Coffee Buckets (Hour 2)

Hey, hey.

Welcome to Nightlight, everybody, in our new intro.

This is Nightlight 2.0 Rebooted, whatever you want to call it.

I'm very, very excited to introduce my new co-host, Mr. Greg Bock.

Hey, buddy.

Good evening, everyone.

Hello, Pete.

It's good to be here.

It's my radio voice.

I can't stay long, so I just

want to say.

Oh.

Greg I'm thrilled to be working with you.

I've been a fan of yours as you know for the last couple years I've actually known you for three years, but and you've been a great guest on nightlight, which has been fun getting

thank you very much I felt like I was auditioning for all those times like every time they saw me like he made it through the next phase He made through the next one.

He's he's the guy Same here,

buddy.

We both have stand-up comedy in our background, which

is

fine.

That's kind of a

weird, serendipitous thing that we ended up like this.

But that can only work in our favor, I think.

Yeah, absolutely.

Oh, it'll be fun banter.

At least it will be funny to us.

Correct.

And that's what we're really aiming for here.

Greg, as most of you know, hosted while he was on the air with Jane Mattenair, the awesome Jane Mattenair, Mattenair on air, and then hosted Civic Media Mornings.

And I'm thrilled.

I don't know what this is like for you, Greg.

This is a little later in the day.

Did you have to drink coffee as the day went on?

Did you sleep in a little bit?

What's the story there?

Well, I'm on my second, like, I think, leader of coffee.

Right now.

Right now.

But I usually, for years, doing these shows, you know, whether it was the Up North News or Matt and Aaron Ayer, I was usually getting up very early and driving

to the old studio or coming in early to radio park where I'm at right now and we're seen to prep.

So I always had an alarm going and, and this time last night, I'm like, I don't have to have an alarm.

I can sleep in.

Well, I slept in until 6 45.

So that's awesome.

That feels great.

I don't know if it's because I

I don't know if that makes me old or just my brain is wired now to always be up when the sun comes up like I'm a farmer or something but yeah it's it's a new it's a new path it's a new journey and I'm happy to be here for it I'm happy to be with you because I

We're going to have a great time.

And I'm happy that Dominic in Madison is our producer.

We're going to have a blast with this.

Very exciting.

Yeah.

Welcome, Dom Lee, as well.

Yeah, this is a new partnership here.

It's going to be great.

There will still be a lot of the old elements of Nightlight.

We're going to do the popcorn pick of the week, the question of the night.

We're going to talk entertainment, primarily in hour number two.

And we'll cover current events in hour number one.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be working with you, Greg.

And I haven't had a co-host before, so you just reach right through that screen and give me a poke in the chops if I'm...

Yeah, I can too much.

Feel free.

All right, I'll give you a poke in the chops.

Man, man, that guy right

there, that guy's chib.

Dom, I know it's early.

How do you think it's going so far?

It's work in progress, all right?

Work in progress, OK?

But I'm excited to work with you guys, too.

You know, I got two comedians that I'm proud of.

This is amazing.

This is a dream come true.

All right, tamp it down, kid.

All right.

You're not headlining this weekend.

You're going to get a guest set.

That's fine.

Yeah,

go ahead Greg.

I was gonna say, with the new show, I think there have been questions about what we'll be doing and what we'll be talking about.

And I feel like, as you said, there'll be things we will have from 1.0, but we'll be talking some news, we'll be talking some topics that are going on throughout the country and having a good time, great guests, and really just keeping that vibe of fun on this program.

And given a good time, I'm really looking forward to this.

And really, people have been asking, what are you going to do?

I'm like, we're going to find out.

Exactly.

That's how I like to look at it.

There's no story off limits, no person of, everyone's a person of interest.

We're going

to cover a lot

of stuff.

And you just mentioned some national stuff too, but we'll bring it back here to Wisconsin

as

well.

always lots to talk about when you have those three current events, culture, Wisconsin, and we'll bring that same kind of fun vibe to it.

So I'm very excited and very, very just thrilled to be on the air with you and with Dom.

So, and a shout out to Tucker, who has helped take

care of

us for this night and told us if we don't get it right, he cut off after he made the next

one.

Exactly.

I kept him out of the stream.

I was like, I don't need to hear this.

Right.

What's with the negative energy?

And honestly, a big shout out to the entire, like, you know, there's our great person, Amanda Nimmer.

We also have Jamie.

Like, there's a great team behind this show.

A lot of people coming together to launch it right, to make it look good, and to have something...

really wonderful to present on day one and we just go from here and have a blast and people can be part of that conversation.

They can always get in touch with us and call 855-752-4842-855-757.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

We are on Facebook, YouTube and the platform that I still call Twitter.

I don't know about the rest of you, but yeah, so yeah, be a part of the conversation because, you know, we're going to have fun, but you being here too is what makes it even better.

Absolutely be part of the show and we've got a great one tonight aside from a couple dance numbers.

I've prepared I was gonna surprise you Greg We've got a great guest.

No Lieberman is gonna join us at 535 tonight.

He is running for the Madison Common Council that will be exciting and then an hour number two My pal soon to be our pal Rob Thomas will be here.

He's a Madison based film critic and writes He's the city cast at Madison newsletter editor and he writes about have you ever read that publication Greg city cast Madison?

Yeah, I've read it.

Yes, I have.

Yeah, it's funny.

It's very fun.

Really fun, informative and fun, which I think, you know, we'll kind of do that too.

Yeah, I like, you know, I understand newspapers, what they have to do to present their information, but I like these independent sites where they can be fun and funny while informing you.

And I think that's one of the main goals for me with this show is that we will be having fun, we will be informative, we'll be learning, but it will always be wrapped around having a good time.

Totally agree very well said and you know so we got two great guests We've got a question of the night coming up.

We'll introduce we've got a new new team here.

What do you say?

We get to some topics Greg.

Let's get to the news So we're gonna

So to give you an idea of what's going to be happening, we're going to be doing this, we're going to be talking about three stories in the first like half an hour hour of the show.

We're like I said, first night, working things out, having fun, but we're going to, we picked our top three stories.

And Pete, you brought a story that, you know, very, very topical.

Everyone knows about the Olympics.

Yeah.

And, and, you know,

It was interesting.

The last couple weeks, every night I put the spotlight on a Wisconsin athlete and Wisconsin was very well represented at the Olympics and came home with some serious hardware.

Specifically, Jordan Stoles, who from Kiwasgum, two golds, and a silver, which I think is fantastic.

The UW women's hockey team was well represented.

And I will admit, I did not watch as much of the Olympics as I would have liked to.

Yeah.

There's

a part of me that is not because it's just like so much.

I feel like you have to keep up with it because it's happening, especially when it's overseas.

They're like, I'm not getting up at three o'clock in the morning to watch Luge, but I also like want to be up to speed for these kinds of conversations.

So I watch, I watch a little, you know, I watch here and there.

I was very excited about the US hockey teams, both hockey teams and.

It's just, it's a lot of fun energy.

One of the things I really enjoy is these folks are world class athletes and they want to win these medals.

But at the end of the day, they are still hugging each other from different countries.

They are excited for each other.

They're jumping and yelling.

They're crying together.

And I love that camaraderie in the, in the middle of what is probably the most one of the most competitive stages.

on the planet.

That's something I love to watch because they're all in it together and they're just having as much fun as possible while trying to represent their country.

It's great and it was, I know there was some controversy on the opening night ceremonies

with the

vice president being there and the athletes and some people, but the second, the sports started.

Yeah.

That was all forgotten.

Like I kind of forgot that even happened.

And then you could focus on, you know, and I wanted to mention this too about Jordan Stoles.

He set a record too.

beat a new Olympic record in the thousand meter, and he took almost a full second off of the previous record.

That's cool, and then you've got, her name was Harvey.

Where is this?

On the UW Badgers, she's from the, one of the Badgers, and she was named, and I can't find it right now.

Greg, this is one of those opening nights.

Dom, you got that?

It's Caroline

Harvey, yes.

There it is.

Caroline Harvey.

She was named the...

MVP, I believe, right?

If I remember correctly, the first Badger player to be named MVP in the Olympics.

Yeah.

Very cool stuff.

So yeah, it was constant, very well represented.

Very much loved that.

There was a lot, there was controversy this year.

We had like, you know, people speaking their mind, American athletes speaking their mind about how they felt about the climate.

And then of course,

people saying, send them home.

They're terrible.

They're very awful.

Take their metals away.

It's like, all right.

They can also just talk if they'd like, but then this whole thing with the hockey game, uh, this past weekend with the men's hockey game, the FBI director, Cash Patel hops on a plane on our dime and goes and watch some hockey in Italy.

And, uh, people getting way too excited about a sport.

They don't care about four, three years and 52 weeks out of the, you know, it's like, they're like, we're the best at hockey.

It's like,

It's fine, but it's not a reason.

On Twitter, they're so excited about winning hockey, whereas most of these people don't care about hockey.

But at this moment, America be Canada, and that's all they care about.

Right.

And I will be the first to admit, I am that person.

The

Olympics happens every four years.

I don't watch...

I don't watch a regional Luge or, you know, the Pan Am Luge.

I don't know anything about it, but when it's the Olympics, when it's the granddaddy of them all, it's like professional sports.

I'll watch a game seven in any sport,

but I'm

not watching an entire seven game baseball.

It's that kind of thing.

So I do get excited about it.

And having said that, I watched very little Olympics this year.

Well, we have another two years to prepare for the summer Olympics in 2028 and another four years for the winter.

So

This show will go on forever, so we'll just have special coverage every time.

I like that.

I like that.

I think let's now move it on to the next one there, Dom.

Someone discovered reverb.

It's amazing.

All right.

This one I saw pop up Pete.

Tell me more about this one as far as Netflix, Donald Trump, and Susan Rice.

That's a bingo card I never thought would be a thing.

And what grabbed me about this story was, my take on this is, who do you root for?

You've got our president who is silencing comedians thinking everybody should be fired if they do something that goes against him.

And Susan Rice, a former Obama cabinet member, I think she worked for the Trump administration too, was refusing to do stuff because she thinks Trump's popularity has declined.

And she doesn't want to have, if the Democrats win the midterms, she thinks there will be retribution if they do something illegally.

So Trump got mad at that, and then he's saying bad things about Netflix.

And my thing is, who do you root for here?

Because I disagree with what the president's doing with Colbert, Kimmel, and now here with Netflix.

I also don't like Netflix, even though I have Netflix.

I don't want them to buy Warner Brothers.

I don't want them to stop movies from going into the movie theater.

I guess I kind of root for Susan Rice here.

She kind of makes sense with that, but it's a tough one.

I didn't realize that Susan Rice worked for Netflix.

What a weird crot.

Like, you know, it's like I was the end.

Yeah.

Oh, she's a boy.

I was the NSA.

I was, you know, I was in charge.

She was the, she was the UN ambassador.

She was in the NSA.

And then she's like, I'm going to go work at Netflix now.

I'm in the board member.

I don't disagree with you.

I would rather Netflix buy Warner Brothers than Paramount buy Warner Brothers because I feel like there's way more problems with that.

But yeah, don't make me pick the worst guy in the pot of bad guys.

Yeah.

It's

really tough.

I feel the same way, Greg.

And I don't know who I want to buy Warner Brothers.

I don't want anybody to buy Warner

Brothers.

I want

Warner Brothers to be Warner Brothers.

And what you just said is a great point.

She's a board member.

He's

asking for them to fire a board member.

Makes no sense.

We'll see what happens.

We'll see what happens.

Absolutely.

All right, we're coming right back after a very short break.

This is the new and improved Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

We are so glad you're here with us tonight, folks, helping us kick this thing off right.

Dom Lee working the board.

That's a Monday, folks.

We are coming right back.

It's Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

We are back is the new and improved nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach Dom Lee working the board great to have you here tonight folks This is exciting.

This is our first show and I think so far Greg.

I don't want to count my chickens But I feel like you know, we're on to something special here, buddy.

Are you listening WBA?

Are you listening?

There it

is.

I got two words for you local Emmy

I don't know if that even applied to radio, no clue.

I've seen a local Emmy, they're tiny, they're small.

Are they really?

Yeah, they're smaller than the regular Emmy.

I don't even get out of bed for a tiny Emmy.

And I dated a very petite girl named Emmy, so I really mean that.

There it is, wow.

All right, so we'll do our question of the night, and then we'll get to our third big thing.

So right now, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the Nightlight Question of the Night.

All right, I love this one.

This is, yesterday was Rachel Dratch's birthday.

SNL's Debbie Downer,

love, love,

love her.

So tonight's question is in honor of Debbie Downer, what is a topic that will kill a conversation?

You can have fun

with this one folks, go crazy or- Yes.

Play it close to the vest, whatever you want to do.

We've got some great social media responses.

But that is tonight's question of the night.

What is a topic that will kill a conversation?

And you can get in touch with us and let us know your answer at 855-752-4842-855-75CIVIC.

You can also text us on the Civic Media app.

Or if you're watching the radio on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter, text Twitter, whatever you want to call it.

Drop us a stream, comment, and we'll read it on the radio.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Uh, I, I've got some ideas.

We'll talk more about that in the second hour.

But yeah, I definitely have some, some, some conversation killers that I've seen happen at parties and you're just like, Oh, I got to walk away right now because you said that out loud.

Good job.

I, but while we're, we're talking top three stories of the day, we're going on to the final one.

Dom.

Oh wow.

We weren't on the air.

This, this version of the show was not on the air.

I was not on the air last week.

So we didn't really get to talk about this, but this is pretty big news coming out of Madison.

Robin Voss, the assembly speaker after decades in power is announced his retirement.

He has, he has been in basically the, the kind of a taste maker trendsetter.

Guy in charge of Wisconsin Republican politics for a very long time.

Uh, he is a, he is a property owner.

He owns his own cop company.

He's a, he owns a popcorn company, which we refer to him as the popcorn king.

And we have a little moment there, Tom.

Oh, that.

Is this it?

No, it's not it.

That's fine.

That's fine.

Oh man.

All the first show bugs to work out.

But, uh, but yeah, he is going to be stepping down.

There's been a lot of talk about this, Pete, about whether or not he's going to stay for another time, whether he's going to go for reelection.

And he's decided to step down, which asks a lot of questions about where.

you know, where that seat will go, where the power for Madison will go will go to the Democrats, Republicans.

We have a big election coming up this fall.

And the fact that Robin Voss will not be in the forefront is a, I think is a very big deal.

We talking more about this in the coming months.

He said in the story, he says, luckily my doctors say I'm perfectly healthy, but I do need to reduce my stress.

And let me tell you this job is stressful.

I have never seen this man register stress in my life.

I've never seen anything make him

Happy, sad, mad at all.

He never seems to have anything but just a straight, like, face, like, hey, your house is on fire.

That's wonderful.

So I don't know what makes him feel stressed, but what do you think about this, Pete?

Well, you know, it's interesting because he, when he announced this, you always, like, typically people from both sides of the aisle, even if they've said horrible things about each other, say, well, he's given great service and all that.

This this stuck out to me.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Devin Remaker said in a statement that Voss tried his best to make state government dysfunctional.

Now that I thought I like the honesty, but I also feel like like Evers said some nice things about Voss.

Yeah, he's got kind of a not controversial, but a mixed legacy, would you say?

Like obviously he's popular with the Republicans, but he wasn't necessarily he was an anti-trumper in 2016, I believe.

And then

Then

he

wasn't, Pete.

Then

he wasn't.

Then he

wasn't.

And when they tried to end him after all the investigation into the stop-the-steel nonsense, he kind of still said nice things to them about them.

So he does have kind of a complicated legacy, in my opinion, anyway.

I mean, I understand that.

And for me, I've...

struggle to find nice things to say about him professionally.

I have a very long history with him as far as my old work in city government, but I feel like this is a move.

I mean, the policies are unpopular.

I feel like what they're doing in Madison right now, they're not looking at, they have a short work year because the year after the budget, they're almost done for the entire year.

And they're not, I don't believe putting together bills that

reflect the needs and desires of the people.

But also, he has caused a lot of controversy, a lot of division, and I think that's going to be his legacy.

I don't know what people can say, look what Robin Vos did other than not accept Medicaid expansion and say a bunch of things about new moms.

I'm a biased person on this one, and I don't find like the...

the positives like when governor Evers said what he said I'm like that's fine okay you gotta be magnanimous

yeah he's the governor he's setting the tone and all that but yeah it was strange like why my wife is a teacher so uh you know I would say his tenure is speaker not him alone but when I came back Scott Walker had just taken over and teachers you know they broke the union basically so that and later on he played a part in teacher issues so I

I'm with you on that, but I think he always seemed to answer questions and he always was forthright in his views.

It's not like he ever, although the Trump thing I don't understand.

I don't know how you could still back a guy after he tried to end you.

That threw me a little bit.

You

like to see a

politician with a little more of a backbone.

We could probably have that conversation with our guests coming up.

Mr. Noah Lieberman's coming up after the news and he's running for Common Council and I'm sure he has opinions on this matter.

I think you're right.

We're

coming right

back.

This is Nightlight with Peach Waba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Network.

Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

My name is Greg Bach.

The other guy is Pete Schwabba.

We got Dom Lee in Madison producing on the boards.

And if you want to be part of the conversation, you can call 855-752-4842-855-757.

Leave a comment on the live stream.

We are on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

Still ahead after the six o'clock.

I got to get used to that.

I'm not on the evening, the six o'clock news.

We're going to be talking to film critic Rob Thomas about the writings he does for Madison, the movies he is watching.

And I'm going to just kind of sit back and watch Pete and Rob cut it up because they then doing a lot of chatting and I can't wait to get part of the conversation.

But that's going to be after the six o'clock.

Actually, that's going to be at six 20.

And then at six o' six, we'll be talking about the question of the day, which is what is the conversation?

What is the topic that can kill a conversation?

You can call text.

You can send.

a voice message on the app if you don't have the app.

So it's wonderful to be a part of the Civic Media app.

Download it.

It's absolutely free, but that's all coming up in the second hour.

But now we're going to be moving on to our first guest.

Our first guest of the brand new version of Nightlight 2.0.

He is the host of the What's Left podcast as well as a candidate running for Common Council in Madison.

Mr. Noah Lieberman is our guest.

Good afternoon slash evening.

Noah, how are you today?

I'm doing fantastic.

I'm really excited to be here.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Thank you so much for being here tonight.

Now you are running for Common Council in Madison.

Let's kick it off right there.

Tell us about, you know, tell us about yourself as well as why you are running from the podcast I've listened to.

This is not your, this is not your first attempt at running, but you are making another go for it this time.

Tell us about that story.

I am so.

I have always been very interested in politics and especially in our local government.

Local government, I really feel, is how we, as a community, band together, use our collective power and help each other out.

And right now, we are in a moment nationally, but also locally, where we need to be helping each other out as we can.

There's just so many forces fighting against us, trying to drive us apart, where we need to stick together.

I ran for this seat.

for the first time in 2023.

And that was an election that after a recount was literally tied.

My opponent and I had the same number of votes cast for us.

So they wrote our names on slips of paper, put them in a bag and drew his out instead of mine.

That seems like something you did in the 1600s, not something you did in a modern America.

Even a

thumb war would have been a better way to.

Oh, yeah, I I've thought about it as a as a Dungeons and Dragons nerd.

I was ready to roll some dice for it.

But no, this is the way that it is prescribed under Wisconsin law.

But it really like it goes to show that especially here on a local level, every single vote matters.

And when you're talking about these districts and for city council races in Madison or

other cities around uh, wisconsin where you have a larger number of seats than you do in some of the other places i've lived in my life it's really about how those candidates connect with individual people with their neighbors uh with the folks in their community and living in their backyard and you know just one i try not to dwell on it too much but just one conversation could have swung uh either way there so but um i am running for it again uh my

The incumbent isn't running for a term, so I threw my hat back in the ring here, and I'm just really excited to be back out there talking with folks, hearing their concerns, what they really care about in this city, and sharing with them the vision I have to build on Madison's progressive legacy and really make sure that we are staying that great place that drew me here and that I know draws more and more people every day.

No, you've been the chair of the Landlord Tenant Issues Committee.

Just to mention Robin Voss again, he's on his way out.

He owns student housing.

Is there any, what are your thoughts on his retirement if you have any?

And also, what are the biggest housing issues you've faced?

Because you've made that part of your campaign too, that issue.

Yeah, I guess my first thought is, good riddance.

Tell us how you really feel there,

Noah.

Don't sugarcoat

it.

Well, I would, but you all told me I'm not allowed to swear on the radio.

Well, thank you for respecting that.

We

appreciate that.

Yeah.

If you want, if you want some, uh, some R rated thoughts, come check out my podcast.

Um, I did.

Um, you know, the housing struggles we face, Robin Voss, not a great landlord.

Robin Voss also.

is probably the number one friend of bad landlords in at least the recent history of the state of Wisconsin.

Under his leadership, the state legislature passed and then Scott Walker signed all sorts of laws just protecting landlords from

their own tenants from any real consequences when they violate sort of the social contract of needing to provide good housing to people and really hamstringing cities from being able to be more proactive.

One of the biggest things we dealt with on the landlord tenant issues committee was the process of rent abatement, which is when your landlord does not provide you a habitable home.

whether that's because there's a hole in the wall, the heating doesn't work, they haven't fixed your oven in however long.

You can go into a legal process where if you prove that they have not taken the steps to address your concerns, you are owed some of the rent that you paid to them because they were not living up to their end of the bargain.

And Robin Voss and Republicans made it so that at every step of that process, the odds were just stacked against the tenant.

They prevented the cities from doing more proactive outreach.

They made it so that the amounts that could be paid were reduced.

Just really adding bureaucracy onto this so that landlords could do whatever they wanted, basically.

And that is sort of the core of the housing problems we face in Madison is that this is this unrestrained free market capitalism run amok where the people with the power, the landlords have been able to just raise prices over and over again without any relief coming to the people who need it, which is the tenants.

If you're just joining us on Nightlight, we are talking to Noah Lieberman, who is running for, he's running for, it is the District 14 of the Common Council in Madison, is also the host of the What's Left podcast.

And you bring up something very interesting there.

I find it so interesting to me when the party of less government puts on more government in order to make themselves, enrich them, to make it easier.

And I think, you know, what they do as well, and I wanna ask you what you're hearing from people is,

Making the barrier so high and so thick that the people just say, well, I'm not going to bother.

This is going to take me forever.

And I don't have the money or time when you're talking to people out there on either on the campaign trail or just talking to people in general, because you are a person of politics in the community.

What are you hearing from the people as far as

having a voice, believing their vote counts, knowing that when they do go to the ballot box that they are going to be counted and they will get representation that actually speaks for them, not just gets the job and says, they'll be fine.

I mean, it feels like people are up against walls right now.

And how are you helping them navigate that sort of intimidation or frustration?

Absolutely.

Well, the number one thing that I can do as a candidate is just to show up.

I was out for

uh six hours a day in the freezing weather uh this past weekend just knocking on doors talking with voters showing up whether they agree with me or not on the issues making sure they know that i am there to hear from them and that is the real joy of local politics to me is that it is at a small enough level where you can connect with each voter with everybody who has a concern and you might not vote their way every single time

But you can have that conversation and make sure that they are heard.

As far as Republicans sort of breaking our government, it has this chilling effect not just on people not believing in elections, but not believing in the processes of government in general.

When things are broken, people assume that's just how it has to be with government.

That's the way that the system has always worked and will always worked.

When really those are deliberate choices.

The city cannot ask landlords to send them data on how much they charge for rent or what their occupancy rates are.

We have to collect all that data ourselves in harder ways.

And that just makes the whole process slow down and makes it harder for us to help tenants.

That is a deliberate choice.

That is something Republicans did to make it so that the government does not work for you as the average person.

and only benefits the people who already have the money, already have the power.

But one of the big things I focus on in my campaign and in my podcast is that we are capable of making big systemic changes that will change the face of government to make it so that it works for the people, works not just in the way it was originally imagined, but even better, can achieve so much more for folks.

and go even further.

And I'm really inspired by the folks I talked to in my podcast and other candidates who are running here and across the state and across the country who are really aiming higher than I think candidates have in the past and are making this push for truly effective changes to our system.

Well said.

Noah, your opponent's name is Kate Blood.

That's got to be intimidating.

But she also has made an issue about affordable housing to Madisonians.

How do you guys, do you differ on that issue?

And if so, how?

And what are some of your other things you're hoping to accomplish if you win?

I don't.

First, let me just say, I've met Kate a few times.

I was actually helping her get her campaign started before our incumbent decided not to run.

She is a great person, and I think her

commitment to affordable housing is genuine and I really appreciate her being focused on that issue as well because I think it's the issue for our cities and something everybody running should be focused on.

For me, the focus comes to those systemic changes.

There are things that the city is doing that are within the bounds of the law, the things that we can be doing right now, but I'm hopeful that Democrats will retake the assembly

and hold on to the governorship in this upcoming November election.

And in striking down some of those preemptive laws that Robin Voss and Scott Walker enacted, our city will be able to take real action.

And so for me, what that means is not coming in with this mindset of compromise or moderation, coming in to say, let's pass

policies that we've seen be effective in other places, like a right to remain, allowing folks to stay in rental housing at a reasonable price without having to go through this search every year of finding more and more scarce housing that's more and more unaffordable.

That I think is the biggest difference, at least from what I've seen, is that preparation for the next step of really swinging for the fences with legislation once those...

once our hands are untied.

We're going to keep the conversation going with Noah Lieberman.

He is running for District 14 in the District 14 Common Council seat in Madison.

Also, the host of the What's Left podcast.

You can find that wherever you get your podcast.

We're going to keep the conversation going.

You can be part of that conversation.

Feel free to call, text.

855-752-484-2855-756.

Leave a comment on our live stream.

We're on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform.

We still call Twitter.

You can also get in touch with us via the Civic Media app.

It's absolutely free, so download that and be a part of the discussion.

When we come back, we're going to talk about folks running for office, being a part of the process, and how they can get involved.

As Noah is a recruiter for candidates in the area, and we can discuss how you can become involved.

when we come back on Night Light with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

Welcome back to Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach here on the Civic Media Network.

If you want to be part of the conversation, 855-752-4842-855-75 Civic, leave a comment on the livestream.

We are on Facebook, YouTube, and the platform we still call Twitter.

Still ahead, we're going to be talking to Rob Thomas, the film critic about movies he's watching, stories he's working on, and I got questions about...

movies that are not comic book related but we'll talk more about that in the second hour in clothing and we'll also get to the top the question of the night which is what topic will kill a conversation best you can get that into us by calling texting or leaving a comment on the live stream but right now we are talking to Noah Lieberman who is the host of the podcast entitled what's left Wisconsin he is also running for the 14th district of the Madison City Council we were talking about your thoughts on your campaign the story of why you are running and

One of the things you do is you help recruit folks who might want to run.

And for you, when you approach someone, what are the steps?

And what if someone's looking to run, what are the questions they should be asking as far as throwing their hat into the ring, whether it's a city council, county board, school board, what should people be looking for when they are interested in trying to get elected?

The best.

time to approach is actually way before you want to run because one of the things I recommend to anybody who's looking to run for office in the near distant future is get involved with your local government with whatever branch you want to serve in in some other way before you run because it really lets you know what that experience is like and what is awaiting you if you do win your election.

So I will recommend to anybody apply to be on city or county committees.

or just try to talk with your elected officials and I mean that's one of the benefits of us having such small districts here is that you can get in touch with your person they are one of your neighbors and that will give you a good sign of what their day-to-day is like and if this is the way that you want to be involved and make a difference in your community or if there's something else you want to do once you decide to run the number one thing is just getting out there and talking to people

People have this idea that all politics looks like the presidential elections, where you

are

on TV doing debates and running commercials.

When you are running for a local office, it is just about talking with folks one-on-one.

And so making sure that you have that pitch for yourself of why you are running for this office, what you want to achieve, and that you are also able to talk with people and listen and make them feel heard.

that you know some of the questions they might ask for you about the issues in your community, in your city, or for your schools.

That's great, yeah.

Noah Lieberman is our guest here on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

He's running for a seat on the Madison Common Council in District 14.

You came from North Carolina, Noah, relocated to Madison several years ago.

As a progressive, where is your voice more effective?

In a place like North Carolina?

or in Madison, because now you're surrounded by, I would assume, like-minded people, although there are different levels of progressiveness.

But how has that transition been for you, and what do you think about that?

Yeah, that's a really great question.

I think certainly on a local level, there's a big difference living in Madison versus being in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I was raised.

Madison has this history of progressive values in government.

that makes it so that people are more willing to pursue the kinds of policies I was talking about before, these big changes that really work for people.

However, I also think that there is this mindset that some folks who have been in Madison for a long time have of, well, we're the progressive city, so whatever we're already doing is the progressive thing.

I think that back when I was in North Carolina,

a lot of the young Democrats, folks on the further left side of the spectrum, were more open about criticizing the way things are run and trying to pursue policies even if they knew they weren't going to ultimately be passed and be enacted.

But I think that that same sort of coalition is building here in Madison from folks who have been here a while and also from folks like myself who came here either for college or for a job and fell in love with this city but are really

wanting to make sure that it is even better discontinues to build on that legacy that brought us all here.

And before we get out of here, one more thing I wanted to ask you.

You said you've been out there talking to people and medicine seen as a progressive city, but there are folks out there who do vote on the right or maybe center.

What are the things you're hearing from the people that really unite everyone, regardless of their party or who they voted for, the concerns of people out there who all of those matters seem to connect, which means that we have more in common than we'd like to believe.

Housing is the number one thing.

Whether you're on the left or the right, you want to be able to have an affordable place to live.

And more and more, what I'm hearing from folks who are maybe older and on the right is they want an affordable place for their kids to live.

They want their children to be able to stay in their community, in their neighborhood.

And that's just not going to be possible unless we have new affordable housing in our city here.

So that is the big push that I am working with folks.

whether you're on the left right or center that you're going there.

Well, Noah, we wish you all the luck.

If people want to get in touch with you, want to know more, where can they go?

Give us your website.

Tell us all the ways to get in touch with you.

Yeah, so you can find me at Noahforcouncil.com.

My email is just Noah at Noahforcouncil.

I would love to hear from you if you're in Madison, certainly if you're in my district and you have issues that you care about.

But I've heard from people all around the state, all around the country who just care about housing, environmentalism, the things that I'm pushing for and want to be part of this broader movement.

And then for my podcast, you can find that by searching for What's Left Wisconsin in whatever podcast app that you use.

And I have really great interviews there with folks in Madison and around the state who are coming at progressive politics from all sorts of angles and just really fascinating

deep dive conversations there.

And you get, if you, if you check out his podcast, you get another side of Noah, you get Noah unleashed.

This is nice guy, Noah.

So I recommend definitely checking it out.

Check out what's left Wisconsin wherever you get your podcast.

Noah Lieberman has been our guest today.

He is running for the city council and massive of the district 14.

Noah, thank you so much for being here.

We appreciate your time.

Come on back.

Let us know how the campaign is going.

There's a lot more time ahead and have a wonderful night.

absolutely.

Thank you guys so much for having me.

All right.

When we, when we come, when we come back, we're talking question of the day.

What topic will kill a conversation?

Let us know eight, five, five, seven, five, two, four, eight, four, two here on nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach.

Oh yeah.

Welcome back to Nightlight.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is great to have you here as we plow through this Monday night version of the new rebooted 2.0 new and improved Nightlight.

If you missed the first hour, you missed my introduction to my new co-host, Greg Bach.

How do you think it's going, Greg?

I give it a solid nine and a half out of 10.

Okay.

I say I say the flow is good.

The fun is good.

The conversation is good.

I'm glad people are here being a part of it It's yeah, I'm having a good time.

What about you

buddy?

I would give it a 9.7 pot five not to outdo you.

It's not a contest

I'm just saying I get it.

I get it.

I get it because I was actually gonna say you know that this For folks who don't know if this is your first time here welcome

This is nightlight 2.0.

This was originally, this was nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

And then they're like, you get Greg.

And you're like, ah, man.

I

fought a tooth and nail, but you

know what?

After the last hour, Greg, I sometimes God works in mysterious ways.

This is amazing.

So

yeah, this is

fun.

We're having a great time here.

And if you missed our number one folks, Greg and I getting to know each other and bringing our guest on, our guest was Noah Lieberman, who is running for Madison Common Council in District 14.

You can catch

all of our opening show banter and our interview with Noah at civicmedia.us.

All shows are catalogued in podcast form.

Do you ever go back and listen to the podcast, Craig?

Oh my gosh, there's nothing I love more than the sound of my own voice.

So I'm constantly just done, because that's the great thing is you can go on there and you can download episodes from the website and listen to them anytime you want.

Take them on the go, catch up, it's great.

And what's great is that

Uh, if I'm not mistaken, unless things have changed in the past couple hours, there's two episodes per day, hour one and hour two.

So you've got to, you know, go for a long walk, take a long drive.

Listen to the dulcet tones of Pete and Greg.

You're welcome.

Yeah.

We'll help you, uh, either, uh, we'll help you through a workout or drift off to sleep, whatever your energy level is.

We, we're like chameleons.

We can help you get through whatever it is on your

agenda.

Oh, we should, oh, you know what we should do if we're, if we're helping people go to sleep, we should do like a.

ASMR episode where we're just talking like this and tapping things.

People will just then, their brains will melt out of their ears.

It's gonna be great.

I can't wait.

WBA, are you listening?

Local

Emmy.

We've got, at 620 folks, my pal, and soon to be Greg's pal, Rob Thomas will be here.

Rob is a Madison based film critic and the city cast Madison newsletter editor.

You gotta check it out.

They make news fun.

Kinda like we're trying to make this show fun with our current events and our culture and all kinds of stuff we're talking about here.

And I think at this time, what do you guys say?

Should we reintroduce the question of the night?

I think so.

Go for it, Tom.

All right, it is Rachel Dratch's birthday or was yesterday.

She played Debbie Downer on SNL.

who had always sucked the life out of a conversation.

That was one of my favorite SNL characters ever.

And our question tonight in honor of Debbie Downer is, what topic will kill a conversation?

I've thought about this and, okay, so for me, it's medical procedures.

Everyone has a different level of Earthiness.

Interesting.

And I, you know, whether it's at a party or whatever, when you had the flu, I don't want to hear that it was,

Coming out of both ends.

I know what the flu is.

I know what happens.

Please stop.

Do

not say that.

Oh, wow.

That's funny because someone said that to me like recently like like this past weekend and I remember being thinking to myself, oh, okay.

Yeah, I didn't like if you're sick.

I just assumed it wasn't a good experience That's not like I had the flu and you know what I I blew my nose and flowers came out.

No, it's I understand It's miserable.

I get it.

Yeah, and they usually say stomach flu.

That's that's where I was going with it like I know What that is it just we stop we don't need details It's almost like there's they're almost like saying that they're letting you in it's like an intimacy level

It's coming out of both ends.

I don't know you, dude.

I just know your name is Ted.

That's it.

I came here because my wife's company is throwing the party.

I think for me, a conversation, a topic that will kill a conversation is when someone opens with, Oh my God, I had this.

really weird dream last night.

Nope.

Sorry.

Don't care about your dreams.

I don't care at all.

And I used to not care about the topic, but then one time I said to a coworker, I'm like, I had a really weird dream last night.

She goes, I don't want to hear it.

I'm like, is that something people say?

And then I realized, oh yeah, why do people want to, and now when someone says I had a really weird dream, I kind of want to just have this like, can I walk away and not look rude?

Because I feel like they're asking you to interpret their dreams because it's never just like I was you know walking down the street and I could fly it's always this deep thing where I'm sitting here going well maybe you should call your mom then I don't know again too deep too deep

I've done listen I'm getting to a point in my life where if someone says in part of it is street cred if I know they can tell a story if I know they're capable of telling a good story

I'll listen, but when someone says, did I tell you about that time and I know it's going nowhere,

I'll go, oh

yeah, that was great, even though I have no idea what they're talking about, just to get out of a retelling.

Does that mean- Yeah, I, oh god.

Sometimes, here's a fun hack for you.

If someone says, hey, did I ever tell you about that time I did the thing, you're like, oh yeah, that was an amazing story, and then you move on.

Yeah, exactly.

You may have not heard it.

doesn't matter because it will not change the course of your life at all.

If you're just joining us here on Nightlight with Pete Schwabba and Greg Bach, we were talking about the question of the day, which is, what's a topic that will kill a conversation?

And Mr. Zahmer's put in the text, he said, rather than topics, I feel like beginning to disrobe is the best way to kill a conversation.

However, it's a very high-risk method.

I don't disagree with you, Aaron.

And I told you before, I will not bail you out again.

You know what and not only that he's got a really nice robe keep it on You know, it's sometimes people look better in clothes Exactly Chris Casper our pal our civic media pal says I say that all the time He was referring to what I said when people say they have the stomach flu and

say oh,

yeah out of both ends I didn't know Casper did that but pretty out there guys wears his heart on his sleeve.

I could see that

I mean

Yes, I'm going to leave it at that.

Tony on the live stream says, he said, and I get, yeah, remember that time in high school?

Oh my gosh.

I

have the worst.

I have got friends and I do care about them, but I don't hang out with them anymore because for the folks who don't know, I'm in my late forties.

I'm knocking on 50 soon.

I have friends of mine.

I've known for 20 plus years.

And when we get together, it is wall to wall nostalgia stories, things we have talked about.

for 20 plus years.

I'm like, you guys have careers, kids, spouses, maybe a second or third spouse, but you have stories.

I think you can tell those too.

And I don't need to be a part of them.

Just let me know it's about your life.

I don't need to talk about the time on my 21st birthday when I did dot, dot, dot.

We, we've, we know we've talked about this at length.

Yeah.

When you can't, when it's all nostalgia or like that time in high school or remember when dot, dot, dot, you're like, Oh no, I do remember.

No, thank you.

It's all, I'm totally with you.

I left high school kind of, unless it's someone I haven't seen in ages and whatever,

but

I'm totally with you.

Matt on social media says rat turds and hot dogs.

That'll get you a Debbie Downer moment.

I don't disagree with that.

I feel like, yeah, it's like, you know what they make?

Hot dogs.

I'm like, no, I don't care.

By this point, you know I don't care.

If I cared, I would have stopped eating hot dogs a long time ago.

They're delicious.

Dom, do you run in younger circles?

Are there topics of the young people?

That kill conversations?

Or is it universal regardless of age?

You know, I think it gets to a point.

I love conspiracy theories, but it gets to a point when they keep talking about that conspiracy theory, you know, where they talk about UFOs for an hour and a half.

I'm like, okay, all right, I get it.

I get it.

You believe in them.

I totally understand.

Let's move on to something different, you know?

It's just sometimes

can

be a vibe killer.

I don't know.

I will.

Yeah.

Yeah, I want to jump in here because

speaking of that the conspiracy thing There's a great documentary on prime.

Are you guys familiar with Phil Henry?

The

radio

host he's been all over the country, but he plays the guest and himself and his sole purpose is to outrage listeners and it is beautiful there is a documentary on prime right now called Henry about his career and He does you know one of his guests is like

from weather warriors, where he'll say stuff like, you know, like we, there, you know, rain, people say rain, we don't know where it comes from.

We don't really know much about rain.

He'll say stuff like that.

And then a meteorologist will call and he goes, we do know where rain comes from.

So sir, that's one theory, but let's not close our minds off.

Like, and he's doing both voices and it is a thing of beauty.

We have to try to get him on this show.

He's a legend, but I highly recommend the documentary on prime.

It's called Henry.

I think that, well, Tony on the live stream says UFOs are real.

Okay, all right, calm down, Tony.

I would say it can spears.

They kind of are.

An

unidentified flying object is real.

That doesn't necessarily mean alien, correct?

Or from outer space?

Fair.

Wow.

Fair point.

I don't know what Tony, I can see.

I

hope that's what Tony meant, but.

Yeah, I think honestly, like you said it,

Dom conspiracy theories if if you know, you're bringing up something simple like you know, I Gravity blah blah.

Oh, I fell over blah blah blah, you know, I dropped the thing and and literally I know people who be like well gravity isn't real I'm like I can't deal with you right now You don't get to say that right now right and expect me to and expect me to give you the time

Gravity is... Oh!

And honestly, and if you look at me, look at me.

I am a 48-year-old white dude with long hair and a mustache.

I should invent conspiracy theories.

I don't have the time.

I can't.

Greg, Jim on the text line is referring to what you said, one of your pet peeves, and he said, as Bruce Springsteen calls them, glory days.

Well said, Jim.

Absolutely.

But are they?

Are they, though?

Well, that's kind of sad if they are.

Yeah, you don't want them to be ultimately because you want to evolve and you know kind of climb the ladder of life.

Yes, I mean, I yeah, it's there's people there are people that are stuck in like Sports Hall of Fame high school Sports Hall of Fame and they talk about high school sports all the time.

Yep.

Oh, he was a great running bag He was a great running bag for a small town in North.

This doesn't need to be revisited He was fine back in the day.

You know, I'm this is a fictional

character No, it's not

No, it's not Pete.

This guy lives all across the country.

That was the thing is growing up that idea of, oh, high school is going to be the best years of your life.

No, they're not.

No, they're not.

They will absolutely not be the best.

They shouldn't be the best.

They should be the years that inform how to create the best years of your life.

If you're 14 when you go to high school, you're peaking at 14.

I just, oh, no, thank you.

Oh my goodness gracious.

Aaron also says on the text line, he says raw milk.

Yeah, that's another one.

Well, I will not, well, if you like raw milk, fine, but I will not engage.

I will not engage.

You mean raw

milk meaning from like right from the cow that's not been pasteurized or anything?

Yeah, the raw milk movement of like it's better, it's healthier for it.

No, it's not.

Lot of doctors have said no, it's not and then people say well, what do you know?

You're just a doctor.

I know an influencer on tick-tock That's what

got me going on Phil Henry.

It's like well That's one opinion that like and he's all into the conspiracy thing Dom.

Did you answer the question?

Yeah?

Yeah, the conspiracy theories, you

know, I just don't like them.

It's not it's

not for

me,

you know Please keep it that

way

on your ray on this dream says pausing and spitting out your false teeth stops conversations every time

My grandpa used to do that.

On purpose?

Yeah, he popped his dentures out and it was terrifying.

Oh, that's bad.

Yeah, it's not very good.

So yeah, don't do that either.

Don't do that

either.

We've got more texts to get to.

We'll get to those.

And we've got Rob Thomas coming up in just a couple of minutes.

So glad you're here with us, folks.

This is Nightlight with Pete Schwabba.

And Greg Bach, this is fun, buddy.

And Don Lee working the board.

What better way is there to spend a Monday?

Don't answer that.

We'll talk about that at this point.

We're coming right back at Speechwabba and Greg Bach on the Civic Media Radio Network.

Just when you think a show cannot possibly elevate itself anymore Dom comes in with some crotch.

He absolutely love that dude.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah Hey, welcome back to nightlight folks with a peach wabba and Greg Bach jamming through our first show here together having a blast doing it and Tonya Ray on the stream says literally literally She's talking about the person who spit out the dentures as a way to kill a conversation She says it was a family member

It was terrifying.

That's absolutely what they did.

And then their dog stole them and they found them in the dog's bed.

Yep.

True story.

I guess it's true.

My grandpa buck used to do that.

He just turned around and pop him out and he would have this demonic look on his eyes too.

I'm like, why are you doing this to me?

Like I'm, I'm eight years old.

I have other things to worry about.

My goodness.

He probably knew exactly what he was doing.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Grandpa buck.

All right, very excited to welcome our next guest here, folks.

He is one of our absolute favorites.

He is a Madison-based film critic and the editor of the CityCast Madison Newsletter.

If you haven't checked it out, you absolutely should.

He joins us now over the stream, Mr. Rob Thomas.

Hey, buddy.

Hey, Pete, how you doing?

Rob, meet Greg.

Greg, meet Rob.

Hello.

Hi, Greg.

Hi, Rob.

I'm well.

Thank you so much.

It's been wonderful to be on this Nightlight 2.0.

you guys

will

be

as thick

as thieves before.

I was

telling my wife this like when you go to your friend's house and they have another friend who you've never met before.

There's a

little, yeah.

Hopefully we're old enough so we get past that.

Oh, this is different.

That's right.

That's right.

Common goal.

Honey,

honey, I made a new friend.

Right.

So Rob, do you have a party killing a tactic or a topic you bring up for killing a party or a conversation?

And

is it movie based?

That's

a

good question.

Yeah.

I mean, usually if you bring up some obscure foreign film

from the

60s, like everybody will gravitate the other side of the room, except the one person you don't want to gravitate to the other side of the room.

I just want to tell you guys about my favorite shot in Birth of a Nation.

Hey, look at the

time.

Yeah, Riefenstahl worked for Hitler, but she had some really good

perspective shots.

All right.

I mean, the

filmmaking, you can't you can't quibble with that.

Absolutely.

I kind of want to I have a couple things about I want to ask you about in city cast that are always fun, but let's talk let's start with movies because You've seen as usual you've seen some of the ones I haven't yet and let's kick things off with how to make a killing This is part of the Glen Powell universe He is in everything now and I have to say I thought this sounded really good about a guy who is left out of his family's inheritance and he's raised in a blue collar lifestyle

I'm just going from the synopsis and then he decides to work his way back in so he's eligible for his inheritance and you can tell.

Right.

He's like eighth in line for 28 billion and he's like well he looks at the family tree and it started to think well what if I work my way up and kind of you know shorten that distance between me and the and the fortune and so he starts offing all these cousins and aunts and they're all horrible people like

Topher Grace plays this kind of sleazy megachurch pastor and Zach would you might remember from Silicon Valley is this awfully pretentious artist and It was it's you're right.

It's such a great promise and it's just not really funny.

It's not really very suspenseful part of what I think is Glen Powell is just kind of like

Like you're not sure whether he's like a sociopath or like a normal guy who's just doing this in a way.

So I just never really connected with it.

And that's normal guy killing people.

Yeah, right.

I mean, that would be funny, right?

It'd be like a Cohen's brother where he's like, well, this is, you know, just doing it.

Or if he says a secret weirdo, but like he kind of chooses neither path.

Well, and also if you're if you're it's hard for me to, um, you know, empathize with somebody who's like, I'm just going to kill my way to money.

Like, but I feel like that, like Glenn Powell, we just watched the new running man last week and it was.

I mean, it was definitely rooted in a message.

There was definitely a message and you got hit in the face by that message.

But I feel like Glenn Powell is trying to be an every man, but it doesn't always work because he's Glenn Powell.

It's like saying, like, here's my really hot friend.

He's just a regular dude.

I mean, I don't dislike Glenn Powell.

And I don't mind that he's everywhere.

That's what happens with these A-listers, especially the guys nowadays.

They're looking for another Brad Pitt, but he just picks these roles where you're like,

You're fine, I guess.