
You have to do double the work to prep for a four day weekend.
We're gonna need that time just to recover from all the pre-taping and producing that we're doing here.
That's the way it works.
Let it not be said that John and Gordy are not working there.
They're took us off because they
are yeah, you can hear them six to eight a.m With more food tips now that I've encouraged that at ninety two seven WM DX in Madison guys great to catch up happy Thanksgiving All right,
back.
care.
All right And again, we're looking for your responses on your Thanksgiving eight five five seven five civic How far are you going?
How far is company coming?
We'd love to hear from you on a Monday morning November 24th.
I'm Pac right low.
This is the civic media radio
network.
Oh, hey, this is where I let Parker Olsen, esteemed producer of this program, know that he's responsible for an earworm this weekend.
Oh, boy.
What did I do?
It's
just popped.
I really like it.
But of course, I've never heard the full cut.
So I just have this, like,
loop running through my head.
So I'm like, I want to hear more of it.
Well, there's a lot of them, Pat.
We've got another three and a half minutes of this.
Yeah.
Well, is it just this?
Is there not like a bridge in some place?
I think there's a little bit more of this.
You get somewhere in there.
Oh, there
Yeah, we see a little lilt in it there.
Okay.
Oh, I feel like we've I don't know if we've cured the earworm or if we've reinforced it.
I think we're reinforced.
Good, good work out of you.
Thank you for the for the good music.
Yeah, anytime.
All right, our question of the day at 855-75 Civic, 855-752-4842.
How far are you traveling for Thanksgiving?
Or how far away are guests coming to visit you?
Well, we'd love to hear from you either on the phone or by text.
Use the Civic Media app to leave us a voice note.
Get in the comment sections of Facebook or YouTube, your choice, and let us know.
Among some of the headlines that we were looking at over the weekend included...
Well, Marjorie Taylor Green, which is not, you know, a person I would normally like to cover, and I'm happy to say I will not have to cover much longer because she's quitting.
She's up and quitting Congress.
But one of her fellow members of Congress had a great reaction to the news that she is quitting.
And again, if you missed it late last week, the Georgia Congresswoman is not not
just not running for reelection in 2026.
She's leaving and cites the hostile environment ever since she broke with Donald Trump, you know, and of course she was one of Trump's biggest boosters early on embracing and then running with the extreme flag in so many ways.
But because she chose to stand up for, you know, victims of sex crimes, she's now being essentially roasted and ousted from the MAGA caucus.
So she's leaving.
which, again, is a little odd because you could just, you know, run out the rest of your term.
Some folks have noted the coincidental timing that her resignation date comes a day or two after her five-year anniversary in Congress.
And at five years in Congress, you get a lifetime pension.
Now, it's not big in her case because it's only five years worth of service, but it is guaranteed income, starting at age 62 or whatever it is for the rest of your life.
And when that was told,
to Progressive Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas.
She had only heard about it for the first time.
When Jake Tapper asked her about it live on TV on CNN's State of the Union, and she said something along the lines of, honestly, you've got to be kidding me is what she said.
You're on the opposite side of the president for one week and you can't take the heat.
Imagine what it is to be in my shoes, to not only be on the opposite side of him, but to have people like her who are constantly fanning the flames of hate.
The surprise, of course, is hitting Democrats as well as Republicans.
And Jasmine Crockett said, you know, about the threats that Marjorie Taylor-Green says she's getting now.
Jasmine Crockett said, quote, imagine what those threats look like when you are literally someone like me.
This really speaks to the fact that Marjorie, who has been an instigator of a lot of this hate that we see as it relates to the MAGA movement, it's just interesting that I don't know if she really fully understood how bad it was.
She was making it for other people.
And it is true that this is what bullies like to do.
And then as soon as you punch back at a bully, oh my goodness, they can't cry victim fast enough.
And that's what we continue to see.
But you know, Marjorie will be OK.
because again, by leaving right at her five year anniversary, this is literally the least she could do as a member of Congress.
The least she could do would be to serve five years and in the middle of the term, and now go make more money someplace else.
You'll get the pension, sure, but now you can do stuff on right wing TV or whatever it is that she, maybe she'll run for office.
Maybe that too will not be successful, but will enable herself to, you know, enrich herself in other ways as well.
So happy trails, I guess, Marjorie Taylor Greene, but you would have had a bit more respect or would have gained a bit more respect for standing up to President Trump if you were willing to continue doing it and not do what a very long line of Republicans in Congress did is they stood up to Donald Trump.
And then they left.
They left Congress.
They resigned or they didn't run for reelection and got replaced with other fellow mega Republicans.
And there is no opposition within the party.
Never one that asserts itself with any regularity.
Now there's a little bit more of it, not just because of the Jeffrey Epstein matter, but because of recent developments about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
President Trump is putting out there what he claims is a peace plan from the administration, although it reads basically like everything Russia wants and everything Ukraine doesn't want to give up.
And when Trump's Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said on a phone call with members of Congress that much of the plan was originally written by the Russian side, you can imagine the consternation.
And there was quick backtracking saying, no, no, no, no, no, this is just, these are Trump administration's, you know, authorship, but, you know, they're here for negotiation.
Well, Congressional Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska posted on Saturday that some people better get fired on Monday for the gross buffoonery we just witnessed over the last four days.
This hurt our country and it undermined our alliances and it encouraged our adversaries.
Whether Trump likes it or not,
His coziness with Vladimir Putin has been, has been given a pass by a lot of Republicans, but not all of them.
And there are still plenty of people that understand the sovereignty of Ukraine and the unity of Europe who don't believe that we should just be caving and giving Putin whatever he wants.
Now again, whether a guy like Don Bacon now turns around and decides not to run for reelection, you know, remains to be seen, but between him, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others,
There are finally some cracks in the MAGA movement as people apparently snap out of it.
I guess, we can only hope.
Author Laura Bird and some Thanksgiving book recommendations coming up next, I'm Pat Critello.
You're Up North.
you don't need me to tell you that we are approaching the holiday season and it's all about the gratitude, the giving, the giving back, the reflection and it's not just about your life.
There's ways that we can help that in the material that's on your reading table and for that we have one of our regular visits with our friend and author Laura Ann Bird.
Laura, nice to see you.
Thank you for being here today.
Oh, let me get your mic potted
up there.
Let's try that again.
Happy Thanksgiving week.
Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.
My goodness, I can't believe we're coming up on that time already.
But like I said, you know.
There's a lot we talk about throughout the course of the year.
There's drama and there's conflict and everything else.
And it's nice just to take a little time and focus more on the things we're thankful for in life.
Absolutely.
I love Thanksgiving for that reason.
I think it's a nice time to examine what we're really grateful for.
And I know that everyone has different things that they appreciate, of course.
But I wanted to come up with a fun and creative list to get us thinking outside the box about what brings joy,
and meaning to our lives.
And of course, I have a book recommendation for each because that's why you invite me here.
That's right.
And you do such a great job of it.
Thanks.
And again, so Laura's going to go through quite a few books.
We'll put the titles and authors in our show notes over at civicmedia.us as well.
So let's get into eight different things.
We can be thankful for this holiday season.
You want to start with friendship?
Yes.
Well...
We're talking best friendship.
Best friends.
We're talking best friends here.
And so I hope everybody has a best friend out there that they can be grateful for.
The first book I have is called Maggie or A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar by Katie Yee.
It's her debut novel.
I know it's a very long and whimsical title, which is kind of funny because the book is neither of those things.
But our unnamed narrator here is a young woman with two little kids and she's just been told by her husband that he's leaving her for a woman named Maggie.
At the same time, our unnamed narrator finds out that she has
breast cancer.
And she has to begin the hard, hard work of getting healthy and repairing her imploded life.
So I know it sounds heavy, but I promise that there is immense beauty, humor and grace in this novel.
And the reason I say that is because the author gives us Darlene, who is the best friend of our unnamed narrator.
And Darlene by far is my favorite character of the book.
She's funny and smart.
And she saves the day again and again, accompanying the narrator to all of her doctor's appointments, making sure she's eating and drinking enough water and getting outside.
And she alone gets her through this really dark time simply by being present.
So I'd like to think that we all have a
friend like Darlene in our lives, you know, that one person who will literally do anything for you.
Yeah, I mean look and look a lot of that is not somebody doesn't set out trying to be the hero of somebody else's life.
They just think they're doing the right thing for that person.
Maybe sometimes underestimating how heroic they're actually being.
Absolutely, you nailed
it.
All right.
Some to what else are we thankful for?
I'm
thankful for resilience and the book I have here is called A Marriage at Sea, a true story of love, obsession and shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst.
So this is the true story of Marilyn and Maurice
a couple from the UK.
They got married back in 1963, despite being a really odd pair.
Marilyn was ambitious and charismatic, and Maurice was sort of obsessive and awkward.
But they both loved the idea of escaping.
So they decided to quit their jobs, sell their house, build a boat, and sail away together, which is what they did in 1972.
For nearly a year, things went swimmingly.
pun intended, on their voyage through the Atlantic and then the Pacific until a whale literally knocked a hole in their boat and it sank.
They climbed onto this tiny rubber raft starving and exhausted and they began their fight to survive in the wild ocean with
very little hope of rescue.
So they were alone together for weeks and then months.
I don't want to tell you how long because I don't want to give away any spoilers.
But they had to figure out how to stay alive and also get along in the face of such unthinkable stress.
So this book is so great.
It's both an adventure and a rather gutting love story.
But I think at its core, it's a testament to our human resilience when everything seems utterly doomed.
So again a marriage at sea by Sophie Elmhurst for those who are thankful for resilience.
Yeah, right.
What's next?
I'm thankful for advances in health care And so the book I have today is everything is tuberculosis the history and persistence of our deadliest infection by John
Green.
If you recognize John Green's name, that's because he wrote the wildly successful novel The Fault in Our Stars, which was made into a movie.
But here he has dedicated an entire nonfiction book to tuberculosis, also known, of course, as TB.
It is so good and enlightening.
If you've ever read any Victorian fiction before, Pat, you know there are always characters like wasting away from TB.
They're usually beautiful young women, you know, coughing up blood into their white handkerchiefs.
And that's certainly one portrait of TB.
But according to John Green, there is so much more to know and understand about this disease that has killed 150 million people since the 1950s.
alone.
So he serves on the board of directors for a global nonprofit called Partners in Health.
So he's had this really up close look at how the disease is managed today and also how it unfortunately persists in certain parts of the world.
So this book is barely 200 pages.
It is fascinating and it will have you asking some really big questions about what we as a society value when it comes to public health, vaccines and the cost of drugs.
At the very least, it will have you feeling exceedingly grateful for advances and research in healthcare when it comes to TB and other curable diseases.
Well, good.
We spoke earlier in the program about being thankful for advances in things like clean air.
This is the anniversary of a day when 400 people died in New York City in 1966, just from the smog alone.
And that we should be thankful for advances in clean air, clean water, and of course, and health care as well.
So everything is tuberculosis
by
John Green.
All right.
What else are we thankful for?
We're going to talk about birds.
I'm so thankful for birds.
I mean, who isn't grateful for wildlife.
So the book I
have is Birds of the Great Lakes, how they look and sound, where to find them, and how to protect them by Dexter Patterson.
I just want to tell you that Dexter Patterson is hot right now.
He is the co-founder of Wisconsin's BIPOC birding club, which is dedicated to making birding more accessible and inclusive for people of color.
He has quite a following.
So this is his book.
It is a fun and accessible guide that will help you identify more than 100 commonly seen birds in our Great Lakes region.
He also weaves in best practices and research around habitat sustainability and conservation so that we can all work together to make sure our birds will be around for years to come.
I also want to throw out that this is great for new birders and also experienced birders.
And I know listeners can't see it right now, but it's this tiny, sleek little book, so it fits right in your pocket for all your outdoor adventures.
or a stocking or a little gift bag.
It's
that perfect little stocking stuff for size.
And actually I'm always on the outlook for some new thing to read to help me identify the birds that fly around Lake Wissota.
So that's a great example.
Dexter Patterson.
What else are we thankful for?
I'm thankful for the dictionary.
And this book is by Stefan Fatsis and it's called Unabridged.
The thrill of and threat to the modern dictionary.
This book is so smart and
and it's perfect for anyone who appreciates words in general, and also how new words are brought in to mainstream consciousness, words like...
Selfie and doomscrolling.
So first, the author tells the little-known history of how brothers George and Charles Merriam acquired Noah Webster's original American dictionary, and they reshaped the business of language forever.
So the author embedded as a lexicographer in training at Merriam Webster, that of course means a person who compiles dictionaries,
And from that experience, he tells us everything he learned, things like how to write a good definition, and also how words are weaponized.
Words, of course, like woke and DEI.
And he also looks at how AI and Google are a growing threat to our compendium of words.
So this is a great,
fun book.
And by the way, a shout out to the people who actually have to come up with dictionary definitions, because what do we normally do?
rattle off synonyms.
It's like, well, that doesn't necessarily help.
So, you know, those are one of those underappreciated things, the lexicographer.
The
lexicographer.
All right.
Lauren Burt author is with us with some recommendations on books dealing with gratitude.
What else are we grateful for here?
I am grateful for a sense of acceptance and belonging.
And I know not everybody has that.
But this book is called So Many Stars, An Oral History of Trans, Non-Binary, Gender Queer, and Two-Spirit People of Color by Carol D. Robertis.
So the author interviewed 20 trans, non-binary, and queer elders of color.
including artists, activists, and ordinary citizens, to find out how they live authentically and create safe and nurturing spaces for themselves and for their communities.
So this book comes from hundreds of hours of these interviews, and it offers really profound snapshots of
raising kids, coming out, making art, and even weathering the AIDS crisis.
So the stories in this book feel really important and urgent to me, and I think that they're ultimately a celebration of finding belonging and acceptance against the odds.
Very nice,
okay.
Here's one of my, I wasn't expecting this one to be on your list of things you're thankful for, Laura.
Carbon.
Carbon.
The book is called Carbon, The Book of Life by Paul Hawken.
Okay, so work with me here.
So as I've learned, carbon is the only element that animates the entirety of our living world.
So it makes up just a tiny fraction of the Earth's composition, but our planet would be literally lifeless without it.
At the same time, of course, carbon is maligned as the driver of climate change.
But Paul Hawkins examines carbon in this really creative, refreshing way.
Specifically, he looks at the flow of life through the lens of carbon and how it shapes plants, animals, insects, fungi, food, and farms.
And he does it all in just 200 pages.
I think he is a marvelous writer and he weaves in
not just poetic language, but also like this intellectual rigor.
And I love it when anyone can write about science in a way that's engaging and digestible for non-science people such as myself.
Nice.
All right.
I feel like my Christmas wish list is growing here.
Last but not least.
I got one more.
There
you go.
Well, we're thankful for democracy.
Democracy.
And we don't want to see it vanish, right?
So I think everyone needs to read this book.
How Books Can Save Democracy by Michael Fisher.
So it's teeny tiny, it's barely 80 pages, but it's written by a humanities professor.
So he has like major street cred here.
So this book is a great way to understand the importance of literature and how it bolsters our democracy.
So Michael Fisher, the author, believes that in a world consumed by polarization and hatred, it's easy for reading to fall to the wayside, which is actually one of the reasons I love being on the show, Pat, is you've given me this wonderful platform to talk about books and reading and to get people excited about cracking open new titles.
So he believes that by reading, writing about, and discussing literature with diverse perspectives, we can embrace our differences rather than fear them.
And of course, this leads to the empathy and collaborative spirit needed to sustain a democratic society.
I do think it's kind of disappointing he doesn't call out certain leaders by name, but he does reference a lot of authors throughout history and how they've helped diagnose societal and democratic challenges.
Authors like Charles Dickens, Zady Smith, Alexis de Tocqueville and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
So you can plow through this tiny little book in one sitting and it will give you so much to think about when you are finished
with it.
Well, and I'm really thankful for this because my daughters are always asking, you know, for Christmas gift ideas.
And now I have several.
All right, Laura and Bird.
And lest you think we're going to wait too long, Laura is going to be back with us real soon to talk about a book that helped us get through the winter blues for that season as well.
Happy Thanksgiving, Laura.
Thank you so much.
Thanks.
All right.
We'll wrap things up here.
Final news and notes from Lake Wissota right after this on 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.
Shane McNair is standing by here just going through the comments on Facebook and YouTube and on the text line here See if I missed any from Amelia and Dean go pack go and bye-bye MTG meaning Marjorie Taylor Greene Tony asks if Doge is dead it does goat go to Doge of course the Elon Musk initiative shall we say
that was a complete nutter failure.
And now quietly has died eight months early.
Goat is the similar committee at the state level, which will have probably a similar.
fate, I would guess, because you know what, people actually like when their government is functional and spends their tax dollars efficiently and doesn't just, you know, hand them over to the very wealthy.
Let's see, and then there's Ardeth here.
I'm thankful for Civic Media Programs and for Laura Bird.
Well, thank you, Ardeth.
Appreciate that so much.
All right, Jane McNair is here as well.
Matt Nair on air with Greg Bach and Jane.
Unless there's some days off or something missed, this is the first of our final three little visits here before you do that.
What do they call it?
Riding off into the sunset.
I choose to see that as a sun setting over the ocean on a beach someplace, but wherever your son is setting and you're cracking open one, that's fine by me,
you know?
Well, thank you.
Yes, three weeks to go until my final day on the air after 44 and three quarters years.
44 and three quarters.
Round it up.
Oh, just round up.
Yeah, I was going to try and hang on for 45 and it's like, yeah, whatever, it's close enough.
No,
no, no, that's just fine.
You know, having Laura Bird on last segment remind
me when people have said, oh, you know, whenever my retirement comes, it's like, well, you can't really give up on news and politics.
I'm like, watch me.
so many, so many of these books behind me have not been fully read or need to be reread.
And there are so many books I want to crack into.
And, you know, again, everybody's retirement is different.
Mine's going to involve so many books.
Well, and I haven't I'm curious if you have found this because in the last couple of years and I love to read and I've always been a very big reader, but it's almost it's difficult to read fictional lighthearted things with everything that's going on.
And that's where I would normally go to escape things is into a wonderful novel.
And even that hasn't.
provided much comfort right now because I just can't get into it and separate myself from what's happening in the world.
So yes, I am looking forward to reading many, many, many books, having lots of lunches, and just kind of goofing around, I think.
I'm gonna goof around.
Yeah, and well deserved.
But we will squeeze three weeks worth of great shows out of you in the meantime.
So what do you and Greg have planning for this short and to work week?
I'm very excited about this.
We're going to talk to Wisconsin's poet laureate Brenda Cardenas is going to be joining us at 9 30.
This is a very.
Honorable position being a poet laureate and I have so much admiration for people who work with words in this way So we're gonna talk to her after the 930 news in hour number two We're starting off with Zeke Fox who is a writer and he is very well-informed on crypto This is something we wanted to talk about for a long time.
What is it?
How does it work?
How snaky is it?
Oh, I'm sorry.
That's just me and
And the Trump administration went from, this is all bad to, holy crap, we can make a whole bunch of money.
We love crypto.
So we're going to be talking to Zeke Fox in hour number two for Audio Sorbet.
Today, Jamie Cliff, the reggae star has passed away at the age of 81.
So for today's Audio Sorbet, we're going to talk about songs that get you out of a funk.
Oh, and he does.
Yeah, absolutely.
I can see clearly now.
Jimmy Cliff had so many great
sitting here in limbo.
So just
so many.
Oh,
so many inspirational songs.
So we're going to talk about songs that give you hope, songs that give you feel better.
And then we'll wrap up the show with this shouldn't be a thing today saved by the Bell Edition.
Oh, and if you know the origination of that phrase, it has to do with burials.
No, I did not know this.
Saved by the bell.
Well, consider me teased, my goodness.
Oh, it's a doozy today for this shouldn't be a thing.
That's at the very end of the show.
Wow, that is great.
Oh my God, is she moving?
Yeah.
Okay, got it.
Yeah, the crypto thing.
really intrigues me and that's how we know, how we'll know if your retirement lasts like six months and you're back on the radio.
Well, the report fully had too much crypto in it.
Yeah, I have not invested in crypto.
I did, I did talk to a guy who is in the market a number of months ago.
And we were talking about this and I said, I, you know, maybe I'm just ignorant, but to me, this seems immoral crypto seems to be sketchy.
And he said, yes, but there's a market for it.
Well, he said, he said, morality aside, there's a market for it.
He actually said that.
And I'm like, that doesn't make me feel better.
No, I mean, look, I.
I'm not the world's most biblical person, but every so often something comes up that reminds me of, you know, the, you know, turning over the tables of the money changers in the temple, that somebody has to come forward and go, just because there's a market for it doesn't mean you have to try to squeeze money out of other people for it.
Yes,
exactly.
Yeah,
exactly.
But morality aside, he said.
Morality aside.
Okay.
And that's how you sleep at night,
apparently.
Yeah.
Works for you.
Well, that reminds me when I was on Kristen Lyrely interviewed me for a show this coming weekend and she said, you know, things that I enjoyed about my political life and things that I regret.
And I said, the thing that I enjoy most is that I can sleep at night and I know some of you.
I know plenty of other people in politics.
I'm like, I don't know how you sleep at night.
You know,
said or doing what they do.
Well, I'm sure they sleep comfortably, you know, but I wouldn't.
And that's the important thing.
is you have to be able to live with yourself after
all this is done.
Yes, absolutely.
Jane,
Matt and Air, Matt and Air on Air along with Greg Bach coming up right after the nine o'clock news across the Civic Media Radio Network.
Happy Thanksgiving, Jane.
Happy
Thanksgiving.
You're going to be joining us.
We're going to be live on Thanksgiving.
So we're going to rope you in, Pat Crichtler.
I love it.
I'll be there.
I'll talk to you then.
Sounds good.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you, Jane.
All right, Parker.
Thank you so much and thanks to all of you for being here today.
We'll do it again tomorrow and Wednesday, Thursday.
We'll do some Thanksgiving leftovers and then some fresh talk on Friday.
My thanks to Jane Mattener, Laura Bird, John and Gordy, Jimmy Cusca, Abigail Sweat, Safaira, Wisconsin, Selena Heller, Dr. Kristen Lyrely and you for being here today.
I'm Pat Crightlow from UpNorth News, part of Courier Newsroom, a pro-democracy news network.
Have a great day.
See you tomorrow morning.
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